Kelly Clarkson | All I Ever Wanted | Part 4

Tucson RegionUA stadium concert lost $917K, organizers report

By Coley Ward

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.05.2009

The first concert in Arizona Stadium since 1977 lost nearly $1 million.
The Last Smash Platinum Bash, which featured Jay-Z and Kelly Clarkson, ended up $917,000 in the red. The concert cost $1.42 million, and ticket and merchandise sales brought in only $503,502, according to student organizers.
Tommy Bruce, outgoing president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, blamed the event's struggles on the economy.
"Nobody predicted the economy would be the way it is now last May," he said.
The contract for Jay-Z, who was paid $750,000, was signed March 24.
The ASUA will apply its entire emergency budget reserve — $350,000 — to help cover the shortfall.
The rest will come from the UA BookStores, which has been sharing a portion of its revenues to support the ASUA since the 1930s.
That means less money for the ASUA over the next five years.
How much less? This year, the BookStores shared about $530,000 of its revenue with the student group. For each of the next five years, that amount will be reduced by $114,000.
Incoming ASUA President Chris Nagata, who was sworn in on Friday, said ASUA would continue to have concerts, but maybe not in the football stadium.
"We'll look for different ways so that we're not taking as big a financial risk," he said.
All told, ASUA sold 6,100 tickets to the Bash and gave away about 4,400 tickets as part of marketing deals with local radio stations and newspapers. The Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Newspapers received 18 tickets.
Roughly 1,000 tickets were given away to students who demonstrated the ability to sing a Kelly Clarkson song, or passed other tests administered on the UA Mall on the day of the show.
For his part, Jay-Z said he had a good time, even if he never imagined he'd share a bill with Clarkson.
The hip-hop icon expressed his pleasure with the show on the Web site Rap Radar.
"I thought that to be the oddest pairing EVER but, soon realized, it's what I've always professed. There is NO such thing as BLACK music or WHITE music only GOOD or BAD music," he wrote.
Frank Farias, director of UA BookStores, emphasized that the money going to the ASUA to cover the cost of the concert will come from an existing emergency fund, and that the cost of books will not go up as a result.

www.azstarnet.com/metro/291508

TOP STORY
Lady GaGa / Kelly Clarkson

By Rick Dunn | May 5
The hottest concert of the year was one that you couldn't buy tickets for as Lady GaGa and Kelly Clarkson thrilled a capacity crowd of lucky concert-goers at the House of Blues on Monday night.


Lady GaGa / Kelly Clarkson
by Rick Dunn
EDGE Community Editor
Tuesday May 5, 2009

Lady GaGa and Kelly Clarkson at the House of Blues, Monday, May 4, 2009


On most gay accounts, a Lady GaGa /Kelly Clarkson double-bill sounds like pure fantasy, a dream show as unlikely as Barbra and Cher headlining Lilith Fair. However, last night at the newly-christened House of Blues, a capacity crowd of mostly gay men and college-aged girls was witness to the pop equivalent of a lunar eclipse as the world's newest legitimate pop star and the first American Idol met under one roof.

The special circumstances? The Grammy-Celebration Concert Tour presented by T-Mobile Sidekick, a five-city tour featuring different Grammy-winning and nominated artists at each show. (Tickets were not for sale, but were given away for free at T-Mobile retail locations.)

L.L. Cool J, Estelle and Leona Lewis are just a few of the artists appearing elsewhere, but Boston can boast the best of all five line-ups. Powered by the number one smash "My Life Would Suck Without You," two-time Grammy-winner Kelly Clarkson's fourth CD, "All I Ever Wanted," recently debuted at number one. Lady GaGa's 2008 debut album "The Fame" established the triple threat singer/songwriter/performer as the new Madonna. In just the past five months, her first two singles ("Just Dance," "Poker Face") have hit number one in the U.S. and all over the world.

Surprisingly, the double-bill didn't give either performer reason to abbreviate their sets.

First up was GaGa, who arrived on-stage promptly at 9 p.m. to a deafening welcome.

Her galvanizing, hour-long set was a mirror-image of the one she presented on the same stage just a little over a month ago. Still, she seemed spontaneous and offered the possibility of the unexpected. Repeat or not, this was the church of GaGa, and the crowd responded to her every move as if she were the second coming.

What differentiates GaGa from the vast majority of peers is her singular vision and raw talent. She writes her own songs, plays multiple instruments and has constructed her own visual identity. And, she's a fantastic live singer. Mid-show, she reinvents her dance smash "Poker Face" as a cabaret-style ballad by accompanying herself on just piano. She extends some notes, while growling others. It's not the standard pop issue, but neither is her dress comprised of large plastic bubbles. She made several statements drew loud, unanimous cheers, but none louder than her commitment to the passage of same-sex marriage, which served as her one, overt political statement of the evening. Yes, she's the real deal.

