Comments on: Etta James Explains Beyonce Diss: “Not From A Vicious Place”

By: Zoox

Zoox — Wed, 05 May 2010 16:29:09 +0000

Actually Chrisey, those are NOT Etta James’ lyrics.

Etta James made At Last famous… it IS her song, imo, because she is the one who made it a CLASSIC. But ‘At Last’ was written back in 1941 by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for a musical/film and was orignally performed by Ray Eberle and Pat Friday. Etta James covered it in 1960, improvising on the original melody and making it her own… thus giving us the CLASSIC Etta James version of ‘At Last’ that we all know and love.

The fact of the matter is that Etta has every right to feel the way she feels. That song is her trademark song. The only reason Beyonce ever even recorded it in the first place is because she was PORTRAYING ETTA in a movie.

And while I point my finger at Beyonce, classless corporate whore that she is, I also point my finger at the events coordinator for the inauguration and the Obama camp. You should have known better. This was a shameless attempt at appealing to a younger demographic and pull in the next generation of constituents. SHAME.

Ps. I did have the awesome opportunity to see Etta perform at the House of Blues in Chicago last year. Even in her 70′s, she can still sing ‘At Last’ better than Celine Dion, Christina Aguilara, and Beyonce. She’s still got it!

By: Crisey

Crisey — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:11:27 +0000

Etta has the right to feel that way. She wrote and made that song famous, why should Bootylicious Beyonce get to sing it…oh I forgot, Matthew paid the coordinator…so maybe if Etta had paid to sing her own song, she could have. I wouldn’t want Beyonce singing my song either. Etta is steak, Beyonce is ground beef…you do the math. It was inconsiderate of her and her father. They are disrespectful and scandalous but everything is coming to the surface as we see. Instead of paying for her to perform in high places, Matthew should be paying for her some diction and speech lessons. The girl has been out for years and still can’t complete a sentence…everything is fun to Beyonce. She is still stuck at 9 years old, the age Mattthew first began cracking that whip. She is empty and me and my crew wishes she would vanish from the scene…sit down and get herself together. It is only a matter of time before her head explodes!

By: Jeanette

Jeanette — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:10:59 +0000

I must say I feel Etta’s pain. I felt from the start that Beyonce herself should’ve reached out to her and said “hey look they want me to do your song” and asked how she felt about that…just reaching out to others is what this industry lacks. Obama’s camp made a ridiculous decision in my opinion. The Inaugural Ball should have had a veteran artist. Never be too large where you cannot reach out to others…and remember who got you there!

By: marchant

marchant — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:30:38 +0000

I sincerely think Etta realizes the mistake that she made with her previous emotionally driven outburst and made the right decision to publicly apologize. It is equally understandable that James was offended by the new administration’s slight in overlooking her as the originator of the song and they could have handled it better by choosing to include her as well. James is a pioneer in the music industry and a living legend who deserved far more consideration from the Obama camp than she received. James and artists like her paved the way for the Beyonces of today. It is always sad to see anyone being overlooked to lift up another, which brings to mind, the Jennifer Hudson and Jennifer Holiday situation with the recording of “I’m Not Goin’”. Holiday was not as abrasive in her comments but it was apparent all the same that she felt overlooked. In both cases, the re-makes did not live up to the splendor of the originals.