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Sade's new album, Solider of Love, is in stores now.
Sade’s back
After years of silence, Helen Adu - best known as Sade – rises from her hibernation with Solider of Love. Sade, along with her band Sade, is getting moderate to rave reviews for their return to the recording scene. The album, released by Sony, is currently available on Amazon, Lala, iTunes and other online music store outlets.
The U-Who
The Who may have to change their name to The What. Yes, they are rock legends and it’s always a joy to see the remaining members of any vet band kick out a flashback medley of the good ole days. But I’m going to be honest here – I know my eyes saw guitarist Pete Townshend missing the strings on the guitar. Homeboy was guitar-synching to the 10th power. His arm was spinning around and around like he was going bowling. Far from convincing viewers at home that he was actually performing. And when the camera zoomed in to get some of that string action, he did an about-face. Other than the fascinating laser show and pyrotechnics, the performance had folk on Twitter and Facebook complaining about the big Superbowl fiasco that left future halftime shows in the arms of oldie goldie performers. Thanks alot Janet. We haven’t had a great Superbowl halftime show since Prince took the stage in the rain in 2007.
BET makes honor roll
The BET Honors, decked out with outstanding performances from Mary J. Blige and Stevie Wonder, actually gave me the courage to embrace the black-themed network. The show honored the accomplishments of P. Diddy, Keith L. Black, Ruth J. Simmons and Queen Latifah, but the show’s major attention and grandeur surrounded its wise choice of tribute presenters. When Mary J. Blige donned the stage with a super medley of hits- the show felt like a portal to a finale’ at a summer concert festival. Whitney Houston was also honored towards the end ofthe show and captivated viewers from beginning to end. Kim Burrell entered into a inspiring gospel interpretation of “I Believe In You and Me.” Houston spun out of control and even whipped her eyes of early wet drops as she digested the beauty of the occasion. Jennifer Hudson also took on a bodacious remake of her mega-hit “I Will Always Love You.” Not only did the Dreamgirl insert passion and dramatic soul into the powerhouse ballad, but she clearly proved she was worthy of taking on one of the toughest trademarks in Whitney Houston’s career.
Stellars’ getting bettah
The 25th Stellar Awards, black gospel music’s biggest show, started its airtime runs on local networks this past weekend and may prove to be one of their better productions to date.
As the show celebrated its silver anniversary, it was befitting for the show’s performers to take on more classics and memory-lane favorites…and that’s exactly what they did. Donnie McClurkin, Marvin Sapp and Byron Cage teamed up together and each took on their big hits while also paying tribute to gospel legend Walter Hawkins with “Marvelous.”
Kirk Franklin, who mostly sat at a black grand piano, united with former members of The Family on a 7-minute medley of his better hits, which included “Silver and Gold,” “Now Behold the Lamb” and “Melodies From Heaven.”
One of the biggest highlights of the show, Shirley Caesar, Tramaine Hawkins and Dottie Peoples each took on their big hits and closed with Caesar on a snippet of “Hold My Mule.” During their soulful walk-through Sunday morning staples, Caesar’s started to interact with Hawkins and Peoples – as if they were in a Broadway production of Hold My Mule. Towards the end, Caesar looked at Peoples to get a good churchy belt in. Peoples then groaned for a few seconds and swooped into a songbird soprano – culminating with a swift lyric: “Hold my mule.” Traditional gospel is where soul music was born. That performance best demonstrates that.
One could have lived without the excessive chit-chat from James Fortune as he talked his way through another lip-synch performance from his background ensemble FIYA on ”I Will Trust You.” Did he get the memo from Kirk Franklin, the architect of chit-chat ministry, that screaming and chatting over a pre-recorded track is out-of-style now? Here’s hoping he does.
Missed show on last wk. When is next showing? Thank you.