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If the election of Barack Obama was to usher in a new age of respect, generosity and cooperation, someone may want to pass on the memo to Etta James. The soul legend has ripped into Beyoncé, threatening to "whup [the singer's] ass" for her inauguration ball rendition of At Last.
Beyoncé performed the song for Barack and Michelle Obama's first dance, which took place at the ball on 20 January.
"You guys know your president, right? You know the one with the big ears?" James asked from the stage of Seattle's Paramount Theatre. "Wait a minute, he ain't my president. He might be yours; he ain't my president. But I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song — she's going to get her ass whupped."
"Her song" was originally written in 1941, by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren. Part of the Orchestra Wives musical, At Last first charted in a version by the Glenn Miller orchestra. Only decades later did it become Etta James's calling-card – and perhaps her best-known tune.
When Beyoncé played the role of Etta James for last year's Cadillac Records film, she performed At Last for the soundtrack. Before the premiere, Beyoncé said James was happy with her rendition. "She told me, 'I loved you from the first time you sung,'" the 27-year-old told MTV News.
Now, however, things seem to have changed. During her gig last week, the 70-year-old savaged Beyoncé's performance. "The great Beyoncé," James sneered. "I can't stand Beyoncé. She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever."
At the time of the serenade, Etta James was dealing with complications from gastric bypass surgery in 2003. But she watched the dance on TV, according to the New York Daily News, and told her son that the performance "was great". "She was [just] a little down that she wasn't well enough to be there," her son said.
Maybe in the James family, "a little down" is code for "blood-boilingly enraged".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/06/beyonce-etta-james-barack-obama
Beyoncé performed the song for Barack and Michelle Obama's first dance, which took place at the ball on 20 January.
"You guys know your president, right? You know the one with the big ears?" James asked from the stage of Seattle's Paramount Theatre. "Wait a minute, he ain't my president. He might be yours; he ain't my president. But I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song — she's going to get her ass whupped."
"Her song" was originally written in 1941, by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren. Part of the Orchestra Wives musical, At Last first charted in a version by the Glenn Miller orchestra. Only decades later did it become Etta James's calling-card – and perhaps her best-known tune.
When Beyoncé played the role of Etta James for last year's Cadillac Records film, she performed At Last for the soundtrack. Before the premiere, Beyoncé said James was happy with her rendition. "She told me, 'I loved you from the first time you sung,'" the 27-year-old told MTV News.
Now, however, things seem to have changed. During her gig last week, the 70-year-old savaged Beyoncé's performance. "The great Beyoncé," James sneered. "I can't stand Beyoncé. She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever."
At the time of the serenade, Etta James was dealing with complications from gastric bypass surgery in 2003. But she watched the dance on TV, according to the New York Daily News, and told her son that the performance "was great". "She was [just] a little down that she wasn't well enough to be there," her son said.
Maybe in the James family, "a little down" is code for "blood-boilingly enraged".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/06/beyonce-etta-james-barack-obama