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Tag: Lady GaGa

  • American Idol Season 10 – And The Winner Is …

    Like I said yesterday in my American Idol recap on Popblerd!, this season is a bit anticlimactic. It’s reminiscent of the Jordin Sparks/Blake Lewis clash. Neither contestant was super interesting or had a great story and they were simply nice kids. That’s how I feel about this year’s finale.

    Based on last night, Lauren clearly out-performed Scotty, but really, it’s not about what happened last night. What’s more important is how much of a fanbase each was able to create throughout the season. I’ve pegged Lauren as this season’s winner from day one based on how I think they can market her. She’s much more in the Kelly Clarkson/Carrie Underwood zone than anyone else they’ve had in the past several years. But Scotty has those girly girls voting for him in droves. And that could prove to be the difference.

    I received this tweet from elliehempleman which made me excited for the show.

    @roheblius you finally got to see @JLo shake her money maker. Worth the wait?

    (She’s on the East Coast so she was able to see the show before I was.)

    Wait, I just saw Aunt Becky (lesser known as Dixon’s and Annie’s mom) in the audience! That woman never ages.

    We’re going to do this a little differently tonight. Here come the bullet points!

    – The top 13 is singing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. Are they trying to tell us something?
    – If Pia dressed like this during the season, she would’ve never lost.
    – Haley is wearing some of the hottest hot pants I’ve ever seen.
    – Hey, Karen Rodriguez, thanks for reminding me what you look like.
    – James Durbin is performing with Judas Priest. He’s wearing a captain’s hat and a sleeveless vest, looking like he wants to bring back The Village People.
    – Jacob Lusk and Kurt Franklin are performing together. Gladys Knight just came on stage to sing with them, but without the Pimps. Oprah Winfrey is shaking her head for not thinking of this trio for her final week of shows.
    – Casey and Jack Black are on stage together and they both have new movies coming out this weekend. For Black’s it’s Kung Fu Panda 2 and for Casey, The Hangover 2.
    – The girls of American Idol performed a flurry of Beyonce’s hits and it really made you appreciate Beyonce as both a singer and a performer. Haley has a little funk in her though. Pia, not so much.
    – Beyonce came out and just killed everything. They’ve had some fantastic performers on this show before, but she leaves most in the dust. And who doesn’t enjoy that Beyonce shake? I’ll take two.
    – They rolled out the corpse of Tony Bennett to sing with Haley. Who am I kidding? This dude has more life than I do.
    – In the “5 Years Late” department, Lil’ Jon came out on the stage. And in the “15 Years Late” department, TLC came out. But damn, Chili is still fine. The moral of the story is and always will be, “Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls, y’all.”
    – Tim McGraw came out to sing with Scotty, but really, he just should’ve started bench pressing him. Scotty’s a little light in the ass to be on stage with McGraw.
    – So this is what happens when your wife is the star of the show. Marc Anthony is out singing and I’ll be fine with this if J. Lo comes out and dances for him. If not, it’s a waste of my five minutes.
    – If Marc wasn’t a Grammy winning singer and was just some dude from the hood, wouldn’t he look like someone who kidnaps children?
    – J. Lo is out with him and she is shaking what her momma gave her. I think Beyonce threw down the gauntlet and J. Lo answered the challenge.
    – Sheila E. was banging on some drums too. It’s always great to see Sheila.
    – While the Idol dudes were out performing, my son says, “How does Scotty do it? Did he hypnotize the judges. I just don’t think he’s very good.”
    – Tom Jones came out to sing It’s Not Unusual. If Carlton comes out dancing, I will declare this show the greatest of all time.
    – It didn’t happen, though Jacob tried his hardest to channel his inner Carlton.
    – Hey, it’s Lady Gaga. At least this time, she’s actually on stage, rather than from her own concert like a couple of weeks ago.
    – Lauren started to sing some Carrie (you know, that song about Tony Romo) and you just knew Carrie was coming out to sing with her. Someone needs to feed Carrie a couple sammiches. She still has that terrible case of noassatall.
    – Beyonce is out again singing her new single 1 Plus 1. Let’s just say that this is a smidgen better than Beyonce’s current single about the girls who are running the world. Ok, maybe 100 times better.
    – Finally, we get some Steven Tyler live. Sing it Stevie!

    It’s now time. Who wins season 10 of American Idol?

    And the winner is … Scotty McCreery!

    Well, 10 years of American Idol are in the books. And I’m tired. See you next year.

    Photo of Carrie Underwood is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

  • 2011 Grammy Awards Live (Sort Of) Blog

    Well, it’s another year of blogging the Grammys. Luckily, I don’t think I’ll need much more than one or two cups of coffee. I’m pretty awake this time. And I hope to see my favorite track from the time period, Empire State Of Mind win some awards tonight.

    There is no host for this year’s show. I was hoping that they’d bring Arsenio Hall back to reprise his MTV Music Video Awards hosting gig. Sadly, that’s not happening.

