Ashlee Simpson's lip-synch lapse
In case you don't know by now, Jessica Simpson's little sister, Ashlee, who happens to have the No. 1 album in the country, had a singing malfunction on Saturday night that may end her career. Ashlee, the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live", was the victim of a snafu when someone in the control room pushed the wrong button and the same song she'd sung in her first segment began playing again.
Ashlee, who had obviously lip-synched the first song, became confused. Her band tried to switch back into the first song, but Simpson just gave up, did a weird little jig and shrugged off the stage. Later, at the end of the show, she had the audacity to blame the band for playing the wrong song.
It's no surprise that this latest pre-fabricated pop star can't sing live (and at this point has no shame either). She joins a rather stellar group of mostly female peers who have been manufactured by managers and record companies. They don't write their own material and they don't sing it either.
They've been created in studios and then sent on the road as karaoke acts. Their fans would be mighty surprised to hear many of the pop stars of today attempt to sing without technological augmentation. That's why you don't hear or see most of these alleged stars trying the "Star-Spangled Banner" at sports events or even attempt to chime in at jam sessions following awards dinners.
I reported in this column three or four years ago how, at the conclusion of a Clive Davis pre-Grammy dinner show, certain pop singers remained in the audience rather than be exposed on stage. The ones who could sing did: Patti LaBelle, Mary J. Blige, even Justin Timberlake. The ones who couldn't, or who were too frightened, remained in their seats.
Let's put it this way: In the last five years, though they've often been present, I've never heard Britney Spears or Jennifer Lopez even so much as hum out loud without a full stage set-up, dancers swirling about and lots of back-up singers.
But I have been lucky enough to see Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Alicia Keys, Julia Fordham, Joss Stone, Carla Thomas, Ann Peebles, Natalie Cole, Mary Wilson, Cher, Cyndi Lauper, Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson fame (no relation to Jessica and Ashlee) and many others rise to the occasion without a tape or a computer disk in sight.
So here's a reality show guaranteed to get ratings: All of today's pop stars "unplugged", with just a microphone and an accompanist. We'll do a "sing-off" and see who really has the pipes and who has been faking it. (Fox 411)
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