American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis served as the evening's host and as a momentary DJ buffer between the two headliners.

Clarkson, however, didn't keep the crowd the waiting,

Backed by a seven-piece band, a radiant Clarkson offered a buoyant and muscular 14-song set, which included all of her top 10 hits, minus her American Idol crowning single "A Moment Like This," which wasn't missed or requested. Opening with a fiery "Walk Away," the fifth single from her six-times platinum sophomore disc "Breakaway," Clarkson sounded as invested in the older material as she did the new songs, which were sprinkled throughout the set. Her colossal voice didn't discriminate either. She sustained a full-bodied howl from start to finish, never resorting to shouting or screaming. Only the second show in support of her just-released number one CD "All I Ever Wanted," the new songs were delivered with confidence; the older, conviction.

She top-loaded the set with some of her sturdiest hits ("Behind These Hazel Eyes," "Beautiful Disaster," "Never Again"), before introducing the first of five new songs performed - the punkish "Whyyouwannabringmedown." One of two songs on "All I Ever Wanted" originally recorded by indie rockers Aranda for their 2008 debut, "Whyyouwanna" is evidence of Clarkson's reluctance to rely strictly on proven hit-makers. Lately, her affection for both obvious pop and alternative rock has resulted in successful marriage of the two, making one sound more credible and the other more commercial.

She slowed the tempo with another new track, "Already Gone," a gorgeously plaintive ballad she co-wrote with One Republic's Ryan Tedder. Earmarked as the CD's third single, "Already Gone" gives Clarkson the opportunity wrap her tentacles around a sonic canvas that would sink the majority of her peers. Performed live, it's equally affecting. Expect a long shelf-life on AAA format radio. Clarkson told the crowd that she's also lobbying her label for a single release of the sinewy, Garbage-like rocker "If I Can't Have You," another Tedder-collaboration and her favorite song on the new CD.

The new songs weren't just waiting periods between the hits as the good percentage of crowd convincingly sang along with the new stuff, which shocked a genuinely surprised Clarkson. Still, she satisfied the crowd's lust for hits with steady succession of her most familiar: "Miss Independent," "Breakaway," "Since U Been Gone," and an acoustic "Because of You." Current single "I Do No Hook Up" was presented with more of an edge than its studio companion and an encore of the delicate track "Chivas" from her unfairly-maligned third CD "My December" proved winsome instead of self indulgent. Her recent number one smash "My Life Would Suck Without You" was the obvious closer, and still un-winded, she delivered it with gusto to an army of air-pumping fists.

The Grammy Celebration Concert Tour presented by T-Mobile, featuring Lady GaGa and Kelly Clarkson at House of Blues, Boston. Monday, May 4.
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An EDGE Founding Editor, Rick Dunn's writing has appeared in Bay Windows, The Windy City Times, Washington Blade, among many others. He also initiated The Boston Globe's very first (and last) gay column, Out & About in 2001. He was the editor of In Newsweekly from 1996 to 2003.
www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=music&sc2=reviews&sc3=performance&id=90734

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Thoughts on seeing Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga at House of Blues

Posted at 01:44 by Daniel Brockman


"This show's going to be 97% gay guys... and, like, 3% fat chicks", said the guy next to me to his friends. We were all waiting in an eternal line on Lansdowne Street, and as everyone around me started passing the booze amongst themselves, the "real talk" began, I suppose. Of course, the dude couldn't have been more wrong, or it least it seemed that way from where I was standing during the show itself, once the House of Blues finally opened their doors and let us all in. Ostensibly a free show, quizzically brought to us by The Grammys and T-Mobile, it was an odd pairing of two of pop's current leading ladies, and it really was astounding how well it all worked out.

The wait for Lady GaGa to hit the stage was eternal; a DJ spun records and attempted to MC the event, to often humorous effect. After getting the crowd to give it up for the stars of the show ("How many people out there love Lady Gaga? How many people out there love Kelly Clarkson?"), he ground the festivities to a halt with his clearly-forced shill for the gig's corporate overlords: exhortations to "give it up" for the Grammys and T-Mobile didn't get quite the same response. Finally GaGa emerged, essentially duplicating her House of Blues set from almost exactly one month ago. She really is a fascinating performer, and one really has to wonder if she is either going to respond to her meteoric fame with another battery of hits as massive as her Eurosluttish anthems "Poker Face" and "Just Dance", or if she is going to go in an artsier Laurie Anderson direction and completely alienate the plebes that just want some jams to get @@%*$% up to.

