The video for Beyonce’s latest single ‘Sweet Dreams’ premiered a few hours ago. As I’m sure regular readers will know, we are ardent supporters of Bouncy, however that does not mean we won’t call it as we see it, and what I’m seeing isn’t a good look – at all. Echoing my sentiments from the preview of the vid yesterday, this is a recession video if I’ve ever seen one. Granted Ms. Knowles-Carter is supposedly going for a ‘simple/classic’ feel with these batch of videos, that is no excuse to essentially be churning out cheap, creatively-starved, mediocre re-hashes of the ‘Single Ladies’ video (see: videos for ‘Ego’ and this). Re-hashing aside, IMO all of the videos besides ‘If I Were A Boy’ and ‘Single Ladies’ have been, to put it bluntly, rubbish. Before the stans jump me, in no one am I saying this takes away from Beyonce’s talent, yet for someone who, quote on quote, wants to be an ‘icon’, this isn’t the way to go about it. All that money in the bank, and nothing (or not enough!) is thrown at her videos. Not a good look.

Being the best in the game isn’t dependant solely on songs, stage performance etc; we are in the visual age and whether artists like it or not, they have to be able to sell us that song via a great video. Not making videos just for the sake of it – which seems to be the case here. Here’s hoping Bouncy steps it up next go round. SMH…

What do you think of the video?

Following her performance of ‘I’ll Be There’ at the memorial for the late, great Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey took to Twitter to apologise for the quality of her performance. Here’s what the 39 year old Tweeted:

Just recovering from the day. Still filled w/sadness as we listen to KJLH in LA(Stevie Wonder’s radio station)paying tribute to MJ.

Trying to sing today was basically impossible for me. I could barely keep myself from crying. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to pull it together and really do it right,but I was literally choked up when I saw him there in front of me.

One thing I know is, we will never really have to say goodbye to MJ. His legacy lives on through his music and the millions of people. He inspired with his timeless music. He will be forever in our hearts. {Source}

In this particular instance I won’t say anything other than it’s great Mariah came out in celebration of The King of Pop’s life. Though, I must say I’m interested to hear what you guys thought of Mariah’s showing…

Your thoughts?

Check out this preview of Beyonce’s much anticipated video for new single ‘Sweet Dreams’. While I’ll hold my judgement until the full video surfaces, I’ll say that Ms Knowles really needs to start delving into her purse if she’s adamant on releasing all these videos, because if this doesn’t look like a recession video, then I really don’t know what does.

Your thoughts?

The new Sugababes single ‘Get Sexy’, their first under their new deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, premiered yesterday. Produced by Red One, the vivacious uptempo sees the ‘Babes venture into new territory musical territory. Big, bold, and banging, the ladies have managed to serve up a fresh new sound, without deviating from their top 40 mainstay (evidenced by the many hooks which pervade this song). Listening to this definitely has me anticipating more new material from the ladies, who worked with Ne-Yo, Stargate, among others during their time in the US.

Hit or Miss?

Your thoughts?

This past weekend saw two of music’s biggest acts pay tribute to the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. During Madonna’s show at London’s 02 last night, the 50 year old and her dancers gave an uptempo nod to MJ (which you can watch above), while Beyonce gave a touching rendition of ‘Halo’ (which you can see below), changing the words in honour of Michael. Good stuff.

Your thoughts?

The UK really does seem to be on the come up on the R&B front. Eurovision hopeful and Geffen Records artist Jade Ewen premiered the debut single ‘My Man’ from her forthcoming as-yet-titled album on Trevor Nelson’s BBC 1Xtra show. A very US-friendly club banger, I was pleasantly surprised hearing this, as I expected everything other than an uptempo cut in this vein as her lead single. While bordering on ‘heard it all before’ territory, the song definitely goes hard, with it’s thumping production, catchy hooks, and Jade’s powerful vocal delivery. With Ms. Ewen being quite the competent performer (as evidenced on the BBC’s Your Country Needs You” ), I’m anticipating the single’s video and live performance. Good stuff.

Hit or Miss?

Whitney Houston’s much-hyped comeback single ‘I Didn’t Know My Own Strength’ premiered within the last hour. Lord knows we’ve been waiting on the Dianne Warren penned cut for the longest…

So, does it live up to the hype? Well, yes and no. I’m really liking that this is a vintage Whitney ballad. Yet how this will fare in the contemporary chart climate will be interesting to see. Whitney’s ‘new voice’, also, is unavoidable to scrutinize. Gone, apparently, is the glorious belting and power which put Whitney head and shoulders above the rest vocally (something I’m sure age and her much publicized problems are attributable to), in it’s place a competent, deeper, gritty, yet still-rich tone from the legendary diva. Nothing to be ashamed of; if anything it gives the song a heightened level of realism. I fully expect Whitney to do this song justice live, as it appears to fit the profile of where her voice is today. It’d be far more detrimental to Nippy IMO to have her voice ProTool’ed to the high heavens, only for her to not be able to deliver live like a certain other woman once famed for her voice (I won’t say no names). As I type, I have my reservations about this as a single and whether it will work (word has it the label are trying to gauge a response, but confirming a single solidly); that aside, welcome back Whitney!

Hit or Miss?