Month: January 2010

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Mariah Carey Starts Tour in NYC

In all my years of ping ponging back and forth across the Atlantic from new York and working with the biggest music artists in the world can you believe I had never seen a gig at the world famous venue Madison square gardens? I had been there for MTV VMA related stuff but never to see a gig.
Well to kick start 2010 that was all changed!.
New York was as excitable about Mariah kick starting her US Tour out in Manhattan as Jigga fans convinced he’s a part of the illuminati.

So on a cold, snowy, biting day where the NY wind was zooming through the cross streets with vicious unforgiving cyclone like speeds, we were picked up from chez Carey-Cannon at 4pm to make our way to MSG in the black giant SUV convoy.
We were there early for sound check as the streets around the venue were pandemonium with police locking off roads in preparation for the thousands that were gathering. MSG corridors were full of excited dancers, singers and celebs. As I walked through the backstage dressing room corridors and spotted framed superstar live photos from all walks of life on the walls I was awed at the venues history! .Its not called the worlds most famous arena for nothing!.
Backstage Mariah’s dressing room was large and airy but they’d made it seem lovely and cosy,all white silk drapery, it was candle fragranced and luckily nice and warm as Mrs C was having her outfits fitted and resting her voice before she hit the stage.

The legendary choreographer Debbie Allen –who had choreographed the show-was busily getting everyone together. The best sounding vocalists anyone could ever have – Maryann Tatum, Trey Lorenz and Sherry Tatum Frederick- were warming up their vocals and keeping us entertained backstage with raucous laughter and much family style fun and frolics. The dancers were stretching, techs were running around and all was very backstage MTV Diary feeling LOL.
As it was my first MSG experience I decided to take my excited ass out into the main arena corridors to check out the vibe which was beyond hysterical by fans that were by now merry and in the mood to party .I even passed a few folks I’m sure I recognised from my twitter page! Never met them but smiled as I passed in acknowledgement!.

I always stop to check out artist merchandise to see how creative they’ve gotten but my eye was drawn to a great keepsake-the official tour programme-$25. So I bought 2. Flicking through it my eye froze over a certain page where I looked back at myself! There amongst Mrs C’s fun photos were 2 pics of me, MC and Brat on one of our vacation escapades a few years ago! . MC always looks amazing, Brat looked cute, and I was a freakin mess!. I wasn’t mad though. I was honoured to be included in such a superstars programme full stop but had to laugh at the fact that on that day I had thrown on anything at the last minute that didn’t match, AND my hair was an ocean dried mess!. I was rocking gold Adidas runners, denim shorts with the words ‘’bad gal’’ on them, a gold lame American apparel swimsuit and a Rocawear red, black and white classic trackie top-what a mess! Maturity must have kicked in though cos I didn’t give a s***. All animated I called my mum to tell her , she told me to focus on my own stuff and snapped me straight back to reality.

Starting the show were Nick Cannons new male vocal group Rydz N Rtists who were really good-the arena loved them. Thousands of hysterical young ladies were screaming for them to take their shirts off and all sorts-they were like the new Jodeci/ B2K and with no autotune helping their vocals I think they’ll go far. They’re signed to the music arm of Nicks company NCredible.
Next up was heart throb Trey Songz who had a lot of ladies hysterical and screaming. After his set I actually had to accompany some young girls who shall remain nameless to his area to get autographs and photos. They thought I was the best auntie ever until we were told by his team that he’d just left to catch a plane. I sniggered under my breath as the lil ones all looked crest fallen. But not for long cos the main star they’d come to see was about to hit the stage!.

We returned to our backstage area, I checked to see that Mrs CC was ok and didn’t need anything but of course her assistant/friend Rachel had everything covered so we just chatted for a while. The arena was full of fans, friends, celebs and family. I hugged the ever charming, smiling  Stephen Hill (HEAD OF BET TV) tight as we caught up , Mariah’s co star in Precious- Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe-was there with friends and as the house lights went down I thought my ear drums might actually burst with the screaming and roaring from the crowd.

Mariah came on around 10.30pm and for 2 solid hours sang hit after hit from her past 2 decades of smash hits wearing a number of diva esque outfits-at one point even summoning onstage her hair, makeup and assistant to ‘’refluff’’ her cos she was a diva. Loved that part-shes fly and she knows it and doesn’t give a daym what folks think-pip! The fans were delirious with excitement when at midnight she counted them down and a solid 2 minutes of pyro fireworks, confetti and balloons covered the whole stadium. Of course they were pink and lavender!. Even though I know mc has hits for days its not until uyou see her killing the stage for nearly 3 hours that you realise just how many! When ‘’Fantasy’’ dropped I jammed hard! Post show we hung out in the dressing room toasting the show with drinks before hitting nightclub M2 where Nick was dj’ing. Joining us were actress Gabourey and new American internet celebrity Love B Scott who is the hottest new celebrity blogger Stateside (check him out) and as we brought in the New Year Mariah asked me ‘’I have another show in Atlantic City tomorrow– are you coming?’’…..but I had made other plans already to go see the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe as well the  hit show ‘’Fela Kuti on Broadway’’. But my life’s never simple and the next night my whole diary was remixed again with a crazy Thelma and Louise esque adventure. To find out how catch me next week!,.

