shayne ward

All posts tagged shayne ward

What’s Shayne Ward Doing?

Posted by John on March 7, 2009
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 11 Comments

In a time of crisis, isn’t it comforting to know that there are still things out there to live for? As an example: shaynerodesjpgShayne Ward, who we last saw in a re-enactment of the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” video, is hard at work on his third disc, with a summer target for release. While I recognize that I’m just a small blog on the huge superhighway of the Internet, could it be possible that Shayne read that last entry, and felt the need to make changes in his life (and diet)?

I’m training hard and believe me it’s hard work when you’ve got an instructor, ha he’s putting me through my paces, but it’ll all be worth it trust me.

Shayne, Shayne, Shayne. Don’t go changin’, to try and please us. You never let us down before. We blame all of the missteps in promoting “Breathless” on Simon Cowell and the record label. How else do you explain single-worthy songs like “Tangled Up” and “You Make Me Wish” never seeing the light of day, let alone the magic of half-naked scenarios for Shayne to make videos of. Interesting note in the January blog entry, though…there’s talk of a duet. Hmmm…wonder who his management team might think it’s a good idea for Shayne to duet with. Possibly another X-Factor winner who has already achieved success in the elusive American market? Only time will tell.

colby_odonis_grammysSpeaking of duet partners riding coattails, can we talk about Colby O’Donis (or Adonis, as D’luv refers to him) for a moment? Talk about one of the luckiest guys on the face of the planet. Just 20 years old, and he already has 3 top 20 hits, including co-star billing with Akon and Lady GaGa, and a Grammy Nomination for “Just Dance” to boot. He’s only had one hit on his own (“What You Got”, which hit #14 on the Billboard Hot 100), but his handlers are hoping that a remix of “Let You Go” will fly at radio to keep the track record intact (check it out here). It sounds a LOT like “Let Me Love You” by Mario, but I’m not sure that this has hit written all over it, even though I like it. What do you all think?

The Direction of Pop Music

Posted by John on January 13, 2009
Posted in: commentary, personal. Tagged: . 3 Comments

Isn’t that what we’re always looking for? You never know where the next huge phenomenon or slowly-building movement is coming from, and that’s part of what makes this whole experience interesting. Add to that all of the different perspectives of people looking at what’s blowing up, what’s up and coming, or what’s on the way out, and it’s never boring. That’s what has pulled me into the whole concept of blogging, and that’s what I intend to do.

apollo1So it’s a new year, and there are a lot of changes going on. New president, new seasons of TV shows (Battlestar, anyone?), new jobs, new challenges, new achievements. For me, next week starts a new chapter in education, with the beginning of my Masters work. Over the past few days, I’ve tried to put things into perspective with what I’m doing and where I’m going, and it can be a daunting task. And then, right in the middle of it, XO really puts an additional oomph on what really matters. Talk about timing.

golden_compassSo here’s the direction of this blog…there is none. While it’s great that folks stop by and read and comment, I can’t blog about stuff that I don’t have a passion for. It just doesn’t connect. For those of you who that statement doesn’t chase off, though, I hope you feel that passion coming through in whatever subject I feel drawn to at that moment. Granted, I get a little over-excited on certain topics (the Shayne Ward posts WILL continue), but overall, I like getting down to the meat of not only the music itself, but its impact on myself and the music-loving public as a whole. There are several people who do the chart posts well and thorough, so I’d rather focus on trends and footnotes. You may not see a post every day, but when you do, I hope it reinforces my “quality over quantity” mantra.

Thanks for coming along for the ride. This stuff would all be rolling around in my head anyway, so why not share it and put it out there for discussion? What fun is music if you can’t share it with someone else?

Random Notes – 01-07-09

Posted by John on January 7, 2009
Posted in: interview, music industry, news, Uncategorized, upcoming. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

l-lewis-floor– Leona Lewis is writing an autobiography, which will come out in October, and will proceed her sophomore disc. We’ve seen how exciting and riveting these X Factor books can be (Shayne, no offense…), but has she really done enough to warrant an autobiography in the first place? At least in the U.K. she has a back story…here in the U.S., her back story is “came out of nowhere for a #1 record”. Not exactly life story material.

– For all of you Annie fans, fear not. She does still plan on releasing her second set, entitled “Don’t Stop”, in 2009, even if it means doing some type of self-release. Can’t say that I’m surprised, though. There’s been a lot of buzz (both good and bad) on the record, but she owns the masters, so she can go whichever direction she wants. One place I’m guessing you probably won’t see a major label release is the U.S., where she only sold 20,000 copies of “Anniemal”.

k-dioguardia-chair– Great article on Kara DioGuardi over at CNN.com, talking about the type of dynamic they think she’s going to bring to the show. Qualifications, anyone?

With 168 of her songs appearing on multiplatinum albums, you can thank (or curse) her for Simpson’s “Pieces of Me,” Celine Dion’s “Taking Chances,” Gwen Stefani’s “Rich Girl,” Hilary Duff’s “Come Clean,” Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man,” and Pink’s “Sober.” She’s also penned cuts for several products of the “Idol” machine, including Kelly Clarkson, David Archuleta, David Cook, and Katherine McPhee.

BTW, her song with Archie (“To Be With You”) is definitely a high point on his debut. She’s also tipping the guys to have the advantage again this year. I heard an interview with her last month on OutQ that cracked me up. She’s a good ol’ New Yawk girl at heart, and it will be good to get some real world perspective that’s not too brutal or too smarmy.

