Posts Tagged ‘miley cyrus’

A backlash has begun against Country singer Taylor Swift after the nation heard her lackluster live performance at the Grammys. Taylor won the sympathy of the country after Kanye West stormed the stage during her MTV VMA speech.  Now people are starting to debate whether Taylor earned her Grammys after she sang out of tune with Stevie Nicks.

Taylor Swift’s label head jumped to her defense today, telling the press Swift’s Grammy-night performance may not have been note-perfect, but it captured why the 20-year-old is the “voice of a generation.” Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta went on to say, “This is not American Idol. This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.”

His comments about Idol riled Season One champion Kelly Clarkson, who immediately responded in an open letter on her I Am Kelly blog. “Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well,” Clarkson wrote. She signed her post “One of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes.” Clarkson has two Grammy wins under her belt, and songwriting credits on some of her biggest hits, including “Because of You” and “Already Gone.”

Watch the Taylor Swift Grammy video before it disappears. It keeps getting pulled from youtube for copyright infringement.

Taylor Swift & Stevie Nicks – Full Live Performance at Grammy’s 2010

Ouch! Taylor Swift’s painfully weak, off-key vocal performance Sunday night at the Grammy Awards has become the subject of so much on-line controversy that some fans and music biz veterans alike are wondering if she’d have been better off not performing at all. At the very least, her karaoke-level singing made a good argument in favor of using Auto-Tune (the recording studio device that helps vocally challenged performers sound at least somewhat in in tune).

For the record, we winced through Swift’s similarly tone-deaf duet with Miley Cyrus during LAST year’s Grammys telecast. But since she wasn’t even nominated for an award, let alone the winner of four Grammys, including Album of the Year (as she was on Sunday), it apparently was less of an isssue.

Not so after her performance Sunday, which featured Swift opening with her own “Today Was A Fairytale,” then engaging in an alarmingly under-rehearsed duet on Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks, who appeared both alarmed and annoyed by her young partner’s eyebrow-raising warbling. By the time the performance concluded, with Nicks relegated to backing vocal duties for Swift on the Butch Walker-penned “You Belong With Me,” it was reaffirmed that Swift might really benefit from lip-syncing or using Auto-Tune (not that Auto-Tune helped T-Pain and Jamie Foxx, whose earlier vocal duet on “Blame It” rivaled Swift’s performance for sheer wretchedness).

There are now at least three trending topics on Twitter about the debacle, including: “Taylor Swift Can’t Sing,” “Taylor Swift Offkey” and “Taylor Swift Pitch.” One of our favorite blogs, borowitzreport.com, quickly weighed in with some tweets of its own, including: “Satan Chooses Taylor Swift Performance as Ringtone” and “God Hoping Taylor Swift Does Not Thank Him.”

Taylor Swift’s reps have attempted to defend her reputation against the backlash but the internet is buzzing about her rumored romance with John Mayer, the fact she didn’t thank her fellow nominees and some suggested she need autotune to hit a note.

After taking home four trophies, it’s hard to call Taylor Swift’s Grammys experience an off night.

Still, many critics—albeit not us!—panned her duet with Stevie Nicks. The New York Times called her “painfully out of tune” and the San Diego Union-Tribune said, “her karaoke-level singing made a good argument in favor of using Auto-Tune.” Ouch!

Well, Taylor’s label chief, Scott Borchetta, thinks such reviews are way harsh and he is coming to her defense.

“I think are missing the whole voice of a generation that is happening right in front of them,” he declares to The Tennessean. Borchetta is so fired up about the haters, he’s even challenging them to a duel!

“The critics are missing the bigger picture,” he says. “This is what always happens and is the unfortunate part of the American dream—that we build these people up to watch the critics tear them down. Well, you better have more than what you’ve got now if you think you’re going to get in the ring and fight with us.”

As for the specific, Taylor-can’t-sing complaints swirling around the interwebs, Borchetta says her success as an artist is not about that.

“The facts say she is the undisputed best communicator that we’ve got. When she says something, when she sings something, when she feels something, it affects more people than anybody else.”

Presumably, he’s not just referring to the monetary effect T.Swizzle’s had on the music industry as a whole, but we digress.

