Category: Music
Didn’t We Almost Have It All
The first album my daddy bought me on casstte was Whitney. It was August 1987 and we were in Orlando, Florida for our first holiday (which wasn’t to Kenya).
The number one song for those two weeks was “Didn’t we almost have it all”. Since then, its been our household’s Whitney anthem. When we woke up today the song that we thought of was this one, even though we were in different continents away from each other. Like all who loved her songs, it’s been a sad day. She may have had her demons and “bad habits’ but she was a beautiful gifted singer with a voice that cannot be matched. There will be tweets, blogs, and other forums mentioning her today. My blog is for the singer who occupied my brand new walkman and my ears for two weeks in Orlando and for my life since. Unfortunately she never did a proper video for this song, so here is a live version for your viewing pleasure… Rest in peace Lady W.Songs which remind you of your dad – Part 1 – Aaj Mausam Bada
There is no denying that from the day I was born I wrapped my little finger around my daddy. We have had our ups and downs especially with our fiery family bloody raging through us, but I love him dearly. Whenever this song comes up on my ipod or anywhere, I get a bit nostalgic for the old days when I was daddy’s girl and makes me teary missing my dad back home in England. So this afternoon I give you the late, great Mohammed Rafi to hum along to.
Love ya dad. xx
Music Monday – Everywhere
I usually like doing Tuesday Tunnnneees but i’m on a Fleetwood Mac revival today so it’s Music Monday instead.
Yes the Glee children reminded me of the greatness of the Rumours album the other week but my favourite song by the Mac’s is “Everywhere”.
For your delectable pleasure here is the original cheesy 80s video from them:
I also found this cover by Vampire Weekend (who?!) which aint bad so here it is for your listening pleasure as well.
Now all together ….ooohhhhhhh iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Jenny’s back in the block!
There has been great sadness and trouble in 2011, but in between all this turmoil one woman has come to brighten up our lives.
J-lo is back!
You may not like her acting, you may think she can’t sing and you might think she has the worst taste in men, but I don’t care! She is back in all her blingtastic, from the Bronx attitude with a dash of baby baby spirit.
In recent years she has bombed with her rom-com movies. The baby from a sperm donor movie was shockingly awful and her new song aint that catchy (yep I still downloaded it) but she has redeemed herself with her motherly, strong performance on American Idol. Randy is dull and Steven is amusingly old rocker-like but she brings the show together with her positiveness, her tears, her honesty and her fabulous outfits.
After the crash of 2008 we have spiralled down to the toned down doldrums of nineties fashion. Jenny has decided to ignore that on each and every episode of Idol and blinged up like it was 2002 and you know what I love it. Have you seen the new ad campaign for Gucci with J-lo and her kids. It’s like so adorable, sexy and cool!
Of course there is another reason I love it that she is back in the spotlight – booty. I have a big booty and thanks to her the booty has gotten the respect it deserves thanks to her flaunting it for the last 10 years. Without her I wouldn’t have been able to wiggle it in front of boyfriends and not feel conscious that I weren’t scrawny arsed like Kate Moss.
Another reason for loving jenny is her songs. I love em and they remind me of times with my close friends. Get Right was played at irritably high amounts to my two best girlfriends in 2005 in New York. That song is so entrenched with that time in our lives that I had to add it to my mate’s wedding cd! Also she got the J-lo perfume to remind us of our times together. The power of J-lo!!!
Love her or hate her, who cares, lets just revel in the blingness of it all and forget all the greyness that is around us.
With love
Shelly from the other block…
You know that I’m no good…
Last night there were four major concerts happening in the UAE…. Eric Clapton (Abu Dhabi), RAKmatazz (some Indian thing – Dubai), Elissa and co (Lebanese singers – Dubai) and finally Amy Winehouse (Dubai Festival City).
I went to see Amy. It was a bad choice.
Here are the reasons:
- Amy Winehouse’s voice is not meant to be for open air hearing.
- There were only two large speakers at the stage – in an open air venue!!
- The sound guy didn’t want to put her mic up, even though she’s got a quiet voice.
