I was just watching a re-run of Janis Joplin's "Biography" episode on A&E recently. And they were interviewing Tom Jones. He spoke of the duet he and Janis performed in 1969 - a song called "Raise Your Hand." He said that at the end of the performance, she told him, "Wow, you can really sing." Tom has thought they were just doing what he called a "scream up" or "scream out" (I'm not sure what he called it exactly), but she really considered that singing. That lead me to think of Christina Aguilera's performances, in particular her showstopper at the 2007 Grammys, when she sang James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's Man's World." (Which was ranked the #3 most memorable Grammy performance of all-time.) I wonder what Janis would think of Christina. Like Janis, Christina had a hard childhood and dealt with a lot of rejection among her peers.
They have different styles, yes, but are both soul singers.
Thoughts?
Tags: aguilera, Christina, janis, joplin