Cheryl Cole: The Last (3) Word(s)
33 comments | Published by that Grace girl |
Editor’s note: what follows is an epic, unhinged rant from teentoday.co.uk’s newest team member (yes, another one) Grace Medford (must-read full introduction coming soon). Those of you used to our balanced reporting and journalistic integrity (that’s nobody then) may be surprised to see such a rant published on these pages. But if we can’t use teentoday.co.uk as platform for our mentalist-type ramblings and pleas for everyone to keep calm, carry on, then we may as well give up now. It’s not like we’re being troubled by advertisers banging on the door. Enjoy...
SEE WHAT I DID THERE?
Get. Over. It.
I feel more irate over the hysterical X Factor press coverage than usual. There was the ridiculous Dannii/Danyl incident (lots of straight people being offended on behalf of the gays to cover up their own insecurity with being confronted with matters of sexuality), there was the cat fight between Cowell and Cole over whether Kandy Rain looked slutty or not (they didn’t particularly, but Simon’s misogynistic comments put me firmly on Team Cheryl)… and now there’s this: CHERYL COLE TO MIME ON X FACTOR.
I think firstly, we need to clear up a fact or two. Cheryl is not miming. A “pre-record” means that on Sunday, in front of a live studio audience (around 800 people), Cheryl will perform her debut solo single, Fight For This Love (from the album 3 Words) and it will then be aired later on in the night. This is to avoid the frantic runaround that occurred the last time Cheryl performed on X Factor.
I happened to be in the studio last year when Girls Aloud performed The Promise, so I saw first hand how Cheryl took to the stage then was literally carried by a member of security from the studio to the dressing rooms to get changed and be back in her seat by the time the ad-break was over. She looked harassed, poor girl. I can totally appreciate why she wants to avoid that this time around.
As to the question of her vocals: are we forgetting that seven years ago, a then 19-year-old Cheryl Tweedy sang live in front of millions every night, earning herself a place in one of Britain’s most successful girlbands? Twenty top 10 singles, 5 albums, 5 (live) tours, a Brit Award and a coveted slot supporting Coldplay at Wembley Stadium - just what does she have to prove anymore?
Of course the pitchfork mob baying for Cheryl’s blood are OUTRAGED that someone who critiques people’s vocal for a living wouldn’t perform live when the X Factor contestants are “singing for survival” every night. Sorry, but did I miss the memo forbidding anyone who can’t hit a C6 note first time, every time, from judging when someone else is out of tune? Must all the X Factor judges go through a rigorous singing exam before they are permitted to go about their duties?
Why are Cowell and Walsh exempt from this level of accusation? I’m not sure that either of the male judges can even whistle ‘Happy Birthday’ satisfactorily. Louis knows nothing but boybands, and Simon famously passed up the opportunity to sign the Spice Girls. Better qualified than their female counterparts? Dannii Minogue who has been working for 20 years or more on the frontline of the industry? Cheryl Cole who experienced a reality TV talent show for herself and probably knows better than anyone else what those people are going through? Why is the vitriol saved for the ladies?
Just for reference - on last year’s X Factor, both Miley Cyrus and Take That pre-recorded their performances in just the same way as Cheryl will on Sunday… Yet no angry mob? And while we’re talking about Take That, can we just take a moment to recall Saint Gary Barlow tearing into Britney Spears last November, for miming her vocal (wee Britney, who has never done a live performance in her entire career and isn’t expected to). The media uproar around Britney’s “Mimegate” was not only ridiculous, it was futile - it’s Britney, bitch, and honestly, she doesn’t give a shit what you think.
An interesting footnote to that tale is the fact that if we fastforward just a little to the Brit Awards 2009, Saint Gary and his manband, Take That mimed their entire performance. Not a performance with a strenuous dance routine or, indeed, any kind of difficult vocal acrobatics. A straight-forward ballad. And you MIMED, Saint Gary. Oh, the hypocrisy! Where was the media packhound then? (I’ll just add smugly, that Girls Aloud sang live at the Brits - Cheryl 1, Barlow 0?)
The media are notoriously choosy with who they pick on. And we all know how the British press like to build someone up only to knock them down. Maybe Cheryl is looking just too comfy on the pedestal we’ve put her on and it’s time to wipe that gorgeous smile off her face. Yet I have every faith she will weather this storm as she has many others, if only for the simple reason that in the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t that important.
The fact is, a lot of pop acts mime - and sometimes, they don’t when they really should. And really - if a singer isn’t live, does a child starve? Do puppies get kicked? Does the hole in the o-zone layer get a little bigger? No, none of these things happen. The world keeps spinning and life goes on. And sometimes, we’re just that little bit more entertained.
So on Sunday night, I’ll be tuning in to watch Cheryl’s pre-record, confident in the fact that the verses will be live, the chorus will be lip-synched, the choreography will be tight, and that little Geordie will do herself proud. And she DOES deserve to be an X Factor judge.
