If you follow the other blog, Style Insights, you've caught up on my trip back to my home and place of birth, San Francisco and why I was there with outfits and all. But if you haven't, I'll brief you. I was up north to sing for my friend Nicole's wedding.
I had the hardest time with song selection. I didn't wanna just sing any old song, after all I planned on posting my performances on YouTube and I didn't want to re-hash or re-do any songs I'd already done. I originally told her I'd sing Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You, but asked if I could surprise her. So I sang Mary J. Blige - Be Without You and Faith Evans - Love Like This; the most two unconventional wedding songs I could think of and share with you people.
I guess you could say I was waiting for the perfect event to wear this dress I made for my couture class. I was gonna make it a "Vegas" dress, but no trips to Vegas have arise and because of the chiffon-y material, I can't just wear it out since it's pretty dressy. Overall, I'm glad how the outfit came out even though the picture isn't so great (since you can't see my shoes and the sun is in my face and I have that sun squinting look on my face).
Outfit Details:
Dress: Designed and Constructed by yours truly
Belt and Chain: Vintage
Bracelets: Swarovsky and Forever 21
Shoes: Jessica Simpson Dany
Dress: Forever 21
Suede Fringe Vest: Forever 21
Metal Cuff: Forever 21
Necklace: MAC Certification Necklace
Wedges: Xenon by Jeffrey Campbell
So I posted this look on Lookbook a couple days ago. So I basically strutted around in my sky high Jeffrey Campbells from 10am-3am. All the while working @ MAC Cosmetics, Bowling with friends, and Karaoke.
As much as I love these shoes, they kill me! Platforms for me at least are supposed to = comfort. But these take a toll on the balls of my feet and actually made my second toe (next to the big toe) numb that I had to give my feet a break the next day and wear frumpy flats (I've been wearing JC Platforms like every single day lately...YES even on my days off). These are super tight around your foot that I actually got blisters on my Achilles heel the first time I tried breaking these in since I kept scooting my foot back to the heel since the front part of the straps were really tight. Maybe I just have to wear them more often?
And if you follow me on twitter, you'll know I also went lighter with my hair. It actually looks a lot lighter than it did when I first got it done. I feel like it's getting lighter and lighter with every wash so I try to dry shampoo as often as possible (as gross as that sounds).
So that night after I closed at work, Jerald and I met up some friends and went bowling at Action Lanes in El Monte. After we went bowling we noticed a Karaoke bar inside the bowling alley so we decided we'd go there. People in there were really fucking serious! Some people brought their own VCD/Laserdisk Karaoke songs to sing to. I was like DAAAAAAAMN!! The wait for Karaoke was really long and like any Karaoke bar, it's basically who you know or if the DJ likes you. I waited 50 million songs before I sang this jam that I've always wanted to sing. Real Love - Mary J. Blige:
As you can tell, I was heavily inebriated by the time I got up there. The background vocals are really loud which is why you'll find me covering my ear at certain points just to hear myself....and when you add alcohol and having the background vocals too loud, you get me singing kinda off. LOL.
I haven't performed in front of a live audience in over a year since my rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in front of 8,000 people for my college graduation.
Soon, I'll be singing at my childhood friend's wedding. Positive that I'll see people I know from high school, it's got me feeling really nervous. I think I'm more relaxed performing in front of people I don't know since they don't know what to expect. I get extra nervous performing in front of people I know just because if they've heard me sing before, I have this notion in my head that they're expecting so much from me.
Anyways, I've been kind of building myself up to a performance for people I know until that day in mid July through my YouTube videos. So this is another one of those videos to prep myself for that wedding singer performance:
To further prep myself, I'm meeting up with an old high school friend and we're gonna tear it up at Karaoke Bleu tomorrow. LOL. Wish me luck.
If you haven't already heard it, I put a cover up of a new artist that I think does not get enough play. His name is Miguel Jontel and he did this song featuring J. Cole. He's written for Mary J, Usher and Musiq so far in his career.
Just cuz I've been feeling like I need to sing lately I wanted to post some covers that I've been feelin. I wanted to do 'em before my downstairs neighbor got home because she bitches a lot about noise and shit like that. So here's these:
Teedra Moses - Be Your Girl cover (p.s. what happened to that girl, btw)
You'll have to excuse my lack of posts since I've been busy with school, my internship (with Gregory Parkinson), and moving (YES! finally! Jerald and I are moving closer to LA [not quite there but closer will have to do]).
Catching up on my blogs in the past week it stuck out to me that Project Runway contestant Daniel Franco auditioned for American Idol. Although I didn't catch him singing, I read an interview that said he, "started singing before designing"...kinda like me!
Kinda makes me wonder how people will lie to get through to reality TV. At 38 years old, he was well over the 28 year old limit for American Idol. Well at least he made it through back to his 15 minutes of fame on reality TV right? Looking back at my audition, I'm kinda glad I didn't make it through when I auditioned for some reason or else I wouldn't be where I am now.
Too bad he was compared to being a lovechild of Susan Boyle and Glambert [via fashionindie]:
Keeping up with the YouTube at the same time, I've been able to do a couple more videos and requests. If you have any, shoot me a holler and if I don't know the song, I'll try my best to learn it.
Beyonce - Halo cover [REQUEST]
Adele - Chasing Pavements cover
Groove Theory - Tell Me cover
Vivian Green - Emotional Rollercoaster cover [acapella]
Beyonce - If I Were a Boy cover
Man, after watching myself sing...I think I'm either losing it or rusty. It's good I'm using these videos as an outlet to practice. lol.
I've been on hiatus for months and months because I haven't had time to post anything, but this is a new year and hopefully this resolution won't break. I wanted to use this post to promote my YouTube channel!!! I miss singing and will be [hopefully] posting regularly.. so if you guys have requests feel free. Here's the most recent videos I've posted. Please visit: youtube.com/helloitsjeanna for more!
Beyonce - Listen [REQUEST]
Lauryn Hill - His Eye is On The Sparrow [acapella]