    Looks like it’s Aretha Franklin Appreciation night. I wonder if someone drives up in a Pink Cadillac?

    (I’ll be cherry picking my favorite Grammy tweets of the night and adding them.)

    8:04PM – Christina Aguilera, fresh off a National Anthem disaster with definite mother’s milk boobs going on, decides to wail alongside Jennifer Hudson and Martina McBride on Natural Woman. I think Florence Henderson is up there too. Wait, that’s the girl from Florence And The Machine. My bad. Hey, I think Yoli Adams is up there too.

    8:20PM – All five girls are back on stage to give out the best Pop/Duo/Group Grammy. Yoli Adams is Manute Bol to Christina Aguilera’s Mugsy Bogues. Train won with Hey, Soul Sister, if anyone cared.

    MissLove32
    Rihanna looks like she’s wearing christmas wreathes as a dress.

    8:23PM – Lady Gaga is out performing her new song, Born This Way. It sounds so much like a Madonna song that Alex Rodriguez nearly jumped on stage mesmerized.

    gidget
    Now I have Hey, Soul Sister stuck in my head. DAMN YOU, GRAMMYS.

    8:34PM – Miranda Lambert looks like Paris Hilton if someone fed Paris Hilton.

    8:51PM – Hmm, I think Bruno Mars may have forgotten to put gel in his hair.

    8:53PM – Janelle Monae’s hair looks like an afro-puff diving board. She kinda tore it up though.

    9:09PM – Justin Bieber is transitioning into Joey McIntyre right in front of our eyes. My eyes are tearing up.

    9:10PM – To counter Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith, Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff should’ve joined them and showed them a thing or two.

    9:11PM – If you’re Usher, do you just piggyback on Justin Bieber for the rest of your career? Just go back to Chili, find out what she wants, and let Bieber rake in the money for you homie.

    knbrmurph
    Big ups to the rapper B.o.B. for rocking the monocle at the #Grammys. But Mr. Peanut called. He wants his look back.

    9:22PM – Jealous of Beyonce and Nicki Minaj for their bodacious badonkadonks, Lady Gaga is wearing external butt pads. Doesn’t work like that home girl. You weren’t born that way.

    WhitneyCummings
    Does Donnie wahlberg know he’s not blind?

    9:31PM – I wonder how many times Bob Dylan tries to clear his throat before he’s just like, “Argh! Forget it!”

    9:32PM – If I were Jakob Dylan, I’d change my name to Jaden and hope my dad put me in a song or something.

    liss98
    I can’t believe Kate Hudson let that dude from Muse touch her, much less knock her up. Eeek. Then again, Chris R. was skeevy, too.

    9:45PM – I think the Jersey Shore crew should cover Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now and rename it, D.T.F.

    girlwonderful
    Oh, I just saw Cee-Lo, y’all didn’t tell him he dressed up as the NBC logo.

    9:49PM – If Gwyneth Paltrow had boobs, I’d be turned on by her outfit right now. But at least she can sing a little bit.

    steveaustinBSR
    is koko b. ware at the grammeys?

    10:05PM – I’m pretty certain that John Mayer has a bet with his friends that he can look as scraggly and unkempt as possible and still pull chicks.

    10:15PM – Hey, it’s the claymation version of Eminem. Wait, that might be the real Eminem.

    10:19PM – Dr. Dre’s going to need a doctor to bring him back to life unless he gets off them steroids.

    10:40PM – Who knew that one of the oldest cats on stage would give the liveliest performance. If I was wearing a cap, I’d tip it to you Mick Jagger. Instead, I’ll tip Janelle Monae’s afro-bangs.

    10:50PM – True story – my mom’s go-to song in karaoke was Barbra Streisand’s Evergreen. But it was before there was karaoke.

    10:53PM – Eminem needs to give his Grammy to Questlove, or at least buy my man a platinum afro pick.

    MissRiza
    Turned to the Grammy’s just in time to see Nicki Minaj’s outfit…good to know I didn’t miss much! #hotmess

    11:04PM – Lady Antebellum beat out Jay-Z and Alicia Keys for Record Of The Year and I haven’t been this angry since Huey Lewis And The News got jobbed out in 1986 by We Are The World.

    11:22PM – I think I saw Eminem with a sign that said, “If Lady Antebellum wins, we riot!”

    11:23PM – And the winner of the biggest award, Album Of The Year goes to Arcade Fire. Where’s ODB when we need him? Wu-Tang is for the children!

  • PAUL’S TOP 100 OF 2010 – PART 8: #30-21 “Louder than god’s revolver, and twice as shiny!”

    What better way to spend your blizzard? Part 8, baby!

