A hit from Disney one more time
Pre-teen girls could do a lot worse than taking on Selena Gomez as a role model. This is an age, after all, in which Katy Perry has sold herself by literally wrapping her naked body in candy floss. Then theres Lady Gaga ... enough said.
For the most part, Gomezs songs send the sort of message that mothers want to hear ignore the slings and barbs of the school yard, beauty is more than skin deep, be your own person.
Who Says the rousing song that the 19-year-old starlet used to close her sold-out concert at Copps Coliseum Saturday night says it all, quite nicely, in a refreshingly unblond sort of way.
I wouldnt want to be anybody else, Na-na-na, Na-na-na, Im no beauty queen, Im just beautiful me.
All good. Still, I couldnt help wonder who she was trying to impress with those knockout costumes she was strutting around the stage in.
Her togs werent Britney Spears whips-and-leather erotica, but they were certainly designed to enhance her exterior beauty. The heals and stockings stretched her legs into impossible places while the glittery bodices served to swell her breasts a couple of cup-sizes beyond reality.
She couldnt have been trying to draw the attention of the 14-year-old boys in the crowd. There werent any.
As a matter of fact there were hardly any males of any age. Saturday night was the first time I had ever entered a Copps Coliseum washroom and found it empty this despite the fact that management had wisely converted all the north-end mens rooms into womens, urinals and all.
This was a girls night out, with the average age in the audience somewhere around 11. That totally random calculation includes all the cat-herding moms and the handful of beleaguered dads, who sacrificed a Ti-Cats game to bond with their daughters (good call, the Cats were dreadful).
The sultry costumes, not to mention those muscle-bound male ! dancers hovering around her ankles, were aimed at all those young girls.
Gomez was telling them that they, too, can have all this glamour if you just work hard and believe in yourselves. It had worked for her. Gomez rose from a broken home in Texas to a starring role in the Wizards of Waverly and a place at the top of the Disney food chain.
This was working for me ... until Gomez explained that she received her inspiration at the age of 11 from seeing Britney Spears. Gomez confided to the crowd that she, too, had once sat in the nosebleeds, dreaming of fame and fortune. Britney, she said, was her idol which is why she was about to perform a medley of her hits. And then it came ... hit me baby one more time.
Um, shouldnt someone explain to Gomez that Spears isnt exactly the best role model for 11-year-olds?
Selena, it wasnt too long after Britney turned 19 (your age, by the way) that she went off the rails. Remember all those drugs? The nervous breakdowns? The partying around? Losing her children to K-Fed?
Guess not.
Oh, well. Other than that, the show was really quite sweet. Gomez proved once again that she can sing, dance (sorta) and even play a tympani drum just as well as she can act, maybe even better. All in all, it was a healthy way to introduce your daughter to the joys of arena-sized pop extravagances, if you could afford it.
The Wonderful World of Disney was so much simpler for my parents. They gathered the family around the old black and white after Sunday dinner to watch uncle Walt introduce us to Davey Crockett and Hayley Mills. Then all they had to do was put up with my whining for a coonskin cap (I kept my passion for Hayleys pigtails to myself).
Now you must come prepared with a boxful of cash. The ticket prices werent bad, just $50 or $60 including fees. Its the other stuff that kills $25 for a glossy program, $10 for a blinky light, $20 for a Who Says tote bag, $5 for a milkshake and $45 for a T-shirt (the knockoffs on the street were only $10), n! ot to me ntion the parking and the pre-concert meal.
The hallway hawkers were holding wads of $20 bills, literally two-inches thick. It was hard not to come away from Copps thinking that you had just exited a money-stripping machine. Ka-ching.
All good, for the hard-pressed folks at HECFI who run Copps and Hamilton Place. The Gomez show was one of three sold-out shows in just four days John Mellencamp at Hamilton Place, also on Saturday, and Mumford and Sons at Copps on Wednesday.
VIDEO: Selena Gomez at Copps Coliseum
The Gomez concert ended before 10 p.m., which meant there was still time to dash over to Hamilton Place and catch the end of the Mellencamp show, just in time for Pink Houses (Aint That America) and R.O.C.K In The U.S.A.
At 60, Mellencamp has lost none of his power and none of his rock n roll heartland instincts. He was backed by a superb six-piece band, including the remarkable violin of Miriam Sturm. There was no encore but the crowd left satisfied.
While there were no sightings of Gomezs boyfriend, Justin Bieber, at Copps Coliseum, a few eagle-eyed fans may have caught a glimpse of Mellencamps new partner at Hamilton Place. Im pretty sure that was actress Meg Ryan, who has been dating Mellencamp since late last year, watching the concert from the Hamilton Place aisles.