Monday, July 30, 2012

Bongo Star Search: Last Minute Singing Audition Tips

Don’t let your nerves get the better of you. Breathing just before you audition helps to blow away all the cobwebs and also helps to calm you down. The last thing you want is to be huffing and puffing in front of the judge. I know it can be quite nerve wrecking to sing when you’re being judged on your performance, all the more reason why you need to calm down in order to perform as flawlessly as possible. Here are a few breathing tips that may come in handy.

Before you go on to perform, take a deep breath in through the mouth to fill your abdominal area whilst gradually dropping the jaw like you do when you yawn. Count to eight on your way up and then close your mouth and hold your breath for another eight beats; and then release that breath in a controlled fashion with a hiss—and count to sixteen. It’s that simple. Do this several times. Oh, and remember, before each note, make sure you have enough breath—just breathe in like you did in the above example, only this time you breathe just before you hit the note. Don’t dither, don’t waste any time. Drink that breath, and then hit the note with a fresh breath. If you hang around holding the breath before you hit the note, something happens that somewhat causes your breath to deflate, and when that happens you will deliver a week note. It's inevitable. If you’re auditioning at Bongo Star Search this week, stay cool and remember to breathe. Your vocal delivery depends on it. Best of luck!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

JOETT
Radio Presenter, Recording Artist & Vocal Coach

Download Joett tracks from iTunes, Amazon MP3, TuneCore.
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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Diana Ross is The Boss On Boogie Today

I have wanted to feature Diana Ross for a while. Well , I guess this is it! I've just finished running through the playlist and making sure everything is in order--especially with the Motown selection coming up in the second hour. Phew! That was hard work I tell ya. So many GREAT songs, but I wanted to keep it all up-tempo on par with the rather hectic Diana Ross playlist. Tracks on the Diana Ross The Boss album are as follows: No One Gets The Prize, I Ain't Been Licked, All for One, The Boss, Once In The Morning, It's My House, Sparkle, I'm In The World. I also ran through the Diana Ross interview from 1975 earlier. OMG, vintage stuff. You're gonna love it! Also coming up in the first hour of the show so PLEASE don't miss!

Motown legends in the Airtel-sponsored second hour of the show will include, Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Commodores, The Temptations, Thelma Houston, The Miracles, The Supremes...this segment rocks! Believe me. I can't wait to share all this GREAT music with you. There's more on Diana Ross and Motown in my article Diana Ross to Headline Motown Weekend On Boogie that appeared in Business Times on Friday 13 July 2012.

Be sure to tune in to Times 100.5 FM from 6pm Sunday East Africa Time, Or Listen live on stream at timesfm.co.tz For International listeners, view World Time Zone Map for current time in your area.

Thanks for visiting my blog, catch up with you on the show!

JOETT
Radio Presenter, Recording Artist & Vocal Coach

Download Joett tracks from iTunes, Amazon MP3, TuneCore.
Buy Joett CDs from A Novel Idea Bookstores Dar, Zanzibar, Arusha.
Nationwide CD distribution via Business Times, Majira and SPOTIstarehe.
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Friday, July 13, 2012

Diana Ross to Headline Motown Weekend On Boogie

By Joett -- Boogie Presenter on Times 100.5 FM (Published in Business Times 13/7/2012) -- The disco album The Boss by Diana Ross, originally released on Motown in May 1979, is to headline Motown Weekend on retro radio show Boogie on Times 100.5 FM this Sunday from 6pm. Featuring, among others, her epic tracks No One Gets The Prize, All For One, The Boss and It’s My House, the one-hour segment will include a vintage interview with superstar Diana Ross, recorded in 1975. Diana Ross has had an illustrious career in show business, cut hugely successful records with the Supremes and as a solo artist. She picked up a Grammy award this year and, famously, Michael Jackson named his mother as guardian of his children and named soul legend Diana Ross as a back-up. His will read… "If Katherine Jackson fails to survive me, or is unable or unwilling to act as guardian, I nominate Diana Ross as guardian..." And in the Airtel-sponsored second hour of the show, Motown Weekend kicks in with a selection of Diana Ross’s Motown label mates… including Smokey Robinson, Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, The Commodores, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Kendricks, Thelma Houston and The Temptations to name but a few.

