15 hours ago
Rest In Peace, Lady Summer
I grew up listening to Donna Summer. My mother would play her vinyls in our apartment and it was hard to get away from seeing her video “She Works Hard For the Money” on MTV (when MTV actually played music videos). Donna Summer was part of the very fabric of my childhood, and you don’t want to know how many times I’ve heard “Last Dance” at a karaoke bar. ^_^
Miss D, you’ve given us so much joy and broken a lot of barriers during your time, and I just want to say “thank you” for giving us all lots of wonderful memories through your recordings and performances. Your music was definitely part of the soundtrack of my life.
Rest in Peace.
What a Special Leap Day!!!
Happy leap day, everyone! Today is pretty special for two reasons:
- My DailySingle article is out today! Go check it out!
- I’ve posted a new vlog on youtube. You can watch it below.
Thanks to Daron K. Harris for interviewing me for the magazine and to Vinnie Langdon for inspiring me to do these vlogs again.
And if you have any questions, feel free to contact me here or through twitter @janifer, facebook at janifer.music or via email at janiferonline@gmail.com.
See you soon!
Happy Fat Tuesday!
Happy Fat Tuesday! Today is the last day of Mardi Gras and the day before Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday is a day generally spent living it up before the start of the “fasting” period until Easter Sunday. Some people give up a food item, some people give up a bad habit. Haven’t really decided what I’m giving up this time around, but we all have until midnight.
So, if you get the chance, party, enjoy yourself, and have fun on the last day of mardi gras.
Bonne chance, mon ami,
-Janifer
Rest In Peace, Whitney Houston
I have a confession to make: Whitney Houston reminds me of my mother. Well, my mother, if my mom was born African American. Her aura and her style just reminded me of my mom, ever since the 80′s when I first saw Whitney. Maybe because they had the same type of energy. I don’t know. When I was a kid, I would make that comparison. How my dad reminded me of John Ridder and how my aunt Lily reminded me of Gina Davis. I chuck it up to watching too much television as a child, raised on the MTV generation.
Over the years, however, it was disheartening to watch the downward spiral of Whitney’s glorious career and talent. Being a singer myself, I watched in awe at Whitney during her hay day, but recall the one episode of hers and Bobby Brown’s short lived reality show, how Whitney really didn’t have much love for her career. It was a job to her, and perhaps, that’s why her voice towards the end, became so far gone.
On Saturday, when I got the new feed that Whitney had passed, I didn’t believe it. I immediately went to check out the story and realized it was true. The woman that reminded me of my mother when I was a child was now gone. Kinda like Wendy Williams, I didn’t watch the Grammys, instead I reevaluated my goals and what I wanted. I watched some inspirational films and such, but overall, I laid low. As awesomely talented Whitney was, I wondered, toward the end, was she happy or was she just going through the motions?
A week before Whitney died, her song “You Give Good Love” kept playing in my head. Strange, because I hadn’t heard it in ages, then suddenly, it popped up. I tried it in karaoke and recorded it. I was going by memory, since it had been since the 80′s since I heard it, so please forgive me if it’s not up to my regular quality. I just thought I’d share.
Rest in peace, Whitney. God blessed you with a great gift that you were gracious enough to share with all of us while you were here. Thank you for all the joy it brought to everyone who heard you.
A Night of Singing
Tonight, I decided to share some of my singing, so I recorded it and uploaded the tracks on to SoundCloud. Check them out!
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launch link
Hanging with Dad
Due to recent events, my father flew up from Louisiana. I got to hang with him for a while before he flew back out. In a rare treat, I was able to convince him to go karaoking with me. He hasn’t sung in a while, but he’s still got it. Thought I’d share the video I took of him.
Enjoy!
We’ll Miss You, Uncle Jim
A long time ago, back in Taiwan, my father befriended a young man two years his junior. At that time, I don’t thin either of them knew that their friendship would span over 40 years, marriages, three kids, a divorce, many businesses, three countries and two continents. I’m now sitting at this man’s funeral, representing both my dad and my mom, who both couldn’t make it to their friend’s wake.
