YES to Lady Gaga and R.Kelly bringing a little something different to the American Music Awards. Performing their duet, Do What U Want, we saw the pair playing president and secretary as they sang a distinctly theatrical rendition of the hit song.
But why the narrative and what was the point of it? Well, I'm no egghead, but it seems pretty clear by the end that the "president" was actually a metaphor for the media. Both the media and the "president" were enamoured with Gaga at the beginning, quickly inviting her into their world with open arms- illustrated by the party in the president's office. Good times!
However, both eventually turn on the singer, with the "president" doing so literally by denying any knowledge of her, and the media's change being highlighted by the newspaper clippings shown on screen. Interestingly, the image we are left with is a lone Gaga singing, almost in desperation, for us to do what we want with her body. Sad times.
On the other hand, I could be wrong, and the whole thing could have just been built around the song lyric, "You're the Marilyn, I'm the president". Let me know how you interpreted it in the comments! Whatever the case, a stellar performance from both R.Kelly (whose voice is truly something!) and Gaga.
Thoughts?
Im not trying to "get at you" I was just saying the alcohol comment seemed random because I was using a completely different person as an example as to why things can happen.
ReplyDeleteI dont think that those are cures-but they are tried and proven treatments to relieve inflamation on the vocal folds. And you are applying a very unrealistic stereotype upon Opera Singers. You can't say that "All Opera singers practice healthy habits" just as you cant stereotype "All Pop singers dont know methods of treating their voice well" or whatever. Mariah was raised by an Opera singer. The same woman who is also Mariahs vocal coach to this day. You dont think she would know how to preserve her voice?
ReplyDeleteAnd also- it is not a Fact that Alcohol is bad for the vocal folds. It isnt necceserily "good" to have it before a performance but it isnt detrimental enough to induce any sort of harsh effects aside from minor dehydration which is a definite no no if you are about to sing.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED THIS!!! I do not think this was boring at all. I love when Christina hold back from those runs and wails. She looked sexy yet age appropriate. If you hold this side by side to last years performance and make me choose, I choose this one. I would love a stripped again ( I like that as a title) album from her with new tracks and some bare versions of her best old stuff. This reminds me of that song "You Lost Me" from Bionic. In my opinion it was the only good track on that forgettable train wreck. But I digress...
ReplyDeletewhat happened to this bitch face? She looks like a 90 yrs old woman. And what about the voice? Without the screaming she shows her true face as a "singer": she's mediocre.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know what 90 year old women you see looking that young, wrinkle-free and fresh-faced - she barely looks to be in her 20s, let alone 32.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely looking good - although Luiz (a couple of comments above) seems to be think she looks 70 years older than she actually looks…
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I agree that performances of this song can be boring, but it's really the song itself, and I do like this song a lot, but it's not gonna be easy always making an exciting show out of it, because screaming "SAY! something HEYYYY" isn't that appropriate here lol. But I do applaud her for still being able to restrain herself tho. Umm, there's not much I can say really, I hear the tension in her voice too, but honestly when hasn't she had that? So I'm not surprised.
ReplyDeleteShe probably overused her voice when she was little - look at Emma Stone (I know, an actress, not a singer) who apparently developed nodes VERY early in her life and got that nodulated "husky" tone. Mariah's vocal cords are thin enough to begin with, and once you factor in how much stress was in her life, how much she probably sang (likely incorrectly) in her early life, it's actually not as surprising that she had nodes early. She herself has told stories about how she would wake up and be unable to speak, and could only phonate in whistle register in the 5th grade. That, to me, bespeaks nodules. Have they gotten worse with time? Obviously. However, that's unavoidable - no matter how stellar her technique is, her nodes are going to impede her more and more with every day, because nodes, when untreated as hers undoubtedly are, I'm sure you know that they can only get worse.
ReplyDeleteDuring an interview where she talked about her whistle register, and mentioned waking up in 5th grade without the ability to speak and sounding very hoarse, then phonating in whistle register. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIjD1mBWipI It's in the first clip.
ReplyDeleteBut Emma had a disorder as a baby.
ReplyDeleteYes Mariah can risk her voice having surgery or just keeping it.
It's a double edge sword, so I think she's still not ready for the risk of losing singing voice.
Given that her mother was an opera singer, I severely doubt her mother smoked, and that's who she lived with. She's a very light soprano, so her vocal cords don't have the same resiliency to bad environments that heavier voice types do. I have the same suspicion - she's afraid to get nodule surgery because she's terrified to lose her 'unique' voice and tone. As for vocal abuse - her technique from what we've heard over the past 20+ years is quite excellent. So whatever abuse happened to her voice happened very early, possibly even from imitating her mother.
ReplyDeleteWell I never stated the mother smokes, it's a possibility that someone she was around with a lot of times did, You don't know her or lived her life to debunk this possibility.
ReplyDeleteShe did work at bars as a waitress, many times before her music careers, so Possibility for her nodes are endless.
And she is not impeccably 100 percent technically correct. She does tend to strain, and use improper placement at times, she growls, she does many artistic vocal choices that deemed unhealthy.
Her placement hasn't yet been off, and growls aren't necessarily bad for your voice when done infrequently - I think Mariah growls once or twice in an entire concert set. As for strain...no. She simply doesn't - the VERY few times she ever did ended in disastrous voice cracks (usually when she was in a bad environment or was overtired - her belting during the #Beautiful performances in Summer Jam comes to mind). Trying to strain with nodes just ends in something terrible - what's closer to the truth is vocal tension due to having to try singing through them, probably most obvious when her voice gets extremely thin and loses resonance.
ReplyDeleteNo wait - she's strained her low notes a time or two.
Point is, her nodes had to have occurred before she was 18-19. Given that we can't just come up to her and ask "HEY MARIAH! WHEN DID YOU FUCK UP YOUR VOICE?!", I doubt we'll ever know for certain exactly when.
We don't. however I do think most singers lose their voice from vocal fatigue, even singers with bad techniques who go trough great vocal rehabs tend to keep their voices as oppose to a technically good singer who wears out. Part of good singing is great vocal health, if your voice is too tired to sing high notes and even low notes can get challenging and unhealthy...
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah...Mariah's vocal health has never been the greatest...unless she was forced. Typically, I've found her less-than-stellar vocal health to be caused by her habit of being a night-owl, as well as her tendency to drink when her vocal cords are probably screaming at her after one drop.
ReplyDeleteLOL Mariah is a little cray cray but I love it. Her head seems to always be in the clouds....
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love Mariah as a vocalist, but let's be honest. She is past her vocal AND artistic best. She has been reduced to a shadow of her former self not only vocally (which I could live with if the music was on point) but also artistically as she keeps trying to chase that "young" sound that actually sounds quite dated. Maybe it's time to retire with dignity and leave us with the memories of the legend. I wish Whitney had done that.
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