HOPE FOR HAITI NOW: It goes without saying -- but the need isn't going away anytime soon -- that your money is needed for Haitian relief right now. But this post isn't to preach or hector about that; you know what your obligations are.
This post exists because we are a pop culture blog, and there's a telethon going on (live online here, among other places), and this sort of celebrity-filled thing is our proverbial bread and butter. Alicia Keys just blew me away with "Prelude to a Kiss," and we're just getting started.
for your added consideration: We've come to the point with events like this such that we expect to see superstars like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Bono pitch in and perform. And yet, still, to see Madonna up there performing "Like A Prayer" with a choir and minimal instrumentation ... somehow, that seemed to elevate the specialness of the evening that much more. There's just something about the centrality of her music to my formative years, and her relative absence from the public eye these days, that when she does show up it's really an event.
Shakira is doing some damage to the Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You," but it's not her backing band's fault: I'd recognize that afro pik-headed drummer and tuba player anywhere.
ReplyDeleteOMG. Sting's Beard is gone!
ReplyDeleteThe Roots are doing an amazing job backing up a wide variety of artists. Could Rihanna's skirt be any shorter? Geez.
ReplyDeleteLots of solid performances -- J-Hud, "Let It Be"; Stevie, "Bridge Over Troubled Water"; Timberpants on (as one Tweeter put it) that Rufus Wainwright song from Shrek; and beardless Sting on an intricate, inspired "Driven to Tears".
ReplyDeleteWhat I love about that Madonna performance us the rawness; there's been so much crap autotunibg and near lip synching in concerts across the board in the last ten years that it's refreshing to see miscues, a dropped line or two and such. And geez, that choir was terrific.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Timberpants was just lovely. I've been enjoying his comedy so much that I think I forgot a bit that he is quite the talented musician, like his Irish grandfather predicted he would be.
I thought Madonna was off key more than a few times; Timberlake was amazing.
ReplyDeleteFinally got to watch the telethon. Well worth watching, and I'm quite glad to have downloaded the album from itunes. Shakira was a real low spot. [Carrie Underwood did a much better version on the first Idol Gives Back---they should have had her on.] Taylor Swift was pitchy, dawg. And I'd have given Dave Matthews a different song and duet partner (sacrilege, I know, but there it is). JHud's version of Let It Be was a bit too diva beltish for me and went on too long, but otherwise was good. And I otherwise thought that the music was great. The fact that they put this together so quickly, including all of those songs that the Roots backed, was pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteHer face! Her face does. not. move.
ReplyDelete