Uh oh. Kelly Clarkson is pissed. In an attempt to defend Taylor Swift from recent criticisms of her melody-challenged Grammy performance, the head of her label, Scott Borchetta, took a swipe at American Idol and it’s singers:
She is the voice of this generation. She speaks directly to (her fans), and they speak directly back to her, ” said Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta in a phone interview. “This is not `American Idol.’ This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.
Kelly fired back on her blog:
Wow …..Dear Scott Borchetta,
I understand defending your artist obviously because I have done the same in the past for artists I like, including Taylor, so you might see why its upsetting to read you attacking American Idol for producing simply vocalists that hit ‘the high notes’. Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well. Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better. I have been criticized left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky) and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is “I’ll kick butt next time” or “every performance isn’t going to be perfect” ……I bring this up because you should take a lesson from these people and instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your ‘humble’ opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a breath and realize that sometimes things won’t go according to plan or work out and that’s okay.
Sincerely,
One of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes ;)
Ha ha. I love me some Kelly when she’s pissed!
There’s been a lot of criticism in the past few days of Taylor Swift’s off-key performance at Sunday’s Grammys. Folks who’ve heard Taylor sing live (watch any awards show, and there she is) realize that, although Taylor is undoubtedly a talented songwriter, she couldn’t sing her way out of a paper bag if her life depended on it. Praise be the autotune.
The fact that her live performances suck really has no bearing on whether her album, Fearless deserved to win the big prize or not.
Having said that, I gotta say I’m on Team Kelly in this argument. Dude, defend Taylor all you want, but if you’ve got to take swipes at others, there is a problem with your argument.
The irony here? Borchetta was one of the judges on the latest season of the CMT and 19 Entertainment competition reality show, Can You Duet?. Country duos competed for the grand prize–a deal with Borchetta’s record label. I could dig it up, but take my word for it–there was plenty o’ talk about the importance of good sangin’ in those critiques…
