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Tag: Stevie Wonder

  • The X Factor – Who Wins?

    We’re down to the final three. Based on last night’s show, I have them ranked this way:

    1. Melanie Amaro
    2. Chris Rene
    3. Josh Krajcik

    I think Josh is a much better singer than Chris, but he lacks what Chris has; charisma. Charisma is what gets people to the phone to text in their votes. But when it comes down to it, Melanie is just so far head and shoulders above everyone else that she has to win this thing.

    We’re going minute-by-minute style tonight.

    8:04 – Mr. Anti-charisma promised Justin Bieber, Leona Lewis, and 50 Cent tonight. And during duets last night we got Avril Lavigne?

    8:05 – The final 12 are back singing Lady Gaga’s Edge Of Glory. It’s fun to see the Stereo Hogzz again. Stacy Francis was on the screen for less than 5 minutes and I think she cried twice.

    8:07 – They decided to really sex up Drew in a super tight blue dress. Thankfully, cutie Rachel was wearing stretch pants. Let them be kids!

    8:14 – Melanie Amaro is about to tear up All I Want For Christmas Is You. Do we get the Bieber duet?

    8:17 – No Biebs! LA says that her voice is the best friend a song has ever met. Yep, he said it with a straight face. Nicole says all she wants for Christmas is a Melanie album. Paula called her beautiful. And Simon says she’s been an absolute pleasure to work with. And he called her Mel. They must be friends.

    8:19 – It’s time for the Melanie friends and family montage. Grandma is the one that made her cry the hardest. I had my money on baby sis. Damn!

    8:25 – It’s Chris Rene’s turn to sing a holiday song. He’s doing Young Homie Christmas. Okay, maybe not. He’s singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

    8:29 – Nicole thanks Chris for being part of the competition. Thirsty Paula says he’s the most original. Simon says he admires him. LA says he can change the world.

    8:31 – It’s time for Chris’ friends and family montage. He’s crying so much I thought he was Stacy Francis. 2nd Stacy Francis crying joke! Let’s see if I can get up to three Stacy jokes.

    8:37 – As beautiful as Nicole looks tonight, she kept her streak of being annoying alive. She’s like the Joe DiMaggio of annoying.

    8:40 – It was Josh’s turn to perform. LA says he was so good that he’s almost at a loss for words. Paula says he’s a joy. But she’s not thirsty for him like she is for Chris. Simon says he’s going to sell a lot of records while seeing who can show the most chest hair. Nicole says he’s her flippin’ love. Flippin’?

    8:43 – Well, if Josh was going to cry, they hit him with the two best ones in the end. His mom says that his dreams are her dreams. And his daughter says she doesn’t tell him that she loves him enough. His daughter made him cry! Yes!

    8:50 – It’s Justin Bieber time! If Ellen and Eminem ever pro-created, the kid might look like Justin Bieber.

    8:51 – Stevie Wonder is singing The Christmas Song with him. Stevie doesn’t look anything like Ellen or Eminem.

    8:53 – Justin just grabbed his crotch. I wonder if that was for thirsty Paula?

    8:55 – He brought out Drew to sing with him at the end. She’s absolutely beside herself. Selena Gomez might get mad.

    9:03 – And the person who finishes in third place is … the Young Homie himself, Chris Rene. Well, I guess there are more Josh fans than I thought.

    9:17 – And, the show has come to a halt. Leona Lewis is singing a very sad song. Maybe it was for the Young Homie himself.

    9:28 – Derek Fisher, fresh off the NBA lockout introduces 50 Cent who isn’t even pushing an album. He’s pushing a mixtape. And thanks to national TV, half the song is muted. I think 50 is lip-rhyming.

    9:29 – Ok, this just got great. 50 brought out Lakers bench players including Steve Blake who looks like a deer in headlights. Matt Barnes is out too. Nicole better watch out. She might end up with Matty tonight. At least Astro got to rock out with 50 a bit.

    9:38 – Pitbull and Ne-Yo are on stage together. After watching Ne-Yo, all I can say is, Avril Lavigne? And is it just me or is Pitbull just a guest on all of his songs? Marcus Canty came out in the end and he was happier than Drew was in Justin Bieber’s arms.

    9:53 – And the winner is … Melanie Amaro! That girl is 5 million dollars richer.

    9:55 – Melanie is singing Listen yet again. She can barely get through it.

    9:59 – Melanie is crying so much, she reminds of … Stacy Francis (fist pump)! I got one more in. Until next year, Seacrest out! Whoops, wrong show.

  • American Idol Season 10 – Who Makes The Final 10?

    I didn’t hear any spoilers for the show tonight, but I did hear that the bottom three was quite unexpected. I’m intrigued, but also very scared.

    They introduced the judges and finally, J. Lo is wearing a semi-tight skirt, but they barely give us a booty shot. Does J. Lo have it in her contract that they can’t shoot a booty shot?

