Macy Gray On Beauty In The Music World

Not to be mean, but the recent spectacle of a certain 40-ish singer writhing around in a catsuit and being photographed in some truly unfortunate ensembles just seemed desperate and a little sad. She was just trying way too hard.  Unfortunately, you see a lot of that these days. Macy Gray, whose new album The Sellout features a song titled “Beauty In The World,” sheds some light on what drives stars to such antics. 

In a blog posting on The Huffington Post, Madame Macy writes:

“I don’t know how to get a 40-year-old woman on the radio. If she was 20, 25. This record would be incredible.” This quote comes from a powerful record label executive, just before she said no to signing me for my fifth album. And who would fault her? Everybody knows that a 40-year-old female recording artist is “geriatric.” While a 46-year-old president is the “new kid on the block,” a singer over 30 is just a few songs away from the nursing home of music.

The obvious remedies: Age defying crème, botox, face lifts, brow lifts, hair dye, Perricone Promises, super foods and denial. Lying about our age was once a quick fix, but Wikipedia has ruined that for everybody. Cosmetic touch-ups and diet discipline may take ten years off, but how do you go ten years back? How do you sing songs that are relevant to teenagers and who are you fooling if you try.

To read the full blog post, go here. Then come back to Madame Noire and tell us what you think about it.