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Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson light up the season with their "Winter Song"I have a new favorite holiday song. Sure, the classics are great: “Silent Night,” “White Christmas,” “You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” But this season my heart belongs to only one “Winter Song.” It is the gorgeous, almost haunting combination of Sara Bareilles' and Ingrid Michaelson's voices that has kept me warm and cozy through the long winter's night.
And if the sweet melancholy of “Winter Song” alone wasn't enough to make you a fan, then the animated video ups the adorable ante to almost unbearable amounts. Tiny aprons, matching beds, rosy heart-shaped cheeks — heavens, the cuteness. Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson "Winter Song"
Isn't it uncanny how much Sara and Ingrid look like their delightful little doppelgangers?
The song is part of the fantastic The Hotel Cafe presents...Winter Songs, a collection of female singer-songwriters performing seasonal classics and holiday originals. Besides Sara and Ingrid, the disc includes a mix of established singers like Fiona Apple and up-and-comers like Brandi Carlile, KT Tunstall, Lenka and many more. A portion of the proceeds of album purchases and downloads go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
I'm not entirely sure what Katy Perry is doing on the album (or why she sounds hungover singing “White Christmas”). Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised since she has a habit of popping up in the most unexpected and, one could argue, unwelcome places. Regardless, Winter Songs is a lovely compilation of female voices spreading seasonal cheer.
So, have you, like me, immediately added “Winter Song” to your winter playlist? And, since 'tis the season, what are some of your other favorite holiday songs — either old, new or covers? Discuss, and have yourself a very happy holidays. Submitted by on December 24, 2008 - 11:00am. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Hotel Cafe!
In the fall when I saw a lot of these women perform together as part of the Hotel Cafe Tour, I thought it was a shame that their energy couldn't be captured in some way...and, then--voila!--the Hotel Cafe releases this album.
Overall, I really like the album. I adore Alice Smith's version of "Silver Bells" and Catherine Feeny's take on "Christmas Song." I'd forgotten how much I loved Brandi Carlile's "The Heartache Can Wait" and how Fiona Apple does a cover better than any singer I've ever heard.
My misgivings about the album are twofold: first, Katy Perry's inclusion (not just because she's Katy Perry, but because her song is actually bad) and second, that the album, even with the subversive title, Winter Songs, is so overtly a Christmas album.
I love the Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles track because it really interprets the holidays in a universal way, which, I think, in terms of crafting "new holiday songs" is becoming the way to go. Last year, William Fitzsimmons released a song in a similar vein called "Covered in Snow," which is probably my favorite holiday song.
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"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." -- Robert F. Kennedy
"Winter" Songs
I totally agree! I started wondering how many of the "Winter" songs were Christmas when I was shuffling through the CD.... Darn them.
Nonetheless, I am totally in love with "Winter Song" despite my opinion of Sara Bareilles. (I used to like Sara--I found her while watching Loving Annabelle; "Gravity" is amazing.)
What is your opinion?
Could this video BE any
Could this video BE any cuter? It makes me all fuzzy. :)
*goes to download album... sans Katy Perry's hangover track.*
l'amour trouvera en chemin.
*spew*
I love that album, it is
I love that album, it is most definitely my new favorite "winter holiday" album. I actually found out about the cd because of my uber love for SaraB and I'm in love with her and Ingrid's duet. It's beautiful.
But yea, once I found out who else was on the cd I absolutely needed it. KT Tunstall, one of my lovers and Brandi Carlile and Fiona Apple and my new love Catherine Feeny. Catherine sings "Christmas Song" (Chesnuts Roasting...) and it's amazing.
And yeaaa, Katy Perry's "White Christmas" cover is kind of really horrible. The key she was singing in was too low and it's live, not doctored at all. That was a poor decision.
___//♫♪ let your girlfriend do what your boyfriend can't
I love ingrid michaelson
I just do with all my musical heart, I`ve heard the song, but not the entire album, I will, and as good as it may be it would have been better if the ditty bops, any di franco, missy higgns and rosie thomas were in it.....I`m just saying, that would be the PERFECT albumn.
Take a sad song and make it better
omg!!!
*melts*
Awww, that was such cuteness.
It is about time...
I have been raving about this song and album for well over a month now...I cannot get enough of it!!
Winter Song..hit a little to close to home for me this year...but I can't stop listening to it.
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Voogle A Voogle Plea
sweet! Love is innate.
sweet!
Love is innate. So is stupidity.