Over the years, the man I knew as “Uncle Jim” had been, at first, the driving force of their family, striving for business success for his family. In his later years he became the levity of that same family. The ice breaker and the joker to release the tension in the situation.
I grew up with his kids, considering them my cousins for all of my life. And when my parents were going through a heinous divorce, it was my Uncle Jim and his wife Lily that offered me a place to stay, away from the madness of home. Their family will always be family to me, no matter how much time passes between us.
Then on January 3rd, the unthinkable… Uncle Jim was struck by a car. He was in a coma. Then on the 8th, the day of rest, he passed on, 61 years old, leaving a wife and two grown children. sitting here at his wake, surrounded by mourners and the plethora of flowers purchased in his honor, I still cannot believe he’s gone. His face doesn’t look like him; devoid of his laugh lines.
I wish my father was with me, but he couldn’t get a flight until next week. My mother and her husband are out of the country and aren’t scheduled to return until March. So I sit here in the place of one of his oldest friends: my father. But I also sit here for me. To say “thank you for everything”.
Uncle Jim’s time on this earth meant more than he’ll ever know to my family.
R.I.P. uncle Jim.
James Jin-Ching Shao
1950-2012
Happy Thanksgiving
I’m grateful for the beautiful day outside and for every new day I’m able to wake up and move closer to my goals. I’m grateful for the successes I’ve had this year and the successes I have to come. I’m grateful for all the new friends I’ve made this year and all my old friends who have supported me throughout this journey and who continue to do so. I am thankful for my health and well being and those who facilitate it. I am grateful for the roof over my head, the money that keeps coming in to pay everything that needs to be paid to keep everything running, and the good sense to know how to properly utilize it. I am grateful for the job I had and am looking forward to the better job I will get soon, that will help me get closer to my goals to multi platinum rock star status. I am grateful for my family who have been understanding during this time and my former bosses and co-workers who have been gracious in helping me out through this time. I am grateful for all the talents that God has blessed me with and the lessons that God has taught me along the way, which has made me strong enough to face this, so I was able to bounce back faster than I would have in previous incarnations of myself. I am grateful for the adore that suitors have shone me, whether long term or short lived. They made me feel beautiful in their affections for the moments I was with them, and for that, I am grateful. I am grateful for my fans, both old and new, who have supported me throughout all of this. I am grateful for you. Thank you for sticking by me, supporting my music, and supporting my career. You make it all worth while, and for that, I am most humbly grateful.
Happy thanksgiving.
Love always,
-Janifer xoxoxoxo
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
For those that don’t know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you are in your 30′s and are at risk, please get yourself checked. If you’re in your 40′s, please start getting checked.
My friend Shelley is a 2x survivor of breast cancer and this year was one of my featured supporters while I was on Karaoke Battle USA, and to be quite honest, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her, so I wear pink for her, and also for both of my grandmothers who died of other cancers within the last ten years.
Which is one more thing I want to touch upon. Cancer in itself is deadly, no matter which variety it is. Get checked if you’re at risk. It’s a hard battle when diagnosed and even if you did see the movie 50/50 in the theaters, it’s a whole lot more anger driven and complicated when you’re in the thick of it. Just get yourself checked and stay healthy, for all of our sakes… including mine. I want to see you at my next show.
♥ Janifer
Help support the cause by purchasing items at the breast cancer awareness site (facebook link): https://www.facebook.com/supportthefight
You Should Never Judge a Book By it’s Cover
Last night I went to two live band karaoke nights. One at Rock & Rose hosted by Brandon Bain with Crash Course Karaoke. As promised, since Alan Bigelow, musical director for the band became my 600th fan, and since they learned Heart’s “What About Love” for me (and requested that I come out to do it), I had to show up last night.
So after coming from the gym, I went over to check out the scene. There was an intimate crowd of some of the regulars, some new faces, and the raucous of a live band venue. After all the logistics, I went up on stage.
