Dueling divas: Etta James 'can't stand' Beyonce

Dark Knight

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LOS ANGELES – We saw Beyonce play Etta James. We probably won't soon see the singing divas duet. The 71-year-old singer says in an audio clip that surfaced online Thursday that she would "whip" Beyonce for singing "her song" "At Last" at an inaugural ball for President Barack Obama.

"The great Beyonce ... I can't stand Beyonce," James said in the clip from a Jan. 31 concert at the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam, British Columbia.

"She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_en_mo/people_etta_james
 
I thought it was in poor taste too. Especially for someone like Etta James. She's a classic. It would have been fine for her to voice her disappointment but not in the way that she did. I think it would have been nice if she had been asked to sing the song instead of Beyonce but she wasn't.

Something I found out yesterday that I thought was interesting is that it wasn't her song in the first place. I think they said it was Glen Miller's.
 
I had to look up who wrote the song because I knew that Glenn Miller performed it but I wasn't sure if he wrote it. (Love big band and jazz, but I'm not as informed about the performers as my brother who is a guest music critic for his local paper...that was way OT sorry)

Anyway the song was written for a film (love old movies too :)) called Orchestra Wives, can't say that I've seen that one. It was written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren. Glenn Miller performed it then Nat King Cole covered it, and then Etta James.

For Etta the song is considered a signature song, and I have to agree no one else's version does it the justice that Mizz James' version does. It's iconic (to me at least)

Now to comment on Etta's response to Beyonce performing "her" song by saying (varying reports) "I can't stand her" to "I'm gonna whup her @22"....

All I can say is LOLLOLLOL

What a fiesty ol' broad. They dont' make them like that anymore and I would bet Beyonce giggled about it too.

I keep in mind that Etta is 71. She might be a young and hip 71 or she might in her personal life be starting to experience some of what goes along with reaching that age. I don't know what her mental state is, but it would have been fantastic if they had asked her to sing that song at the ball.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/zwecker/1416332,CST-FTR-zp06.article

" As for James' biting remarks, a couple of family members have been quoted as saying they may have been the result of ''over-medication'' for an undisclosed ailment."



Bless her and I hope she lives a lot longer, as for Beyonce she is young and beautiful and having a diva like Ms. James say she wants to beat your @22 is great PR. :D
 
They say things come in 3s... at the recent finale of Gypsy, Patti Lupone stopped in the middle of a song, breaking character, to put a diva smackdown on an audience member... and now Etta goes bat**** crazy with a diva smackdown of Beyonce. Who's next?!?!?! LoL
 
Maybe Beyonce did something or said something when they met that she didn't like.

In the rant, Etta also said Obama wasn't "her" president, so she may have been mad that "her" song was sung for someone she didn't vote for.
 

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