Adele's "Someone like you"- Brit Awards 2011 performance (Review)

Adele- "Someone like you" at The Brit Awards 2011

This performance brought me to tears. How many artists these days can stand on the stage with a microphone accompanied only by a pianist and sing…I mean... JUST SING? Adele just did that with this performance at this year's Brit Awards. She sang this song with her heart and she meant each and every word. Her delivery was so earnest that I could feel her pain. That "someone" obviously and certainly have done her wrong and left her in despair. What an achingly beautiful heartbreak song! I just can’t stop watching this clip. The maturity of her voice (and she’s only 22??) and the depth of her lyrics simply remind me of why we listen to music and why we should embrace and support true talents. “I had hoped you'd see my face, And that you'd be reminded that for me it isn't over”- Gosh….I’m heartbroken. ;o(

Britney Spears (Femme Fatale) Album Review

Britney Spears- Femme Fatale

I guess, in our weary world today plagued by Tsunamis, earthquakes, protests and recession , all we people want to do is to forget about all our worries for a while and…JUST DANCE. It is indeed apparent in the music most people are listening to and the radios are playing nowadays. Artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha and Rihanna are dominating the music charts worldwide these days with their electro/dance pop music. Lyrical depth? Timeless quality music? Unique vocal talent? No, thank you! None of these matters as music fans (here, I’m talking about the mass audience) have long been embracing what sends them to the dance floor instead. They want to have a good time! They want more dance beats! And yes, these they will be happy with this new delivery from Britney Spears.

Britney’s latest effort is a solid gold dance album. She’s just done what she does best with her seventh studio set called “Femme Fatale”. I was disappointed with the first single “Hold it against me” but it went number one in many countries anyway.  Femme Fatale is a compilation of club-bangers, a mixture of electro pop, hip hop and this recently revived music trend that’s currently taking control of the air waves, “electro hop”, a unique blend of futuristic robot sounds, electronic rap and techno. She teamed up with Will.i.am of Black eyed peas and delivered the hottest dance track of this collection, simply titled, “Big fat Bass”.  A third-degree burn hot and my most favorite!

On this album, Britney seems very serious with her vocals too. The best she’s sung in years can be heard on songs like “I wanna go”, “Gasoline” and “Trouble for me”. Her sex –kitten-attacks-Japanese -school-girl vocals that shot her to stardom can also be heard on songs like “inside out” and “criminal”, one of the slower paced tracks. Half of this album is produced by the hit-maker of today’s popular music, Dr Luke (responsible for recent Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry & Ke$ha’s hits) and Britney’s frequent collaborator, Max Martin (“Baby one more time”, “Oops! I did it again”, “If you seek Amy”) also share the producing/writing credits of this album. Songs like “(Drop Dead) Beautiful” and “Seal it with a kiss” are totally classic Britney. Her hard core loyal fans are going to be very pleased and the rest of us will dance along anyway.

 “If you want this good shit, Sicker than a remix” she sings on “Till the world ends”, the second single from this album. It is true that the beats are sick! There’s no need for remix as all her songs on “Femme Fatale” are good enough to get people grooving. Should Lady Gaga and Rihanna be worried? Maybe not but Britney has said it loud and clear that she’s definitely back in the game with this album. HOT TAMALE!

Jennifer Lopez (On The Floor) (Single & Video Review)

Jennifer Lopez is on fire in this new video “On the floor”, her new single from the upcoming album “love?”. This is old school J-Lo that we all fell in love with and reminiscent of her classic hits “Waiting for tonight”, “Get Right” and “Love don’t cost a thing”. It is also a wise move for J-Lo to sample Kaoma’s 80’s hit “Lambada”. “Black Eyed Peas” have done 80's song sampling recently and found immense success with “Time of my life (Dirty bit)”. “Lambada” sample just gives the right amount of sexiness and a slight touch of Latin flavor. The production, featuring PitBull’s rapping, is thankfully not over the top yet still managed to have global appeal and radio-friendliness.

Jennifer Lopez is the only diva in the business who can blend Hollywood glamour with street fashion successfully. Miss Lopez here in this video looks flawless. It is also obvious that she takes her music videos seriously. She has consistently given her fans such visually pleasing videos over the years and that’s where she wins my respect.  Personally, I’ve always loved her (even when critics and fans counted her out on her last three albums that flopped). The truth is J-Lo never disappoints when delivering her high-energy dance music. I can’t wait to hit the dance floor with this song. 5 stars from me!!!!