Judging from tonight's set, it could go either way: both elements of her musical persona were on display, from the crowd-pleasing dance diva to the inscrutably pretentious artiste dropping Warholistic musings on the nature of fame and dark magic into the set. In fact, watching Ms. Germanotta tonight, I was struck by the unnerving similarities between her carefully manicured persona and that of 90's goth warlord Marilyn Manson, another heavily aestheticized frontperson who merged an obsession with the dark side of fame and celebrity with a shocking comfortability with wearing fishnets and showing off his posterior. Oh well; if GaGa ever ditches the music thing, her statuesque dancer's physique and Roman nose will practically guarantee her a place in Berlusconi's Italian cabinet, should she so choose. But for now, she seems to, at least at some level, understand what her public demands: after coming out for an encore and giving a long speech about her love of art and whatnot, she climbed up on her pedestal, struck a pose, and shouted, "I know what you're thinking, you're thinking 'Just shut up and play "Poker Face"!'" Which we were. So she did.

The second most adorable moment of Kelly Clarkson's set occurred early on, in the middle of a particularly belting run-through of "Behind These Hazel Eyes"; Clarkson turned the mic towards the crowd in the middle of a verse, and then swung the mic around to her mouth and said, mid-song, "Ok, that was cheating, I forgot the lyrics to that line." This would be a pretty jolting honesty if it was coming from the stage mid-week at PA's lounge, let alone at a massive sold-out show by a two-time Grammy winner who has sold over ten million records. But in a sense, that little moment kind of summed up why people love Kelly Clarkson so much: she's a certain type of Everywoman, a regular girl-next-door whose colossal pipes skyrocketed to stardom thanks to a televised singing contest. More importantly, she has inundated pop radio for almost the past decade with hit after hit detailing one chick's travails with being flattened by heartbreak. The result of all of this pop culture synergy is that if you see Kelly Clarkson in a live setting, one of the most potent and powerful voices in pop will inevitably be completely drowned out by the singing along of her crowd.

The contrast with GaGa's set was fascinating: where GaGa was arch and formal, Clarkson was almost embarrassingly off-the-cuff (at one point practically blushing between songs while detailing her carnal crush on Wolverine star Hugh Jackman); where GaGa had a clear artistic vision of fashion and choreography, Clarkson came across as someone who probably does not relish being forced to dress up and be made up for the occasional formal moments that her career require of her. Most importantly, GaGa came across as a wildly creative control freak who is currently riding high with the help of a team of assistants and creative directors (the collective that she dubs "Haus of GaGa") -- whereas Clarkson can't help but reveal that she is not entirely in control of where her career is going.

After the cataclysmic success of 2004's Breakaway, Clarkson famously insisted on controlling her next album, writing the bulk of My December's dour meditations on the end of a relationship. When the record bombed, it was back to superproducers, outside writers, and label control for Clarkson; the massive success of her new long-player, ironically titled All I Ever Wanted, must feel bittersweet for Clarkson. Her introduction for new song "If I Can't Have You" was particularly shocking with its honesty: "This next song is one that I've really been fighting for, and I'm really hoping that this will be the next single, because I really love this song." I found this moment to be really revelatory, mostly because one would assume that an artist of Clarkson's stature could at least decide, on her fourth album, which songs get to be singles, right?
VIDEO: KELLY CLARKSON: WYWBMD Live at House of Blues, May 4 2009

But you know what, who the +@@+ cares about that sort of thing. Kelly Clarkson live is truly an exuberant experience: the audience is pumped, Clarkson has an amazingly awesome band behind her, and she's charming and sweet and obviously still a pretty nice person even after having been through a nearly decade-long stint in the modern music biz. Which brings me to the most adorable moment of the night: after the first encore, an audience member in the front row cajoles Clarkson into answering his phone (a T-Mobile, naturally!) so Clarkson can talk to the woman on the other end of the line, who was unable to make the show. Clarkson answers the phone, and says "Hi, this is Kelly. Kelly Clarkson. Oh man, I can't believe I said that-- like it's going to be a different Kelly, right?" She really is *that* uncomfortable with any public display of ego or hubris, and it really is refreshing to see that on display in this day and age. As the band got ready to play the last tune of the night, Clarkson told us "Look, my band will vouch for me that I don't say this every night, I promise: my life would suck without you, Boston!" And as corny as that line was, I have to admit that I kind of bought it.
thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2009/05/05/Review-Photos-Video-Kelly-Clarkson-Lady-Gaga-House-of-Blues-Boston.aspx

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Review: Lady GaGa & Kelly Clarkson 5/4 @ HOB

The Boston stop for the T-Mobile and Grammys sponsored Grammy Celebration Tour included performances by Lady GaGa and Kelly Clarkson, and was hosted by season 4 American Idol contestant, Blake Lewis. The exclusive concert, which fans could only win tickets to, was an effort to bring together different types of music under one roof. While the two artists seem like complete polar opposites in terms of songs and performance, the two came together to perform two fantastic sets that were the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

With Blake Lewis starting off as the DJ and beat boxing his way through big radio hits, the crowd got warmed up as a giant white curtain covered the Grammy-decorated stage. As Lady GaGa's image was projected onto the curtain, the crowd grew wild and excited. It is interesting to note that despite a huge mix of different types of people and fans, the crowd was extremely respectful of each other. There wasn't any pushing or shoving, and there were no fights to break up. As Blake Lewis wrapped up his set and the lights dimmed, Lady GaGa's intro video played.



