BIRDSOFPREY
Nov 23rd, 2003, 12:10 PM
Singer Stacie Orrico turned up her nose when a Nashville pop radio station personality asked about the famed Madonna-Britney Spears kiss on the MTV Video Music Awards.
''I was like, 'Oh, they did not just do that.' That was just stupid. That was so unnecessary,'' she said during the morning show at 102.5-FM The Party.
''It's just so obvious it's a big marketing thing for their new song. It's actually making the song go to the top when . . . nobody even likes the Britney-Madonna song. It's kinda crazy.''
It's a provocative statement from a Christian-turned-pop singer who is trying to distinguish herself from the current crop of female pop singers.
Orrico, with two Billboard top-10 hits this year, joins Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and others who are competing for the lucrative teen market.
The difference with Orrico: ''She sings her butt off with her clothes on,'' says Greg Ham, president of Franklin-based Forefront Records, Orrico's Christian label.
''Look where all those artists have gone, Jessica Simpson, Christina, Britney. Go back and track it and there's been a gradual striptease,'' Ham says. ''I'm not knocking their musical ability. But I think there's a lot of Americans out there who want their 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 15-year-old to have a little more positive role model.''
Orrico's not caving to pressure to use sex to market herself, but neither is she crusading for Christianity and sexual purity.
''I've never wanted to market myself as, OK, she's the poster child for virginity or even, she's the poster child for Christianity. Not because I'm not proud of that,'' she says.
''First, you have to prove yourself as a true artist, as a true vocalist and a true writer with good music before you go dump your big load of whatever on everybody. They're not gonna listen until you prove yourself as a true artist. And that is the real goal.''
http://tennessean.com/entertainment/news/archives/03/11/42857447.shtml?Element_ID=42857447
''I was like, 'Oh, they did not just do that.' That was just stupid. That was so unnecessary,'' she said during the morning show at 102.5-FM The Party.
''It's just so obvious it's a big marketing thing for their new song. It's actually making the song go to the top when . . . nobody even likes the Britney-Madonna song. It's kinda crazy.''
It's a provocative statement from a Christian-turned-pop singer who is trying to distinguish herself from the current crop of female pop singers.
Orrico, with two Billboard top-10 hits this year, joins Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and others who are competing for the lucrative teen market.
The difference with Orrico: ''She sings her butt off with her clothes on,'' says Greg Ham, president of Franklin-based Forefront Records, Orrico's Christian label.
''Look where all those artists have gone, Jessica Simpson, Christina, Britney. Go back and track it and there's been a gradual striptease,'' Ham says. ''I'm not knocking their musical ability. But I think there's a lot of Americans out there who want their 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 15-year-old to have a little more positive role model.''
Orrico's not caving to pressure to use sex to market herself, but neither is she crusading for Christianity and sexual purity.
''I've never wanted to market myself as, OK, she's the poster child for virginity or even, she's the poster child for Christianity. Not because I'm not proud of that,'' she says.
''First, you have to prove yourself as a true artist, as a true vocalist and a true writer with good music before you go dump your big load of whatever on everybody. They're not gonna listen until you prove yourself as a true artist. And that is the real goal.''
http://tennessean.com/entertainment/news/archives/03/11/42857447.shtml?Element_ID=42857447