Reality talent, is it Really talent?

What is talent? Now there's a question. You could argue it's like asking, what is art, who is the best actor, what's the best song ever written, the best band, the prettiest model, or the hunkiest guy. We all have our opinions, there is no definitive answer. One mans Bublé is another teenage girls Jedward. But are we finding all the talent that Britain's got? Are we looking in all the right places and if we find it are those in the music business just in it for the money, does talent and artist integrity fly out the record labels window? Maybe are we just a nation of wannabe celebrities and don't care about talent at all, like louis Walsh?

As a child I remember watching Hughie Green every Monday night helping to launch new careers. Winners would come back week after week until they were beaten by another act. There was no huge cash prize for winning, if you were talented you went on to find fame and fortune and more often than not your own TV show.

photo: Hughie Green (creator of Opportunity knocks)

Yes I know, times have changed, back then if you wanted your favourite to win you had to send in a postcard with your choice, the 'Clapometre' for the studio audience was just a bit of fun, it was your votes that counted folks. Now they count your cash too, admittedly some of which doesn't go in Simon Cowells pocket. Pick up the phone, vote online, or simply press a red button. Does this mean we are getting fairer results because more people can vote? Or does it mean you can just vote as many times as your wallet can afford to get your favourite through regardless of whether they are the most talented?

Simon Cowell is the Modern day Hughie, now I am not going to bang on about how much Simon earns, but I am going to sing from the rooftops my concern about his seemingly vice like grip on the music business. Please do not misunderstand me here, I think talent shows are an excellent form of entertainment, a great way to discover talent and a fantastic stage on which to launch a career. We have seen Leona Lewis emerge from anonymity to world fame and is without doubt a world class singer. Would she have made it without Simon Cowells promotional skills, knowledge and wedge? Probably. It's not talents like Leona I am concerned about, but on the whole, the modern day talent show. As it's definition, it is for talent, recently we have seen incidents and accidents to suggest this concept is sometimes flawed. Talent seems to mean commercial viability before all else, and this has made it extremely hard to compete with big egos and personalities on talent alone.

I even think that 9 times out of 10 the right 'Talent' wins the show. I am more disturbed by the amount of untalented 'Losers' that go on to find fame and actually earn a decent living at being 'Awful'. What message does this send to up and coming youngsters? I know what it says to me and many others like me, talent will not always see you through, a Cowell or a Louis Walsh will look at you and think how they can make money out of the fact they have zero talent. Perhaps it's the British mentality of always loving a loser, erring on the side of the underdog.

I have heard people comment on Jedward saying, 'Oh but they are so sweet, you got to love them, they are trying so hard'. I don't have to love them and I don't care how hard they try, they DO NOT have a talent. Even Milli Vanilli had more sense than Jedward, at least they didn't try to sing. You are twins for Christs sake, you are supposed to know what each other thinks, you are able to feel the pain the other one is feeling, (Trust me, we feel the pain) you can't even sing or dance at the same time. The only time you simultaneously vomit words from your mouths is in an interview, both with separate nonsense with absolutely no relevance to the question you are asked. They really do come from another planet and it's only right we should let them return there. Somebody please tell me how these annoying little leprechauns are taking the place of 'Real talent' in our country.

The Cowell conveyor belt continues to manuf'act'ure and churn out puppets, while the real talents that can perform or write a decent song are struggling to get their voices and words heard.

Where did greats such as Freddie Mercury, Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra begin? Streisand learnt her trade singing in night clubs and went on to be the biggest selling female artist spanning 5 decades with a number 1 album in each of those, selling over 140 million copies. A modern day superstar of mine was Freddie Mercury, he had it all, the voice, the stage presence, the theatre, the songs, the show. He wrote, he produced, he played. He grew up in Bombay and Zanzibar and at 17 fled with his family to flee the revolution. That's a background, a story to tell. He attended art college and his love for music introduced him to the sounds of artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Who, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and The Beatles.

Frank Sinatra was singing around bars until his Mum asked a local singing trio 'The Three flashes' to let him join them and they went on to win a competition on the 'Major Bowles amateur hour' a 40's talent show winning first prize with the newly named Hoboken four. There prize was a 6 month contract to star on stage and radio across America.

What do they have in common with stars on our TV's today? Absolutely nothing. They have lived, they have learned their trade, they got knocked down and got up again, (Shame Chumbawamba didn't take no for an answer). They lived a childhood and young adulthood, they worked on honing their craft, gaining experiences that put lyrics on music sheets in their heads. Great songs with true heart felt meaning. Now we get 18 year olds spouting advice in a love song about how they lost the one big love in their life, went through the turmoil of breaking up, survivng rehab and loving again.

Is it just the way things are done now, maybe we want the easier lifestyle extending to the way pop stars are mass produced. But ultimately is it good for young people barely out of school uniform being thrust into the world of fame, armed only with a dream.

We all need dreams, we all have wishes, the latter with a word of caution usually attached to it, be careful what you do wish for. I have been there, I used to want nothing apart from being famous. As a young boy I was a decent footballer, I had trials and was accepted by Millwall for an apprenticeship and trained with Southend because it was nearer to where I lived. Then I became good at snooker and wanted to turn professional. Both times I was interested not in playing football or snooker but being famous. It turned out I wasn't prepared to do the time, I didn't want to learn my trade bad enough, I was chasing fame and all that came with it, rather than master my profession and take what that would bring. There is a big difference.

Now it is very easy to become famous, you don't even need a talent, as so well demonstrated by the terrible twosome. If you have a not so gruesome pair you can take your top off, if you're a girl, or, if you look as good as Calum you can still make the magazines by bearing your Best bits.

