This post was pushed to the back burner this month in the midst of the craziness that is my life. Over the course of the month it became “that thing” that all writers (or bloggers, in this case) think about. That Post That Must Be Written, to be specific.
First off, I do want to send a huge public thanks to a friend and a very talented web developer, Caroline Keim. I wouldn’t have been able to go to this event had she not invited me, as I’m really just not cool enough to be invited on my own (really, I’m not).
On to the main event…. the event!
This event was put on by Billboard Live, and the concert (Alicia Keys & Friends) was livestreamed on their site and later archived. The event was mainly “& Friends”, as I believe that Miss Keys played three songs (at most) the entire night.
Alicia opened up the evening with a moving performance of Empire State of Mind – Part II. In a venue as rich in history as The Apollo and in her very own neighborhood, this song really took on extra meaning. Plus, I have a big sentimental side, so there’s that.
Thanks to NYPOST.COM, I figured out who the other artists (“and friends”) were. Billboard – in the future a list of the “& friends” would be handy!
Raheem DeVaughn, Hope, Elle Varner, Marsha Ambrosious, Jermaine Paul and Melanie Fiona all performed a few songs each, with Alicia popping on and off the stage throughout the performances to either perform duets with the acts, or perform her own songs as transitions between the guests.
Two acts really stood out – Melanie Fiona and Elle Varner.
Elle Varner was up first, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she stepped on stage. It took about 30 seconds for me to figure out that while Elle may be young, and perhaps new to performing on a stage like The Apollo’s, she is mega-talented. She’s on Twitter and was tweeting about the event before and after, and I went to her YouTube page to see what she had up there when I read through her stream. Take a look at what I found below:
I wish she used YouTube more, but she does use MySpace, and keeps a bit info there.
Melody Fiona, the other standout of the night, on top of having a KILLER dress (seriously, I want to own that dress), also brought plenty of sass with a healthy serving of “Holy cow, that girl has PIPES” to the stage.
She was just nominated for a Grammy, and also performed on Jimmy Kimmel live shortly after her show at The Apollo.
At the risk of overwhelming this post with videos, I’ll leave my favorite song off of the video list – Ay Yo. Click the link to go listen to her performance on Carson Daly’s Last Call.
In true Alicia fashion, she closed out the night with All Right – still one of my favorite songs so no complaints from me!
Now for the social marketing comments…
From a social media perspective, I think this event could have been better executed. There was a MySpace contest for fans to win tickets, but I didn’t see a lot across other social media sites (including Facebook, where she debuted her new album a short month before the event). Also, Billboard’s site doesn’t provide a lot of interaction, and it’s hard to find the event, let alone watch the recording. I’ve done the digging for you here, but even knowing where to go it took me a few minutes to find it.
I also wish it was easier to find out about the “& friends” part of the show, if you couldn’t tell by my comments above. I was sitting next to Xilla from Global Grind and between him, myself and Caroline, we were hard pressed to find the correct names of the performers using our ears (and our iPhones). I spent a chunk of the next day double-checking my work, and figured out that we still had some of the names wrong!
Photos and video weren’t allowed at the event. Since Billboard was live-streaming the event I can see the logic in this, but at the same time, I’d rather show you all the video I shot and photos I took rather than have to point you to YouTube and Billboard’s websites as the sole source of information. I can play devil’s advocate both ways on this, but with things like events – I’m a firm believer in the fact that fans should be able to record the experiences for themselves through photo and video, as long as they appropriately credit the source.
Overall, I’m happy to see Billboard do something like this, but think that little thought was put into the entire picture by all of the involved groups. The event was great, and fulfilled a long-standing want of mine to see Alicia Keys perform, but I still believe that it fell flat in terms of overall impact. If companies in the music business are suffering so much, why don’t they put their full efforts into making events like this a true success? How can they appropriately gauge the effects of social media marketing if they’re only doing part of the work?
So. Go check out Alicia Keys’ new album, go check out the guest performers, and go check out the Billboard Live recording of the night. It was a fun night full of great acts, and I really hope to see more events happening like this in the future. A great start, but there is more to do!