Dec 04, 2008 3:55 PM GMT
Someone here just posted a Britney video, that made me wonder how other video & concert performers would rate with RJers. Here's a few I've seen in concert:
Madonna, just last week, Sticky & Sweet Tour, outdoors: Spectacularly energetic with sharp, precise choreography, but also strangely cold & remote, like watching a video that just happened to be on a stage. Her voice also went flat a number of times.
Bette Midler: My personal favorite, she's just out there having FUN, and you can tell it. As much a comic as singer and dancer, her routines are full of silliness and humor, and she can be spontaneous and ad-lib with the audience. She seems so at ease, and just happy to be there with you. You really want to like her.
Cher: Saw one of her last "farewell" shows on the road, so these comments may be moot unless you see her at Vegas. I soon realized that she hardly moved on stage, all the apparent motion being an illusion created by her backup dancers and the set, not what one expects at these concerts. But then I remembered when she & Sonny started in the 1960s, wearing furry vests and singing ballads, totally stationary as was the style then. I don't think she ever really accepted the "cartwheels across the stage" manner of performing.
Liza Minnelli, last year at the Hard Rock Casino in FL: She lost a lot of weight, looked great, so please, no fat comments. A small show, little in the way of sets or lighting, limited backup. A bit overdone on forced emotion while talking to the audience, and "unrehearsed" moments that looked rehearsed and clumsy. Only her voice acquitted her, which while not what it was, still has some of the old magic. A more intimate concert, indoors where it worked.
Your own experiences & comments?
Madonna, just last week, Sticky & Sweet Tour, outdoors: Spectacularly energetic with sharp, precise choreography, but also strangely cold & remote, like watching a video that just happened to be on a stage. Her voice also went flat a number of times.
Bette Midler: My personal favorite, she's just out there having FUN, and you can tell it. As much a comic as singer and dancer, her routines are full of silliness and humor, and she can be spontaneous and ad-lib with the audience. She seems so at ease, and just happy to be there with you. You really want to like her.
Cher: Saw one of her last "farewell" shows on the road, so these comments may be moot unless you see her at Vegas. I soon realized that she hardly moved on stage, all the apparent motion being an illusion created by her backup dancers and the set, not what one expects at these concerts. But then I remembered when she & Sonny started in the 1960s, wearing furry vests and singing ballads, totally stationary as was the style then. I don't think she ever really accepted the "cartwheels across the stage" manner of performing.
Liza Minnelli, last year at the Hard Rock Casino in FL: She lost a lot of weight, looked great, so please, no fat comments. A small show, little in the way of sets or lighting, limited backup. A bit overdone on forced emotion while talking to the audience, and "unrehearsed" moments that looked rehearsed and clumsy. Only her voice acquitted her, which while not what it was, still has some of the old magic. A more intimate concert, indoors where it worked.
Your own experiences & comments?
. Her voice is actually deeper and fuller then what most of you will remember from her albums.
. I hear any of that God-awful singing & I'm ready to turn off the radio
. I'm not gonna knock Britney because I only listen to the cuts of hers produced by The Neptunes. Now you can ask if I'm really gay nor not. Just because every gay man worships the hell out of these female singers doesn't mean that I have to. I'm more of a Mary J. Blige, Teena Marie, Donna Summer, TLC (even groups of female singers), next to one-hit wonders like Tara Kemp. It's funny how I don't see too many gay men "worship" Mary J. Blige, like they do these other singers, just because she sings everyone else's music. Did it ever occur to anyone that everyone in their mother is doing remixes these days? That & Mary is The Queen Of Hip-Hop Soul & she sings from the pit of her stomach, due to all of the hell & high-water she went through. From "What's The 411?" to "Growing Pains", c'mon, I'm sure there are a few cuts of Mary J. has delivered to some of us. It took me some time but I came around because I like what she represents. I do love Anita Baker & Toni Braxton....any thoughts on the aforementioned full-throated female soul singers? 
