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Tonight was the first time I watched American Idol this season. I usually like to jump in just around the end of a season and get the snippets. But of course I had to watch tonight because of Mariah Carey. First of all… David Cook… wow. I’ve heard his name, and I always look out for the people I hear buzz about before I’ve ever seen them perform. I don’t know the first thing about him or his style, but this performance of “Always Be My Baby” was incredible. I loved it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwNkiHYYhRk Next on my radar was David Archuleta. What a cutie. And yes, I know he’s 17. I’m not being some dirty perv. I’m just saying he’s adorable. I liked his performance of “When You Believe”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25DPLIBx9dk Syesha Mercado’s “Vanishing” performance was really rock solid, although very “safe”. She hit all the right notes, everything was in tune. But it was a carbon copy of the original. I did notice the comment about it being a song that people wouldn’t know, so I’m not sure how other people perceived it. But if you are a Mariah fan, you’ll probably know the song really well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSH7MkJztUs The Jason Castro version of “I Don’t Wanna Cry” also stood out. Worth a mention. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7zo5CowPJU So all you American Idol fans out there… who do you like and dislike? Who’s your pick for the winner?
Damn, Madonna, that was better than I thought it would be. Nice work. 4 Minutes to Save the World featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland:
Today it was confirmed that Mariah Carey’s single “Touch My Body” has broken the record set by Elvis Presley for the most #1’s. Elvis had 17 and Mariah now has 18. The Beatles have the highest record, set at 20, and Mariah is well on her way to beating that. Yay! There has been a great deal of buzz about her upcoming album E=MC2, and all of it positive. At the beginning of the week, several of the songs were leaked and surprisingly the big gossip sites have remained silent about it. I wonder why? Well I guess I’m letting the cat out of the bag. It appears as if there was some type of studio documentary Mariah was putting together that explains how each song was written. The footage includes about 2 minutes of previews from the songs. I don’t know where the source of the leaks is, but it’s been fascinating to hear and see how a song is made. They keep appearing on YouTube, but then are quickly pulled. So if you want to hear them, try searching later at night. The tracks leaked were “Love Story” (a ballad, rumored to be her next single and next #1 hit), “Bye Bye” (a very sad song about death and loss), and “Migrate” (which is the infamous song she performed poorly on SNL). When the criticism came up that she gave a bad performance of “Migrate” last month, Mariah defended herself saying she hadn’t had time to plan the live version since she was a last minute replacement for Janet Jackson. I have to agree with Mariah, the studio version really is good! Another song is “I’m That Chick”, which Mariah performed on MTV last week. Wow. This song is really addictive and sounds unlike anything she’s ever done. I really like it. So is this Mariah’s best album ever? At minimum, I think it’s going to be one of the best ones since the 1990’s. She has a completely new perspective on music and each song is extremely unique. One thing I’ve noticed is that Mariah has dramatically improved her lyrics. Every track has a very catchy hook to it that gets stuck in your head, and they are memorable. I find myself listening to the previews over and over again. Congratulations, Mariah! I hope you go on to beat even more records!
But I digress… I’ve been a loyal Mariah since 1990, and I suspect I always will be. Clearly somebody is buying her music… just nobody that reads my blog. (Except for you Alexsander.) So her new CD is coming out, and I do believe my advice is helping. Look at Janet Jackson. I wrote several spirited posts back in 2006 giving her tips on how to make better music, and I think she took notes. That woman has completely turned it around. Good for you, Miss Jackson. I’m glad I could help you. Now that brings me to my beautiful Mariah… you know you’re the only woman I’d switch for. But we need to talk about these rappers. Let’s stroll back to 1995 when you did the “Fantasy” remix with ODB. Yeah, that was edgy. You were a pop princess living in Tommy-land, and collaborating with a rapper pissed off all the right people. It was a new sound for the Mariah we’d all known, and we liked it. It was a #1 hit. Good for you. By 1997, the rap was going a little overboard. To this day, I don’t understand why people allow Jermaine Dupri to talk on their songs. “JD, y’all” is not singing… it’s not even rapping. He’s just this freakishly short man who says his name in the middle of songs, and ruins the whole damn thing for me. Really, Mariah… what value does he bring to the table?
