American Music Awards Hits and Misses

This year, the AMA's was the year of the production number, but we saw that coming, didn't we? Singers, dancers, Cirque de Soleil twirlers, rappers, fire eaters, costumes, lights, props, smoke machines and stage managers galore! I can't imagine the circus that is backstage at the AMA's, but I digress.

Katy Perry opened the show with a geisha version of UNCONDITIONALLY that had all of the above. Well, maybe not the fire eater but she nailed the opener with a Japanese theme complete with parasols, cherry blossoms, Japanese drums and K.P. herself dressed in full geisha gear, including sock feet, which I have to think is way easier for navigating up the grand staircase while singing and dancing.
Katy sang Live (no lip syncing)

Pit Bull was the host this year and although he leaned heavily on the Latino card, he was classy in his tuxedo and was absolutely adorable as a totally different type of host. His scripted Schtick was fun and the crowd loved him. Well done Pittie!













T. Swift presented the first award, luckily it wasn't to One Direction, whose lead singer, Harry Styles has an infamous T. Swi song about him. Wearing a tight, tiny gold dress that wasn't nearly long enough to cover any of her legs, she accepted several awards over the course of the evening and spoke with such heart and clarity that no one can blame her for her silly dalliances with boys who are barely finished high school.

Moving on. ONE DIRECTION Those boys can actually harmonize beautifully and if you feel like poo-pooing their talent, you try making 5 part harmony. Watch until the end to see their second award. Fans love these boys.
Ariana Grande sang next and with just her voice and a 4 Tops-style backup singing line, she rocked the house. Who needs smoke and mirrors when you have a voice like hers? My eleven year old daughter has been following A.G. for years on YouTube and loves her from Victorious on Nickelodeon.  Lady Gaga got to her feet, always one to recognize a good voice. She later won a big award and was all teenage gushy and silly in her acceptance speech but isn't she only 13 or something? Amazing!
Why would a man who has a men's clothing line show up to a huge awards show in a plaid shirt and ripped  jeans? Chewing gum. Marc Anthony. Booo
Did anyone else feel like Imagine Dragons was the only true rock performance of the night? When those nerds did Demons that morphed into RadioActive, the crowd went all rock star wild. With everyone on their feet, the 4 Dragons drummed the solo in RadioActive and brought down the house. Little does my daughter know we have tickets to see them in Seattle in February. When they finished, she was affected, aflutter and couldn't speak. Love this band. Not lip syncing.
Taylor Swift won a few more awards, spoke eloquently and the show went on with interactive commercials of JLo hawking Kohl's and pretending she was an action star, Pit Bull hawking Fiats on the beach, and Mackelmore referring to the injustice of Traynor Martin.
What's with the Shark Tank entrepreneurs in the audience? Marc, Damon and Robert had aisle seats and camera time. Who bought them camera time? And then they presented, without a woman among them. WTF? Where was Lori or that real estate woman?
Pit Bull and Kei$ha did a duet. Lip Syncing. Both of them. In her Daisy dukes and nose ring, she did a fine job of dancing and lip syncing to her own song.
It was fun to see Imagine Dragons win Alternative Rock and receive an award from non other than Joan Jett and David Grohls. They even said so.
Justin Timberlake performed a song that was amazingly fun like each of the 40 people on stage with him were lead singers in a speakeasy club. Great song, great performance J.T. and the crowd loves this Golden Boy. He's funny, musically talented and handsome. And not lip syncing. What's not to love? J.T. for president.
The Ceremonies- rock triplets?
Bill Maher who has no business on a music awards show stage, presented the Icon Award to Rihanna's mother who presented it to her in a charming mother/daughter moment that showed the world that Rihanna is just a girl from Barbados who isn't so far removed from when she used to sell fruit to tourists. Did you know that she has 33 Million twitter followers or is the most viewed artist on YouTube? Me neither. Social media works! Regardless of all her tweeting and instagraming, Rihanna won the first ever Icon Award and sang like a true performance artist. She definitely shines bright like a diamond. Not lip syncing.