– What do Beyonce, Boston Terriers and the Fray have in common? Stay tuned…

Shayne Ward Grows On You

Posted by John on January 5, 2009
Posted in: concerts, new releases, news, videos, youtube. Tagged: . 6 Comments

Ah…I have gone much too long without a Shayne entry, haven’t I? No word on how the new record is going, but he recently played some gigs back in the homeland, including multiple shows in Killarney (“third show just added!”). No surprises musically from these shows, although his presence seems a bit…larger than normal. Check out “No U Hang Up” for yourselves:

Now, you’re not necessarily going to hear my complain about Shayne putting on a little bit of the winter weight. It’s just a radical difference from the Shayne that appeared in the video of the song. But wait…it gets weirder. Making Backstreet Boy AJ as the Phantom look downright normal, here’s Shayne performing “Tell Him”:

One other item…turns out a production team called Camberjem has posted three tracks on iTunes with Shayne on lead vocals. According to the chatter on the Shayne forums, his team isn’t too happy with the release, and from the sound of the production, I can’t blame him for being upset. They’re really not even B-side caliber tracks. These do mark the first audio tracks of Shayne available in the U.S., though. Let’s just say he’s guaranteed to still be anonymous in the States after these songs see the light of day.

Go White Boy, Go White Boy GO!

Posted by John on October 26, 2008
Posted in: commentary, music industry, upcoming. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments


One of the more humorous websites that I visit on occasion is prince.org. Not because of His Royal Purpleness, but because of the forum members and their diverse taste. I came across this post which documented some white boy beef:

“I’ve never been on the cover of VIBE, but I don’t think that that is a good thing to really point out. It’s like damn, who are you to say that you deserve the cover? That’s kind of pompous to me. Just fall back and do what you do and don’t complain. You’ve been blessed.”
– Jon B on Robin Thicke’s complaint for not making the VIBE cover.

“Listen man, you have your career and I have mine. If it came down to a battle situation, where we were piano to piano, vocals to vocals, and he really wanted to test skills on some wild competitive type of stuff we could make it happen.” – Jon B on a battle with Thicke.

“I paved the way for a lot of white artists now that don’t have to deal with the stigma of being a white artist. I don’t think that people would be as open for non-African American artists like that if it I didn’t take a lot of the slack for them.” – Jon B on originally holding it down for white Soul artists.

Now THAT is some funny stuff. For those of you not familiar with Jon B, he’s a pretty talented R&B singer from the late 90s/early 00s who got his start under Babyface’s guidance. They actually did a record together called “Someone To Love”, and you couldn’t even tell their voices apart at times on that record. Jon went on to have 6 R&B and 3 Pop Top 40 hits, and even scored 2 Top 40 hits in the U.K. with “They Don’t Know” and “Don’t Talk”. He’s been out of the spotlight for a few years, but has a new album coming out on Tuesday called “Helpless Romantic”. First single “Ooh So Sexy” with Paul Wall recently debuted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks.

I won’t lie…I’ve always thought that Jon’s image was a bit contrived. He plays the urban card a little too hard sometimes, and I’ve often wondered if it hurt the way he was perceived, or how seriously he was taken. Then again, that was 10 years ago. Robin Thicke has been able to do his thing, and there is NO question that he’s a white boy. Coming from another soulful white boy, I can say that.

Although he’s probably going for some publicity here, Jon brings up a good point. Robin’s really only had one “hit” album under his belt, with “The Evolution of Robin Thicke”. The new record, “Something Else”, has done alright, but it remains to be seen whether it will have the longevity of “Evolution”. So based on one arguably amazing CD, does he really deserve the cover of an industry standard like VIBE? Hard to say, but once you get pegged with the “arrogant” tag, it’s tough to get rid of it.

I debated whether this was worth a whole entry, and then I came across a clip of a new song from another white boy that many of you might might be interested in, so that gave me some extra incentive. The leak from Mr Timberlake is called “Magic”, and I think it’s safe to say that this won’t be an actual single, with Mr Thicke having had a #1 R&B hit with a song of the same title just a couple of months ago. I suppose it gives you a taste of what he’s working on, though. That, and it’s also another good reason to post a picture of Shayne Ward, who is in the process of selling his soul to the devil to take over Justin’s musical career.

Ward of the State(s)

Posted by John on September 21, 2008
Posted in: commentary, music industry, upcoming. Tagged: . 2 Comments

With a h/t to Poster Girl, it appears that my future ex Shayne Ward has been laying down tracks in LA recently. Among the folks he’s working with are the Underdogs (Jordin Sparks, Chris Brown, Beyonce, Mario), Taio Cruz (“Like a Star”, one of this year’s most annoying pop songs), Futurecut (Lily Allen), and Karen Poole (Kylie and Dannii). Seems like a continuation of the more R&B-ish sound that he was embracing on his horribly promoted second CD. If the label is smart, and, as Shayne mentions in his last blog entry, he really IS going to give the US a serious shot, then they need to take a few songs from the last CD (such as “No U Hang Up”) and beef up the record with some radio-ready tracks. He’s a natural for the charts here, especially if JT is taking a little time off from recording.

Coming Soon…

Posted by John on August 25, 2008
Posted in: upcoming. Tagged: . 1 Comment

On the horizon for this week…reviews of new releases from Solange, Lada GaGa and Amy Grant, as well as a new weekly feature, “Pop Music Notables”, which will premiere with a profile on Ne-Yo.  You’ll also get any breaking music news and nuggets as I come across them, so make sure y’all come back soon, ya’hear?

And now, a gratuitous photo of Shayne Ward losing at strip poker…