It is far easier now to become famous, more channels than the 3 or 4 that I grew up with. The Internet can now make you a celebrity over night on youtube. Got to dance, can you cook, can't cook, I wont cook in a hells kitchen so come dine with me. Britain's got talent somewhere but it doesn't matter because we are going to mould them into what we want anyway. Sometimes you can make a star just out of letting them live in a house with lots of other annoying people with silly facial hair and an attitude. Then after it turns out they are not such a success out of the house call them a celebrity and stick them back in another house with lots of other 'Has beens' and make them famous again. I suppose the natural progression from there would be to find something else they are not any good at, ballroom dancing, or ice skating for example and make them famous again that way. Or the easiest way to cut out all of this would be to simply date, marry, or have an affair or exchange sexy texts with someone famous. Oh if only I had kept up the football I would have my team mates girls all over me.

The real inspiration to write this feature came about after having discussions with a 21 year old girl who is interested in getting into the music industry. With a degree in creative writing, Bluegirl not me, (just in case even one of you for a second crazily imagined it might be me) describes her music as "Colourful songs that tell the story of my life".

She tells me stars such as Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand have had a big influence on her and movie giants like Tarrantino, Scorsese and Spielberg have inspired her as everything they do is so "Big, bold and beautiful". She seems to have a cultural breeding, a love for the art of performance. A very clear vision of where she wants to be in the future. "Performing and licensing my music to television and film projects. Building my own brand in fashion and merchandise etc".

Clearly very serious about her intentions Bluegirl is spending many hours in recording
studios, she knows how hard the road ahead is. I asked her has she not considered entering one of the many talent shows on TV and she explained, "Music reality shows are useful for people who want to break into mainstream music. If you're happy singing other people's songs and being groomed then they're great. If you are fiercely creative with a definite idea of how you want to look and sound then things can get a bit tricky. I want to think very carefully about entering these kind of competitions, unless they are open to me expressing myself honestly".

I wrote a song once for my girlfriend, I cheated a little as I only wrote the words. I used the music from my favourite Estonian bands, 'The Smilers' and a track called Käime Katuseid Mööda, which translated means, 'Walking on rooftops'. Have you noticed if I am not shouting from up high and am singing up there. It took me a whole night to write the lyrics and the next day I went to a recording studio and 'Cut a disc'. I was at last a singer songwriter and the title of my number 1 song was 'Melt me'. Number 1 as in my first attempt, and last. In case you are wondering, she is no longer my girlfriend. (Photo) Smilers, not my girlfriend!

I had always found it interesting to learn the different methods song writers use when penning their hits, how long it took them to write the words, which came first the words or music, were they sad or happy at the time, were they high or full of alcohol, what inspires them. The one consistent answer I got all along was every body's different. I saw Snow patrol interviewed and lead singer Gary Lightbody said they had drunk about 6 bottles of wine, wrote loads of 'songs', woke up the next morning and threw all but one away, that one being 'Chasing cars', I love it when Leona sings that song.

Bluegirl's melodies come first, then the words. Depending on how she feels it can take a couple of hours if she is feeling emotional, or a few days if creative and intellectual, sometimes up to 3 months including production. She draws on experiences of "life, troubles, problems and vices".

This song called 'Purty Boots' took her three months to write and produce. It's had some interest from New Zealand and is available on itunes. It's a song for those who dare to dream.
http://www.bluetownsound.com/purtyboots.htm

I have closed my eyes while I am listening to 'Purty boots', I could be in front of the TV as a comedy drama begins, or sat in a theatre watching, 'Bluegirl the musical'. She describes this next track entitled 'Receptionist', as "A song all about knowing that you're in the wrong job and place in life, wanting to do what your passion is all about, this sums me up, it took about four months to write and produce". http://www.bluetownsound.com/receptionist.htm

Dragging her attention back to the likes of Jedward looking more and more likely to be annoying us for a few more years to come, Bluegirl is very philosophical about it, "I think Jedward are doing what anyone would do - and that's taking all the opportunities that are coming their way, however there are so many talented people not getting the breaks, but it's the way of the world. People with real talent have just got to work that little bit harder".

I had to ask such a talented artist what she thought about Simon Cowell and the answer was short and not very sweet "He is very rich and powerul and has terrible taste in music".

That's frighteningly accurate, I certainly agree with her on that, as do I in her admiration for Freddie Mercury and Queen, citing them as the best ever band because "All their songs were strong, colourful and had amazing melody lines. Freddy Mercury was also the showman of all showmen and Bohemian rhapsody is I think the best ever song written.

If you found her ipod in the street and hit play you would discover that the latest top 3 listened to tunes are Sammy Davis Jnr's version of "Mr Bojangles." Ray Charles' "Oh what a Beautiful Morning" and Frank Sinatra's "High Hopes". Now that is good taste, however, Dallas is the one thing we will not agree on, she has the courage for it to be known that it's the one programme she could not live without and even worse, admitting owning every episode on DVD. She does jump straight back up in my estimations condemning Beverley hills 90210 to the trash can never to be seen again

Her fantasies include sitting down with Judy Garland and educating her on healthier living, instead of the alcohol and drug lifestyle that killed her. If she could open up for any singer it would have to be Amy Whinehouse, "I want her to tell me her problems, I think I could give her some good advice". That is a concert I would pay good money to see.

Bluegirl ends by telling me she wants to chase her dream and admires people like Oprah Winfrey and Barrack Obama who have changed the historical and cultural landscape. For the moment anyway Bluegirl is the president of her own Bluetown, who knows, talent spotters willing, the big blue world.

Visit her website to listen to more of her music at www.bluetownsound.com/ and http://www.welcome2bluetown.com/ Also add her on Twitter and chat to her @BlueGirll

If there is one piece of advice I could give to any talented person reading this, don't take my advice, what do I know, just follow your own heart and dreams and never stop, as it's then you have failed.