Archives For performance

Grammy 2010 Afterthoughts

January 31, 2010 — 2 Comments

Well, color me surprised twice this weekend.

Taylor Swift just won Record of the Year, which doesn’t really upset me… but really? I enjoyed it, but that’s it. But to be fair with the Grammy, the album was the biggest selling hit last year… and to an industry that’s struggling with physical album sales, that’s possibly a LOT.

I wasn’t really supporting any particular artist this year, as I kept my year listening to Asian music. However, I really respect Lady Gaga’s live performance, despite my not really enjoying her albums.

As for Swift’s performance, she picked a bad day to sound bad. However, she wasn’t the only one with a weak performance. Right after a very strong beginning by theatrical queen Lady Gaga with some piano by queen Elton John, and pretty good performance by Beyonce — I mean, that Alanis cover did give her some extra points — the show pretty much went on the average road.

I was really disappointed with Pink’s performance, not because it was bad. It was technically fine, and not many would sing in-tune while spinning a la Cirque du Soleil. The performance, however, lacked any energy to pump the audience there or at home…

Moreover, the Grammy Awards have proved that there’s no Michael Jackson tribute without Janet. I must admit that Celine, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood and Usher sounded vocally great, but the performance was nothing but lacking as a performance. Add to that pimping the performance as a 3D act, which wasn’t really 3D for viewers, but for people there — which prompted a 3d-glasses-wearing Beyonce, and others included Rhianna — but I doubt all the people there had 3D glasses at hand.

I wasn’t a big fan of Green Day’s 21st Century album, but the performance was okay-ish, since I do like musicals. However, I doubt old school GD fans appreciated it.

And there was too much Bon Jovi.

MTV owned Grammy’s MJ tribute, but MJ’s kids were kinda cute.

Music in the west was weak overall.

Check back next time…

What happened to MTV Unplugged anyway? It feels like it just went away. I do remember Alicia Keys and Maroon 5 had MTV Unplugged albums, right? Or was it only Keys?

Anyway, Vampire Weekend on MTV Unplugged.

Does that mean they’re famous? I thought only famous… like household names had MTV Unplugged albums. I really liked Vampire Weekend’s debut, and their sound translates well on this unplugged scenario. But what’s missing? I guess I’m used to really different arrangements. As it it now, they just sound kind of the same.

Check out some clips (6 songs is a full show?) over at the MTV website.
* seems like the embedding didn’t work for me.

Love Love Love, Oh Yeah!

December 29, 2009 — 1 Comment

You know, if anyone artist deserves to make me broke, it’s Wang Lee Hom and his freaking talent. Not only is he an astounding singer, and a kick ass composer… and producer. He also plays 14 instruments, and freaking speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Japanese and French.

To make it funny, he’s also beaten Angelina Jolie, since he has 10 adopted children from Laos.

He’s an amazing live performer, and I would kill (not literally) to see him in a concert.

Check out,

https://youtu.be/AHBr3_drJ9o

AMA’09 – Again, Did You?

November 22, 2009 — 2 Comments

The American Music Awards — it’s still on, though I’m guessing there’s about 20min left. Taylor Swift is such a sweety. As for performances, were you impressed? Because I wasn’t that entertained.

I did like Lady Gaga’s performance though, I don’t really go crazy about her music — album-wise — but her performances have been pretty cool. And her performance, alongside Whitney Houston and… yeah, even a little bit J.Lo were the best of the night, in my opinion.

Gaga’s stage performance, alongside the energy of the song, the lights, the theatrics, the glass-breaking, the piano-playing and the bottle-breaking, I thought it was interesting.

J.Lo’s performance — was that a comeback? — of her song Louboutins, it was kinda interesting (songs average, though). I liked the entrance to the boxing ring, and the choreography was pretty good. Note how her feet moved, instead of just jiggling her stuff. Jiggling your ham is not dancing, people. Feet gotta be moved.

And Whitney. Oh, my. I do love a good comeback. What a voice. The song on the album was okay, but the performance brought it to that level. Loads of feeling, I miss that feeling. And those shots with the backlights, they made Whitney look pretty rocking.

And LOL, Adam Lambert. Never seen him perform, but Maca always fuzzed about him. His performance was pretty good. He looked a little bit weird, but there were other parts that were pretty good. There was a lot of touching, including some pretending c*cksucking from a guy and a woman. And a bit of guy-on-guy action — right? coz the keyboards was a dude, right? We don’t see enough of that. They seriously cut from a close-up to a general shot when that happened.

Other performances of the night? Janet Jackson — who was pretty okay, I guess — Black Eyed Peas, Carrie Underwood, Shakira, Rihanna, Keith Urban, Mary j. Blige, Alicia Keys solo and with Jay-Z, Eminem with 50 Cent… and Timbaland’s performance which was okay, but truly can’t stand the way he sounds any longer. He’s overdone it.

Winners don’t really matter. No, really. I mean it.

But congrats to Taylor Swift who won big, including Artist of the Year.

— EDIT —

LOL, honestly. There’s a lot of talk about Adam Lambert. I knew it. The average American Idol viewer couldn’t take that performance. A lot of self-proclaimed Lambert fans who will not be buying the album tomorrow because of the crotch on the face, the S&M stuff, and the guy-on-guy kiss. Get over yourself, people. Female performers do it all the time, and no one says anything about it. If it had been a girl doing all the crotch grabbing, and there had been a girl on girl kiss no one would have made a peep.

