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C.J. chats with Olivia Newton-John and her husband, John Easterling, on startribune.com/video.
Lip-syncing and Twittering are two things we aren't likely to find Grammy winner Olivia Newton-John doing, although she's very much enjoys kissing her new husband.
In a world gone increasingly tacky and wacky, Britney Spears -- and more astoundingly the fans who thought her Minneapolis show was such a phenomenal production that it didn't matter she mostly wasn't singing -- was at the top of my mind Monday when I caught up with Newton-John. She was in the metro with her husband, John Easterling, founder of Amazon Herb Co., who came to promote Zamu, a certified organic beverage made from ingredients in the rain forest.
Easterling's presentation for drinkzamu.com at the Airport Marriott attracted a standing-room-only crowd. Not having just fallen off a coconut truck, Easterling knew most of those people were there to see his internationally famous wife and pop icon.
In a quick interview, I asked Newton-John about these singers thinking that actually singing is not part of the concert job. "It's just a different era," said Newton-John, who can be viewed at startribune.com/video. "I haven't seen many shows where they lip-sync, but I think it's kind of accepted nowadays. We didn't do lip-syncing when I was touring. You sang everything live. If you [did] television sometimes, and the set was large and you had to dance, sometimes, you'd pre-record or sing to your record, but not on stage."
For sure, Spears and her supporters would claim that the complicated staging and rigorous dancing justified her lip-syncing.
Of course, I believe the real reason Spears lip-syncs is that she's not a good singer. Spears' vocal instrument has always been flimsily compared to Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé and my favorite, Patti Austin, all of whom are tremendous singers.
Could Newton-John imagine Ella Fitzgerald lip-syncing? "Of course not," she said.