Katy Perry steps in as hostess of Saturday Night Live and you gotta predict its a boob joke night. Katy really is adorable with her happy peppy tunes and adorable retro look. Shes not in it for the music tonight, oh no no no.. shes a comedienne instead.
Musical guest is Swedish dancing queen (note ABBA reference) Robyn. A twitterbug techno thumper who I simply cannot connect with. In research for tonights big event I learned alot- and not much to really care about.
Born in 1979 she really is a disco diva. Singer, songwriter, voice actress, the whole deal. Much older than I thought she was and a somewhat harder persona than I expected..
She is a UNICEF ambassador and a has won numerous Grammys and is up for two more this year.
I learned all of this because despite the joy of the holiday season, i know for certain her performance will not touch me in any way. Its up for debate of course, I do have a mute button. Iman is our dance man, hes got the skill and the knowledge and an ear for this stuff. So he's going to have a more valid opinion. I think she's awful.
Id rather laugh at Perrys boobs… but here we are..and here we go-
That was Helen, who then fell asleep on me (Iman), which makes her smarter than the average cat. SNL has been in the midst of a long, long slump, despite an occasional killer sketch like last week's "People who are more power than President Obama" and tonight's less wonderful sketch soundtrack to a non-existent movie "Doggie Duty" with Fred Armisen's excellent Randy Newman and a real good Florence Welch by Katy Perry herself.
Katy's first choice for an opening act was Robyn (we ended up with Ellie Goulding… the definition of devolution) and rock nyc reported how Robyn was less than thrilled with Katy's sound. Bad blood, you know. Apparently we got it wrong because here she is the Swedish songbird, do acrobatics and dancing like a robot with a great ear for the beat.
Robyn isa one woman Abba of the 21st Century and never more so than tonight's "Call Your Girlfriend" (Off Body Talk Part 3 -a good EP) Though a bit of a drag at Radio City Music Hall last February, she pulled it out in the end, and at SNL there is zero to complain about. The tech heavy beat back up band is fine, and Robyn has a gift for the sweet, sharp melody ABBA spent a career and made a fortune off.
The second song is "Dancing On My Own" -a huge song in clubland last year, and given a very emotional vocal arrangement including, amusingly, taped computer sounding back up songs. Talk about OK computers!!