Jennifer Holliday singing “And I am Telling you … I’m not goin'” on the 1982 Tony Awards.
Doing this 8 shows a week?
Are you kidding me?
It’s so raw and so pained that it’s almost hard to watc. When she’s clutching his face. It’s so needy you feel embarrassed, for her, for him, for yourself because you’ve been there, but maybe you weren’t brave enough to express it. You’re embarrassed because Need itself is mortifying.
And today I also just read this. Nice analysis of the song itself – and makes me even more excited to see the film.
A couple cool excerpts:
In fact, ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’ is a kind of summary of the great American diva tradition, our native answer to the grand opera aria-belters of the old world.”
And this:
The term diva has gotten rather watered down in current pop culture usage, to the point where the title is given to any moderately famous actress or singer with an air of hauteur about her and a personal trainer in her employ. But, in the classical musical formulation, Paris Hilton is certainly no divaand for that matter, neither is Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. Old-fashioned divadom entails not just an imperious attitude and a big voice, but a themepain, particularly as supplied by callous men and cruel fateand a task: to transcend that anguish through cathartic declamation. You know the divas of whom I speak: Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday, Garland, Aretha Franklin, and today’s Queen of Pain, Mary J. Blige. And now, perhaps, Jennifer Hudson.
I love that: “a task: to transcend that anguish through cathartic declamation.”
Oh my. I’ve got chills. Unbelievable!
Her performance has so much passion.
Too much really…
If I were that dude and she was making those facial expressions about two cm from my face, I’d probably leave too! ;)
Yeah, really. At close range it must be like Vesuvius going off right in your face. hahahaha Also, like: Uhm, hon, you’re so loud that you are blowing out my eardrums.
But I know. Goosebumps!!
Oh. My. God.
Me, too! Chills.
I cannot WAIT for this. For so many reasons, but one is simple — I can’t wait to see that Jennifer Hudson, American Idol REJECT kick some serious ass. Simon Cowell was so harsh to her. YAY, Jennifer! You GO, girl!!!
And seriously – to have THAT to contend with as your predecessor?
I am just so psyched for her.
I love in that article I posted how the writer saw the movie with an audience who literally started gasping and crying out at the end of her song.
That kind of performance makes you want to re-think the whole trend these days of female singers needing to seem independent and heartless and in control. She’s an endless abyss of screaming need and she doesn’t give a flying f—. She likes it that way. So brave. And, oddly enough, much stronger than our current crop of pop stars who are just a bunch of shrieking ho’s, who equate acting like prostitutes with being independent.
Kate –
Wow. Awesome point.
You really get the sense, watching Holliday, that singing like that is COSTING her something. It’s just like Garland. Guy and I were watching some Garland video when I hung out with him and he said, “You truly feel like every time she sings it’s life or death.” Holliday has that.
Like that grainy clip of Judy Garland in the tramp makeup singing Over the Rainbow when she’s in her 40s – you’ve seen that, right? I watch that and think: “Uhm … I don’t think she’ll be able to come back from the pain she is expressing there …”
(Like: “No. Sheila wasn’t sad. Something broke inside Sheila.”)
You know?
Singing like Holliday does in that clip COSTS her something.
And I don’t think many singers today want to pay that price – or would even know what you were talking about if you said that to them. It’s hollow – their vocal histrionics. It doesn’t MEAN anything, it doesn’t come from real pain. With Holliday it is specific and it comes from her deepest heart and soul – and that takes guts to share. You could be made fun of. You could be ridiculed. your facial expressions could be made fun of. Your NEED could be ridiculed. You could look silly – people could say, “You know what? She’s too intense for me. I gotta back off.” Etc. All of these are responses … and Holliday is willing to pay that price and take that risk.
Holy shit.
I really don’t need drugs because that’s what gets me high.
So, Betsy, Jennifer Holliday is your anti-drug?
I cried for the first 15 minutes of Tommy when I saw it on Broadway just because I was there – it’s kind of sad.
I am late to the conversation, but I think John Mayer has a bit of that going on with his music. People are disturbed watching him- whether or not they care for his vocals- because he is SO INTO IT. But he lets himself go there. And I respect that. It actually aggravated me that he was so overplayed a few summers ago, because he is such a talented guitarist. It kinda bastardized his work, through no fault of his own.