Oh, And if you’re not yet as excited for Chezzer’s performance as we are, watch brilliant fan-made video:
Do you think Cheryl will Kill It on Sunday's X Factor?
Olly aka the boss
Thought I agree with most of what you said. I *did* see Cheryl’s Popstarz the rivals and have literally just recovered from the aurally instigated coma… I mean have you see this
renditionmassacre : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHTGGlxYTao&feature=related Though she does have a nice tone.However, If I’m honest I just want her to bring something, I don’t care if that’s great vocals, stunning dancing, a drugged-up Britney at the VMAs, or goldilocks and the 3 bears… just don’t be UNDERWHELMING.
I’d go anything good or horrifically bad.
Either way, expect a Shit or Hit within minutes of it happening to grace these very pages!
Dan
Ok firstly whoever wrote this pathetic rant clearly has too much time on their hands, and should consider living their own life rather than wasting it analysing celebrities and their careers…
oh and for the record Gary Barlow sung all of greatest day apart from the bit where the UFO platform came down to the ground. he had to mime when it hit the ground because the platform and electrics that came with it would have caused problems and interference with the microphone
sort your facts out next time and take a good look at your life
Shane
Wow! Agree completely! Love the new member! I think people should really be allowed to speak more freely. Anyone with the slightest amount of talent will be torn to shreds, while those who have zero talent will be put in the hall of fame. The music industry is seriously backwards. Cheryl is amazing. People need to get off her back! People really need to leave them all alone. They shouldn’t be allowed to even speak of her unless they’re on the same level career wise and/or talent wise.
Katie Nelson
I too do not see why pre-recording the performance has caused such a fuss in the media, as long as her vocal is live what’s the problem?
I fully expect to ‘nail her performance’ on Sunday and ‘own that stage’ - after all this added attention surely she will feel she has a point to prove!
Beyonce may have ‘Sasha Fierce’, but now it is undoubtedly time for Cheryl to unleash ‘Push 10’ on the Great British Public!
Emily
The article is amazing - factual and funny at the same time! What more could one want than a St.Gary bashing and references to Britney bitch?! Can’t wait for more of your articles; you’ll definitely be a valuable addition to Teen Today!
Jodie
I think most people were slating poor Cheryl because they didn’t fully understand the meaning of ‘pre recorded’ - I didn’t really either so thanks, your article has cleared up my confusion lol. Either way I was always looking forward too Cheryl’s performance, mimed, live (preferably), recorded, whatever as we know she always does, will put on a great show! Go Chezza haha x
racheljp21
Just wanna say how great it is of Grace joining Teen Today, you write so amazingly making your point come accross, & including humor but always keeping to the point. Well done grace, & Olly you made a good choice, if only i could write like that! lol
Jay
Loved this article, very concise, well done Grace.
The attitude from some towards Cheryl & Dannii as judges (in regards to how well they can sing, in correlation to whether they’re fit to judge other people’s singing) is a point well raised. Their own ability as singers does not have weight on the validity of their opinions. Their experience alone gives them the right to be on that judging panel.
x
Luke
Okay wow most pointless article ever award goes to this Grace girl. Why on earth was she signed up to write for this site? Though I suppose with the 10 visits a day you get nobody actually cares. Poor girl should go get a life instead of living off other famous people. I read on her Twitter (over 25,000 updates she has, she must literally have no life) that she wants to be a singer? What the hell is that all about?
Anyway, as you were TeenToday, as you were.
Olly aka the boss
Oh dear, you can do better than that Luke :-p
Liza
Usually Teentoday’s articles have a point, and structure. And are funny. This “unhinged rant” is not epic. It belongs in the comments section of the Sun. You’re better than this.
Simone
This was a struggle to read, really. Far too much blah when it appears all you want to say is lay off Chezza, innit? If Luke is right about the singing thing then thank god. Cos writing Is clearly not your forte.
...
After a quick perusal of Twitter to look that up (couldn’t see any reference to it, sadly) I feel compelled to say that slagging off people who write negative comments about this article is bang out of order. These people have spent the time reading and responding and knocking them on, what is essentially, a public forum just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sorry rushing this before school - but as a reader of teentoday i’m a bit offended by that.
