Category: music

It must be great to win a big award. Whether it’s an Oscar, a Tony, a BAFTA, an Emmy, whatever, you get to collect a prize that celebrates your achievements and are showered with compliments.

I can’t think of anything better, unless of course, I won an MTV Latin Award. Imagine this: your name gets called out and head to the stage, only to be presented with something that I can only liken to what’s inside Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler’s mouth.

Who on earth came up with a gong that looked like this? What were they thinking? I can only assume a man designed it, because surely no woman could ever conceive of something like this, could they?

This is hard to believe, but the warbling Georgian that is Katie Melua releases her new album on Monday.

First, before you disappear immediately, this is not a plug for the album. Far from it. And anyway, I very much doubt that anything I say will stop her third offering hitting the top of the charts next Sunday.

I guess I’m still baffled by the popularity of her. She’s apparently the biggest-selling female artist in the country and the question I have to ask is: why?

Among the least obvious attributes are her bland, monotonous voice, equally uninspiring songs and older-than-her-years attitude. Come on, we’ve all wondered what the difference is between 22 and 17, haven’t we?

Sure, she’s a nice enough girl and, funnily enough, she wasn’t beaten with the ugly stick when she was born, but that alone shouldn’t mean she has maintained a career beyond her 2nd album, should it?

What on earth do people get out of her music? “There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing…” – well, whoopee, what a great premise for a song.

And possibly the biggest crime she committed was duetting with Shane McGowan from the Pogues a couple of years ago on a new version of Fairytale In New York. Kirsty MacColl would have been spinning in her grave!