- The sound stage bit (with the big Fred Perry sign on it) was too far forward and too wide meaning that most of the audience had to stand way back.
- The venue is shite and not well signposted – yeah we know where to park but what about where is it exactly??
- The venue was shite.
- The queue for alcohol was ridiculously huge. Considering it was Amy WInehouse and most of the audience was British, you’d think they would know that they need more alcohol stands.
- The food was overpriced as normal.
- Did I mention how bad the venue was??
There was a lot of booing but it was mostly from drunk men who didn’t want to be there in the first place and needed an excuse to lash out as they couldn’t lash out at their girlfriends/wives.
To be fair it wasn’t Amy’s fault. She kept on singing even with the boos and she looked pissed off and upset just as much as we were. I’m sure that there will be a huge backlash on her as she is an easy target, but the people to blame are the organizers and her management. They should have known what her voice and songs were like and chosen a better venue. She would have been more suited for one of the closed arenas like the Madinat Arena or even better Jambase or the Westin bar which plays jazz.
I went to Black Eyed Peas here five years ago at airport expo. That was horrendously bad; from the venue, the transportation and more importantly the group. They did not sing properly the whole time they were there. At least Amy sang her songs and tried to sing them so we could hear.
When the majority of the audience had left she played her more famous songs which we could actually hear (not loud but we could hear). With less of an audience, less of chatting and less of the booing it was actually quite good, but by then we were cold and fed up and just wanted to go home.
Here is a video of what she is supposed to sound like in concert in a small venue with a smaller audience. So let’s just say she aint meant to be a big stage performer.
Next up on the concert timetable is Dubai Jazz Festival, 30 Seconds to Mars and finally Stevie Wonder. Lets hope it gets better.
Music Monday – Robyn – Dancing on my own.
This song is how I feel today. No man to sing to but I feel alone.
Tuuuuunnnnnneeeessssss (bad and a few good)
I’m at home right now chilling and have 20 music channels to watch. Usually I’m glued to MTV base as it has old skool and new urban tunes for me to jiggy to on my sofa. You would think that with all this choice that there would be a mix of music to listen to but nope that ain’t happening. MTV and all the other music channels seem to have their music console stuck on certain artists especially Rhianna.
Rhianna has one those voices that either you love or hate. I’m at that point of hating. It’s jarring and she is looking incredibly daft in her new videos like “what’s my name”. What is with that red hair? Seriously who told her that it would be great idea with her green eyes?
The other overplayed song is Black Eyes Pea “this time” which has a chorus from that dirty dancer tune which I could never stand. The only good bit of that song is when they say “dirty bit”. Ok yeah the song is something you can dance to but man I’ve had enough.
Then there is tinie tempah. I am loving his album right now and cannot diss him too much but the new song with Kelly Rowland (Invincible) is just not one of the songs that should have been released. A better tune is Let Go with Emile Sande. I’m guessing that as Emile isn’t a big megastar as Kelly that this song has been passed for this crap. Even the record company don’t rate it that much as they couldn’t be bothered to create a proper video. It’s a yawn fest.
The girl who is going to be the big new artist according to MTV is Willow Smith. This girl is 10 years old! Shouldn’t she be in the playground rather than whipping her hair around and getting a sore neck. It’s crazy. It’s nearly as bad as Justin Bieber. And she has this funny crystal stuff on her lips. It looks uncomfortable.
I’m trying to not like that G6 song but it is catchy but Ke$ha is on every bloody song when Rhianna isn’t. And what is with that voice box voice with Ke$ha. I’m guessing she has a crap voice in real life.
Other songs touching my nerves in a bad way –
Nicole Scherzinger (or whateva her surname is) – Poison – sounds same as her other songs.
Taio Cruz and Kylie – Higher – the song got nothing. It just doesn’t sound good. Why are they driving around in a 7 series BMW in a car park. It’s weird. Kylie ain’t what she used to be. Time to give up me thinks.
Jay Sean – 2012 – has he forgotten we are only on 2011. Stop being American and come back to your roots boy!
