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z100’s Jingle Ball 2014- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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Last night z100’s, New York’s #1 hit music station, held their 2014 Jingle Ball right in the heart of New York City at the famed Madison Square Garden.  In conjunction with I Heart Radio, the concert was broadcast all over the internet with an air date on the CW to happen later on this month.  Naturally the show was sold out as it was packed with some of today’s biggest and brightest stars, all huddled under one roof to give everyone a great show and for us to have an awesome night.  Whereas there were a ton of great moments that happened throughout the night, there were some things that happened that made me puzzled, confused and wondering if it was really ok putting them there in the first place.  Take a look at what went right, and what went wrong at Jingle Ball.

The Standouts-

Taylor Swift-

Of course, Taylor was the headliner at Jingle Ballso she was the last to come out which happened around 11:45 PM, nearly four hours into the show itself.  It also happened to be Tay tay’s birthday today, so all of us got to celebrate with her on her 25th which was pretty awesome.  Honestly, Taylor is at the stage in her career where being at the top isn’t even the top, she’s further than that.  So the mini concert itself was really just a spectacle to watch and the audience craved every minute of it.  She has such great stage presence and really enjoys the interaction she has with her audience.  Only thing I was a bit confused by was why she performed two songs off of “Red” and not  all five of her songs from “1989”.  I get you wanna perform the hits, but you have enough adoring fans that know “1989” already that they would’ve been excited to hear something new as opposed to something we’ve heard for years (I was hoping she would’ve performed, “Style”.  Nope).  Otherwise, great set to end the night.

Shawn Mendes-

Maybe this is just my age as I am transitioning from the top 40 phase of my life to the WALK 97.5 stage, but Shawn Mendes was the only person on the Jingle Ball lineup that I had no clue who he actually was.  He apparently has some big song out right now that he performed last night called “Life Of The Party”, which for a guy just playing with a guitar and nothing else did a pretty good job.  The highlight was his own version of the first verse of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” which he did in a very stripped down way, and that to me was awesome.  It is good to know that someone of his tender age of 16 can research music from a different time period and take a song which is so deep and heavy and turn it into something much more light and in a way refreshing.  Hope he has a very successful career ahead.

Sam Smith-

Love him and I think he is the best thing that happened in 2014 by far.  Such a simple guy with this amazing voice that commands such a presence.  He is such a unique throwback to the yesteryears of Elton John and Billy Joel, and did such a fantastic performance of his hits “I’m Not The Only One” and “Stay With Me”.  Just like Shawn, I see a bright future for him and hope his success continues beyond this amazing year he had.

Pharrell-

Surprisingly Pharrell was the one who kicked off the night, which in past years is usually reserved for some of the smaller acts.  Pharrell spent most of his set performing hits that he was featured on such as “Blurred Lines” and “Get Lucky” but the latter two songs were his best.  Why?  The surprise announcement of his fellow “Voice” judge Gwen Stefani coming out to perform their new song “Spark The Fire”, which was freaking awesome.   Growing up Gwen was a huge music influence for me and seeing her and him perform together again was amazing.  Of course, he finished his set with “Happy” and invited a bunch of PSL’s on the stage to dance/take selfies with him.  Honestly, if I was on stage with Pharrell I would put my phone in my pocket and enjoy the experience and not do what these stupid girls did, but it’s a generational thing, so whatever.

5 Seconds of Summer/Maroon 5-

The only two “Rock” acts at Jingle Ball, and both did a pretty decent job.  Maroon 5 was great, maybe phoned it in a bit with “Animal” and “One More Night”, but I felt like they were super rushed because Jingle Ball itself had such a large lineup that many of the acts only had 10-15 minutes.  Nevertheless they were great.  5 Seconds of Summer, or 5SOS, were quite fantastic and did a great rendition of “What I Like About You”.  My hope is that they can get past the screaming girl phase and really be seen as a great band as opposed to a flash in the pan that pop seems to take in and spit out every year.