Bunch of Mo’phobes.

That Was It for This Is It

October 28, 2009 — 1 Comment

I’m an MJ fan, I really am. I bought my copy of HIStory when I was around 10 — the first ever album I received as a birthday gift from my parents — and I’ve been fascinated as a kid since I saw him vanished as golden sand on the Remember the Time music video.

I was a bit hesitant to watch this because I knew tickets had been on pre-sale for a month, and I’m not the type to compete for tickets. After all, they did advertise “for two weeks only.” I checked schedule online only to find the 11pm shows listed ONLY, so I was pissed. I thought that they were not showing this for two weeks only, but also showing it on midnight shows ONLY, so I went to the theater to watch District 9 instead… to find out there were other times for This Is It — so I watched both.

Continue Reading…

Hmmm… I couldn’t find any other non-YouTube video of Janet’s tribute to Michael, sadly this one has an audio error at least for me… but it will have to do for the time being.

*re-post*

VMA’s 09 Afterthoughts

September 13, 2009 — 5 Comments

Actually, VMA’s are still going… 45min left, but I’m kinda bored.

First, it’s though to follow up anger Janet Jackson. Ever since MJ’s passed, I’ve been listening to the HiStory album like crazy – Most Played album on my iPod xD and I’ve been hallucinating about Janet performing Scream, because Scream is an “I am pissed” song and I love it for it. I love it when they go “stop fucking with me/makes me want to scream” – I love it. MJ says it with such conviction. Everyone loves Thriller, Billie Jean and Bad, but it’s all about Scream and They Don’t Care About Us for me.

If my mom hadn’t been watching with me *legasp!* I would’ve cried after she finished her performance.

So I loved the MJ tribute from Janet. I imagined her breaking the glass. I had dreams (hahaha) about that song of her (plus someone else to do the duet) trapped in a glass and breaking free. So I kinda got my wish xD

And then, that was a hard act to follow. I cheered for Taylor Swift xD with her skinny legs and all~~~ and Kanye is a dick (and so is Beyonce, kinda xD). Green Day requesting for more music videos played on MTV, followed by a commercial of FAN VAN with Green Day… the reality of fans competing for something. Right…

I wanted to like Taylor Swift’s performance, but I thought it was too sweet for a Subway performance xD – but she looked like a dork, and I support dork. I like her a lot. And Kanye still a dick.

Performances are kinda weak. Good attempt with Lady Gaga, but more than a great performance it was trying to be different. I looked when she began bleeding, very theatrical but it did nothing for me. Beyonce does nothing for me… and I’m still waiting for Pink.

Muse performance > Green Day.

why is this still on? Lainey said it’s over. MTV Latin America is delayed for at least 30min! WTF~~~
En Vivo my ass that rocks.

Geez, is Pink a circus performer now? That is crazy, how can she sing upside down?? And I absolutely worship Pink’s hair. I wish I had straight hair, the crazy things I would do with my hair xD

Anyway, I think it’s up from last year’s mess.
More music videos, less reality.
More musical numbers, less commercials.
Better music videos, less has-beens as hosts.

BAWWWWWW~
I’m jealous. Damn it!

Modern Sky Festival - Sing for China - Columbia University

More information about it here.
Chinese Indie bands Hedgehog, Queen Sea Big Shark (hahaha, name is funny), and Casino Demon will be performing. Not fair! How come No ONE comes here. Whatever~~~

Continue Reading…

I know I’ve tagged this with “new talent” and “new music” when in fact it’s not.

First, a little about Han Hong – according to Chinese Wiki – She’s won the award for the Most Popular Female Singer, as well as the Best Female Artist Award (in mainland China). That means she’s critically acclaimed, and popular among the public – which doesn’t happen often on this side of the world. LOL

Her voice is often compared (by the fans) to Sarah Brightman for her unique style… music and lyrics. – and everyone loves Brightman… she was even on the Beijing Olympics Opening.

Now, a little on my story. I first noticed her at the Beijing Paralympic Opening Ceremony – with Andy Lau singing Flying with the Dream – but I didn’t have much luck getting her name or clips back then, so I kinda forgot about it until the day I was watching those music concerts on CCTV back in April and she appeared on stage. My mom thought what an amazing voice! While I added I had seen her in the Paralympic Ceremony… totally forgetting she’s also featured on the Beijing Welcomes You music video (thank you, whoever did those annotations! It’s hard to keep track of so many singers…) – Anyway, that day… I ended up discovering Chris Lee instead of Han Hong… but the wait is OVER!

Since the beginning, I’ve always thought she had an amazing voice, but the video above moved me so much. It gave me shivers, and almost brought tears to my eyes. No, really. It’s THIS video in particular… this performance. She’s an amazing vocalist! I would love to see her perform with Sarah Brightman herself, or maybe even the lovely women of Celtic Woman – or Meav *tsk tsk*

I’m not completely sold on her videos – like on most vocalist I follow – but her live performances are so much more worth it. Here are some of her other performances…

Ommani
Qinghai Tibetan Plains

I dunno if my wallet is, though~~~ xD

I haven’t bought anything non-Asian for… I dunno how long. xP

Bjork - Voltaic

Wow, I still can’t believe I saw Bjork live, right in front hahaha for real. Nearly two years ago~~~ *sighs* – Anyway, here’s the link where you can see the video… it does get you pumping~ WEEEEEE