Brace yourselves for the release of Alesha Dixon's new album - The Alesha Show, released on Monday 24th November. The album is a mixture of new songs and remixed tracks from her shelved project from a couple of years back 'Fired Up'. I sooooo want to love this woman's music. Alesha is one of my favourites on the Brit Pop scene and I'm sure I'm not alone in my thinking. Since Harvey-gate she has provided women across the country with a template on how to act if your man is caught with his pants down, publicly humiliating you in the process. Whilst most of us wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to get our claws out at any given opportunity, Alesha handled the situation with such grace, honesty and maturity that I'll forever be in her corner. But her music, well… now that's another matter. She obviously feels extremely passionate about it, because she could have easily bagged herself a TV job following her Strictly crowning. But no, she chose to give her singing career another shot. And I really wish she hadn't.
Colour me mortified following the first listen of 'The Boy Does Nothing', the first single released from the album. The singing, the lyrics, the melody: every aspect of the track is simply woeful. Not surprisingly though it catapulted straight in the national charts at No.8 (sigh), which explains the exact reason why the likes of Alesha has to sell their musical souls to sustain a musical career in this country. Question: why is it that Black British artists can only be accepted as their authentic selves only after establishing themselves first in the USA a la Floetry and Estelle? I’m now thinking the likes of Alesha, Lemar, Terri Walker, Keisha White and Beverley Knight need to just up sticks and move to the land of milk and honey, and bloody decent record producers, like pronto.
'The Boy Does Nothing'
5 comments:
I second that totally. I like Aleesha lots but her music is not good. She would make a fantastic TV presenter judging by her performance in that documentary on beauty last year. Maybe she could get a show where she does a bit of presenting, chanting and dancing?
I love Beverly Knight but I think it's hard to break a non-US born R&B diva here too. Record companies don't want to spend the money promoting black female artists.
That said, I'm glad Estelle has been doing well here but it didn't hurt that her single was called "American Boys."
@Brigitte - You raise a valid point. It's often said that British soul acts trying to break the US market is like selling ice to eskimos. I guess you have to have some kind of a quirk to penetrate an oversaturated market.
I love Alesha, everything about her..but her music..hmmm.
I can understand an artisit's dilemma but while I wanted Estelle, Sway and even comedy artist Kojo to stay here and help build the black entertainment industry, at the end of the day, they've got bills to pay. After years of being ignored by the mainstream or forced to compromise their artistry, there comes a time where u just say 'enough, im out'.
I love Lemar, he should be such a sucess by now but talent like his in the US comes a dime a dozen. Didn't Lemar have a 5 album deal with Sony?.. and is this not his 5th album...hmmm credit crunch and unemployment does not discriminate. I wish him luck.
So true Shanti. Five albums deep and I can't even think of 3 Lemar tracks, lol. Such a shame, cos the guy can actually really sing.
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