The Gaga Phenomenon

Lady Gaga is one of the most unique artists of our generation. Unabashedly provocative, she is redefining music videos in a time when other artists are scaling back. But she is also an enigma. While her videos exude sexuality (she admitted last year that the video for Poker Face was about her bisexuality) in reality, she denounces sex and advocates celibacy. At school, she described her academic life as being “very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined” but also “a bit insecure” as she told in an interview, “I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak.”

But its her bold, eccentric fashion statements and outrageous visual themes that range from quirky to morbid, that draw comparisons to what Michael Jackson did for the music video genre in the 1980s. The numbers speak for themselves; over 500 million views on her Youtube channel. It’s no wonder she was recently named as TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world (in an online poll she came in first place).

Bad Romance: 222 million views (#1 most viewed on Youtube of all time)

Just Dance: 113 million views

Telephone: 85 million views

Lovegame: 45 million views

Poker Face: 34 million views

Papparazi: 22 million views

That brings us to her latest offering, Alejandro. Unlike the psychedelic colours of Telephone, the Steven Klein directed Alejandro takes on a much darker, subversive theme that borders on disturbing in nature. As usual, there are many flashes of imagery that her fans (who she calls her “little monsters”) will analyze, but there are stabs at religion, bondage,  homosexuality, homophobia, and even Hitler. Lady Gaga is freak, but that’s why she is embraced by millions – because she can connect with that little freak that lies within each of us.

Review: Kelly Clarkson Live @ Bukit Jalil Stadium 25/4/2010

The voice of Kelly Clarkson is a rare kind in pop music today. Esquire magazine named it the “best voice in pop music history”. To me, not only is her voice soulful, it is backed with that power and conviction that has won her legions of fans from the moment she opened her mouth on the first season of American Idol. But Kelly has also shown she is not just a cookie cutter product of the Idol factory. Willing to take her music into her own hands, the songwriter has distanced herself from American Idol and sometimes pushed to release music that was true to herself first and commercially friendly second.

In the debut Asian leg of her All I Ever Wanted tour, she makes her first stop in Malaysia where she is greeted with rapturous screams from 15 000 fans at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium. Only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the 100,000 strong venue was utilized – but this was a blessing in disguise for as a result, the fans had a more intimate experience with the tour stage.

The show surprisingly started on schedule, with the first (and last) Malaysian Idol Jaclyn Victor performing a medley of Malay songs which seemed to go on forever. Now Jaclyn has strong pipes, but she also tends to sing only in one-note : loud to the point where all the subtlety of the song is lost. She was then followed by Suki, clad in flowy red RM 15,000 dress,  who performed the violin before singing a Malay number.

But when the silver MPV appeared into the Bukit Jalil Stadium, the audience knew their star had arrived. The barefoot Kelly started the show with a gusto, immediately breaking into a trio of hits, her latest single All I Ever Wanted, the rousing Miss Independent from her debut album, and I Do Not Hook Up. I kinda thought the organizers made the mistake of putting the VVIPs right in front of the stage while the much more enthusiastic standing “mosh pit” were herded like lambs behind. She then greeted the crowd who went wild before introducing Impossible.

With a seamless mashup of That I Would Be Good (Alanis Morrissette) / Use Somebody (The Killers), Kelly shared with us some of her favourite musical influences. But it was her timeless performance of Breakaway that had the crowd singing along to the chorus. This was followed by another mashup of If I Can’t Have You from her current album and Kylie Minogue’s iconic Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Kelly then went into a darker mood with the angry Never Again. She then serenaded the audience with a bluesy rendition of The Black Keys’ Lies.

One of my favourite parts was her medley of Just Missed The Train (one of my favs from her debut album – never thought I would get to hear it live), Low, Addicted (which the audience really seemed to like) and Gone. The crowd then went wild when she gave an acoustic performance of the monster hit Behind These Hazel Eyes. This was followed by another favourite of mine from her current album – the haunting yet reassuring Save You.

Kelly gushed at the crowd reception which she said was her “best audience” and said she couldn’t wait to come back. She seemed honoured and surprised when she heard a group of fans (a flashmob?) singing her a happy birthday song. She then acknowledged how special it was to celebrate her 28th Birthday in Malaysia. She then introduced her band and had the crowd involved in the bouncy I Want You before she rocked out with Don’t Let Me Stop You.

The crowd went absolutely crazy when she hit all the high notes of the emotionally powerful Because of You. Changing the mood, she jumped around the stage with uptempo Walk Away before electrifying the ecstatic audience from the moment the familiar guitar strumming of Since U Been Gone was heard.

Kelly then rushed out for a break before returning to enchant the audience with Already Gone (using a simpler acoustic arrangement) to thunderous approval. She would then perform a hypnotic cover of the White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army. By the time she went into the epic My Life Would Suck Without You, she had the audience leaping to their feet.

I’m sure that Kelly Clarkson gave everyone who came a night to remember. I was personally in awe of how good her voice sounds live and Kelly herself seemed down to earth, and had fun on the stage. There were no gimmicks, no costume changes, just Kelly doing what she does best – singing her heart out. And that was all this audience ever wanted.

Celebrity Apprentice Week 6

This week’s Celebrity Apprentice task was refreshing : makeover an up and coming country star. The “starlets” were Luke Bryan (who just won an American Country Award for Best New Artist) and Emily West. I was really impressed with Emily West’s song Blue Sky and thought she did a great job performing it on the show.

I’ve heard this song before..

Have you ever thought some songs sound alike? It’s amazing how many songs from the Beatles to Elton John to P!nk use these same 4 chords!