2007-music's year of the woman!

Last week I detailed my (layman's) thoughts of the musical year that was 2007. But I left out many artists that in my opinion made a huge difference....why, because they all deserved separate recognition as they truly impacted 2007. Women were HUGE this year (musically speaking of course, unless you were talking about that one chick on American Idol. sorry, that was low)
Women singers were all over the place this year from Alicia Keys to Amy Winehouse to Feist to Colbie Caillat to Rihanna.

But let's start with Fergie. The former Black Eyed Peas star is now on her own (unless she goes back with the band, but from the looks of Will I Am's new "career" and her success, it doesn't look like she will have much interest) and she is kicking butt. She played her sexy card early and then dropped a serious number of "Big Girls Don't Cry" on us which gave her SOME credibility. Fergilicious was fantastic and earned her all the press on her workout routine. (Not quite Roger Clemens-esque, but then we now know he used steroids too in addition to punching rice.) She is hot, she sings catchy songs (that no one will remember in 5 years) but she is doing her thing, getting her name out there. Do I think eventually she will wind up doing bad movies before moving on to pose in Playboy before spiraling down to Cinemax porn? Yes I do, but what a fun ride it will be along the way.

Colbie Caillat, rhymes with Ballet. She only has the one song Bubbly out right now, but it is catchy. And she plays a little guitar too. I think I like her better than the chick out right now on that Rhapsody Music on your TV commercial girl who plays the piano. A fun little song that may start her on a Jewel-like rise. If she has HALF the career of Jewel, she will have been pretty successful.

Brandy Carlyle. I hope that's how you spell her name. I love the song where she sing-screams the end. The Story, I belive was what it was called. Dave FM played it a little too much, but what a great song

Feist. Speaking of commercials. The 1-2-3-4 song for the new I-pod was REALLY annoying to the point that I called it the earwig song. But after a while, whenever it came on you were pissed, but you were humming it for the rest of the afternoon, and JUST when you had forgotten it, it came on again. And you KNEW it was the i-pod song too. So the commercial worked. I went to you-tube and watched the entire video and it Certainly got stupid in a hurry, but the party they show you on the commercial is the only "good" part of the song, but it was in your ear, and if you don't do the little dance, I don't believe you have a soul.

Rihanna. Boy did she come on strong this year. Forget her SOS stuff. I am talking about Umbrella with Jay-Z. Then she was on several magazine ads and covers. She is famous now and even though she was obvie lip synching on So You Think You Can Dance, she is hot and her songs have a good beat. She is a bone-a-fied star right now.

Alicia Keys. She can FLAT OUT SING. Her newest song No One is great, though sure to be repeated ad nausem on American Idol this year. She is this generation's Whitney Houston, only without the cocaine, because I am sure that, if she DID do it, she could afford the real stuff. Keys can straight up sing and she is trying her darnedest to get away from the MTV spotlight and do real music. But that spotlight is so hard to escape from. I hope she can get out of it and just sing. She could go down as one of the greats that maybe 30 years from now, Simon Cowell Jr is talking about on American Idol:Season 37.

Pink, Nora Jones & Gwen not a huge year from any of these, but they still deserve mentioning as at least Nora can musically do it. Gwen I think had a baby or something and Pink's music is crap, but Nora is good. When is she coming out with new stuff?

The Spice Girls got back together. YES. Life is SOOO much better when the Spice Girls are together. Their new song...I love it. Well not really, but it IS fun that the Spice Girls are back and Sporty Spice isn't homeless anymore.

Finally....the REAL story of the year Amy Winehouse. Wow. She is SOOOOO talented. Her voice reminds me a a 1920 jazz singer at a speak easy. Plus she plays music has that jazzy feel to it. It is a VERY big-deep voice for such a little nymph that she is. As for her problems with drinking and what-not, I don't care. Drugs made the Beatles better. Drinking made Bob Dylan better. Maybe her problems will make her a better artist. It could happen. But she has a great voice, she makes GREAT music, let's just hope she can keep her demons under control so we can get a few more great albums from her.
(Note: I am NOT saying Drinking and Drugging is a GOOD thing, but I am saying that if it works for her......As for a sportsbyfletch PSA: Drugs are bad.)

So for 2008, I want more Amy Winehouse and more Timbaland beats. Let's put those two hands together.....