On my iPod this week - Strong Black Women

This week I've been having a Strong Black Woman vibe so here's what I've been listening to on my silver iPod shuffle:

Mary J Blige PMS - this track is a fierce and funny song from the Queen of Bling. It’s from the Mary album and, just in case you hadn’t guessed, it’s about pre-menstrual tension. Mary croons: ”My lower back is achin’ and my clothes don’t fit, now ain’t that a bitch!” Girl, I'm feeling it!

Diana Ross It's My House - ah, I love this song, it reminds me of a lazy summer's day.

Janet Jackson Got 'Til it's Gone - Janet's wonderfully mellow song which uses a sample from Joni Mitchell's song Big Yellow Taxi.

Mary J Blige No More Drama - from the sample of Nadia's Theme, the piano-driven theme song to the daytime drama The Young and the Restless, this song has Strong Black Woman all over it.

Alison Limerick Where Loves Lives - if ever a song takes you back to the second summer of love in 1988 it's this Balearic classic.

Donna Summer McArthur's Park - ok, so the dumb bitch found Jesus and turned her back on the gays, but that doesn't change the fact that Summer sang some of the fiercest disco songs back in the seventies. This remains my all-time favourite Summer song, written by Jimmy Webb and originally sung by Richard Harris in 1968 (his version is hilarious by the way, well worth a download!)

The top fifty gayest songs EVER!

Australian website samesame.com.au asked their readers to vote for what songs out of the vast catalogue of musical history you think deserve to be called camp classics to help them celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and this is their top fifty (in reverse order):

50. Elton John and George Michael “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”
49. Dead or Alive “You Spin Me (Like A Record)”
48. Pet Shop Boys “New York City Boy”
47. Diana Ross “Chain Reaction”
46. Deborah Harry “I Want That Man”
45. Cher “Strong Enough”
44. RuPaul “Supermodel (You Better Work)”
43. KD Lang “Constant Craving”
42. Culture Club “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”
41. Chaka Kham “I’m Every Woman”
40. Wham “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
39. Paul Lekakis “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)
38. Kym Mazelle “Young Hearts Run Free”
37. George Michael “Outside”
36. Donna Summer “I Feel Love”
35. Dannii Minogue “This Is It”
34. Belinda Carlisle “Summer Rain”
33. Peter Allen “I Go To Rio”
32. Sylvester “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real”
31. Heather Small “Proud”
30. CeCe Peniston “Finally”
29. Madonna “Express Yourself”
28. Cyndi Lauper “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”
27. Charlene “I’ve Never Been To Me”
26. Tim Curry “Sweet Transvestite”
25. Barry Manilow “Copacabana”
24. Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer “No More Tears”
23. Whitney Houston “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”
22. Sister Sledge “We Are Family”
21. Queen “I Want To Break Free”
20. Dolly Parton “9 to 5”
19. Coming Out Crew “Free, Gay and Happy”
18. Village People “In the Navy”
17. Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Relax”
16. Village People “Macho Man”
15. Judy Garland “Over The Rainbow”
14. Bronski Beat “Smalltown Boy”
13. Diana Ross “I’m Coming Out”
12. Cher “Believe”
11. Gloria Gaynor “I Am What I Am”
10. Alicia Bridges "I Love The Nightlife"
9. Madonna "Vogue"
8. Olivia Netwon-John "Xanadu"
7. Kylie Minogue "Better The Devil You Know"
6. Pet Shop Boys "Go West"
5. Kylie Minogue "Your Disco Needs You"
4. The Weathergirls "It's Raining Men"
3. Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive"
2. Village People "YMCA"
1. ABBA "Dancing Queen"

Looking down that list, that sounds like a typical Saturday night in the Kitsch Bitch Lounge at Poptastic here in Manchester. In fact, although I haven't counted, I reckon I bought most of those older songs on 7" vinyl during my innocent childhood years. And my family said they didn't have a clue!

Source

American Idol drops more dead weight, Simon Cowell wears a nice white shirt, Miss Ross camps it up in diva red!

Miss Ross kicked off the results show with a dress that was camp in the extreme, even by her high standards. You gotta love Diana, still workin' it at 62. 62!!


Sanjaya Malakar, Phil Stacey and Brandon Rogers were in the bottom three this week. Our Sanjaya was safe again, he survives another week to infuriate and bemuse the judges, this kid has more lives than a cat! You have to agree that Brandon did give a poor performance so it wasn't a surprise really. Shame, as he had started out so well during the auditions.


By the way, don't you think that Simon look handsome in his crisp white shirt tonight? It made a change from his usual v-neck t-shirts which only accentuate his man boobs. Apparently, next week the theme is British songs which sounds just great. Oh, how am I gonna hang on until next week?

American Idol the final 12! Sanjaya doesn't disappoint with his super crazy Miss Ross hair

Well, we're down to the last 12 of American Idol and the action moves on to the big stage and celebrity mentors. This week's star mentor was Diana Ross. After a montage of Diana's "unique fashion sense", as Ryan Seacrest put it, Diana settled down to talk about the finalists. I like it when the mentor's hang out with the Idol kids and help them. Simon Cowell has said that there are plenty of big name acts who want to appear on the show, but few of them actually want to mentor kids, so it was cool to see Diana get involved.

