LOS ANGELES (AP) - No balls were jingled Wednesday (Dec. 19) night at the annual KIIS-FM/L.A. Jingle Ball Christmas concert, where last year
Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey flashed the young and impressionable crowd while onstage with partner Jo-Jo.
But Michael Jackson exposed a body part even more shocking: The new nose he apparently tried to hide during his tribute concerts to himself at New York's Madison Square Garden in September. Accepting something called a KIIS-FM L.A. Legend Award, the self-anointed King of Pop took the Staples Center stage to reveal what looked like a newborn chick's beak just below his eyes. This teeny triangle pointed almost due north with its distorted tip, which probably explains why Jackson covered his face with his hand so much while performing three months ago.
Making his only West Coast appearance this year, Jackson waved and threw kisses at the cheering crowd of 16,000 as the opening strains of his hit "Butterflies" filled the arena. It looked as though station jock Rick Dees and his co-presenter, Magic Johnson, were trying to coax him into singing along. Yet he only gave a quick speech.
"To the public, to the fans, I love you from the bottom of my heart," Jackson said after thanking his hosts. "Merry Christmas." After his exit, a "Mi-chael" chant began, but did not coax him back.
Alicia Keys |
Other than this sideshow, the sold-out concert was standard yuletide radio grade. A seasonally bedecked stage revolved to reveal the best and worst in pop from the past year. Each act performed four or five songs. Among the best was
Alicia Keys, all silky voice and confidence beneath her burgundy felt hat. She dazzled with her unique mix of R&B, hip-hop, and classical music, plunking out "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony" on her Kurzweil electric piano before launching into her deliciously melodic extension of
Erykah Badu feminism, "A Woman's Worth."
Backed by a 10-piece band, headliner Shakira was also engaging, as she served up Arabic-flavored Latin pop confections such as "Objection," the hit "Whenever, Wherever," and the song she announced would probably be her next single, "Underneath Your Clothes." Shakira also conveyed a sense of female empowerment - at least if you think that's what strippers convey. The long-locked Colombian gyrated in painted-on pants and a man's shirt and necktie that was promptly removed to reveal a zebra-striped bikini top.
Craig David |
But the hands-down best set was
Craig David's. The British R&B singer floored the arena by showing up with just an acoustic guitarist and filling in for his missing band with only his voice. Weaving it in and out of the strums of "Time to Party" and his hit, "7 Days,"
David shifted it seamlessly back and forth between superfast rap and super slinky soul, even adding a bit of human beat box.
Lifehouse singer Jason Wade navigated his Eddie Vedder intensity through his band's hit, "Hanging by a Moment," and introduced a muscular new rock song, "Take Me Away," that he promised would appear on the next Lifehouse album. And, Sugar Ray made its pop crossover officially complete. There is officially no longer a trace of the self-effacing L.A. band's former hard-rock self. Singer Mark McGrath dedicated "Fly" to ailing Lakers announcer Chick Hearn and the new "When It's Over" to a girlfriend he claimed to have broken up with at a party the night before (after she dumped a vodka-and-cranberry on him for dancing with a Latin woman).
The Jewel-like Michelle Branch and hip-hop diva-in-training Toya each showed growing room. While Branch had mike problems that were not her fault, neither seemed comfortable onstage and clearly needed better material to get the crowd going.
Five For Fighting |
LFO was just plain awful. Displaying what amounted to justified insecurity, the
Boston band relied on covers of other songs such as
Aerosmith's "
Walk This Way" and
Green Day's "When I Come Around" to coax the audience into its rap-lite pabulum.
The night's Sept. 11 moment was provided by Five for Fighting (really just one guy, John Ondrasik, who seems pretty peaceful). With 10 L.A. firemen standing behind him, the L.A. native performed "Superman," a piano ballad that's proved therapeutic since the tragedy.
