Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
As I have said before, I am fascinated by the extremes of opinion regarding Ashlee Simpson: I see nothing to really love or hate. She’s more “authentic” than many (she writes, has an actual band, works in a “rock” mode), and less so than many others.
She doesn’t suck, she isn’t particularly good – she just IS, as far as I’m concerned. And yet her debut album has sold 2.6 million copies (9th best of all albums in ’04) to passionate fans worldwide, on the one hand, and on the other, she was absolutely pilloried for her SNL misadventure and was actually booed at the Orange Bowl for her halftime performance, which wasn’t very good but no worse than many singers would be under similar circumstances.
To a certain extent I feel sorry for her in that she has been singled out when she is no better or worse than dozens of others.
Now, over 35,000 (and counting) people have signed a petition demanding she shut the hell up and go away:
- To: Geffen/DGC Records & JT Simpson Entertainment
We, the undersigned, are disgusted with Ashlee Simpson’s horrible singing and hereby ask her to stop. Stop recording, touring, modeling and performing. We do not wish to see her again.
She cannot match the sound of her voice that can be found on her CDs, when she sings live. She simply yells the words (sometimes the wrong ones) into the mic.
We are so sickened by her “performing” that we are taking this opportunity to demand that she stop.
Sincerely,
Showbiz is tough.