The Lowlights-

Jessie J/Meghan Trainor/Rita Ora/Nick Jonas/Charli XCX/Rixton-

I honestly felt bad for all of them, they legit got 2.5 seconds on stage and then went bye bye.  Nick and Rita I’m not shocked at.  Rita doesn’t even have a huge song here in our country, and Nick only has one song “Jealous” which he did pretty decently.  Jessie did one song “Burning Up” but came back later on in the night to perform “Bang Bang” with Ariana Grande, and Charli XCX came back after her set to do “Fancy” of course.  I just felt that all six of these artists are quite talented and had a good amount of buzz about them that they could’ve given them a little bit more stage time.  Especially Meghan Trainor, who legit rushed through quite possibly the biggest song of this year, “All About That Base”.  I get that they have to stay on schedule but I just thought it was a bit unfair to give them that little amount of time when they are all talented in their own right.

Calvin Harris-

You have had massive hits over the years with some of the biggest names in the business, and you even sing on some of your own songs.  So you got paid last night to stand on stage, press play, and yell at the audience and you weren’t even mixing.  Seriously?  Bye.

Ariana Grande-

Oh lord, where to begin.  First off, I’m begging this girl to stop wearing that stupid ponytail as she consistently looks like a 6th grader.  Want to be taken seriously?  Dress a little bit older than you have been.  Her shout out to her awful brother Frankie was another thing.  Zero connection with her audience, she giggled about tripping during her one part, and just seems very unprofessional.  Also, it seemed as if The Weeknd was supposed to perform with her on “Love Me Harder” but conspicuously wasn’t there.   I attest it to the fact that she wanted all the stage time, which further proves her diva like behavior that she has been accused of over the past year.  There is a huge difference between what she and Taylor is putting out there.  Just saying.

Iggy Azalea-

Sort of surprised that she was the second to last to perform over people I deem to be bigger and more talented than her.  Ugh.  What kills me is that she needs to figure out if she wants to be a pop artist or stay strictly rap, because her performance last night lingered both ways.  She was super bubbly and pop on “Fancy” then went the other direction on one of her better songs “Work”.  I can’t believe she didn’t censor the “Blow Job” line in that song, but to each his own.  I just read novelty all over her and hope that she figures out a game plan because the amount of respect she has in the industry as a whole is quite low for someone who had such highs this year.

Go to z100’s site for more information.

 

 

Z100’s Jingle Ball 2013- Great and Not So Great

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Mlley Twerked? Shocker z100, shocker.

As a lifelong New Yorker, I have consistently found myself zooming through each radio station to find the perfect song to jam out in the car with.  Just like an American classic like Peanut Butter and Jelly, I always know that no matter what, Z100 radio station will always find the right song for me to shake my groove thing to.  Yes my groove thing.  If you want to make fun of me or judge me, do it.  I’m awesome.  As long as I have listened to z100 I have also wanted to partake in their biggest event of the year, Jingle Ball.  This station always pulls in some of the biggest names in the industry jam packed with a ton of celebrities introducing them and this year was no exception.  Now partnered with the “iHeartRadio” with this event and more, the festivities took place last night at none other than the legendary Madison Square Garden.  The place itself was of course sold out, and as a 27 year old grown ass man I felt like I could’ve been some of these kids teen fathers, but nevertheless I had an awesome time and the whole show had a really nice vibe throughout the night.  There were some definite highlights and lowlights though, so lets take a look at who did best, and who mmmmmmmmmmmm not so much.

Lowlights-

Random, random, random celebrities.  Most of the acts got really awesome people to introduce them, such as my homegirl Jordin Sparks and the star of my new favorite movie “Pitch Perfect”, Anna Kendrick.  Then… there were others.  First the z100 crew were great, and I am a huge Elvis Duran fan as I have been since I was about 10 or 11.  But… Katie Holmes?  Really, girl?  The snarky side of me was hoping she was going to introduce a Tom Cruise lookalike and beat him up or something, but that would’ve been too much fun for even me to handle.  They introduced Travie McCoy who was somewhere in the crowd but it became more like “Where’s Waldo” in which I couldn’t find him.  Not that he was that important anyways.  Finally, and this was both a highlight and a lowlight- R. Kelly.  I don’t get what he is trying to do lately, honestly.  Is he trying to find a younger audience with doing shows like this, where most people don’t even know what his last hit record is because they weren’t born yet?  At the same time, I did find it pretty amazing that a decent portion of the crowd was jamming along to his 2000 hit “Ignition”, so that is where the odd lowlight became a highlight.  I still didn’t understand why he was there though.  Oh, and let’s not forget to mention Lindsay Lohan, who is back in trouble with the court for ordering a hit on Paris Hilton’s douchey brother.  One word- GIRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

