MELANIE AMARO: Pepsi Superbowl Commercial

Here’s the Pepsi Superbowl commercial featuring The X-Factor winner Melanie Amaro.  Cameos by Elton John & Flavor Flav.

Pretty cool she got her own commercial!

Enjoy!

AMERICAN IDOL 3/30/11: Top 11 Redux Performances + *POLL*

“Songs of Elton John” this week.  Overall it was a good night:

SCOTTY  Country Comfort:

• Who would’ve thought Scotty could find a COUNTRY Elton song?!  Lucky him.  Umm…total traditional country!  I personally was falling asleep.  Oh, and even WITH the guitar he STILL kept that same arrogance on his face…altho it was a bit more subtle this week.

NAIMA  I’m Still Standing:

• Reggae Elton?  Interesting.  Altho it totally fit Naima really well, it was a bit weird for me.

PAUL  Rocket Man:

• SUCH a mellow version of this song.  Eh.  Nothing special.  The whisper at the end was a little creepy. :-/

PIA  Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me:

• Another ballad?!  Well, in this case, it was a great song choice for her.  She’s great with putting her little spin on the songs too, adding in little “Pia-isms.”  And just like last week, she looked gorgeous.  That was a great dress on her.  What’s funny about this week’s performance was that I felt like Pia was more of a star.  Just the way the performance went and what she did with the song.  Don’t know why this week kinda stood out more for me.  Vocally she’s so consistent…Great job!

STEFANO  Tiny Dancer:

• I did notice that Stefano was trying to make more of a connection with the audience…his eyes looking right at the camera, etc.  I guess it was an okay job.  Didn’t stand out at all.  Oh, and I HATED the sneakers with the rest of his outfit.  Ugh.

LAUREN  Candle In The Wind:

• This was Lauren’s MOST mature song she’s done so far…and she pulled it off BEAUTIFULLY!  She did that song justice and didn’t overdo it.  Her country twang is awesome and I LOVE LOVE LOVED all the little “lifts” she does at the ends of her phrases.  LOVED.  Didn’t necessarily love the dress as much as Steven did, but it did match her age.  AWESOME job Lauren.  For me, this performance kinda really made her a contender and I’m sure got people to take her more seriously.

JAMES  Saturday Night’s Alright:

• The judges all talk about the girls doing only ballads.  Umm, when is JAMES going to do a ballad?  Has he done one yet?  This week’s performance…Eh.  I felt like it was just a lot of smoke & mirrors.  I mean…the flaming piano?!  Come on.  And he’s just not that appealing to look at.  His ears stick out RIDICULOUSLY, and his teeth are…:-/ You know how I feel about James.  Not impressed.

THIA  Daniel:

• Daniel is a great song!  Thia sang it really well. The song matched her really well, and she had a personal tie to the song, which helped a bit in the emotional level of the performance.  But yeah, as far as stage presence, she basically just stood there and sang well.  Nothing necessarily showy about it.  But good.

CASEY  Your Song:

• Now THAT was a saveworthy performance!  Wow.  This was the first week I have to say I genuinely would VOTE for Casey.  This was SUCH a departure for him…he kept it soft, gentle and emotional.  But he put in the growls when appropriate and didn’t do TOO much.  This type of performance for me showed SO MUCH MORE how TALENTED Casey is.  And…Yay!  Casey groomed!  Altho I still wish he’s shave off the beard all together, this groomed look definitely helped his look a LOT.  Overall this was a turning point for Casey in many ways.  Awesome.

JACOB  Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word:

• Although Jacob hits all the notes and is very talented, he is just TOO MUCH for me.  He’s SO OVERLY dramatic.  It’s not pleasing to watch for me.  I guess he’s just not my cup of tea.

HALEY  Bennie and the Jets:

• When I first saw that Haley was in the pimp spot, I was thinking…Really?  Haley?  But that performance was probably my favorite of Haley’s up to this point!  It was a bit sultry, she really sang her heart out, and she showed style and stage presence!  Her growls were really appropriate in this song…and it matched her really well!  Great job!

Videos credit:  rickey.org/americanidol.com

The last time they did Elton John week was back in Season 3…and it was NOT GOOD.  Tonight was just the opposite…I have to say it was a great night overall!  Gotta give these Idols credit…they gave great performances!

