I'll break through, I've made my move...
and my faith is strong now
JADE EWEN what you on? What's going on?
Just as Jade is about to release her follow-up single to her Eurovision entry it is rumoured that she is set to become the sixth person to get on the merry-go-round round that is the Sugababes.
Some background:
It’s January 2009 and the BBC mean business. Eurobusiness. They get off to an uncharacteristically early start with a multi-week selection show to choose an artist for Eurovision. Last minute plant, sorry entrant Jade Ewen is head and shoulders above the competition. Even though the BBC appear to be taking things seriously, the lurking feeling persists that the UK public will push dignity over a cliff as Eurovision is a joke and nothing decent should be sent near it.
We need not have worried about Jade coming out on top. The biggest obstacle to her Eurosuccess was not her competitors in the ‘Your Country Needs You’ selection but the song that she would be given to sing at the contest.
We were at the height of Film Award Season when ‘It’s My Time’ was introduced to us. This is probably why on the first few performances I was seeing a hysterical Oscar winner who had begun to sing her acceptance speech along to the orchestra that had struck up to drown her out as she had gone over her allotted time.
It was about what I had expected from an Andrew Lloyd Webber melody, but after having had high hopes for the Diane Warren input, I was left wondering what exactly she did to earn her fee. Press the button on the talent-show-winner-first-single-random-lyrics-generator? She could have at least given it a shake when it kept getting stuck on the word ‘Time’.
For a while following this, it became interchangeable in my head with NornIron transsexual Geraldine’s ‘Winner’s Song’. This was compounded by the official video for ‘It’s My Time’ mirroring Peter Kay's piss-take. The video and song were so derivative that they were not a million miles away from (and maybe not even as good as) something that had been conceived several months earlier as a parody of the tv-talent show formula. Eeeeekk.
The next phase I lived through with this song was quite extraordinary. Excluding things that underwent a major makeover (see par exemple ‘Is Always Over Now?’ -and then) what followed is the biggest U-turn I have ever done on a Eurovision entry. At the very first performance from YCNY competitor Mark, I and a fellow blogger to this site spat out our tea in disbelief at how appalling the song was. Only a few weeks later I caught myself humming it at work. Before I knew it, I was choosing to listen to it. Actually looking it up on Youtube. Checking out the various performances that Jade was doing around Europe on her publicity tour. In the final weeks before Moscow I had gone insane: All my reservations and smirks and niggling thoughts and were knocked over the head with a shovel and buried in shallow grave under a Tesco car-park with Geraldine McQueen. 180 degree volte-face from devastation to daring to think: ‘this could win’.
On the evening of May 16, I did not feel contempt, despair, fear or pity as an artist representing the UK took to the Eurovision stage. Practically the only time this decade.
3 minutes of tv followed that did not disappoint. Decent performance from Jade (carrying on through THAT slap up her face) ALW on stage doing what he does best: lurking around at a piano like a thunderbird puppet that has had a stroke. Genius.
What was unthinkable only 12 months perviously happened. The publicity campaign, the return of the juries, FAB ALW on stage, a great artist, an unbelievably lucky late performance slot that was then ring-fenced by up-tempo no-hopers. All this came together to give the UK a top five position.
Mission accomplished. But what next for Jade? It is an always unfulfilled hope that someone in the UK might actually have a career after Eurovision thus improving profile of the contest and future standard of entry. Could the virtuous circle start here?
‘It’s My Time’ didn’t exactly set the UK charts on fire. The memory that Jade only truly sparkled with up-tempo stuff on YCNY persisted.
And so when I heard the r’n’b tinged stomping pop follow-up single ‘My Man’ I was delighted.
It is really rather good and completely WIPES THE FLOOR with the current X-Factor Queen Alexandra Burke’s similar move from debut dirge to uptempo follow up.
So why, days before you are on the eve of releasing a great solo single would you pack it in and join a group (that some may say is past its best- if you are reading this Keisha, I would never say that) before you’ve even given it a go? Why Jade Ewen, Why??? It’s a bit arse about tits isn’t it?
If it is true there are a few possible explanations for this.
1. In a saturated market of juicy looking girls with great voices (see Alexandra, Jamelia, Leona et al) Jade has given up on her a solo career and has decided that her best bet for success is to join a group.
2. She is joining the Sugababes to keep her solo career going on the back of publicity generated and will attempt to have the best of both worlds.
3. Because of the creative differences (read: bullying) that Keisha is rumoured to cause, the record company has set up a form of conscription to keep the Sugababes going through the inevitable fall-outs. Showbiz types are closer to the top of the list but I think that all our names are on there -we’ll all have to take our turn at some point. The next name on the list was Jade Ewen. Unfortunately she got the call at the worst possible time – just when she was about to release her own solo single. What would ordinarily be a great break has put paid to her solo career. Cruel fate.
My hope is that it all proves to be untrue and it is a publicity stunt to get them all some headlines for their respective releases.
Fun, gracious, polite, charming, talented, determined and likeable. I hope that the move she makes gives her the break through she deserves.
'My Man' by Jade Ewen: Available to download from Monday 21 here.
