{"id":93637,"date":"2025-03-09T18:41:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T01:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=93637"},"modified":"2025-03-09T18:41:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T01:41:44","slug":"doja-homage-to-sherry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/03\/09\/doja-homage-to-sherry\/","title":{"rendered":"Doja Homage to Sherry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo I\u2019m performing \u2018Diamonds Are Forever\u2019 by
\nSherry Bassey<\/strong>.  I wanted to respect the original sound
\nbeing it\u2019s from like the \u201870s and so I wanted to channel
\nher but also give just an essence of myself within it.<\/em><\/span>”
\n<\/em><\/span> – <\/em><\/span>Doja Cat <\/strong>during a Vogue<\/em> backstage video of her getting ready for the Oscars<\/em><\/strong>. 
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>You know how to respect something?  Know the name of the person
\nwho originally sang the song.  Repeat after me…SHIRLEY BASSEY<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What do Whoopi Goldberg <\/strong>and the touring company of Hamilton<\/em><\/strong> have in common?  They won\u2019t be appearing at The Kennedy Center<\/em>.  Hamilton<\/em> cancelled a 2026 Kennedy<\/em> Center<\/em> run due to \u201cthe recent purge by the Trump <\/strong>administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center<\/em>.\u201d  Whoopi, while not a Kennedy Center Honoree<\/em>, does have the Kennedy Center\u2019s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor<\/em>.  She too has taken a stand.  \u201cI have no plans to go back to the Kennedy<\/em> Center<\/em> until the Kennedy Center <\/em>becomes what it was supposed to be \u2013 a welcome place for all artists no matter what your groove is.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whoopi did, however, appear at the Oscars <\/em>\u2013 and looked quite fabulous.  One part of the ceremony which got quite a bit of criticism was the unfocused and almost pointless tribute to James Bond<\/em>.  It included such songstresses as Lisa<\/strong>, Raye <\/strong>and Doja Cat <\/strong>\u2013 who quite literally choked under pressure.  Referring to \u201cDiamonds Are Forever\u201d, she said, \u201cThe song is a classic, and I put a lot of work into it but the nerves got to me and a bitch hit some flats.\u201d  That\u2019s putting it mildly.  Intriguingly, the lady who originated the song, Dame Shirley Bassey<\/strong>, took to the stage at 88 years old and sang it in Monaco three days before the Oscars<\/em>.  Why didn\u2019t the Academy <\/em>call her?  It should be noted that Bassey \u2013 who sang three Bond themes \u2013 appeared on the Academy Awards <\/em>celebrating 50 years of Bond in 2013 with a show-stopping rendition of \u201cGoldfinger\u201d.  But I suspect nobody would have minded seeing her again!<\/p>\n

Isabella Rossellini <\/strong>had a momentous night at the Oscars<\/em>.  Her ensemble was chosen with care \u2013 including a gown in blue velvet in honor of the film of the same name\u2019s director, David Lynch<\/strong>.  Her date was Blue Velvet<\/em><\/strong> co-star, Laura Dern<\/strong>.  Her earrings were worn to the 1975 Oscars <\/em>when her mom, Ingrid Bergman<\/strong>, won.  Those earrings were a gift for Ingrid by her then-husband (and Isabella\u2019s dad), Roberto Rossellini<\/strong>.  Classy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo I\u2019m performing \u2018Diamonds Are Forever\u2019 by Sherry Bassey.  I wanted to respect the original sound being it\u2019s from like the \u201870s and so I wanted to channel her but also give just an essence of myself within it.” – Doja Cat during a Vogue backstage video of her getting ready for the Oscars.  You<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93638,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93637\/revisions\/93638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}