Diana Ross's vague advice to Brandon was that he you should "go back to your centre". I dunno if Brandon understood that particular homily, but he ended up murdering his song and forgetting his words. In his piece to camera before performing, he said that he'd grown up on "You Can't Hurry Love" so he really didn't have any excuses. Melinda was up next and in her chat to Ryan before singing, she said that the hardest part about the show was wearing dresses and high heels. Melinda said that she's more comfotable in her tennis shoes and sweat pants. Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else smell lesbian? Melinda sang "Home" from "The Wiz" which is a song I love. Great song choice and, like Diana Ross it gave me goosebumps too, but lousy dress Melinda. When you've got no waist, you don't wear a huge belt to emphasise it girl!

Paula said she was crying during Melinda's song, though her face is so frozen, it was hard to really tell. By the way, how much filler do you reckon Paula has got? Her cheeks barely move. Ryan Seacrest also looks as if he has had a recent botox freshen-up, his forehead is frozen again. Afterwards, when Ryan asked Paula what Melinda would have been feeling during her song, Paula said that Melinda had probably had an "out of body experience" which Paula would know all about, I bet she has 'em on a regular basis!

Chris Sligh was up next. He'd taken off his glasses and looked odd, it just emphasised his tiny nose. As for the singing, he didn't give a good performance either. I wasn't jumping out of my seat, as Simon would say. Shame Chris didn't listen to Diana's advice about holding on to the melody, the lady knows what she's talking about Chris, she's only been around for 40 years. Gina was starstruck (girl even called her "Miss Ross"!!) and chose "Lovechild". Miss Ross warned Gina to make sure that she pronunciated well and told the story, but Gina went onstage, prompty forgot that wise advice and gave a mediocre performance. Shame really, as I like Gina and wish she'd break out and just be better!


Diana said, "Sanjaya, to me, is just love!" to which there's nothing to add really. Sanjaya came on with super crazy Miss Ross hair and hoop earrings, but even that couldn't distract from what was easily his worst performance yet, a tepid rendering of "Ain't No Mountain". As ever, the judges had no idea what to say to him. Poor Sanjaya! Why don't the judges share any of the love that Miss Ross feels?

Haley Scarnato sang "Missing You", she forgot the words and was pitchy, however Simon said it wasn't that bad and Haley flipped out at that and started crying. Since Simon's compliments are few and far between so they really make an impact when he does actually give one. Whatever, I still don't like her. Bald Phil was next, minus the silly hat from previous weeks thankfully. Not much to say about him really, the song kinda washed over me. Why don't these guys make an impact? LaKisha sure does. Gawd, she was great again this week, I got shivers down my back. I love her, great stuff.


Ooh, my darlin' Blakelicious was up next! Diana seemed to like him and gave him a nice big hug. I'm so jealous as I'd like to hug Blakelicious too. He wore a smart suit and looked very cute. Oh, and he sang well too. The judges were critical but I reckon he's safe. There are plenty of fuglies that need to get canned first. Stephanie sang "Love Hangover" which could've been diva heaven but she didn't do the disco version. Doesn't she care about the gay vote, who does she think watches this stuff anyway?

I loved that Chris Richardson sang "The Boss" in a camp disco style, I think he was working the gay vote tonight, he certainly worked the crowd. Good man. Simon didn't like it though, but he's just an uptight British guy so who cares what he thinks, right? Jordin Sparks was the last to sing. She has a great voice but I didn't enjoy her singing tonight, maybe it was the unfamiliar song. Anyway, the judges all loved it so you can be sure she'll be sticking around.

My choice to leave? I'd like Haley Scarnato to finally go, but the worst performance was easily Brandon. Remember him? He opened the show and murdered his song and forgot the words. I don't think he'll trouble us much longer.

Still having nightmares about Sanjaya Malakar’s Hula!

Watching the repeat of American Idol yesterday, Sanjaya Malakar totally creeped me out again with his hula. I dunno whether it was his mincing sashay, super-crazy grin or the moment he blew a kiss to the camera, but this kid is seriously weirding me out! I suppose that he’s just super-freaky and it’s kinda entertaining, but I remember an article in Entertainment Weekly where the judges were being criticised for putting through a contestant with learnings difficulties. You guessed it, they were talking about our Sanjaya!

Vote for the worst has taken credit for Sanjaya’s popularity, but I reckon that voters don’t need any encouragement to keep voting for the most comical perfomer, they’re twisted enough all by themselves. What treat do you reckon Sanjaya has in store for us this coming week with the Diana Ross theme? I’m hoping for “Chain Reaction” but only if he performs it on a spinning glitterball with fireworks and a huge wind machine (for the hair). Oh, that would be American Idol heaven! Please leave your suggestions in the comments below.