JADE EWEN what you on? What's going on?
Just as Jade is about to release her follow-up single to her Eurovision entry it is rumoured that she is set to become the sixth person to get on the merry-go-round round that is the Sugababes.
Some background:
It’s January 2009 and the BBC mean business. Eurobusiness. They get off to an uncharacteristically early start with a multi-week selection show to choose an artist for Eurovision. Last minute plant, sorry entrant Jade Ewen is head and shoulders above the competition. Even though the BBC appear to be taking things seriously, the lurking feeling persists that the UK public will push dignity over a cliff as Eurovision is a joke and nothing decent should be sent near it.
We need not have worried about Jade coming out on top. The biggest obstacle to her Eurosuccess was not her competitors in the ‘Your Country Needs You’ selection but the song that she would be given to sing at the contest.
We were at the height of Film Award Season when ‘It’s My Time’ was introduced to us. This is probably why on the first few performances I was seeing a hysterical Oscar winner who had begun to sing her acceptance speech along to the orchestra that had struck up to drown her out as she had gone over her allotted time.
It was about what I had expected from an Andrew Lloyd Webber melody, but after having had high hopes for the Diane Warren input, I was left wondering what exactly she did to earn her fee. Press the button on the talent-show-winner-first-single-random-lyrics-generator? She could have at least given it a shake when it kept getting stuck on the word ‘Time’.
For a while following this, it became interchangeable in my head with NornIron transsexual Geraldine’s ‘Winner’s Song’. This was compounded by the official video for ‘It’s My Time’ mirroring Peter Kay's piss-take. The video and song were so derivative that they were not a million miles away from (and maybe not even as good as) something that had been conceived several months earlier as a parody of the tv-talent show formula. Eeeeekk.
The next phase I lived through with this song was quite extraordinary. Excluding things that underwent a major makeover (see par exemple ‘Is Always Over Now?’ -and then) what followed is the biggest U-turn I have ever done on a Eurovision entry. At the very first performance from YCNY competitor Mark, I and a fellow blogger to this site spat out our tea in disbelief at how appalling the song was. Only a few weeks later I caught myself humming it at work. Before I knew it, I was choosing to listen to it. Actually looking it up on Youtube. Checking out the various performances that Jade was doing around Europe on her publicity tour. In the final weeks before Moscow I had gone insane: All my reservations and smirks and niggling thoughts and were knocked over the head with a shovel and buried in shallow grave under a Tesco car-park with Geraldine McQueen. 180 degree volte-face from devastation to daring to think: ‘this could win’.
On the evening of May 16, I did not feel contempt, despair, fear or pity as an artist representing the UK took to the Eurovision stage. Practically the only time this decade.
3 minutes of tv followed that did not disappoint. Decent performance from Jade (carrying on through THAT slap up her face) ALW on stage doing what he does best: lurking around at a piano like a thunderbird puppet that has had a stroke. Genius.
What was unthinkable only 12 months perviously happened. The publicity campaign, the return of the juries, FAB ALW on stage, a great artist, an unbelievably lucky late performance slot that was then ring-fenced by up-tempo no-hopers. All this came together to give the UK a top five position.
Mission accomplished. But what next for Jade? It is an always unfulfilled hope that someone in the UK might actually have a career after Eurovision thus improving profile of the contest and future standard of entry. Could the virtuous circle start here?
‘It’s My Time’ didn’t exactly set the UK charts on fire. The memory that Jade only truly sparkled with up-tempo stuff on YCNY persisted.
And so when I heard the r’n’b tinged stomping pop follow-up single ‘My Man’ I was delighted.
It is really rather good and completely WIPES THE FLOOR with the current X-Factor Queen Alexandra Burke’s similar move from debut dirge to uptempo follow up.
So why, days before you are on the eve of releasing a great solo single would you pack it in and join a group (that some may say is past its best- if you are reading this Keisha, I would never say that) before you’ve even given it a go? Why Jade Ewen, Why??? It’s a bit arse about tits isn’t it?
If it is true there are a few possible explanations for this.
1. In a saturated market of juicy looking girls with great voices (see Alexandra, Jamelia, Leona et al) Jade has given up on her a solo career and has decided that her best bet for success is to join a group.
2. She is joining the Sugababes to keep her solo career going on the back of publicity generated and will attempt to have the best of both worlds.
3. Because of the creative differences (read: bullying) that Keisha is rumoured to cause, the record company has set up a form of conscription to keep the Sugababes going through the inevitable fall-outs. Showbiz types are closer to the top of the list but I think that all our names are on there -we’ll all have to take our turn at some point. The next name on the list was Jade Ewen. Unfortunately she got the call at the worst possible time – just when she was about to release her own solo single. What would ordinarily be a great break has put paid to her solo career. Cruel fate.
My hope is that it all proves to be untrue and it is a publicity stunt to get them all some headlines for their respective releases.
Fun, gracious, polite, charming, talented, determined and likeable. I hope that the move she makes gives her the break through she deserves.
'My Man' by Jade Ewen: Available to download from Monday 21 here.
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