Ceu’s sweet summer sangria

Your drums, your love

Woman of the Year

She sings. She dances. She writes. She conceptualizes. She raps. She rocks. She rolls. She does great videos and sings live. She is an android called Cindy Mayweather living in an elaborate space opera. She has astounding hair control. She refuses to take her tuxedo off to sell records. And she is a bright, shining talent. The woman of 2010, without any question, is Janelle Monae.

2009: Lady Gaga

2008: Amy Winehouse

Luisa Maita – new Sao Paulo voice

She’s a rockstar

Over the weekend I went to see the limp new “Sex in the City” movie and came out wondering how the project got greenlighted. Who wrote the script (and how much they got paid for it?) I could have done a better job, bashing away on my macbook after work. In my version, Samantha’s PR agency would have been on the lookout for a hot new act for a big party or premiere (cue a succession of stylish emerging stars – Janelle Monae perhaps, and a scene where the shaved-headed ICONIQ belts out “Like a Virgin” at a party somewhere in a prom dress with a big corsage). And then finally the *discovery* would be made -and it would be Shingai Shoniwa. She could have given a whole fresh blast to the sagging middleaged, but supposedly fashion-fabulous,  franchise. Because Shingai IS fashion. And rock n roll.

Raised in London by her Zimbabwean mother (“Shingai” means “to persevere” in Shona), the statuesque beauty is singer of the formerly punk rock and lately more soulful band, “the Noisettes”. Below, she covers the Buzzcocks “Have You Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn’t Have Fallen In Love With?” for a Doc Martens corporate promo.

Described by the New York Times as “an African supermodel” Shoniwa has the looks, the voice,  a fierce sense of fashion and the hard-rockin attitude to become a major icon of our times. One of my regrets from last year’s Europe trip was that I foolishly missed an event in London where the Noisettes performed with dragqueen club maven Jodie Harsh and MPHO (whose own debut, set to become one of my albums of the year, seems to have vanished into some nightmarish record company mire). What a party?! How could I have let that one slip through my fingers?

Still it could be worse. I could’ve been a writer on “Sex in the City”.

Lee Jung Hyun-Crazy MV

Lee Jung Hyun is a Korean star belonging to that specific set of Asian female singers who have very little in the way of natural ability, but are packaged beyond belief and look absolutely amazing at all times.

As with other members of this pack (Ayumi Hamasaki, Sammi Cheng) she is fond of slightly surreal live performances featuring not only back-up dancers but mimes, odd sets and fashion parades, and goes in for bizarre promotional gimmicks and novelties.

She has recently changed her name (its now “Ava”) and released too different songs – both with the same name, “Crazy”.

And: bonus! Both come with very gay videos. There is the surprisingly raunchy, beefcake-fest ( subservient dudes in white speedos) first video, and the more usual Korean melodramatic ballet-dancer-in-a-wheelchair-feeling-suicidal second one (although that also comes with an interesting twist).

And I love the production company: “Faux-Riche entertainment”!

Lee Jung Hyun – Crazy

Choooooon!!!!!!!!!!

Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer ( Fanmade Video)

“Throw your iPod out of the window, delete everything in your computer’s iTunes library and set fire to any remaining CDs, records and tapes: there is only one song you will need between now and the end of 2009.

1. It’s the new Freemasons single.

2. It’s also the new Sophie Ellis-Bextor single.”

This was a reaction to the leaking of “Heartbreak, Make Me a Dancer” by the normally fairly laidback “Popjustice” site. Of course, who doesn’t love Sophie Ellis Bextor?

And the Freemasons, purveyors of pumping gay house mixes, have the Midas touch of the moment. They touched up Beyonce, worked magic on sister Solange’s “I Decided” and co-wrote Kylie’s best recent single, “The One” .

“Heartbreak..” was debuted (appropriately enough) when the pair dropped it into their set at the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras while DJing there. Here is a link to a brief preview (via Popjustice) here.

A cover version of Roisin Murphy’s “Off and On” will be the B-side!

Lira – “Wa Mpaleha”

Sesotho R&B from new South African singer Lira

Roberta Sá – “Interessa?”

The latest honey-voiced samba star, Roberta Sá . My friend in Rio, Junior, predicts she will get huge in 2009.

Star!

ปาล์มมี่ – ปล่อย (Palmy- Ploy)

One of my favorite random moments in Bangkok: a chance encounter in a restaurant with my favorite Thai pop star: Thai-Australian hippy-chick, Palmy! She is also one of the country’s best known entertainers, with her sweetly melodic pop rock songs and 70s throwback stoner fashions.

So imagine my surprise, when on my second night in the country,I spotted her sitting a few tables away at an Ibiza-style chill-out restaurant/bar near Khao San Road. Was it..? Could it be…?

I was too shy, but Daisuke marched over and asked her “excuse me, are you Palmy?”

But come to think of it – where better for a Westernized counterculture girl to hang out, than here with her global peers, in a place she is unlikely to be recognised or hassled (um…except by me) ?

She was lovely – very gracious and with a total Aussie accent and attitude.

Woman of the moment

SANTOGOLD – INTERVIEW FOR CREATOR VIDEO SHOOT (NEVER RELEASED)

Awwww…she is charming!

Asa

Asa – Fire On The Mountain

New French/ Nigerian singer  Asa (pronounced “Asha” apparently) is getting a big marketing push with her debut album “Next” . I wonder who decided accoustic folk-reggae was going to be the next big thing?  Its an addictive song though – simple, sweet and perfect for an early Summers day walking through Shibuya.

MÁRCIO NEY FOTOS – NEGRA LI – VC VAI ESTAR NA MINHA

Plus; last year’s pop sensation in Brazil, Negra Li (its actually short for Negra Libre or “free black woman”). It hadnt occurred to me how odd it was that a hugely musical largely black nation should be without its own Beyonce-like R&B star…well, here she is! I particularly like her appearnance below in a gay-themed safe sex public announcement when she pounces out from behind a door as a cute boy heads off to meet his boyfriend, and his parents remind him to take a condom!