Monday, August 30, 2010

Black Holes of Davida: Allison Iraheta, Part 2

I am blessed to have been able to get tickets to four sold-out Adam Lambert concerts. (If you think that's excessive and boarding on obsessive, we met one woman who had seen him eight times and another who had seen him eleven.) At the first two, Allison Iraheta and Orianthi were Adam’s opening acts. I have previously blogged about Allison’s song “Beat Me Up,” which is about a girl who accepts physical and sexual abuse from her partner, but despite it all she’ll “never let [him] go.” Because her album did so poorly (it only sold 103,000 copies), she only performed for twenty minutes, while Orianthi performed for forty (her album peaked at #1 on the Top Heatseekers chart). Because Allison only performed a few songs, “Beat Me Up” was not one of them.

At the third and fourth concerts that I went to, Orianthi did not perform, so Allison did a forty-minute set. One of the first songs she performed was “Beat Me Up.”

I suppose I’m making such a big deal over this because of a woman at my synagogue. She is such a sweet, beautiful woman with an adorable and bright daughter. Since she doesn’t wear a wedding ring and she’s never come to synagogue with a husband, I’ve heard rumors that she’s a lesbian or a convert. (Like being either one is so bad? Whatever.) My mom was talking to her one day and found out that she had been married to an abusive piece of **** and finally had the courage to divorce him, getting the longest restraining order ever given in the state. I’m telling you, you would never think she ever went through abuse - she is such a lovely woman, and her daughter is also the sweetest thing in the world. I think she’s why the song “Beat Me Up” makes me so sick. To think that there are women out there like her who have to deal with an abusive partner, and who have children who have been exposed to that kind of behavior, makes me feel horrible. And to know that Allison is stupidly singing in support of that makes me SICK.

What also annoys me is what Allison said about "Beat Me Up." "It’s a pretty rad song. This chick likes being mistreated by her guy. A lot of girls out there, they like that! And it’s kind of sad, but y’know, that’s just the way she is. Not that I’m like that, because I’d beat the h**l out of whoever the h**l mistreats me! I put myself in another girl’s shoes, so it’s a pretty cool song."

"That's just the way she is"? That's just the way it is? For those of you who have been following my blog, you know I don't use profanity, but that comment makes me want to use every bad word in the book. What a stupid, stupid, STUPID thing to say. "Yeah, well, it's kinda sad that some girls enjoy abuse, since they have such low self-esteem, but hey, what can we do about it, let's sing about it and glorify abuse to all my little teeny-bopper fans!" The only right thing she could have said when asked about "Beat Me Up" is that it was a mistake to record. But no. Effing no. As I write this, my face is reddening in anger and my hands are shaking. This makes me so darn mad.

All I can say is that I’m glad Allison’s album did as poorly as it did. At the concert, people were talking so much during her set that even during the slow songs, there was no way she could hear me yelling out “WHY DO YOU SUPPORT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?”

I am redubbing Allison into the Black Holes of Davida for not only recording “Beat Me Up,” but for not realizing what a nasty, horrible, stupid song it is and performing it in concert, too. I am also putting Kevin Rudolf and Jacob Kasher, the song’s writers, into Black Holes of Davida.

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