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At her Hammersmith Apollo show last night, Nelly Furtado treated us to a performance of a track that is being released in March. It seems her favourite producer has called in a few favours from some old friends. This is going to be a MASSIVE hit.

Timbaland feat Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake - Give It To Me (Audio stream only)

Also, I know it was posted here before, but since it was only in the comments to another post, it appears some Poptimists may have missed this, and it's had me in hysterics all week... Kelly Clarkson gives her reaction to Baldney's head shaving.

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I think we reviewed that Timbaland single on Stylus last week. I wasn't that taken with it, really.

Kelly doesn't look like a pop star! Not how I imagined her to look (and I'm surprised that I had no idea what she looked like).

Kelly's the warm-hearted girl next door but w/ diva chops and psychological struggles, which in many ways makes her the perfect modern American pop star but not celebrity fodder. Even though she has had the broken affairs and the emotional torment and difficult past that could fill the celeb pages, she somehow isn't the breed apart that gets one into the tabs, though she far outsells the singers who do; if she'd shave her head, however....

I've very mixed feelings on the T-Land single; Justin's OK but feels a bit out of place, needing a more hip-hop style than he's got; but Nelly F. does some of her most moving singing ever, utterly beautiful, and Timbo's eerie arrangement provides her a great setting; problem is that his own drunk-in-a-bar vocalizations come near to ruining the record, and since his name's on the marquee, there are far too much of those vocalizations. I thought his mouth got in the way of "Promiscuous" as well, though not as badly as here. Someone's got to boot this and get rid of every vocalist but Nelly.

And Nelly F. is doing some of the most movingly mournful sounding bragging ever, utterly beautiful. Why does "If you see us on the floor you'll be watching all night" sound so sad?

Martin, I think you'll like this vid I keep posting of Kelly C's "Maybe", recorded lo-fi on some fan's cell phone: pensive song that gets as intense as the Stooges' "Gimme Danger" when it gets loud. (Forthcoming Clarkson alb uses Stooges' current bass player Mike Watt, by the way, though I don't know if he'll be on this song.)

And The Stooges themselves have a new album coming out shortly... a first new release by them in 33 years! That makes Guns'N'Roses' hiatus look reasonable in comparison!

The Kelly Clarkson clip shows why she's one of the most beloved performers today: she knows Britney's in trouble, she's shocked and bewildered by the fact that Britney got her head shaved, yet when she sees the photo she goes, "Well, she's still hot!" A completely generous reaction. (Contrast that to the press-wide "Ho ho ho, look what that weirdo Britney's done now!")

Kelly Clarkson remains one of the least scandalous and objectionable celebrities of today. Also, I can't even name one person she's dated. Actually, American Idol seems pretty good at getting out celebrities like that.

"Scandal-free" and "unobjectionable" aren't linked in my mind. (Not that they're necessarily linked in yours.) I can name one person she's dated: David Hodges. Possibly a rough story, if the 'bloids had been interested: "the lyrics are about an ex-boyfriend of Clarkson's who left her in order to marry his own ex-girlfriend". (Of course, Wiki also states that Max Martin co-wrote the song, and no one's corrected this, so we can't assume that Wiki's always right.) Hodges is the first person (or second after God, if He counts as a person) she thanks in the liner notes. More generosity, perhaps.

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(no subject)

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Warm heart

Timbo bumble

Mournful mover

Kelly & the Stooges

Re: Kelly & the Stooges

"Well, she's still hot"

Re: "Well, she's still hot"

Here I am, once again, I'm torn into pieces