                                           

Who will play WikiLeaks founder in the movie???

There’s a new buzz in town.  Hollywood is currently putting together a movie about the Australian WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange who has exposed some of the world’s top leaders and governments’ secrets and scandals (among others!) through his site and caused such global sensation last year.  The interesting thing here for me and some folks (Christine, I’m eyeballing you!) is “Who is going to play this fair-haired internet activist?” in the movie backed by DreamWorks and we are talking “Steven Spielberg” here. This is WAY too serious!

British actor Paul Bettany, Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Chris Cooper and even Charlie Sheen (what are we smoking here? Seriously?) are presently in the news to play this iconic yet notorious Aussie. According to some sources, Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon are hotly-tipped to win the part and I have no problem with that as I believe they are both such fine actors who are desperately in need of Oscars. So this could be a great chance for them to stretch some acting skills and win some awards. Matt Damon can definitely bring the intellectual edge, complexity and geekiness to this role although I personally think Dicaprio is, no offense, too pretty to be Julian unless he agrees to ugly up a bit.

Some are even suggesting Tilda Swinton (yes, the Avant-garde quirky British Actress who won Oscar a few years back) . Now, that’s some news! I think it’d be so cool if she ends up playing him. After all, it’s a movie. It’s all about acting and art. C’mon, why not?  Right? Cate Blanchett played “Bod Dylan” in her Oscar-nominated role from the movie “I’m not there”.  No one complained. But imagine the talented Denzel Washington playing Oprah Winfrey even if he puts on pounds???  That’s scandal! Talking about unfairness but let’s not even go there. ;o)

Or how about, if I may suggest, Anderson Cooper based on the hair color alone? Plus he’s handsome, smart and very much into politics! (well, I'm not quite sure but he talks about politics all the time) This could be a great career move for Mr Cooper, me thinks.  

Nevertheless, this movie will be a lot more interesting than THAT facebook movie everyone is raving about because this one’s got courtroom drama, politics, shocking secrets & scandals and even possibly hard core sex (you know, those sexual assault charges can be so glorified and turned into steamy sex scenes in the movie, no ?) Just kidding. 

Did the Oscars go to the deserving nominees? (Oscars 2011)

The Oscars this year went to the most deserving contenders thus it undeniably became one of the most boring Oscars in recent memory. And… I meant “Boring” in a very sincere way. Neither surprises nor stunts were pulled and everyone went home happy.  I was very glad to see nine out of ten awards predictions I made except for the cinematography category were accurate but that just simply means how easy it was to predict the eventual winners from the list of 10 brilliant films of 2010. The two hosts, James Franco and Anne Hathaway kept it simple and enjoyable which in my opinion was a good move as they are merely actors and definitely NOT the supposed-to-be funny comedians like the previous Oscars hosts. They relied pretty much on their charms, good looks and in Hathaway’s case, various glittery designer frocks. I however can already feel the hating from the critics and fans alike who weren't thrilled by their somewhat lackluster performance as hosts. I guess a lot of people expected a lot from them and I don’t think they delivered. They both looked very cute together though.

Melissa leo’s F-word bomb in her winning speech should land her in the front page news for the weeks to come as it probably was the most exciting yet inappropriate thing that happened at the Oscars this year. She deservingly won her first Oscar despite the back lash from her much publicized self-promotion scandal.  Personally, I applaud her for recognizing her own talent, preventing the chances of getting her work overlooked and most importantly taking the steps necessary to secure what she felt she deserved.  Let’s just not be hypocrites here. It’s Hollywood.  Narcissism is a well-known ingredient and any types of promotion including self- made ones are considered perfectly fine. What’s with all the fuss?  

It was delightful to see “The King’s Speech” become the best film of 2010 as it absolutely should be.  I like “The social network” but we’ll be remembering the brilliance of “The King’s Speech” in twenty years time.  It is indeed in the same league of old Hollywood classics such as “The Last Emperor (1987)”, “Schindler’s List (1993)” and “Braveheart  (1998)”.  The very famous, “Inception” took home some awards too but mostly in technical categories which I thought was fair. Both Best Actor winner (Colin Firth) and Best Actress winner (Natalie Portman) gave great speeches especially the one by Firth reminded us of why we JUST can’t get enough of The Brits in cinema. What a suave and classy man he is!

In short, the Oscars this year was a great finish for 2010, the year of great films and lawfully the right people were celebrated and honored for their great work.  Well done!