No Rock And Roll Fun

JAMELIA'S BRILLIANT: You've got to admire Jamelia - not only does she have enough free time to have a feud with Peter Andre (which is like writing to the Sun letters page), now she's all pissed off with Beyonce:

"When I realised Beyonce mimes half to three-quarters of her show, that took a lot away for me. I thought: 'Well, are you an artist or are you an actress?'
I understand the quest to be an entertainer, but don't put yourself out there as an artist if that's not what you are. Britney came to England recently and mimed over every single track. How the hell can she do a whole show and mime it? I feel it's cheating the fans and I think it's disgusting. Pop culture right now is about having a voice in the studio and not having to cut it live. That's ridiculous."

No, Jamelia, what's ridiculous is thinking that there's something "false" about lip-synching. It's easy to sing live if you're just stood there making the eyes of emotion, but if you're doing a dancing spectacular, it's harder to give good vocals and do strenuous dancing - it's why ballet doesn't have vocals. To be fair to Britney (who did, actually, sing a few tracks live), nobody really expects her to be singing live anyway. She's taken the decision to make a show entertaining instead of "real", which would seem to be a good call for someone who is, yes, setting out to be an entertainer. Nobody expects you to play all the instruments on the records you stick out under your name, Jam, and the principle is pretty much the same.

And on Andre? Oh, god...

"Everyone knows it's rubbish, everyone knew it was rubbish 10 years ago, and it's still rubbish today," Jamelia told MTV in March. "I think (Andre) is the new Justin Timberlake. "I seriously do - in Croatia."
Yesterday, Jamelia was unrepentant.
"It's exactly what I said it was. It's a throwaway song. It's rubbish.
I felt bad because he wants to be friends. I'm like: whatever. And even though I apologised, I don't take back what I said."

That's a pretty interesting approach to an apology you've got there, James.