One of the things we've learned form season one of POSE is just how talented MJ Rodriguez is.
Hopefully after this year's season, she'll get some Emmy Award consideration and maybe even snatch a trophy this time.
But one of the revelations about Rodriguez is that girlfriend can 'sang'. The 'Love Is The Message' episode in which she and Tony award winner Billy Porter, who plays Pray Tell, sang the song 'Home' from The Wiz in a room full of AIDS patients had me shedding tears by the time it was over.
Here they are again with Our Lady J at piano singing it again at the Trevor Foundation's TrevorLive event in Los Angeles back in December 2018.
Watching that Deutsche Welle AfroGermany documentary and perusing the results of the recent German federal elections made me wonder what has been going on with Kim Petras lately..
Kim was the youngest person in Germany at age 12 to begin her transition, and the now 24 year old has been busy building her music career in her birth nation and in Europe.
She now has her sights set on conquering the US music market and has released a new song entitled 'I Don't Want It At All'
Another iconic singer from my childhood has gone. Was shocked to hear that iconic singer Natalie Cole joined the ancestors last night at age 65 die to persistent health complications.
I remember when I first heard her breakout hit from her debut gold album Inseparable. The Top Ten hit 'This Will Be'from that album was dominating my radio in May 1975 and I recall being surprised to hear that it was Nat King Cole's daughter singing it.
She was born on February 6, 1950 in Los Angeles to musical royalty. In addition to her father being one of the iconic singers of the post World War II era, her mother Maria sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. She was singing on her father's Christmas album at age 6 and began performing at age 11. But after her father's untimely death in 1965, she turned away from music and graduated with a degree in child psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1972.
Cole was soon after graduation singing in small clubs with her band Black Magic, but refused to do her father's material. She was discovered by Chicago based music producers Marvin Yancy and Chuck Jackson who wrote many of her early songs.
Cole would become an instant star, winning the first two of her nine career Grammys in 1976, when she won the Best New Artist Grammy and another one for Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for 'This Will Be'. Her subsequent albums Natalie (1976) and Unpredictable (1977) hit gold and platinum status respectively and she was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979.
Serious drug addition problems derailed that early success to the point Cole entered rehab in 1983, but she reemerged in 1987 with the comeback album Everlasting. The success of that album, with three number one singles, set her up for the monster 1991 success of Unforgettable..With Love.
That album featured the technology assisted duet with her late father singing 'Unforgettable' that helped her sweep the three major Grammy categories in 1992 and sold seven million copies in the US.
She's had persistent health problems due to a kidney transplant and battling hepatitis C, and had canceled several December 2015 events due to illness.
But like her father, Natalie Cole will be an unforgettable music icon to me and all the people who loved her music, and may she rest in power and peace.
When this happened back on June 18, I was in the middle of having to move, my laptop computer was packed up and offline, and I had no choice but to put the story on the back burner until my housing situation stabilized and I could talk about this piece of trans history.
Meet 25 year old Breanna Sinclairé. She is a classically trained operatic vocalist who graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. On the occasion of Athletics Pride Night, she received the opportunity to sing the national anthem before a crowd of 30,000 people attending the A's game at the O.co with the San Diego Padres.
She may be the first out trans person ever to sing the national anthem (that we are aware of) at a major sporting event. And she nailed it.
“It means a lot. I feel very honored,” Sinclairé told the Associated Press
of the experience. “I used to be homeless in New York City. I think
from being homeless to getting my bachelor’s degree and my master’s
degree to this, it’s just kind of mesmerizing to me to have such a group
of people that support me and love me and want to see me succeed. I’m
so thankful for them.”
Told y'all if we trans peeps are just given the opportunity to achieve our dreams, we will excel.
Brava Breanna! And here's some video of Breanna's performance
Too bad I won't be able to be there to see it, but for those of you in the Washington DC metro area, you'll get an opportunity to enjoy hearing Tona Brown sing this Friday.
My mezzo-soprano singing sis, who has not only performed for audiences around the world and has the distinction of being the first trans person to perform for a sitting president, will be performing in the role of Principessa in the Puccini one act opera Suor Angelica being presented by the Singers' Theater of Washington. .
“I
am honored to be part of this production,” says Brown, “I love doing
opera, and working with such amazing people. - See more at:
http://ikonsmagazine.com/2014/03/tona-brown-perform-dc-area-opera/#sthash.4CzNJE3X.dpuf
"I am honored to be part of this production", says Brown. "I love doing opera and I love working with such amazing people."
You'll get the opportunity to see her on Friday and Saturday March 14 and 15 starting at 7:30 PM EDT at Convergence in Alexandria,VA.
The tickets are $20, and $15 for students and seniors.and can be purchased here if you're interested in attending and supporting our sis and checking her out..