Dawn
Get your facts right. Last year Take That pre-recorded their whole performance on X factor the previous week, in front of a live audience, with live vocals, and the whole thing was shown ‘as live’ on the next Saturday’s show by ITV. The didn’t pre-record their vocals and then play them back while they pranced around the stage.
lea
have nufin really to say other than i totally love and agree with this artical.. i dnt cae if its mimed or not, but us chezza fans get to see her rule the stage and hopefully it will be amazingg.. cnt wait to see wat she does on sundayy
Olly aka the boss
How did all the people find this article so quickly, have you all been on the site before. To clarify, I’m just happy people are having a debate and having their say. That’s the WHOLE point of teentoday.co.uk! Thanks to everyone who commented, whatever your point. Let’s just keep it (relatively) constructive x
Chris
Just felt I ought to put my two cents in on this. Now I’ve never been the biggest Cheryl fan (by far, she frustrates me to no end) but this sudden backlash building up to her performance is ridiculous. She’s pre-recording (doesn’t necessarily mean miming) her performance on Sunday. BIG DEAL. A LOT of pop stars have done it before and while I’m hardly excited for it, I’ll reserve my judgement until the performance has actually been aired on Sunday evening, how can people critique something so much when it hasn’t even been filmed yet!
I don’t personally think she’s a very good singer. She has improved some since ‘Popstars: The Rivals’ and while her voice is average at best, many popstars voices are and it hasn’t stopped them. Madonna is hardly God’s gift to vocal chords yet it hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of the worlds biggest popstars (and most recently a hilarious shadow of her former self).
As Grace said, life goes on - the world still turns, regardless of one popstars performance being 100% live or not.
Kari
i totally agree with everything wrote in this article, i disagree with the comments people are writeing , as i think grace has wrote about every aspect and backed up her ideas with comparisons! everyone has their own opinions , and i happen to agree with the whole “Danni & Cheryl are in the music and Louis & Simon , appear to know nothing” ! i cant wait for cheryl’s preformance on the x factor, i think she is going to be great! one quick question , is whitney ( omg) singing live ? x
Karen
Can I just point out that when Take That mimed at the Brit Awards it was because their stage was up in the air and the Brit’s people couldn’t rig it so that it could be done live...no fault of “Saint Barlow” as you so nicely called him!!!!
It makes me mad that people are bashing him and Take That. If Cheryls performance is pre recorded, fine...as long as she does it live when she’s recording, Britney couldn’t even do that!!! I don’t know why you seem to have such a b in your bonnet about Take That but it seems pointless, get over it!!!!
And while we’re on it Cheryl and Gary are friends, so I doubt she’d like people bashing him in an article about her.
shivy
well said karen! you obviously have a thing against “saint gary”...wtf’d he ever do wrong? take that’s performance on x-factor was live, just shown on tv a different week from when it was done (nifty trick with cameras you see!) and most of it was live on the brits too - only the part where the stage came down to the ground due to technical faults that there was too much feedback with the speakers if done live, so only that part had to be mimed. for the record take that hate miming, and wanted badly to do the whole performance live, but it just wasn’t technically possible. been said before but i’l say it again, GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH! (or in this case type)
and btw you talk of hypocrasy...THAT’S THE POINT OF THE BACKLASH AGAINST CHERYL! someone judging others on their ability to sing and perform, when when they themselves can’t do the latter without miming/pre-recording (whatever) the former IS hypocritical. and as for louis and simon....well they’ve only got about 30+ years in the business as highly successful managers (not to mention simon’s the one behind the show and signs the acts) to back them up. but yeah, of course!.....clearly they don’t have a clue....
Daisy
Saint Gary?Yes,he is a saint.Brit Awards 2009 - Take That didn’t want to mime but HAD TO because of the nature of their stage act - flying saucer type thingy coming down from the ceiling - the technical requirements couldn’t be met to do it live. - not their fault - fault of the Brit Awards 2009 organising team.
shivy
btw what’s with the constant cheryl love? she’s pretty...that’s it! she’s totally relliant on her looks, and if it wasn’t for the other 4 girls (namely nadine) she’d be nowhere. know why? because those of us who don’t lick her ass realise she can’t sing for shit! and the worst of it is don’t even hate her! i don’t really feel anything towards her other than annoyance that people seem so determined to place her up on this godly pedistol for her looks rather than someone deserving of it who actually has talent.
Jo
What’s with this attack on Gary, if you accually got your facts right you would know that Take That DID perform live on the x factor it was just shown from a different week because Take That were performing elsewhere, and also, they DID perform live on the Brits apart from when they were too near the crowds, everyone knows Take That can perform live anyway otherwise they wouldn’t have won “Best Live Act” at the Brits, so get your facts right before you go posting it on here…
Truth
Great article! Totally agree with what you’re saying, cheryls amazing and people need to realize that she’s already proven herself as a singer and that’s why she’s extremely successful! F*** the cheryl cole haters! Get a life you saddos she’s gonna be brilliant on Sunday!
P.S. Cheryls perfect!
Primrose
I think what this article points out about Cheryl’s mimegate is just the truth. Alexandra Burke mimed last week on the X Factor and NO ONE batted an eyelid. Now Cheryl, who was never going to mime on the first place, announces she is pre recording the performance ( which does NOT mean she is pre recording her vocals, two different things there ) and every bloody paper in Britain feel with the rights to slag her off when they are the ones that have their facts WRONG.
