I love Alicia Keys. I love Alicia Keys' current album. I love(d) SWV. I love(d) TLC [TLC the group of course, not the real and official and original ME TLC... that is one TLC I'll love forever :)]. I still love En Vogue. But this performance did not work. Sorry, it didn't. It's uncomfortable enough to bring back out a bunch of chicks that don't really perform anymore, don't really get along anymore, and have gotten a bit older. It's another thing entirely to bring them all out for like 30 seconds each and then have a current mega-successful, still young, and always performing superstar like Alicia Keys stand next to them with a goofy grin and "yay you!" facial expression while singing along to THEIR hits. It's somewhat demeaning if you ask me.
It's not that the girls couldn't perform anymore. It's just that as big as Alicia is now, that doesn't automatically give her free rein to stand up their with them and pretend she's been added to the groups TLC, SWV, and En Vogue all in one easy night. It was the same kind of feeling I got seeing Beyonce "pay tribute" to her predecessors in her Grammy performance with Tina Turner. Beyonce is NO Tina (even though she loves to act like she is... see the Prince/Beyonce Grammy performance for evidence of that one). But that whole thing just came off like Beyonce doing Tina a favor by giving her airtime again.
I'm all for the stars of today paying their respects to the stars of yesterday, but I have to believe there's a better way to do these things. Perhaps just stick to the "we'll bring out a bunch of people to perform different hits of yours through the ages while also giving you a nice speech and standing ovation" way of doing tributes. Dragging them all out on stage to clap around and make the crowd do the "wave your hands in the air" thing in their faces is uncomfortable for us all. It feels like it's 25 years from now and we're watching a live feed into senior citizen homes across America on "90s night".
Like I said, I love all these women (honestly there was not one chick on that stage that I do not have love [or had love] for). But to have Alicia doing the famous TLC "Waterfalls" dance along with them, and trying to riff with Dawn and the girls who are still miles ahead of her in sexy vamp-ish appeal, and then trying to out-sing Coko HAD to have these chicks silently cursing her out in their heads. LOL. All in good fun though. No matter what, it's great to see these women getting their props. I just wish it was orchestrated in a cleaner, more respectful manner.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Miss TLC Take On Alicia Keys' BET Awards 2008 Performance
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You know, you really helped me to figure out what wasn't feeling quite right about that part of the show. I love, love, love each of the girl groups that came out to remind us of how much we loved them then and how much we miss them now, and can watch that one segment, over and over. And I adore Alicia Keys, but.....I hear you on what you've said. The little bits of their performances that weren't hitting on much at all, time-wise, really didn't need her assistance. Those 30-second snippets were a cruel teaser. And I understand what you're saying in terms of it almost being a little demeaning. You hit the nail right on the head. I would've loved to have seen them each perform alone, and longer. Either way, it was soooo great to see them again. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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