In last week’s show (July 8th), I featured Madonna’s first album Madonna, released in 1983. In the second hour I featured 80s pop tracks by various artists… including Lisa Stansfield, Princess, Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Miami Sound Machine, The Jacksons, Taylor Dayne and Milli Vanilli.   In my closing notes I let slip what was to come in next Sunday’s Boogie radio show. Trust me, I don’t normally do this. I like to keep my playlist under wraps until the day of the show when I post that on my blog at joettmusic.com just hours before I go on air.

Diana Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that has included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), for which she won a Golden Globe award. She has won seven American Music Awards, was honored with a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 18 number one records in the United States. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Ross is one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of The Supremes. In December 2007, she received the Kennedy Center Honors.

Motown is a record company originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit. Now headquartered in New York City, Motown is a subsidiary of The Island Def Jam Music Group, itself a subsidiary of the French-owned Vivendi subsidiary, Universal Music Group. Motown Records was also the name of Gordy's second record label; the first, Tamla Records, began on January 12, 1959. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music, by achieving a crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its soul-based subsidiaries were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as The Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence.

Motown has owned or distributed releases from more than 45 subsidiaries in varying genres, although it is most famous for its releases in the music genres of rhythm and blues, soul and pop. Gordy relocated Motown Records to Los Angeles in 1972 and there it remained an independent company until June 28, 1988, when Gordy sold the company to MCA and Boston Ventures (which took over full ownership of Motown in 1991), then to PolyGram in 1994, before being sold again to MCA Records' successor Universal Music Group, when it acquired The PolyGram Group. As of summer of 2011, Motown has been reactivated under The Island Def Jam Music Group division of Universal Music Group.

This weekend on Boogie will be particularly interesting. Especially because the Queen Of Motown Diana Ross blends tremendously well with fellow Motown artists of the time on the playlist I’ve selected for the show. I have wanted to do this for quite a while. To listen to superb, digitally re-mastered 70s disco 80s pop imports, tune in to Boogie on Times 100.5 FM, or listen live on stream at www.timesfm.co.tz from 6pm Sundays. Presented by myself (a reinvented 80s pop singer) with DJ Cue on the decks, and sponsored by Airtel, Business Times, Majira and SPOTIstarehe, Boogie is fast becoming a great way to spend Sunday evenings chilling out with friends to reminisce on the good old days. For regular blog updates, playlists and to link on to Boogie TZ on Facebook, visit www.joettmusic.com

Be sure to tune in to Times 100.5 FM from 6pm Sunday East Africa Time, Or Listen live on stream at timesfm.co.tz For International listeners, view World Time Zone Map for current time in your area.

Thanks for visiting my blog, catch up with you on the show!

JOETT
Radio Presenter, Recording Artist & Vocal Coach

Download Joett tracks from iTunes, Amazon MP3, TuneCore.
Buy Joett CDs from A Novel Idea Bookstores Dar, Zanzibar, Arusha.
Nationwide CD distribution via Business Times, Majira and SPOTIstarehe.
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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Madonna "Burning Up" Boogie with Her First Album from 1983

On today’s Boogie radio show, we feature the reigning queen of pop Madonna’s self-titled multimillion-selling debut album from 1983. We’ve also got some hectic dance hits from the 1980s coming up in the Airtel sponsored second hour. Madonna is the self-titled debut album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on July 27, 1983 by Sire Records. The album was re-released in 1985 for the European market and re-packaged as The First Album.

In 1982, while establishing herself as a singer in Downtown New York, Madonna met Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records, who was impressed by her singing, after listening to her single "Everybody" at a hospital in Lenox Hill where he was admitted. Madonna was ultimately signed for two 12" singles. The 12" version of "Everybody" was produced by Mark Kamins at Blank Tapes Studios in New York, who took over the production work from Steve Bray. The new recording ran 5:56 on one side and 9:23 for the dub version on the reverse side. Madonna and Kamins had to record the single at their own cost. The success of the single prompted Sire Records to sign her for an album's deal.