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Empire state of mind

SO after my Christmas festivities with the Carey-Cannons, I travelled back to New York with them and spent my last few vacation dates there.

I took advantage of the free time and fitted in jivamukti yoga lessons; walked the streets, taking in the beautiful window displays; and caught up with my Manhattan-based pals like my old MTV News crew, the new owners of VIBE magazine, the former head of HOT97 radio, and of course, my homie Estelle, who now calls the Big Apple her home.

One night, just before New Year’s Eve, Estelle and I met up in Fifth Avenue, where we did a spot of shopping. We had lunch at Balthazar restaurant and popped into Bloomingdales to buy Estelle a pair of earmuffs. Having your ears unprotected in the New York cold isn’t advisable!

Estelle accompanied me to Gucci and patiently waited an hour whilst I contemplated the shoe section. When shoppers stood in shock when they spotting her, I felt proud of how far her talent, perseverance and tenacity had brought her. When some fans tried to take pictures with her in the store and the security advised that photos weren’t allowed, she actually stepped outside with the fans in the blistering cold to pose with them so they wouldn’t be disappointed. That’s a gracious star.

We had our usual hair and nail appointments crossed off the to-do list before Estelle mentioned that it was her label boss John Legend’s birthday dinner that night and that she would love me to accompany her. Well, you know me readers. Why have dinner with one west London bred superstar when you can make it two superstars from different sides of the Atlantic? So off we went.

John was celebrating his 31st birthday at a lovely restaurant in town, where we arrived to find a long table of 20 of his nearest and dearest, including his girlfriend. We had a lovely evening with great food including steak and fries, enjoyed great conversation and great company.

Straight after dinner, John escorted us downstairs to the restaurant’s club area, where the VIP tables were laden with beverages and the ceiling was covered with silver balloons.

One by one, the area quickly filled up with stylish folks, including artists Ludacris and Ryan Leslie. DJ M.O.S was very good at keeping the crowd bubbling from midnight onwards, with old school R’n’B classics, as well as hip-hop joints like Jay Z’s ode to New York, Empire State of Mind. To see New Yorkers jump up and down to a track that made them proud of their city made me smile, but also made me wish that a UK act would do the same for London town. A few UK acts have tried it but nobody has really made an anthem yet.

John had one of his backing singers sing for the partygoers (it would’ve been cooler if Estelle had sung in my humble opinion), and red velvet cake was brought out for us to keep our sugar levels up. John took the mic as we sang him happy birthday and then thanked us all for coming.

At 2am, we left the party and to our dismay, it was snowing heavily outside. All of us ladies had our legs out bare in dresses, but thankfully, as we yelped and panicked, Estelle shoved us into a car that took us back to John’s crib, where around 15 close friends were just chilling and chatting.

Meanwhile, John’s British bulldog Puddy was also receiving a fair amount of attention, which was unsurprising. Talk about a gorgeous, sweet-mannered canine! All the girls were cooing and gushing over him so much that producer Consequence ended up starting a monopoly game with all the neglected fellas!

After it hit 5am, we thanked our host John for a lovely evening and braved the snow again. We found a cab driver to take us home and then the munchies kicked in, so we tucked into mac n cheese and fried calamari and then dozed off over our hot chocolates.

The next night was New Year’s Eve, but The Voice’s entertainment editor gets very cross with me when I go over my word count, so I’m going to have to tell you all about NYE next week – I know, almost a moth late. But hey, diva news is always worth waiting for! And yes, be rest assured, it was yet another typical New York night in the life of a media industry chic!

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Amen

Happy New Year readers! I’m writing this column sitting underneath the twinkling white lights of the hugest Christmas tree looking outside at the snow covered Aspen mountains where reindeer are literally bouncing around me. I hope your holiday period was fun and you had a chance to reposition, reenergise and can now re-emerge into 2010 with a new positive, can-do energy.
I don’t want to spoil the festive spirit so let me get the serious stuff out of the way first. Last month I complained about a London nightclub’s door policy towards young black men. well since that column we literally had hundreds of readers responding with similar experiences so I did a bit of research. And it doesn’t look good. i was angry and frustrated at what looked like the unfair treatment of a group of people but after doing some digging I hate to say it but I think I can understand the catch 22 situation.