Now, for those who don’t know, I’m generally not dressed like the way I do in half these photographs. The beauty in how God made me is I don’t look like what I sound like, and visual perception is always what throws people off when people see me. When I walk up to a mic, even when warned, it takes me opening my mouth for people to realize what the heck is going on and by that time, it’s too late: I have them. Last night was no exception.
When Crash Course started playing the first couple notes of “What About Love” some of the audience in their 30′s – 40′s who recognized the material looked up. It wasn’t until I was into the third line of the first verse:
The love I’m sending, ain’t making it through to your heart.
did I get everyone’s attention. Of course, this is the belt verse, and I think I even got the attention of people walking down the street outside. Once that line hit though, I noticed one of the guys in the audience who was watching awestruck go up to Brandon and give him a pound while looking and me and Brandon looking at me too. My brain is thinking:
Did Brandon put money on me or something?
The song turned out great and it was a lot of fun to perform. The band did a great job and the crowd was really receptive to it. Afterward, I went up to Brandon and I asked him what that pound with that guy was all about. He said “That’s what you make people do, Janifer when they hear you sing”. What?!? *SMH*
Janet, who is an aspiring singer and a regular live band karaoker asked me if I’d be willing to go to another live band spot that night at O’Flanagan’s. I agreed, so she, I, and another one of her friends met up with a second friend and headed to the second spot for live band karaoke with the Human Karaoke Experience hosted by Dancing Joe. The place was packed, partially for the Yankees vs. Tigers ALCS title, however there were plenty there for the karaoke.
Since I was running on fumes that night, I started falling asleep, despite the fact that it was noisy, so my friend Janet, was kind enough to give me her spot on the spot. Within the list, I saw that they had the Allman Brother’s song “Whipping Post” and it was enough to make me want to do it. I’ve never done it live band before, but I suspected with the live crowd, it was certainly going to be a worthwhile experience.
Now, this past week, heck, let me be honest, this past month has felt like an entire lifetime, and when I saw “Whipping Post” I knew it was going to be the perfect song to help me vent out everything I had gone through. When Janet asked me what I was going to sing, I just warned her “they’re not going to see what’s coming”.
After the Yankees lost to the Tigers and the band took their 15 minute break, and a few more singers went up, it was about 11:45PM and I was called up to take the stage. Someone who had seen me at another live band event ran up to me and gave me a hug and warned the band “OMG, I saw you at {____} event! She’s really good!” and ran off.
To wake myself up, I let the musicians play the intro and started dancing to it to get myself into it. Once the intro was done, I started in and built up into the roar by fourth line.
He took all the money…
Yeah, I altered the line because “She took all my money” makes little sense when you’re a straight woman, and I sure as heck wasn’t going to say it was my money he took!
By the chorus hit, there was a thick standing crowd of spectators around me who were slack jawed and rowdy. They had no idea what hit them. For those who don’t know the song, there are pretty long instrumental intermissions between versus. I just started to groove and air guitar. I lost myself in it. As I said, pretty long ass week. This is my alcohol. Just before the last verse, I took off my glasses, and the crowd seemed to know what was going to happen and the raucous from them got louder. I put them away behind me and just ripped through the final chorus, hair flying, ending the song on my knees.
By the time I got up, I was back to being me again, and at some point I think I might have needed security. A whole lot of people were coming up to me from all over the place. One described it as me being “possessed”. I think of it as me being “unleashed” it more like it. I’m glad everyone enjoyed themselves. I was so exhausted though, that afterward I left. I did stop by the fan page and thank the bands for letting me share their stage. Hopefully some of their regulars that were that night will check out my stuff, like all of you have.
Thank you for all the support, and I’m looking forward to taking what you already know and experienced for yourselves and bringing it to the rest of the world.
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Happy 600 Day
Today marks the day where I celebrate hitting 600 “Likes” on my facebook fan page! Thank you to all of you for making this happen! I definitely couldn’t have done it without your help. To celebrate, on Thursday, I’m going to be going out Rock & Rose after I hit the gym to sing some live band karaoke with Crash Course Karaoke, hosted by Brandon Bain, lead by guitarist Alan Bigelow, who incidentally became my 600th fan. The band was the same one who backed me on a recent video I posted (“I Want to Know What Love Is” – you can watch it above).