    Sugarland is performing. My buddy Matt Bjorke is probably happy about that. Speaking of my buddy Matt, he interviewed Simon Cowell about his show “The X Factor” at his website, Roughstock. It’s a fun read.

    Jennifer Hudson is also going to perform tonight which is good timing because I recently heard someone compare Jacob Lusk to Jennifer Hudson. There is a lot of negative buzz for Jacob in the Twittersphere and on Facebook (remember when all the negativity used to come from the Blogosphere?) because of his over-the-top singing and his stage theatrics. There was similar negativity for Jennifer back in season three, but it was more so because of what was perceived as an attitude problem because she didn’t like Simon’s negative feedback.

    The crew is singing Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. It was very American Idol-esque, but not bad at all. And really, if you screw up that song, you should just stop singing.

    And just like that, behind the curtain comes Steveland Wonder. My heart is warmed. How many real live legends are able to walk on stage with some American Idol kids and still rock it? He’s singing Signed, Sealed, Delivered. And then he performed Happy Birthday for Steven Tyler.

    Ryno just asked for the lights to be dimmed. He calls up Lauren, Pia, and Scotty. Ryno told them that they’d all be packing their bags… because they’d all be going on the summer tour. Lauren nearly jumped out of her dress.

    Sugarland is out to sing Stuck Like Glue. The lead singer Jennifer Nettles is rocking a salmon colored blazer, green pants, and red shoes with a turquoise scarf tied around her waste.

    They talked about James’ fascination with wrestling. Naima keeps saying that it’s fake. Naima baby, if wrestling was real, people would die inside the ring. And yes, soap operas and movies are fake too. James did a promo as The Miz and said he was awesome.

    Ryno asked Paul and James to the center. And, um, Hulk Hogan came out on stage and James marked out like no one else I’ve ever seen. The Hulkster told them that they were both safe. He said the bad news is that Ryno Seacrest was not safe and threw a great worked punch that Ryno sold terribly.

    Ryno calls up Jacob, Thia, and Stefano to the stage. Jacob is safe, but Thia and Stefano are in the bottom three.

    Naimi, Haley, and Casey are called to the stage. Naima is safe which means that either Haley or Casey is in the bottom three. Casey is in the bottom three. I still think his Nirvana performance hurt him more than helped him.

    It’s Jennifer Hudson time. Or at least half of what I remember Jennifer Hudson to look like time. The girl lost so much weight. I don’t think she could play Effie White anymore. What’s funny is that on the same show that Hulk Hogan appeared on, Hudson is on. Why is that funny? Jennifer Hudson is married to WWE wrestler David Otunga. Good old George Huff was singing background for Hudson.

    I think there’s a good chance that the crew saves Casey if he for any reason is out. But they don’t save either Stefano or Thia. Ryno sends Thia back to safety so it’s between J. Lo’s favorite Stefano and Casey.

    Stefano is safe, which means Casey has to sing for his Idol career. I don’t think the crew should use their save because sooner or later, they’re going to have to save Jacob. But Randall didn’t even let him finish singing and Steven Tyler said they were going to save him. Casey looked like he was going to have a heart attack. He couldn’t believe it. It did make for a pretty great moment.

    Ryno announced that it will now be a top eleven for the tour, but next week, two people will go home. All in all, it was great live TV.

    Photo of Jennifer Hudson by Wikipedia and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

  • The Friday Night Awesome: G.C. Cameron “Act Like a Shotgun” (1971)

    When contractual obligations strike: G.C. Cameron joined the Spinners just in time to sing the lead on “It’s a Shame”, the esteemed vocal group’s biggest hit of their Motown tenure. Released in 1970, that single (co-written by Stevie Wonder with Cameron in mind) ended a nearly half-decade losing streak for the group on the pop charts and set them up for the greater successes they would achieve in the 70s on the Atlantic label. But when the Spinners split from Motown in 1971, a contractual quirk forced Cameron to stay on at the label, which, at the beginning of its second decade was experiencing some serious growing pains, including the departures of some of the label’s signature talents like the Four Tops and the songwriting-producing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who left to form their own Invictus label and were already scoring hits with the Honey Cone and Freda Payne often backed by moonlighting Motown session players. Cameron’s first solo single, released on Motown’s short-lived MoWest label, was this Willie Hutch-penned number which, amazingly, made its CD debut just two years ago on Hip-O Select’s The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 11B: 1971. Hutch went on to score a number of blaxploitation flicks, most notably The Mack. Cameron has recorded intermittently for various labels in the last 40 years (most notably doing the original version of “It’s So Hard to Say Good-bye to Yesterday” for the movie Cooley High, which Boyz II Men would cover to great effect in the early 90s). In the last 10 years, he briefly re-joined The Spinners, and later joined The Temptations.