N-Dubz – Girls – actually all of their songs suck. I heard a funny joke the other day – what do you call a girl with two twats?? N-Dubz (ROFL) (thanks to mclean007).
Nelly – Just a dream – zzzzzz
Will I am & Nicki Minaj – god her voice is nearly as bad as Rhianna. And what is with this voice box sound. Slightly redeems itself as it has that cool 80s tune (Video killed the radiostar by the Buggles you young folk! (and no I didn’t Google it)).
On a positive note I am liking Alexis Jordan’s “Happiness” which has been on my airwaves for a few months but seems to be blowing up now. Flor-ida’s “Turn Around” ain’t bad, though shame about the video and all the booty clad women.
Bruno Mars had that amazingly beautiful song last year and I will keep on wishing for someone to sing that to me (yeah i know i dont look like that hawtie in the video but whatever) but the next song aint as catchy and is a bit depressing but he does have a good voice.
There is one good song that is redeeming MTV Base right now which is Katy B and Ms Dynamite’s Lights out. Big up Ms Dynamite and her comeback which is mega news and Katy B has a good voice and that tune is one of those I can see playing loudly in my car or ipod.The video is at the top of this blog for you to listen to while reading this (you see how i care about you lot).
Here is some information on Katy B – I feel like educating you away from Rhianna et al
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/2df30b6c-997d-4c3f-abb5-5e0d6317ea57#p00b9384
Finally, although it’s a few months old I’m still grooving to Fuck U and Pass Out. If only more songs were made like that for my ears. Let’s hope that 2011 improves with the music scene and we get new artists instead of the same ole same ole.
The greatness of Robyn (part 1)
As you may know from my tweets and occasional blogs that I am a huge fan of Madonna, however that doesn’t mean I limit myself with my music taste. I was raised on a diet of music from the day I was born especially by my dad, which has meant that our home is not only full of 100’s of cd’s but also of vinyl, tapes and mini-discs (yep I got into that craze for a while). I love music and I love listening to singers and bands that are new, exciting and fresh to liven up my legal days and lonesome nights.
One artist who has been around for many years now has come back into my life in a big way recently. Robyn is a Swedish singer-songwriter who doesn’t conform to any box, but doesn’t have to dress wacky and make crazy arse videos to make a point.
All these years later and few airplayed songs, that you have most probably heard but not realized are by her (“Show me Love”, “With every Heartbeat”, “Konichiwa Bitches”), she has released two albums this year – Body Talk pt 1 and 2; with one more – Body Talk pt 3 – due out before the end of the year.
Body Talk 1 is straight to the point with “Don’t fucking tell me what to do”, “Dancing on my Own” (despite reports she didn’t sing this at the MTV Music award 2010 – she was singing Who’s That Girl – another brilliant song) and my favourite off this album “None of Dem”.
If you have not heard “None of Dem” I besiege you to download it immediately, put it on your ipod and listen to at full volume in your car. It is bloody brilliant. It makes me think of going around London in the summer with flip flops on and a city swagger. It’s Swedish ragga! To top it all off the song was co-written by those Norwegian geniuses Röyskopp (if you don’t have The Understanding by these guys I will faint in shock).
Another brilliant song on the album is “The Girl and the Robot”. I have to admit that I sound like I am the Robot right now (work work work), but the 70’s stylee electro-beats are mega and what you need to hear in your car really loud after leaving work (can you see a trend here with the car).
Body Talk 2 came out last month and I’m just digesting it into my soul. I’ll be back with my views on it very soon.
For now here is her version of another song that I have fallen deeply in love with this year “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart”
Madonna – someone else’s article explaining why I love Madonna
I just read a brilliant article by Wendy Shanker in the Guardian which explained as eloquently as I ever could why she is a fan of Madonna. I may not have been through the same moments in life as Ms Shanker but I have certainly felt empowered, enlightened and energised during my life, due to this one woman.
There are people who will diss Madonna and also me, but the reality is that she has done more for me and for the world what most people could ever dream of.
Here is the article in all its glory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/09/madonna-my-guru-wendy-shanker
Shelo9's Cheeky Rantings 