Love the video and the song.
LOVE ingrid!
My Absolute Favorite!
Hotel Café Presents.. is on day and night in my house, in the car, on my laptop and on my mobile! Winter Song is the song most played and second is BRANDI CARLILE's The Heartache Can Wait. I heard Winter Song the first time on Jay Leno and fell in love! Had to get the album when both it and Brandi was on it.
And aww! The video! Totally cute. Don't like the spring in the end though.
Katy Perry is probably
Katy Perry is probably included because she was a regular performer at Hotel Cafe, a fabulous music venue in LA.
All of these artists, except for maybe Fiona Apple, played regularly at Hotel Cafe. Actually, I'm not sure about Brandi Carlile. I actually used to take my kids there before it turned into a strictly 21 and over place. A lot of up and comers have played there-- Missy Higgins has typically played at least 4 shows (two over one night) when she has a US show
We get it
Okay, we get it. We really do get it: you and most of the AfterEllen bloggers despise Katy Perry. Could you all just give it a rest already? It's getting old and tired and incredibly annoying. Some of us are actually more sick to death of the Katy Perry bashing than you are of her songs.
For what it's worth, and yes I know I'm a fan and my opinion will be immediately dismissed, but Katy Perry's version of White Christmas is amazing.
Firstly, she has a contralto voice. Contralto. She sings deep and throaty and sexy hot. It's a purr. That's what her voice is. Read up on it. I'll say it again really slow, just so you don't miss it: con-tral-to.
Secondly, her version of White Christmas is about as old school, smoky, lazy diction female jazz as you can get. It's a style that some of us really appreciate.
While I wouldn't put Katy Perry in the same class as any of these women (yet), go listen to some Billie Holiday or Nina Simone or Carmen McRae or Ella Fitzgerald or Betty Carter or, hell, even Janis Joplin. Want something contemporary? Listen to Amy Winehouse or if she's too potentially drug affected for you, listen to Scarlett Johannson do Summertime. Smoky jazz. I'll say it again too: smo-ky jazz. It's a style. If you don't get it, fine. If you don't like it, fine. But why single Katy Perry out for criticism on this album? Is it because you don't like her version of the song or is it just that you don't like her no matter what the hell she does?
Please also explain to me why she is "unwelcome" on this album?? She's on it because she's performed at Hotel Cafe. Why is she unwelcome?
If you are all so contemptuous of Katy Perry, why even mention her on this website at all? Why not make this a Katy Perry free zone? That way you don't give her any more publicity than she already has and you don't offend those of us who do like her - or is it that she is good press for AfterEllen too?
Oh, I give up. I'm so over it. I'm going to listen to Katy. Hopefully while I'm doing that some of you will grow up a bit.
I think this was well said
Oh
Katy Perry made two records ("Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl") that a lot of people, myself included, found to be homophobic and because she's in the business of mocking our community through song, posts and comments mocking her in return are the least that she deserves.
Her track on the Winter Songs compilation is bad--not because everything Katy Perry does is bad (though, it may be), but because the track is bad. The sound quality of the track is terrible--if it was recorded live, that's an explanation. I'm mean just the aural difference between Meiko's "Maybe Next Year" and Perry's "White Christmas" are palpable. On top of that, Perry's attempts at vocal runs fall flat (particularly around the second minute) and, at times, it sounds like she slurs the words.
You can try to deflect criticism by calling it contralto or smoky jazz, but really, it's just bad. I don't think I've read a single review of the album that's said otherwise.
(Sidenote: Dianne Reeves is smoky jazz. Katy Perry most certainly is not. She may have inflections of the style--she may even do a full track or two utilizing it--but she is not smoky jazz...any more than Mary J. Blige rapping on "MJB da MVP" makes her an emcee.)
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"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." -- Robert F. Kennedy
Katy Perry made two records
Katy Perry made two records ("Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl") that a lot of people, myself included, found to be homophobic and because she's in the business of mocking our community through song, posts and comments mocking her in return are the least that she deserves.
But this is the part that I don't understand. I don't find "I kissed a girl" and "Ur So Gay" mocking at all. Straight girls do girl on girl experiemental stuff all the time, theres nothing wrong with writing a song about it. There's no hidden, homophobic meaning behind it, It's just a fun, flirty song. No more and no less really. Hell, some could say she's mocking the behavior of straight girls willing to kiss eachother for the benefit of guys, not lesbians.
