Three Lovely Divas, Some Poison and Some Butterflies

Continuing on some things that should have been posted a while back, here's a few superstars cavorting. One pair successfully. One, oddly less so.

First off, the one you've seen already. The one that made Beyonce semi-likeable (no, I'm not a huge fan), and Lady Gaga ever more eccentric. The one about telephones that somehow became a Thelma and Louise, Quentin Tarantino murder romance. The one that's already been parodied to death.

Yes, you either love it or you think it's just more of the deadly doom dance of the Haus of Gaga. Let's just say I'm looking forward to seeing the new blonde ambition live this summer.

Telephone - Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce


Now lets focus on another superstar in her own right. Except that instead of revealing midriffs, her superpower is often an accordion. Or in this case passing air.

I'll give Mexico's Julieta Venegas props for a sense of humor with this one, but farts don't usually turn into butterflies, nor can they make up for this mess of a video.

Thankfully the song stands up on it's own, a new addition to the stellar songbook that have made her huge south of the border. She's the real deal. If ever you have the chance to see her pull out her accordion live, you'll grant her some whimsy too.

Bien o Mal - Julieta Venegas

Sé delicado y esperar. Dame tiempo para darte todo lo que tengo.

How do songs become your songs?

I know why a certain Texas song always makes me feel warm and fuzzy. But, as we discovered a bit unexpectedly last night, there is now a Julieta Venegas song that's joined it as one of our songs.

If you don't know Venegas, you should. A Mexican singer-songwriter raised on the U.S. border in Tijuana, she has emerged as one of Mexico's leading female superstars in recent years, deftly melding a sincere pop sensibility, clever lyrics and traditional Mexican sounds.

It was a special pleasure to get to see her in an intimate setting like the Ogden Theater here in Denver last night. Backed by a fifteen person band, she made her way through some of her biggest hits in front of a small, but energized, audience. It turns out her voice is the real thing, nothing short of captivating in such an intimate venue.

If you don't listen to Latin music here, you would have never known about the show, but the fans who showed up clearly loved every second of the tight show. By the time she started into one of her biggest hits, Lento, she had every single person in the place singing along.

And that's when we just sort of realized that we now have a song of hers that's ours.

A while back, before we had satellite, we'd wake up every Saturday to Spanish videos on the local Univision station here. Along the way we became fans of Venegas' clever videos.

Like most things, you move on eventually to whatever new music catches your fancy. But last night as Lento kicked in, it felt as comfortable as an old pair of slippers. A romantic tour-de-force rendition and, in some ways, in our own language, the song is now a part of us.



If last night was any indication, this is an artist in full control of her craft. Her stripped down reinterpretations of her hits (the tour is in support of her recent MTV Unplugged CD) made the songs seem more personal and heartfelf. This is a young artist maturing gloriously and fully taking advantage of the opportunities her massive success in the Latin Music world have provided her.



Here's hoping she enjoyed her intimate Denver debut enough to keep coming back!

I hope to see her perform again and again.