I spoke to a friend that runs big celebrity clubs in London who told me to look at the bigger picture. Some things he told me were shocking. Like ‘’if I let too many black people in our white guests feel uncomfortable’’. On the other hand he explained that police often clamped down on ‘’urban music functions’’ because there was always trouble expected. He cited ‘’when white folks get drunk and fight they tend mostly to use fists and bottles, when its black people its knives and guns which leads to us automatically losing our club licenses and our business is our living so we will do whatever we can to protect that’’. Putting aside that the party I was speaking about was my private guest list which had people I could personally vouch for , my club owner mate retorted ‘’yes but you cant vouch for every group of young black men that come into a west end night club and we’re not prepared to take the risk with our business!’’. So I wonder whether it’s a vicious circle that will never change. Are we our own worst enemies? And if we don’t take a stand and start supporting and empowering our young people so they don’t feel the need to resort to violence will this ever change?
Why were clubs trouble free in my youth- Subterainia and Hanover Grand were full of young black people with no trouble. surely quality  door staff always know troublemakers and should be able to pick them out without descrimination . Are we responsible for our own bad press? Or is it the media that always makes a huge deal about young black men and crime? After all isn’t football violence worse but just accepted?. Last month politician rod little said that most crime was committed by young black men and ‘’all we get in return is rap music and curry goat’’!. Then 2 young men were arrested for attempted murder of a pregnant girl and the media ran a huge photo next to the story of Tinchy Stryder and the hip-hop musical 1day with the weakest cited connections!.

Is it any wonder people are scared into making rash decisions about young people of colour?. If we cant vouch for our own events being trouble free why should anyone else take a risk on us?. Also-Isn’t there more violence at football matches? Lord knows what the police would  be doing to us if our club violence was on par with that. But we also have to acknowledge the shortcomings within our own communities. They do exist.

A young black man I am happy to see making continuous steady moves upwards within his acting career is Aml Ameen. You may remember him from THE BILL or the movie Kidulthood. Well just before Christmas he invited me to see him perform at the Tricycle Theatre. So on a wintry December Saturday afternoon we went to see him playing the part of Justice in the play ‘’Detailing Justice’’ .The play was part of The Not Black and White Season– where Aml undertook the challenge of playing three very different characters, in three different plays. In the 1st he played Rio- a young man convicted of Rape, who meets his father in prison. In the 2nd he plays Lavelle- a 17year old righteous intellectual kid who disturbs the world of a politician. In the last he plays Justice Ncube, a Zimbabwean asylum seeker, who has his fled his country after an attempt on his life, because of his political affiliation. He’s detained in a London detention centre, for months, and Aml emotionally showed the decline of his mental health. Aml had to use an accent from Zimbabwe, and he pulled it off. He told me afterwards it was ‘’without a doubt the most testing job of my career so far’’.

The story in ’’Detaining justice’’ was told from the points of view from all the various characters and I have to admit even my judgemental opinions were changed by the end of the performance. I often skip past immigration stories in newspapers and can find myself sympathising with David Cameron when he suggests curbing numbers on immigrants. But after watching this my viewpoints were really changed which I guess is the point of a good story and brilliant performances. Aml’s performance was so strong with him evoking tears in the audience and keeping us gripped until the end. I felt ashamed of my previous judgemental ideas about immigrants. I was so proud and grateful to Aml for opening my mind.
Not about to take a break anytime soon Aml is just as busy this year. He’s starring in director George Lucas’ last epic movie RED TAIL. The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron during World War II.

Aml has landed the role of Bag O Bones, he’s just a cocky pilot a part of the squadron, and one of his scenes is with Cuba Gooding Jnr. Aml excitedly revealed ‘’ it was a real honour as an actor to watch his process as he prepares for a scene.  Even though my part is small, I’m hoping this a sign an indication of where my career is moving towards. Hollywood films, International recognition and opportunity’’.
As if its not enough that aml has broken Hollywood he’s also begun directing his own movies. the 1st is The Pick Up– Aml explained ‘’it’s a A short film I’ve written and this will be my directorial debut through my film production company AmeenDream entertainment. It’s set in a house club about a bunch of lads, that make up elaborate stories to try and get dates with these University girls. We had an open casting and its set to be a slick stylish sexy short film’’.  Hmmm that sounds a bit suspect doesn’t it readers. Ha ha.i may take up writing and directing movies starring fit, young virile men. Maybe that’ll be my new years resolution!.