As far as "Ur So Gay" goes, she's mocking her very metro ex, not the gay community. Not much else to say about the song.
I wanted to like it...
I though I Kissed a Girl was funny and, just as you said, mocking straight girls who are two-shot gays to turn on their boyfriends.
And I've found her other new single to be goofy pop fun. I'm not awed by her voice, but laid back stuff to dance to has its place.
I hadn't heard Ur So Gay, so I just read the lyrics. I wanted to find it innocent so I could listen to her other stuff without getting annoyed, but it is absolutely offensive.
Yes, she is mocking her metro ex, but she does it by comparing him to gay men. That is absolutely offensive. Insulting someone by saying they act gay? How is that not wrong?
I've got to agree with the GLSEN ad campaign and say that using gay as an insult is hurtful and wrong.
Also, I can't speak for the blog writer, but I assumed the comment about her popping up in surprising and unwelcome places was a reference to Dina Shore and the cover of Out.
But rather than bash Perry, I'll just not buy her music and instead invest more time and money into my Brandi Carlile obsession. If you haven't heard that woman live, you are missing something truly spectacular. The way her voice filled the entire arts center with What Can I Say unplugged... damn.
Most of her songs
are hilarious if you listen to them with your brain half dead like I do everytime her songs show up on shuffle. But it's understandable that many Lesbians and Bisexuals are offended by her 'I kissed a girl' song, because she sort of put the icing on the cake with the Bisexual=promiscuity and the I do it because it's sexy, hot, and a fad to be Bi image that exist in todays society. And as a Lesbian, I think that with the wide acceptance that this song got, it means that a large majority of people identify being a Lesbian as a choice or something that I got carried away with as oppose to just a one night thing, that it's suppose to be, like Katy sings about in her song. And she should be criticized for it. She personally probably isn't homophobic and looks like great fun, but to me you're no artist when you lack creativity in your lyrics and can't sound like you do on your albums live. But that's just my opinion, which is why I love artists like Sara B and Ingrid Michealson, you can tell they put a lot of effort into their lyrics at the same time sound great on stage. But I also feel that with so many things in the entertainment world, there's not much you can enjoy if your brain is on all the time. And it saddens me to say that, but it's the unfortunate truth.
Katy Perry's album
My two bits worth...
I'm not a fan of Katy Perry's persona, in the brash and sexually overt way she appears to present herself in public. I'm a prude and so I just don't like it : )
But personality differences aside, I bought her album and it's one of my favourites. It's an unbelievably strong debut, and songs like 'Hot 'n' Cold and Waking Up in Vegas far outshine the two singles she's known for.
In the cold-hearted music world I'm going to try not to criticize what someone does to get attention (I forgave Madonna for years after all). Instead, I'll listen to the music I enjoy and Katy's album is worthy of far more attention than her antics suggest!
Winter Song
gorgeous song...
why cant i find it on hype machine?!??
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http://rightmindleftcoast.wordpress.com
Love this song! But, hey, I
Love this song! But, hey, I love sad songs =)
Of course, there are only a few that I would put on my iPod (specifically this one and Fiona Apple, love that woman), and also meiko (maybe just because she sounds like Jem).
Katy Perry's sounds bad because she is live. I'm not defending her and I'm not a fan, but I do think she can compete singing-wise with some of the other ladies on the album. It's not so much the fault of Katy, but the studio who made the CD.
Oh, one last thing. Did I mention I love Fiona Apple?
I love Sara!
Aw.
Aw, this has been my favorite for a while now :) They are the cutest together.
My friend and I recently covered this song for our school's winter-themed Coffe House, and it was super sweet.
cute cute
igoogle themes
I really loved this song. The animation style reminded me a little of the Moomins T.V series from the early eighties if anyone can remember that.
I just found that Sarah has a theme posted for iGoogle which can be found at
http://www.google.co.uk/help/ig/art/artists/bareilles.html
!
i love both these ladies' music and this song does not disappoint.
it's luscious and wintry! what a perfect space to run inside of during the holiday mania for a few minutes of bliss.
i'm not sure if anyone above posted this, but here's a little studio sesh footage of them working on the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU-x9fZRQT4
I haven't watched the video
I haven't watched the video but these illustrations caught my eye. They are adorable. I guess I'll be stocking up for next years christmas music :)
"B* I don't know your life!"
Uncanny resemblance to Chris Williamson's voice...
I really like the song and
that video was adorable!!
*Sweet!*