Apparently, Cheryl will be singing and performing live now. So you all haters can stop critizising her for it because she will be as live as you wanted her to be.
(And I wanted to point out: has the link to this article been posted on a Take That forum? Too many comments defending Gary Barlow when he was only used as an example)
Isla
I don’t get all the fuss about Cheryl’s performance tonight, but there’s no need to rip into Gary.
loan
you have just pointed the fact that tabloit wanna put her down BUT will never happen cos her fans are supportive & we are all behing her.. they need the definition of pre-recording .. fact we are so naive to believe what is written by these mad people instead of cheryl, she kept repeated that she will be live… i hope she keeps that smile on her.. Cheryl made this show very interesting --- all stars had performed the past they all mimed ..cheryl will be amazing tonight CANT NOT WAIT..
Caazzerz
Greatest Article Ever. Grace wins. Lets face it. It was amusing, blunt and quite frankly GREAT.
Seriously, what’s the point in attacking HER, I personally, see no need for your rants. The girl clearly knows what she’s talking about and is a damn good writer.
So lets all just wait, and wait some more patiently for tonight, no matter what happens you know you will be talking about it later and will all probably come back and go on about how you were right etc.
I know I’ll be back for sure. TEAM GRACE.
Rod
The problem with this article seems to be that we are presented,rather than a piece of researched, well balanced journalism, (or even a slight balance would be appreciated) with a article which mainly seems to reflect YOUR admiration for Mrs Cole. I agree the attention over her pre recording has been over the top, but many of the public feel cheated that on a show which prides itself on being live every week, her performance cannot be done live, fobbed off by excuses that she “doesnt have time” to make her way from the chair to the stage. Im sure they could change the show around to feature her at the beginning or end; or after a break; not when she was required to run from her chair to the stage, this seems quite frankly a ridiculous excuse, and im sure more respect would be given to Cheryl if she just admitted that a combination of nerves, first time performance, and worries that she wont be quite good enough were infact the reasons she will not be performing live. I agree that she has nothing to prove - she is already a very successful woman, albeit if she is perhaps a tad overexposed in the tabloid media almost appearing as the only woman worth mentioning in most papers and magazines, and perhaps this is a contribution as to why such a big deal has been made over a tiny slip away from perfection that Cheryl has shown. I know she doesnt build herself up in this way and beg for the media attention; but hey, she puts herself out there. And as for complaints over the whole situation - Cheryl, thats the way the world of celebrity works darling. You cant have glorified, shining reports every day. The tabloids dont work that way.
I admire and enjoy your writing style, but feel that your own obviously glorified opion of Cheryl is a bit too obvious, and paired with a couple of totally pointless remarks (the “1-0” comment seemed uneccesary and irrelevant) overshadowed the article.
that Grace girl
Thanks, Rod - I think you’ve understood me the most. I will say though, aside from whether or not I like Cheryl, my argument would have been the same whoever the artist - it’s hard to be balanced when there’s a clear case of right or wrong - and the wrong is that some celebrities take a hell of a lot of criticism for things that other celebrities get away with scot free. Either it’s okay for an artist to pre-record, or it’s NOT okay for an artist to pre-record. We can’t just choose to ignore Mariah miming on X Factor and then haul Britney across the coals for it - it’s unfair.
I’m aware that criticising Take That is like shitting in church, but why is it okay for them to record a performance before an event and not Cheryl? Why is their “excuse” more valid than hers? This is what I’ve been driving at - that the media and thus, the public, will turn a blind eye to one and cast stones at the other.
melp
Well, leave Take That out of this article.
It’s perfect;y OK for me when Gary criticized Brit for her performance.
She is a performer, but not a good singer. Gary is so much better than her, plus he really sang live on X-factor, so when criticizing her in X-factor performance, he has the right to say so.
I doubt a band or singer will sing live all their life. I do not care, as long as I know they have the real wonderful voice. Take That did not sing live all the time, well, OK, but who dare they they can’t sing or their voices are not good? Brit- give me a break, she is worse than she used to be.
If you are wondering why many people defend Take That, then, for your information, this article was posted in Take That forum.
Say what you want, but leave our boys alone.
jade Hockie
I have more friends on facebook than all of you so stop trying to PM and be my friend as I Am not concidering any more at this time,don’t hate the player,hate the game! Cheryl is tottal sh*T by the way and needs to eat a ham sarnie,love the street fighter outfit!
Rod
Can I also say..to add to my above post.. its good to see a piece of journalism in which the author takes bot positive and negative comments and accepts them and not just tells everyone to fuck off and listen to her opinion because its all that matters. Good on you.
jane
i love her song fight for this love i also love her other song didnt i i think shes great