“Maybe she’s not the best technical singer, but she’s probably the best emotional singer because everybody else who gets up there and is technically perfect, people don’t seem to want more of it,” he continues. “Everybody is not perfect on any given day. If you pick any of those artists that performed, I’m sure you can go online and find something where you go, ‘Ew.’

“Maybe in that moment we didn’t have the best night. But in the same breath, maybe we did. And nobody is arguing with the awards.”

Snap!

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• Taylor Swift Drops and Breaks a Grammy (PHOTO) (blippitt.com)
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• It’s ladies’ night at the Grammys (nationalpost.com)

Timbaland’s upcoming album “Shock Value II’ is coming out on December 8th. The new disc features a collection of unlikely collaborations between super producer Timbaland and musical artist  that range from Miley Cyrus to Katy Perry.  A new track called “Meet in tha Middle” has leaked featuring R&B favorite Brandy singing and rapping as her alter ego “Bran’ Nu” on the song.  We never knew Brandy could rap like this but she definitely has rhyming skills.  Download the mp3 of the track and enjoy!

Timbaland feat Brandy aka Bran’Nu Meet in Tha Middle

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Timbaland  is back for another round of mayhem with his new album, Shock Value II.

Hitting stores December 8, the album branches out from strictly hip-hop and features pop stars such as Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and his good friend Justin Timberlake, along with rockers like Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, the Fray and Daughtry. However, Drake is featured on the album’s next single, “Say Something,” about a famous man who makes plenty of money, but neglects to spend enough quality time with his girl.

“What’s a star when his most important fan is missing?” Drake raps. “We can work it out,” he sings on the chorus. On the track, Timbaland describes his relationship with his woman as a “catastrophe,” however the beat is buoyant — “Say Something” is built for the party.

“Meet in tha Middle” is a bit more optimistic, with Tim singing, “We gotta meet in the middle” on the hook. You’ll recognize Brandy’s vocals holding down the background duties, but you definitely won’t believe your ears when she comes in on a guest verse. Credited under the moniker Bran Nu, the veteran singer introduces an MC alter-ego.

“I been giving you more than a little, had the ball then you double-dribbled,” she raps. “You don’t listen, I don’t never get my point across/ I washed your dirty draws, you out with dirty broads/ You did me dirty dawg, cause you’se a dirty dog/ It’s a curtain call and I ain’t mad at all.”

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Happy Birthday Miley!  The Hannah Montana star just turned 17. To celebrate her birthday Miley dressed up in a hooker outfit inspired by Pretty Woman for her 80’s themed surprise birthday party. Miley partied the night away as a prostitute with her mother dancing by her side at the posh night club.

Can you believe that Miley’s mom didn’t object to her daughter dressing like the Pretty Woman prostitute portrayed by Julia Roberts? After all Miley is a a Disney kid and Pretty Woman was a Disneyfied tale of a hooker with a heart of gold.  Miley also has a small role in the upcoming Sex and the City sequel. One deranged Miley Cyrus fan ate her cat instead of birthday cake to celebrate Miley’s big day. The alleged cat slaying was meant to be way for the fan to convince Miley to re-activate her canceled Twitter account. This fan is dangerous and should definitely be under surveillance if she really killed her innocent kitty.

Miley is definitely all grown up. We are glad that Miley was not involved in the tragic tour bus crash which killed the driver. We send our condolences to those involved in the accident.

Miley Cyrus dressed as Julia Roberts for her 17th birthday party.
The ‘Hannah Montana’ star dressed as Julia’s prostitute character Vivian Ward from the movie ‘Pretty Woman’ at an 80s-themed celebration at New York’s Canal Room on Wednesday (18.11.09).

The singer-and-actress – who celebrates her birthday on Monday (23.11.09) – was particularly delighted with the evening’s entertainment, a performance from Constantine Maroulis and the cast of Broadway musical ‘Rock of Ages’.

A source told America’s New York Post newspaper: “Miley had seen the show two weeks ago and loved it, so her mom Tish brought the cast in to surprise her. But I’m not sure who was more into Constantine – Miley or her mother.

“Between songs from the musical, Miley grabbed Constantine and danced with him at the front of the stage and then Tish joined in.”

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