It’s actually really hard to pick a favorite this week…

GRAMMY AWARDS 2010: Performances

Just thought I’d write a bit about and post videos of some of the memorable performances from last night’s Grammy Awards show.  The show was a whopping 3.5 hrs long, but it really was really entertaining…some GREAT performances, I must say:

LADY GAGA (with Elton John):

Lady GaGa got to open the entire awards show…and I have to say…I LOVED her performance!  Say what you will about how CRAZY she is, but…that lady has got some TALENT!

BTW, the outfit she wore for the performance was actually kinda “subtle” and “toned down” for HER.

This performance was so AWESOME…Lady GaGa is so musical in the way she changes up her songs…she sounds great, and sings with so much soul!

And the duet with Elton John just made it even better!  Mixing his “Your Song” with her “Speechless”…what a way to start the show!  LOVE LOVE LOVED!

PINK:

Wow, Pink’s performance was almost like something out of a Cirque du Soleil show!  Seriously.

She started out all covered up…but as the performance went on, she bared down to this:

Pink sang “Glitter in the Air,” from her current album Funhouse.

Her vocals were quite awesome…then when she got lifted up and started doing all the “acrobatics”…that was some crazy stuff.  Not only that…then she got SOAKING WET and did spins up in the air…and STILL SINGING.

You really have to watch her performance to really understand and experience it.  Quite impressive and totally memorable.  Great job Pink!

BEYONCE:

Beyonce won many awards last night…all of them deserving.  She’s had a great year…and “Single Ladies” was just EVERYWHERE this last year.

As usual, Beyonce puts everything into her performances, and this was no exception.

I was very disappointed that she sang If I Were A Boy tho.  I mean, she wasn’t even nominated for this song!  She should’ve sang Single Ladies or Halo.  “Boy” definitely shows off her vocals more than the other songs, but…it just wasn’t “wow” enough for me.

THEN she went into Alanis Morissette’s “You Outta Know”…WHY THE FACE?!  Where did THAT come from?  At first I thought Alanis was gonna come out and they were going to duet…but NO.  NO ALANIS.  Just Beyonce.  Odd and random, imo. (Altho I think she does this exact number in her live show…but still random.)

TAYLOR SWIFT (with Stevie Nicks):

Taylor Swift was a BIG winner last night.  She won the big one:  Album of the Year.  Considering how much her album has sold…I’m not surprised…last night she won her first Grammy awards…and I was happy for her.

Her performance on the other hand?  Where do I begin…

Taylor did a medley of a couple of her songs…and she had a surprise guest in Stevie Nicks…where they also sang one of Stevie’s songs:

OK.  I have to say that when you’re NOMINATED AND ACTUALLY WIN Grammy awards…you need to PROVE YOURSELF as to WHY you deserve those awards!  Taylor DID NOT prove herself AT ALL!  Her performance was NOT GOOD!  Man…I just can’t get over how amateurish she was…after all this time, all the live performing, she has NOT gotten better at singing.  At all.

I don’t know if it’s because she gets so into the energy of performing live that she doesn’t FOCUS on SOUNDING good…but she needs to try to work on that!  Pronto!

Bad enough she can’t sing her OWN songs very well…when she sang Stevie’s song with her…OMG.  Make it stop!  It was worse.

Taylor is always a tough one for me because she’s such a cute girl…cute cute cute personality.  BUT cannot stand how she CAN’T SING LIVE.  It really annoys me.

EARTH SONG – MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE:

They were hyping up this tribute to Michael Jackson at the Grammys for a while now…especially the fact that it was in 3D!  It was actually a reallly nice tribute…and being able to see it in 3D was pretty awesome (thanks RT for picking up the 3D glasses for us! )

Whoever picked those 5 artists to participate in the tribute did a GREAT job!  They were perfect people to do it…all of their vocals were just AMAZING!

L to R: Jennifer Hudson, Celine Dion, Smokey Robinson, Usher, Carrie Underwood

The only thing I wished was that they each (especially Carrie & Celine ) would’ve been able to sing a bit MORE.  Because there were 5 of them, each of their solo parts were pretty short and limited.  Overall tho, it was a very sweet and touching tribute to MJ.  Also a very meaningful message as well.