Fifth Harmony & Austin Mahone.  Note that I didn’t include all the big teen acts in here, as the other ones were pretty much incredible.  These two, not so much.  Fifth Harmony is the girl equivalent to One Direction, in that Simon Cowell himself chose five random girls and placed them in a group.  These five made it to the final 3 on “X Factor”, a show that is crumbling in the ratings and that pretty much no one really watched last season (only for the Britney factor of course).  I felt kind of bad for them as they were legitimately on for 3 minutes.  They did their hit “Miss Moving On” and then some random song and it legit felt like they were doing “Night at the Apollo” and being rushed off the stage due to being booed.  Terrible.  Girl groups are way hard to market, and that formula really hasn’t worked in ages since the days of Destiny’s Child and Spice Girls.  Fifth Harmony really just looks like five random girls plopped together in a group and sing.  That’s pretty much it.

As for Austin Mahone, he’s got a great voice but my hope for him is that he is kind of like the Lorde to Miley, in that he’s the anti Bieber.  HE LOOKED AND SOUNDED AND DANCED EXACTLY LIKE HIM.  Great singer and all, but I think his marketing team should try to distance himself from the Bieber image so that there aren’t that many comparisons. Just saying.

Jason DeRulo- Nothing about his performance was a lowlight, Jason has a great look and voice to him.  He didn’t deserve to have the first opening slot, which in my opinion is the forgettable one.  He has been around for a long time now, and I was truly confused over who got to perform later than earlier.  Fifth Harmony should’ve been first, maybe even Enrique.  But not Jason.  z100 for the loss here, great performance.

Miley (Kind Of).  I have a love/hate type thing with Miley.  I get it, but there are times where oversaturation can come into play, and last night she continued to do so.  More twerking, more of the same.  You have a great voice, you don’t need to pull all these ridiculous shenanigans to get people to pay attention.  Just sing.  Take tips from Gaga on that.  She needs it.  Other than that, great job :).

Highlights-

Selena Gomez & Arianna Grande- These are two girls that are on their way to true superstardom, and are doing it in a way that isn’t forced and just the great reliability of their voices and looks (cough cough Miley).  Selena looked amazing in this form fitting red dress, and she performed a medley of her hits including “Love You Like A Long Song” and “Come and Get It”.  On top of that, she did some bomb ass choreography which really made her set a very flourished show.  As for Arianna, she just has that voice that really resonates of a younger Mariah Carey.  She did her own version of the popular WHAM song “Last Christmas”, and of course closed her set with her top 10 hit “The Way”.  Mac Miller sadly wasn’t there, but she made up for it by putting a simple performance and making it really great.  Good job girls!

Fall Out Boy & Paramore- Proving that alternative still has a place on top 40, these two in my opinion were the stand out bunches of the night.  Fall Out Boy, who should’ve never dismembered in the first place, put on a rousing rendition of several of their hits, my personal favorite being the closing one with “My Song Knows What You Did In the Dark”.  Really a superb performance.  I’m a big Hayley fan, and her and Paramore really did a great job with their set as well.

Pitbull- Pitbull proved last night why he is “Mr. International” because he put on the most electrifying performance of the night.  Fueled by his current chart topper “Timber” with Ke dollar sign Ha, he really got the crowd’s energy going.  Smart move by z100 by placing him somewhat in the middle of this because he really kept the crowd going for what was coming next.  His closing out song, “Give Me Everything”, was truly a spectacle to watch.  I give this dude credit for making it this long in the industry.  Well done.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- This was their year, and this was their night.  I love these guys so much, and it was great to finally see them perform live.  My favorite is of course “Same Love” which is such a great message to many people that goes beyond homophobia.  Best of the night in my opinion.

Overall, I would give the concert at 7 out of 10.  Apparently One Direction was there last year, which makes me happy I didn’t go as I would probably need a hearing aid at this point from all the screaming that occurred.  The show was good, but nothing really spectacular that I felt left me hanging for more and more.  Some of the acts should’ve gotten more stage time, and some shouldn’t have.  What did you think?  Sound off here and check out more articles like this on Manhattan Digest!