Bette Midler says she knows why today’s youth prefer lip-synching pop tarts over the real thing, but she’s not blaming the usual suspects who lowered the bar while rising to the top. Instead, Sin City’s bawdiest showgirl is pointing a well-manicured finger at MTV.
“Video really did kill the radio star,” Midler told us after wowing a sold-out crowd with her “Showgirl Must Go On” extravaganza at The Colosseum at Caesars Las Vegas. “After MTV came along, people were seeing their favorite singers in videos, and suddenly there was a certain vision of a song – how it should sound, how it should look. Then [in concert], there was no room for improvisation – everyone wanted an exact replica.”
Teetering on impossibly high stilettos, the superslim Midler also said current pop stars make one fatal mistake: “They don’t speak. They don’t talk to their audience. They may say, ‘Hello, New York’ or ‘Hello, Las Vegas,’ in the beginning, and ‘Thank you’ in between songs, but they don’t talk. They don’t tell stories or take the time to make a connection, build a rapport. There’s no emotion.”
Perhaps Britney, Ashlee, et al. just need a few lessons from the Divine Miss M, who served up a tireless set of uptempo numbers, tear-jerker ballads, bawdy jokes and her splashy mermaid character, Delores DeLago.
Not bad for a diva who turns 63 this year. Luckily, Midler still has a boundless supply of energy – and she’ll need it. She’s now on a break until October, but thanks to a big-bucks deal with Caesars, this showgirl will go on, sequined fins and all, until 2010.
(source)
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