The rapture didn't happen on the weekend and it was largely thanks to Beyoncé.
Or at least, the mastermind behind her genuinely dazzling performance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards in Nevada. Just a month after Arcade Fire made Wayne Coyne's "walking in the bubble" schtick look old hat with their mass LED-infused beach ball synchronisation at Coachella, Beyoncé upped the ante of what's achievable in the (I hesitate to say "live", but) "live performance" pop realm, with a white-screen, interactive display that fantastically blurred the line between reality and fiction. Especially because she appeared to be actually, y'know, singing the hell out of it. Rihanna also made headlines on the night with her performance of 'S&M'—not through any scintillating scene-stealing of her own, but because a sleepy Britney Spears appeared on stage long enough to mime her part of the "remix" version and manage a pole dance. And in doing so, once again animate the theory posited in this genuinely troubling Rolling Stone article that everyone in the Britney camp needs wants her to be sexy but her.
Spears did seem a little more present earlier in the night when appearing with Nicki Minaj, but still uncomfortable and very much miming. Mary J. Blige very nearly stole the show with nothing but a super confident, stripped back performance featuring a charismatic walk-on part from Lil' Wayne. It helped that 'Someone to Love Me' was the best song performed on the night, standing out from her contemporaries by simply eschewing the current Eurotrash synthorama for genuine Rn'B soul. Oh and she can sing everyone here under the table. Elsewhere, the sexless and defiantly execrable Black Eyed Peas had naught but Will.I.Am in his Lego hat,
Fergie in a Tron skirt, those other two and fatal lashings of auto-tune. Meanwhile, country band Lady Antebellum's already staggering contribution to the globe's misery was further compounded by a turgid performance of their forthcoming faux-end-credits fartball, 'Just A Kiss'. If spam were audible, Lady Antebellum would be the music world's penis-enhanced Nigerian bankers. ..and ex-pat Keith Urban flipped through his Midnight Oil songbook to lift the opening riff of that band's 'Short Memory' for his tune 'Long Hot Summer', an unremarkable anthem that gets a free pass simply for the fact that—even though we don't want to admit it—Urban can sure as hell play guitar like a boss. The Billboard Music Awards recognise the most popular artists and albums of the year. You can view all the winners at billboard.com you savages.
Or at least, the mastermind behind her genuinely dazzling performance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards in Nevada. Just a month after Arcade Fire made Wayne Coyne's "walking in the bubble" schtick look old hat with their mass LED-infused beach ball synchronisation at Coachella, Beyoncé upped the ante of what's achievable in the (I hesitate to say "live", but) "live performance" pop realm, with a white-screen, interactive display that fantastically blurred the line between reality and fiction. Especially because she appeared to be actually, y'know, singing the hell out of it. Rihanna also made headlines on the night with her performance of 'S&M'—not through any scintillating scene-stealing of her own, but because a sleepy Britney Spears appeared on stage long enough to mime her part of the "remix" version and manage a pole dance. And in doing so, once again animate the theory posited in this genuinely troubling Rolling Stone article that everyone in the Britney camp needs wants her to be sexy but her.
Spears did seem a little more present earlier in the night when appearing with Nicki Minaj, but still uncomfortable and very much miming. Mary J. Blige very nearly stole the show with nothing but a super confident, stripped back performance featuring a charismatic walk-on part from Lil' Wayne. It helped that 'Someone to Love Me' was the best song performed on the night, standing out from her contemporaries by simply eschewing the current Eurotrash synthorama for genuine Rn'B soul. Oh and she can sing everyone here under the table. Elsewhere, the sexless and defiantly execrable Black Eyed Peas had naught but Will.I.Am in his Lego hat,
Fergie in a Tron skirt, those other two and fatal lashings of auto-tune. Meanwhile, country band Lady Antebellum's already staggering contribution to the globe's misery was further compounded by a turgid performance of their forthcoming faux-end-credits fartball, 'Just A Kiss'. If spam were audible, Lady Antebellum would be the music world's penis-enhanced Nigerian bankers. ..and ex-pat Keith Urban flipped through his Midnight Oil songbook to lift the opening riff of that band's 'Short Memory' for his tune 'Long Hot Summer', an unremarkable anthem that gets a free pass simply for the fact that—even though we don't want to admit it—Urban can sure as hell play guitar like a boss. The Billboard Music Awards recognise the most popular artists and albums of the year. You can view all the winners at billboard.com you savages.
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