Lady GaGa, famous for hits such as "Just Dance" and "Poker Face," had just been in Boston a little over a month ago for her own tour, The Fame Ball. While she didn't have as many of her props with her, she performed her full set from the tour. The crowd enthusiastically sang along to every song, causing Lady GaGa to break out of her strange persona and smile at the crowd during her acoustic set. She had all of her crazy costumes, and put on a fantastic hour-long set. As she finished with an encore of "Poker Face", the crowd immediately began to shout for Kelly Clarkson.

As Lady GaGa's props were moved off stage and Kelly Clarkson's band's equipment was rolled onto the stage, Blake Lewis returned to his DJ podium. He also threw free goodies from T-Mobile out into the crowd. While his own song didn't get too much attention, he succeeded in keeping the crowd pumped for the show.

The lights dimmed for Kelly Clarkson to the beat of "Walk Away," one of her many hits. As she moved into "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and new single "I Do Not Hook Up," it was clear that the crowd was even more into Kelly Clarkson than they were for Lady GaGa, screaming the songs louder than Clarkson at many points. She put on a very different performance to Lady GaGa - showcasing her voice, and only her voice. Her band also gave the show a lot more energy. After complimenting Lady GaGa's set and singing a bit of Poker Face, she began her one of many ramblings during the concert. Clarkson's natural ability to interact with the crowd was fantastic, showing her personable character and funny personality.



One of her many classic moments was when she grabbed a phone from a fan in the front and spoke to the person on the other line, saying, "Hey, what's up? This is Kelly Clarkson." She then continued by telling the crowd, "I always feel like a douche saying, 'This is Kelly Clarkson.'" As she wrapped up her main set with Grammy Award-winning "Since U Been Gone", the crowd jumped up and down in unison and screamed every word.


As she quickly returned for the encore, she exclaimed, "I hate this whole encore thing - pretending to leave when it's pretty obvious that I'm coming back." After taking a request from her hardcore fans at the front and singing hidden track "Chivas" from her third album, she wrapped up the show with #1 hit "My Life Would Suck Without You."

As a fan of both artists, this was a fantastic opportunity to see both artists in their element. While it would have been interesting to see the two artists collaborate, they both put on fantastic shows that are worthy of selling out venues on their own. I would definitely see both of them again next time they come out to Boston, and with the sounds of the crowd singing every one of their songs still ringing in my ears, I expect that will happen quite soon.

- Chris Cheong

wtbu.blogspot.com/2009/05/review-lady-gaga-kelly-clarkson-54-hob.html

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Did You" yet. To be, it sounds like a demo to me. It sounds unfinished. Anyone have any ideas?

I think Kelly meant that she wanted IICHY to be a single, but not the next single. She's already announced that AG would probably be the next single.

Nobody can predict with any certainty how a single will do and if it will sell albums. Only time will tell.

I've still got to get used to the idea of If I Can't Have You being released at all.

Oh get over it.

I really don't see IICHY as a single, at all. I don't think she should be pushing for it to be released.

IMO, the next singles should be:

3. AG
4. DLMSY
5. Cry
6. AIEW or WYWBMD

IICHY should not be released.

Already Gone is next and Kelly is lobbying for IICHY to be the one AFTER that. That is most people's interpretation of what she said.

Thanks for the new thread, Will. :)

iTunes Album Chart:

12. All I Ever Wanted - Kelly Clarkson
All I Ever Wanted by Kelly Clarkson

I would be perfectly content if they just went down the track list as far as singles go. Switch Cry and Already Gone though. If I Can't Have You is one I don't see as a single. I can see a really interesting music video for it though.

I get the feeling that she will also want one of the Aranda songs (leaning towards AIEW) because of the way she talks about them. So if I was Kelly, the singles list might look like this...

1. LWS
2. IDNHU
3. AG
4. IICHY
5. AIEW
6. Cry

#25 Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted (18,000, 0 change, 527,000 total/112,000 digital total)

Every artist should have the problem of having too many good songs on an album. Kelly could probably release anything from this album as a single if she wanted to.