Through a suggestion I made a few weeks ago, they’ve added Heart’s “What About Love” to their song list and have requested me to come by and sing it, so in honor of Alan becoming #600, I’ll be stopping by Rock & Rose on Thursday night.
Some other quick news before I go:
- Just did an on-camera interview for a artist web series called Capsulocity, which will be debuting soon. I’ll keep you posted.
- “One More Time” is starting to get some serious interest in the clubs. Requests are starting to come in for a club mix and it’s not even on sale yet! Sale date coming soon!
- Show coming up on the 12 for Vinny Vella industry night, and it looks like I’m also being booked for a show this coming holiday. Yeah, they’re starting to come in. I’ll let you know which ones you can buy tickets for.
Thanks for helping me get this far. Let’s make the next 600 a cakewalk!
Love u!
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Quiet Before the Storm
It’s October 22nd, and I’m officially suspending the 2-2-2 project. Due to some unforeseen situations with the single, that project needs to be completed first before the 2-2-2 project is set into motion. I might end up pushing it to February, but that won’t be locked down for a while. In the meantime, we’ve got other fish to fry.
The Single “One More Time”: The single started making the rounds in the clubs since Sunday night for it’s world debut at Global Mixx Radio‘s launch party, thanks to DJ Israel, but since it was a scratch track, the vocals need to be re-recorded for the on-sale single, which will be taken care of tomorrow. I’ll be heading into the studio tomorrow with DJ Sparrow to get it recorded, mastered, and out on sale.
Yes, a music video will be released for it, and yes, there might be one or two “guest” appearances. I’ll leave it at that.
“One More Time” debut single
REVISION: start time for my track will be at 10:30PM ET tonight! Head to http://globalmixxradio.com/ then to check out the rough edit! The finished song will be available on sale on iTunes in a few weeks!
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Back some time in April/May this year I was introduced to a NY Dance producer by the name of DJ Sparrow who had just finished a remix for my old friend Lovari. He was eager to work with me so I sent over a rough a cappella track for him to work on. Since then, as you know, the auditions for X-Factor, The Voice, and the filming of Karaoke Battle USA happened. Finally, knowing that my episode was finally going to air, I gave him a timetable on when the track needed to be completed. He gave me the track last Friday, telling me he played it for a fellow DJ, (DJ Israel) who wanted to debut it the following Sunday on his live radio show at a new club. I recorded the new vocals during the week, sent it out, and it will be aired live tonight at about 9PM/9:30PM during his set. So check out my new dance single, “One More Time”, debuting tonight, with possible interview!
Surprise!
It’ll be available on sale on iTunes in a week or so. Happy Sunday!
launch linkPerceptions
Now that season I of Karaoke Battle USA is finally in the books (please forgive me West Coast folks, since you are in mid viewing as I write – I don’t anticipate any spoilers in my post), the one enormous lesson I’ve learned through all this is that the experience everyone will have is different and how they utilize it will be equally as different. The whole “standing at the scene of an accident on four different corners” viewpoint situation. I think I’m at an unusual advantage because I have had the blessing to (regardless of how far I got in this competition) actually work in the music industry and understand the mechanics on what needed to be done, and went into this separating my personal self from my “stage persona”.
For those who have been following the show, yes, I am a blackjack dealer, but that’s only part of the truth. My full time job is as the administrative assistant to the global digital business group at Universal Music Group, home of such acts as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Eminem, and Jay-Z. Before that I worked at VEVO, Red Distribution, and Sony Music Entertainment. I’ve actually been a part of the back offices (not on the label side) on and off for over 10 years now.
Now you must be wondering what the heck would I be doing looking to get signed to a label when I work for the biggest record company on the planet? That, my friend, is simple. Record companies are notorious for not signing their own staff to deals. Look up the story of Barry Manilow to understand my meaning. Even when I became the New York State Women’s karaoke champion, nobody really blinked because in every office there is, was, or has been an aspiring artist behind every desk.