Awards were given, Pit bull's presence faded like he'd been fired mid-show, and I worried that someone might fall on their extremely pointy award. "Hold it away from yourself!" I shouted at the T.V. Especially after Avici (Tim Berg) lumbered gawkily to the stage to get his EDM award. Worst ever acceptance speech, even for a Swede whose first language is not English.Christina Aguilera sang a tres understated duet with someone at a piano and showed the underbelly of a superstar in an amazing performance.
Lady Gaga and R. Kelly did a skit/song about the president having an affair with an Italian lover who looked like Marilyn Monroe that was strange. Interesting skit and love the song and love R. Kelly and love Gaga but it kind of fell flat. Too much weirdness even for Gaga? but not lip syncing.
Miley Cyrus and her kitten backdrop proved that the girl can sing but please darlin', lose the cat and weird teenager bedroom backdrops if you want to be taken seriously. It's just wrong. I'd say 99% of your audience didn't even notice your high cut undies because they were staring at the kitten, who was lip syncing very poorly.
All in all the AMA's were highly entertaining with even a TLC reunion near the end. With loads of  fake snow, lights, movie screen backdrops and fabulous sets, the evening was well done, beyond entertaining and fun. No twerking but hey that's a good thing. Wholesome Tay Tay Swi Won for Artist of the Year.
Ah, and after the ending, it said that One Direction is taking over America on Tuesday, or did they mean to say Good Morning America? I dunno.

Kim Hornsby is a former rock singer and entertainment specialist as well as an Amazon Bestselling Author.
/http://www.amazon.com/Kim-Hornsby/e/B00AFJ8BJS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Miley Makes Audience Cry

Miley Cyrus has a business plan in place, that's for sure!
Step 1, do something so provocative that the whole world is talking about it.
Step 2, announce the breakup of your engagement to a man who bounces back the next day with another woman. (this guarantees sympathy for you)
Step 3, Show your actual talent at the next huge concert and feel free to show emotion.  What is step 4? Release the next song on your album and watch the reaction.

Saturday night, Miley Cyrus performed in Las Vegas at the i Heart Radio Festival and sang with such talent and emotion that she had the audience in tears, along with her. THIS GIRL CAN SING! I think amidst all the boohaha about her strip dance with Robin Thicke, we forgot that she has singing chops. Oh yes she does. The video isn't up on youtube yet of the performance but you can bet that when it is, the world will be tuning in to see the train wreck but ending up moved by her performance.
As a singer/entertainer I have to wonder if the tears were all part of the plan. It isn't hard to get caught up in the emotion of a song and let a few drop. Regardless, Kudos to Miley again for making her name a household word again this week. Notice I didn't give credit to her bizarre, look-at-me-I'm-screaming-for-attention outfit?

What's next? Can't wait.

Note:Adam Lambert's set with Queen was one of the most awesome performances I've ever seen. LOVE THAT MAN who sings pretty darned close to perfection in concert! Putting his own spin on Freddy Mercury songs, he rocked the stage and at the same time did not try to take away from the guaranteed perfection of QUEEN. Well done Lambert.

Kim Hornsby is a former rock singer who now makes her living as an Amazon Bestselling Author. Necessary Detour is a suspense novel about a newly retired rock singer who can't stop spying on her neighbors to save her own life. 

Miley Cyrus - Twerking and Tweeting $$

Kim Hornsby is a former singer/entertainer and is now an Amazon Bestselling Author


Miley Cyrus is under media and public attack for dancing provocatively on the VMA's on Sunday night. Everyone, including me, is weighing in on her performance like we haven't seen men and women bump and grind for years on that awards show. Or other places. And Miley is a good little dancer, limber, cute and musical. (I sound like my grandmother.) She was a performer on a provocative awards show, not a guest at a society dinner party. And now, sales of her new album Bangerz are way up and twitter announced a new record after the incident. Miley Cyrus was referenced at 306,100 tweets per minute the next morning and her name was sought 4.5 million times, the next day. Great numbers if that's what you're counting, and she probably is doing just that.

And, let's face it, pop music these days is all about doing the dirty deed or getting ready to do it so why are we so surprised? Come on people! She did a stripper dance to Robin Thicke's rather rapey song about 'you know you want it' and no one is going after him, even though RT is a 36 year old Dad and should've nixed the whole duet in the pre-production stage. And to wear a prison-striped suit! I thought RT was a well respected producer, not a fame seeking (at any cost) singer. And, he had his picture taken with a fan after the event where the mirror behind them caught his hand grabbing her butt.As for the Miley duet, I thought the combo of him with an underage her, was disturbing, but not nearly as much as some people. It was the topic of conversation at a girls' night out recently and I tell you, I kept my mouth shut about how I feel. I used to earn my living as a singer and although I never did a strip tease, I did not put down anyone who did. It's a job. The thing wrong with the picture below is that Miley is underage and used to be a teen idol for young girls. Am I right? And Robin Thicke is acting like he just hit puberty himself. And it was all on prime time TV for the world to see.

