An Only Child #!t&c*h! Chick Singer

Hi there,

My hackles heighten when I hear Only Children described as 'Spoilt!' 'Wrapped in cotton wool!' 'Entitled!'. Surely this is a form of minority discrimination? Yes I am an Only Child and while I can be contented in my own company for days on end, I adore hanging out with other people in the universe I live in - the one that I know I'm not the centre of, thank you very much. 

And it seems I am doubly afflicted. I am also a chick singer, OMG! 'Demanding Diva!' 'Bitch!' 'High Maintenance!'. In most of the gigs I do, I am the only female in a band full of male musicians, and I have a great time with the blokes. But, there is something about singing and working with other female singers that I love - we understand each other and we can talk about hair-related issues for hours. More importantly, when female voices combine in harmony, it can be nothing less than transportive. 

Some of the best musical working experiences I've ever had have been with other female singers. AND I should know - looking back over my career I have lost count of how many musical projects I have done with other chicks. My very first foray was an original rap/pop project with two other girls (and Hugh Jackman was our backing dancer for a while there, true story!). 

Tomorrow I will be performing in intertwining brass-like harmony with two wonderful singers as The Andrews Sisters' Nieces. I'm currently in a show with two other fabulous girls in the First Ladies of Soul and have recently put my own show together with three up front, called The Swell Sisters. I ran a showcase for female-fronted original music acts, called PopTarts, for almost 10 years, came across hundreds of female singers and barely a bitch in sight. 

Singing with other women feels like belonging to something where the whole surpasses the sum of its parts. Maybe that's what it's like to be a part of a large family. That I'll never know, but instead, let me be the low A to your B and D (the heavenly harmony stack at the very end of 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy' - it's a corker!),

Cheers,
Amanda

Check out my Swell Sisters:  http://youtu.be/h4C2MLuwvq8

For Singers: On Being a Bitch

Hi there,

Since it's the season of goodwill, I thought I'd talk about the importance, as a singer, of being nice. Niceness is underrated. People almost have an expectation of diva-ish bitchy behaviour from female singers, especially if there's more than one of them on the same stage. I ran 'PopTarts', a weekly female singer-songwriter night, for almost 10 years - dealing with female artistes en masse - and I completely disagree that un-niceness is the norm. I was always impressed at the warm camaraderie between the singers and not only do I think it's the right way to be, I think it's good for your career.

I do a piano bar-type gig once a week, largely attracting international tourists. It's quite common for visitors to come and get their photo taken with the piano player and I, at the end of the night. Recently, a family came up to the piano and I got my best smile ready. Instead of posing with us, the mother glared at me, snarled 'excuse me' as she pushed us to the side and deposited her 20-something daughter at the piano. Mother instructed daughter to place her hands on the piano as if playing and then directed her (also snarling) son behind his camera phone, in what became a mini photo shoot. 

 Just after they left, my boss approached us laughing. Apparently this family were his guests this particular night. He had invited them because the mother had enquired after the singing gig for her daughter. The venue hires singers every night of the week so he is always interested in new performers. When my boss sat down with them for a while, during my performance, he asked the group what they thought of me. Apparently they stuck the boot in. There were harumphs and comments like 'oh she's very average'. Perhaps this is what they really thought, but is this the way to get yourself a gig?

Well you'll be pleased to know it didn't work. When the mother asked Bossman when her daughter would be able to start, he said something to the effect of, 'you can have the gig when this singer is finished with it and that could be another 20 years, so don't hold your breath.' Didn't she realise she was not only putting me down, but also criticising the judgement of the person that had hired me, ie Bossman himself? The Maitre d' told me the group had been disparaging of me to him as well! So with all the staff talking about it, and laughing at what they considered their transparent efforts to land the gig, they had managed to absolutely guarantee that no kin of theirs would ever work at that venue.

In any industry, people want to work with nice people, right? It makes life run more smoothly. Anyway, everyone knows Santa strikes naughty people off his present list, so here's to nice!

Merry Christmas everyone,

xAmanda