For the album, Madonna chose to work with Reggie Lucas, a Warner Bros. producer. However, she was not happy with the completed tracks and disagreed with Lucas's production techniques, so decided to seek additional help with the production. Madonna then invited her boyfriend at the time, John "Jellybean" Benitez, to help her finish the album. Benitez remixed many of the tracks and produced "Holiday".

Contemporary critics have applauded the album, but Madonna was dismissed by some critics when it was released in 1983. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named it as the fifth of "Top 100 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years." The album was successful on the charts, reaching number eight on the Billboard 200, and the top ten of the charts in Australia, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It was certified five-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipment of five million copies across the United States. Worldwide the album has sold more than ten million copies.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Madonna is the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and the second top-selling female artist in the United States, with 64 million certified albums. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked her at number two, behind only The Beatles, on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making her the most successful solo artist in the history of the chart. She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the same year. In 2012, she was crowned the "Greatest Woman In Music" by VH1.

Be sure to tune in to Times 100.5 FM from 6pm Sunday East Africa Time, Or Listen live on stream at timesfm.co.tz For International listeners, view World Time Zone Map for current time in your area.

Thanks for visiting my blog, catch up with you on the show!

JOETT
Radio Presenter, Recording Artist & Vocal Coach

Download Joett tracks from iTunes, Amazon MP3, TuneCore.
Buy Joett CDs from A Novel Idea Bookstores Dar, Zanzibar, Arusha.
Nationwide CD distribution via Business Times, Majira and SPOTIstarehe.
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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Imagination and Atlantic Starr Land On Boogie

On today’s show: a special feature on the albums In The Heat Of The Night by Imagination and Atlantic Starr – The Ultimate Collection! Imagination were a three piece British soul and funk band, who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They had chart hits in 28 countries, earning four platinum discs, nine gold discs and more than a dozen silver discs around the world between 1981 and 1983. Atlantic Starr was a 1980s R&B band. Among their biggest hits were "Always" and "Secret Lovers." Singer Leee John was working as a backing vocalist for The Delfonics, Chairmen of the Board, The Velvelettes and The Elgins when he met Ashley Ingram, a guitarist/bassist (born 27 November 1960, in Northampton). John and Ingram formed a songwriting partnership, resolving to start their own 'slinky, sexy and erotic' group, working in a short-lived band called Fizzz. Whilst auditioning for another short-lived band, Midnight Express, they met drummer Errol Kennedy (born 9 June 1953, in Montego Bay) who’d learned to drum in the Boys' Brigade and Air Training Corps.


Atlantic Starr was a 1980s R&B band. Among their biggest hits were "Always" and "Secret Lovers." The group was started in 1976, in Greenburgh, New York, by trumpeter Duke Jones (who left the band prior to their first recordings), with drummer Porter Carroll Jr., bassist Clifford Archer, percussionist and flutist Joseph Phillips, Sheldon Tucker [on Guitar] and three brothers: David Lewis (vocals), Wayne Lewis (keyboards and vocals), and Jonathan Lewis (percussion and trombone). Other members of the band were lead singer Sharon Bryant (who was later replaced by Barbara Weathers), trumpeter William Sudderth, and saxophonist Damon Rentie (who was replaced by Koran Daniels). In 1977, the band came to Westwood, California, and performed on the nightclub scene under the name "Newban" which they agreed to change at the request of A&M record executive Herb Alpert when they were signed. The word "Atlantic" was chosen because of their east coast roots. The nine-member band were now A&M employees.

Be sure to tune in to Times 100.5 FM from 6pm Sunday East Africa Time, Or Listen live on stream at timesfm.co.tz For International listeners, view World Time Zone Map for current time in your area.

Thanks for visiting my blog, catch up with you on the show!

JOETT
Radio Presenter, Recording Artist & Vocal Coach

Download Joett tracks from iTunes, Amazon MP3, TuneCore.
Buy Joett CDs from A Novel Idea Bookstores Dar, Zanzibar, Arusha.
Nationwide CD distribution via Business Times, Majira and SPOTIstarehe.
Follow me on Twitter
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