    #30
    #30: “THE BEST OF TIMES” by SAGE FRANCIS.
    An intimate conversation between a man and his 13-year-old self. “Don’t listen to them when they tell you these are your best years… and when you think you got it all figured out and then everything collapses – trust me kid – it’s not the end of the world.” With Kanye West putting Bon Iver on his record, and The Roots collaborating with Dirty Projectors and sampling the Monsters of Folk, this was the year where hip hop and indie rock finally met on a Run DMC/Aerosmith type scale. But no one took that meeting to a greater extreme than Sage Francis who enlisted a pack of indie titans including Chris Walla, Mark Linkous, and Jason Lytle to concoct the “beats” for his latest album Li(f)e. Here, he’s accompanied by French avant-garde/post-rocker Yann Tiersen.

    #29
    #29: “ACAPELLA” by KELIS.
    It’s hard to imagine this is the same woman who sang “Milkshake” in 2003. Then again, it was hard to imagine the woman singing “Milkshake” was the same one who sang “I Hate You So Much Right Now!” in 1999. Which I suppose is the point of this song: People change when life changes. The life change here being, specifically, motherhood, which Kelis dramatizes in various guises in this gorgeous video. I especially love her jungle huntress and her desert wanderer personae. The sadly somewhat overlooked Flesh Tone, Kelis’s debut album for the will.i.am label, was a surprise gem of a dance pop record in year packed to overflowing with great dance pop records.

    #28
    #28: “SHE SAID” by PLAN B.
    I think this might just be my favorite video of the year. That jury has rhythm! Those bailiffs are funkayyy. And Plan B’s hyperspeed “defense testimony” at the song’s center is a perfect sonic counterpoint to his pleading blue eyed soul vocal everywhere else. And the strings! Holy sh*t, the strings! How is this guy not getting airplay here?

    #27
    #27: “IF WE EVER MEET AGAIN” by TIMBALAND featuring KATY PERRY.
    “What’s your name, whatcha drinkin’, I think I know what you’re thinkin’. Baby what’s your sign? Tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine.” Just a great, fun pop duet to get stuck in your head for days, and, really, better than anything on Katy Perry’s (literally) cotton-candy scented album.

    #26
    #26: “DANCE IN THE DARK” by LADY GAGA.
    This is THE shoulda-been single from The Fame Monster. How this one got passed up for the immediately catchy but ultimately sorta lame “Alejandro” is just beyond me. “Tell ’em how you feel, girls.” Any song that can somehow mournfully-defiantly-joyfully link Judy Garland, Sylvia Plath, Marilyn Monroe, JonBenet Ramsey, Liberace, and Princess Di – and actually make absolute sense in the process – has to be some big flowery, exotic kind of awesome.

    #25
    #25: “YOU KNOW ME” by ROBBIE WILLIAMS.
    A great big ballad on the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and newly single. “I’ve been doing what I like, when I like, how I like. It’s joyless.” I love this song’s big arrangement, but I’d also love to hear it acapella with all those doo-wop-op-op background vocals.

    #24
    #24: “UN-THINKABLE (I’M READY)” by ALICIA KEYS.
    A dark atmospheric ballad of a forbidden affair’s “moment of honesty”, this song topped Billboard’s R&B charts for 12 weeks this summer, and was named Billboard’s #1 R&B song of the year. All for good reason. Given the Keys’ engagement to producer Swizz Beatz before his divorce was even final, the song has an autobiographical truth to it, but this gorgeous video puts the song in a social/historical context. Probably a good move.

    #23
    #23: “NA NA NA (NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA)” by MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE.
    Without question, my favorite song title of the year, even though I had to “fact-check” it to make sure I had the appropriate number of NAs. The song is as frantic and obnoxiously fun as its title: “Shut up and let me see your jazz hands!” You’ll also notice that the song racks up 3 bleeps in the first verse. The word there is “drugs”. We’ve apparently come a long way since Huey Lewis. They do also bleep out a spoken f-bomb during singer Gerard Way’s little mid-song monologue, but the actual swear word is covered by lazer shot sound effects.

    #22
    #22: “ALL THE LOVERS” by KYLIE MINOGUE.
    Probably the happiest sounding song of the year. Every time I hear it, it makes me smile. Every time I see the video, it makes me smile real big. Kylie’s Aphrodite is one great big adorable pop record that sounds like everything I loved about 1983. And how can you not love a video like this? A white horse on a city street. A white balloon elephant in the sky between the skyscrapers. And a great big Christmas tree of beautiful, copulating, near naked human flesh with Kylie Minogue on top. She swoons, the whole tower swoons, I swoon too.

    #21
    #21: “BUTTERFLY, BUTTERFLY (THE LAST HURRAH)” by A-HA.
    “These stained-glass wings could only take you so far…” Earlier this month, the trio that brought us “Take On Me” in the 80s (and many great – however neglected – singles since) played their last shows. a-ha is kaput. And with this song, they don’t wave good-bye so much as shrug off their 25+ years together.

    In the Top 20: There will be Kanye, I promise. (Or is that a threat?)