Miley is barely out of her teens and known to be a bit of a loose cannon these days. She's going for shock value like a lot of young people who are finding their way. Twenty year olds think they invented the world so are we surprised that this once precocious little girl would act this way as she's discovering her own sexuality? Miley may just have a business plan in place, similar to Britney Spears when she kissed MDNA at the same show years ago. Ever heard there's no bad publicity in show business? There is career suicide but I don't think this is going to kill Miley's career. History shows that we as a public are shocked by this type of episode but the fame meteors the performer right into superstardom.
I've come up with a theory as to why Miley Cyrus is behaving like this. I might be wrong but here's my take on it.
She's mad. Maybe her failing relationship with Liam Hemsworth, her fiance, is a disappointment to her. Apparently his family doesn't approve of her 'ways'. Also, her parents are divorcing, reconciling, divorcing and reconciling and that is enough to give any kid an anxiety-filled temper tantrum. In Hollywood, kids act out by tweeting against their famous parents and embarrassing them on camera. We already know she's communicated with her Daddy, Billy Rae, on twitter in the past. They've argued through tweets in the past. Miley's mother was in the audience Sunday night without Billy Rae, and appeared to LOVE her daughter's performance. Miley is struggling to say something and it probably begins with a swear word and ends with the word 'you'.
The Sunday night awards show saw her posing for pictures for hours with her pointy tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth, in a full range of emotions from angry/badass to bored, obviously something she practiced in the mirror beforehand.
It isn't like this suddenly came on this week, either. Lately, she's been on talk shows wearing skimpy clothes, showing lots of 20 year old skin and being antagonistic. And remember, her new single is telling us frankly to butt out, she'll do what she wants. Whether she's promoting the new drug Mollie or not, in those lyrics is unclear. So is it clear what she's screaming at us in her actions these days? Not exactly. Maybe she's trying to tell us she's not a blonde Disney performer anymore, not the sweet Hannah Montana kid we first met. She told Thicke that they'd make history with this performance and apparently they were excited about that prospect.

The day after the VMA's she tweeted pics of her butt to show the world that she doesn't care what everyone thinks. And she retweeted Rolling Stone's comments that praised her performance at the VMA's,calling her performance one of the best of the night.

The night after the VMS's Selena Gomez, imitated Miley at Getaway premiere with her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth, Miley-style. Not a very nice move for another child actor struggling to make that leap to adult star. Was it intentionally poking fun at Miley? Not sure. They are not known as friends but to do that publicly was risky. But then SG is hanging with Taylor Swift who is getting meaner every year. Saying 'shut the f__ck up," as Harry Stiles took the stage, shows us that she carries grudges long after affairs die, but I guess we always knew that. Taylor insists she was telling Selena to shut the f up. Okaaaay.
Regardless of all that, let's lay off Miley and let her grow up on camera, shall we? Maybe she'll meet Justin Bieber, talk about the tribulations of being an underage performer and then Selena and Liam can hang out and share stories about being formerly coupled with rebels. I want to stop reading about twerking now. Except to watch Maile on SNL when Tina Fey hosts and maybe watch her parody her sexy dance.That should be worth staying up late for.

Update: Trouble in both relationships is possibly coincidental. Robin Thicke and wife Paula Patton just announced that they are headed towards divorce court. AND Miley's engagement to Liam Hemsworth is off, according to the pairs' representatives. They've been on and off since reconciling in April and any pics of them in public like the one above, seemed forced, like they just got out of the limo from a big fight and put on their game faces. Liam is all over the tabloids these days with talk of cheating on Miley with January Jones so maybe this is the source of her angst and rebellion. Regardless, she has one less thing to prove now. No Australian family disapproving of her naughty behavior.
Leave a comment, let me know what you think. Are you kind of sick of all the attention this 5 minutes has gotten?

Kim Hornsby was a rock singer many decades ago, earned her living as an entertainer, once opening for Jamie Foxx during his days of In Living Color. She's now the author of Amazon Best Seller NECESSARY DETOUR, a novel about a retired rock star attempting to escape the media spotlight.It's on sale for .99 at Amazon right now. Kim is an Amazon Best Selling Author and her paranormal suspense novel THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE is nominated for Best Indie First Book by Indie RomCon and has 150 Reviews, most 5 Star on Amazon.