Legendary soul singer Etta James ranted about Beyonce having “no business” singing her song during the inauguration at a recent concert in Seattle. The 71 year-old singer didn’t seem to like our new President either saying:
“You guys know your President right? You know the one with the big ears? Yeah, wait a minute, he ain’t ma President. He might be yours…he ain’t ma President….but I tell ya’ that woman he has singing for him, singing ma song, she gonna get her ass whipped…..the great Beyonce…..but I can’t stand Beyonce, she has no business up there singing, singing up there on a…a big ol’…a big ol’ President day. Gonna be singing ma song that I been singing forever.”
Blindie wonders what Ms. James thought of her portrayal by “the great Beyonce” in Cadillac Records.
The so-called Oscar buzz swirling around Beyonce’s portrayal of legendary singer Etta James in Cadillac Records is turning out to be much a buzz about nothing.
With an appearance in practically the last half of the film and an extremely watered-down portrayal of James’ drug addiction (we’ve seen grittier on a Law and Order opening sequence), we’re wondering who started all the Oscar talk about the singer’s performance. Oh right, it was that Essence article quoting Beyonce’s acting coach—and yes, we’re guilty of populating the buzz.
To set the record straight: If anyone from the Cadillac cast is worthy of an Oscar nod it has to be Eamonn Walker. His powerful performance as the clean-living, righteous blues legend Howlin’ Wolf was superb.
Walker did his own singing in the film and tells AOL Black Voices that he prepared for the role by researching the little-known, yet highly influential music man.
We hope Eamonn Walker gets to reprise his role as Howlin’ Wolf if a biopic on the gravelly-voiced singer is ever produced.
Beyonce Knowles has been cast as the legendary singer Eartha Kitt in a biopic of the entertainer’s life, according to ABC News.
Even though the 79-year-old singer once suggested Academy Award winner Halle Berry portray her on screen saying, “I do not think I have quite the derriere of Beyonce. Give me Halle Berry instead,” in the SFGate.com, she did express approval that the former Destiny Child had taken an interest in starring in her life story.
Kitt is best known for her role as Catwoman in the Batman television series during the 1960s, a distinctive throaty singing voice and her signature purr. She has chronicled her rise from meager beginings in North Carolina to stardom on the stage and screen in her autobiograpies Thursday’s Child (1956), Alone With Me (1976), and I’m Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).
Knowles, who is already creating Oscar buzz for her portrayal of famed singer Etta James in the upcoming film Cadillac Records, will also star in the thriller Obsessed alongside Idris Elba and Ali Larter next year.
Beyonce’s acting coach Ivana Chubbuck is already starting the Oscar buzz for Beyonce’s performance as Etta James in the upcoming film Cadillac Records.
“I remember after Monster’s Ball thinking, ‘Halle’s going to get an Oscar nomination.’ I feel that way about Beyonce in this film. I think there is going to be some Oscar buzz around her; she’s just that great,” Chubbuck says in the November issue of Essence.
The chart-topper has already won the approval of the legendary singer. “It’s a privilege and an honor to have somebody like that girl,” Etta James told New York Post‘s Page Six. “I don’t think she looks like me, but that’s all right. They can fix that up,”
Cadillac Records (due in December) tells the story of the rise and fall of the Chicago based R&B label Chess Records and also stars Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters and Mos Def as Chuck Berry.
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