With that being said, let us continue.
Because I’m an avid tech junkie and understand the importance of promotion and social media, I promoted the heck out of everything I did. In this game if you’re bashful about your promotion, you will have no career, no matter how good you are. It is the nature of the machine. If no one knows your name, no one will buy your music. I got my name out there and I taught others who asked me who I did it to do the same.
Due to the attention some were getting over others due to air time, lines were being drawn. Friends turning on their friends for stupid things like getting one second over another or because someone was getting more press. How it should have been them there rather than this person. People bringing in their friends, supporters, and families into group chats strictly for cast members just so they have people backing them up. The whole thing was getting to be a mess and the negative talk was getting to snowball.
Unfortunately for me when you have one of the largest fan pages amongst the entire lot, you’ll get hated on, and when you have no fear on promotion, and your name and face gets mentioned as often as mine was during the promos and the website, people will start to hate. I ended up feeling like LeBron James during his senior year at St. Vincent/St. Mary’s. Promos I started getting were being ignored or were being scrutinized by people who were once friends and messages were not returned. Fingers were being pointed at my back by people who didn’t even know me.
A friend of mine who’s an editor at the NY Times, who has had his own slings and arrows thrown at him told me “If you don’t have someone hating on you, you’re not doing something right”. I saw Diddy tweet that same thing a few years back. Its accurate, but still a very bitter horse pill to swallow.
Being in the spotlight, even for this limited amount of time, I can understand the neurosis that comes with the job, and at the end of it, it is a job. You can’t take it personally, and if you do, plan on getting great health coverage because your shrink bills will bury you otherwise.
I have to stress it though, the entertainment business is all an illusion. This include the music business. It’s auto-tune, photoshop, track performance, and an alternate ego. The Superman/Clark Kent syndrome. When you go into an audition, they’ve already have something in mind, and if you don’t look the part, it’s not saying you’re not great, it just means you don’t meet their per-conceived notion. Nothing to be upset over. Not saying you shouldn’t try, and if you don’t look the part, to give up, but carve your own path. Sometimes it’s all about showing the industry what they’re missing. (One day I’ll put up a post about my theory of the correlation between dating and getting signed in the record industry- it’s funny, but accurate).
But I think one of the most awesome things that happened is that I helped a lot of awesomely talented people be positive and gear their focus on to getting themselves to where they want to be, regardless of whether they got little, negative, or no press at all. Dan Caguiat said I inspired him to not just sit down and sulk from his negative press from the show and made this spoof response video to Carnie Wilson, which ABC bought the rights to:
I walked Gregg Moore through his facebook fan page creation. I started helping Pedro Haro get his videos for his upcoming site. And I’m teaching Shaina Ravis what she really needs to get herself up and running, but this is just the short list of people I’ve been helping and talking to along the way.
Rather than point the finger and say “it’s you’re fault” or “they should have done this” or “they should have done that” why not ask “how can I spin this to work for me”? That’s what I taught and run with what you have.
…and now, to bed with me. Good night.
Shuffle Up & Deal!
World Series of Poker winner Johnny Chan with Janifer
Tomorrow I’ll be dealing Texas Holdem for the first annual Julia’s Angels JDRF Charity Poker Tourney to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Stop by and play for a chance at the grand prize:
a $10,000 seat at the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event (airfare + 3 night hotel stay included)!
-sorry, Johnny Chan will not be there, but 103.5 KTU morning radio show host Goumba Johnny will be a celebrity guest at the tournament.
launch linkWhat a fortuitous evening!
I go with my instinct and head to 14th street to do some karaoke after the gym tonight and who do I find myself surrounded by? Bravo TV staff and members of the web design firm of Landor Associates who wanted to “Like” my fan page after hearing me sing. Talk about timing! Now if I could get the real Mark Ronson to “Like” my fan site, that would be pretty genuine, right there.
Ultimate Karaoke Championships present NY State Finals: Karaoke World Championships – Episode 5 (Janifer’s Episode)
Go straight to 8:25 for my performance and judges commentary.