We’ll bypass the early 2000’s because I think the media was incredibly harsh on you. So let’s just move on to to your most recent albums. You’ve survived the storms, you’ve grown up now, and you’re wiser and stronger. Why haven’t you ditched the annoying rappers? Honey, you can out-sing anyone. You’ve been in this industry for nearly 2 decades! Why, oh why, do you feel like you have to share the stage with these rappers? You have enough talent to fill a 4 minute song on your own.
The song was great. You were doing very well on your own. And you looked fantastic. I see no reason why this clown had to jump on stage 3 minutes into the song and start jumping around. Then you started dirty dancing with him. Bleh… If you want my professional opinion; you should delay the album release and remove the rappers from the songs. Re-release it in May and let it be a true Mariah Carey album that features you and you alone. Come on… you’ve earned it! Just look what my advice did for Janet. Madonna… we’ll get to you next week…
At first I thought they had watered down my quote, but then I realized I was the one who watered it down. I had originally written a very long-winded analysis, but erased it and submitted the short and sweet version that made it to the magazine. I guess it worked, because there I am. My quote: Oh, come on. I love Mika, but no straight men ever makes that big of a deal about his sexuality, so at minimum he’s bisexual. But more than likely he’s 100% gay. Perhaps he’s stuck in that unfortunate phase where you secretly know you’re gay, but in public you try to rationalize that you might be straight because you enjoy the company of women. Enjoying their company is not the same as being attracted to them. His interviews remind me very much of the ones from Darren Hayes’ early days. Darren just refused to “label” or discuss his sexuality, and tried to make it this big mystery for years. For the record, nobody cared when he finally did come out, and he wrote the most amazingly beautiful record after he was “free” to be himself. ——- Thanks to Chris at Hunk du Jour for bringing it to my attention that my comment was published!
Oh how I love hearing a classic song get butchered. Is it fair to assume we’ve all heard Mariah Carey’s cover of the song “Without You” from 1993? It’s one of those perfect pop ballads that can so easily turn into a karaoke disaster. But I think this version takes the cake. During an audition of Bulgarian Idol, a contestant thought the song was called “Ken Lee” (she was confusing the lyrics “can’t live” with “Ken Lee”). So watch what happens when she comes in for an audition, thinking she’s singing a song called “Ken Lee”… But wait… It gets worse! The words she was singing are not a foreign language! She thinks she’s singing in English and this is her translation of the song. That’s why the judges are in stitches — because the contestant isn’t even singing in a real language. It’s one of those clips that gets funnier every time you watch it!
Thanks everyone for the comments on my last post. I hadn’t been online since we got here, so I wanted to pop on and say hello. Just to give a quickie… we’re having an awesome time, Rey and his friends are extremely kind and helpful to us “tourists”… and for all you Mika fans, thanks to Rey’s wonderful connections, we personally met Mika, shook his hand, and took a photo with him. Let me just summarize by saying everything has been AMAZING! More later! Hope you’re all doing well.
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Add this to my collection of Mariah Carey posts. Yes, I know you dear readers hate the woman. The gays turned on her somewhere around 1998. I can only speculate, but I think it was the poodle hair she sported in Hawaii. It was right then and there that the gays threw in the towel. By 1999, I couldn’t get one gay friend to say they liked her anymore, and it was all downhill from there.
As we moved into 1999, things got really crazy. There were just random guys screaming on your songs. No reason, they just screamed at really inappropriate times. The concept of rapping had went out the window. But I could still forgive you, because I understood that you were doing your independent thing, trying to find your place in the world, and all that good stuff.
Last night, you appeared on Saturday Night Live with T-Pain, who looked like a homeless guy you picked up in an alley on your way to the show. Why???
