Ashlee Simpson
Ashlee Simpson | |
|---|---|
| Promotional shot of Ashlee Simpson for her new album, I Am Me. Photographed by James White. Promotional shot of Ashlee Simpson for her new album, I Am Me. Photographed by James White | |
| Background information | |
| Years active | 2003–present |
Ashlee Nicole Simpson (born October 3, 1984) is an American pop singer and an actress. Originally known for being the younger sister of pop singer Jessica Simpson, Simpson eventually rose to prominence in mid-2004 through her chart-topping debut album Autobiography and the accompanying MTV reality series The Ashlee Simpson Show. Simpson received widespread derision when she used pre-recorded tracks on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in October 2004. (Simpson claimed she needed a backing track because she was suffering from acid reflux.) Simpson's second number-one album, I Am Me, was released in October 2005.
Biography
Saturday Night Live incident
Simpson appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on October 24, 2004, and as is customary for the show's format, she was scheduled to perform two songs. The first song she performed, "Pieces of Me", went off without a hitch. However, when she began her second song, "Autobiography", the song "Pieces of Me" was heard again—including her vocals—before she had raised the microphone to her mouth. Simpson began to dance spasmodically and then left the stage.[1] During the closing of the show Simpson appeared with the guest host Jude Law stating that her band performed the wrong song in the opening on the performance. Others, however, criticized her for what they saw as evidence that she was lip synching.
On October 25, Simpson called in to the music video show Total Request Live and explained that due to complications arising from a "severe" variation of acid reflux (which had previously been seen in The Ashlee Simpson Show) she had completely lost her voice and that her doctor advised her not to sing. She continued that because of the acid reflux, her father required her to use a guide track for the performance. She said of the incident, "I made a complete fool of myself." According to her, the drummer hit the wrong button, which caused the wrong track to be played.[2] During the October 25 Radio Music Awards broadcast, Simpson pretended, as a joke, to make the same mistake as she did in the SNL incident, but then began to perform "Autobiography", without using a pre-recorded vocal track as she had done during the prior SNL performance. On October 31, the CBS news program 60 Minutes aired footage from Simpson's rehearsals before the SNL performance, in which she was portrayed as having trouble with her voice and seemed visibly upset.
Almost a year later, Simpson was invited back as a guest performer, with a scheduled appearance on the October 8, 2005 episode of SNL. For her first of two songs, she performed the ballad "Catch Me When I Fall", which was written about her previous SNL experience. Her second and more energetic song of the show was the first single from I Am Me, "Boyfriend". The audience's enthusiastic reaction to this performance seemed more positive than its reaction to the first, and Simpson glowed, thanking the crowd before the broadcast went to commercial.
Early 2005
On January 4 2005, Simpson performed "La La" at the halftime show for the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida; when her performance finished, many of the 72,000-plus spectators booed. Representatives for the Orange Bowl stated that they were pleased with her performance and felt that it was a belated reaction to the SNL incident, while others have speculated that it may have been because the audience of the Orange Bowl was outside of Simpson's target age bracket. Still others disagree, however, and assert that her performance was poor and off-key.[3][4][5][6]
Following her Orange Bowl performance, an Internet petition at PetitionOnline.com complaining about Simpson's singing was among the most active of the site's petitions.[7] Simpson later said, "That's cool. You don't always have to be a fan of everybody's music," also citing the support she had received from her fans
Film and second album
Simpson had a supporting role as an aspiring actress and short-haired tomboy named Clea in the romantic comedy film Undiscovered (originally titled Wannabe), an independent film that was released in theaters on August 26, 2005. Simpson, who filmed her scenes in late 2004, said that for her first significant film role she decided to play a secondary character rather than taking on a leading role so soon. Film critic Michael Rechtstaffen of the Hollywood Reporter said Simpson's performance was "subdued" and "unadorned,"[8] and Robert K. Elder felt that Simpson was "aware of her own overexposure and underplaying her part fittingly."[9] The film itself met with mostly negative reviews[10] and placed outside of the top ten,[11] earning $676,048 in its opening weekend.
Simpson's second album, I Am Me, was released on October 18, 2005 in the U.S. and debuted at number one with sales around 220,000 copies sold;[12] the first single, "Boyfriend", hit radio in early September 2005 and quickly became Simpson's fastest rising hit (the song peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100). Simpson began touring on September 21 in Portland, Oregon to promote the new album and single (with the main tour beginning in November), and she has appeared on several television programs to promote the album. On October 14, MTV aired a show about Simpson's 21st birthday earlier in the month, Ashlee Simpson Live and Legal. In mid-December, Simpson collapsed after performing in Japan, possibly due to exhaustion, and was briefly hospitalized; consequently, she did not perform as scheduled at the Radio Music Awards on December 19. [13]
Simpson plans to continue touring into 2006, and the second single from I Am Me is "L.O.V.E." The song received the most votes in the poll "What's Your Favorite Song from I Am Me besides 'Boyfriend'?" on her official site. In late October, "L.O.V.E." charted at number 78 on the Hot 100 even before its official release, and it has also been remixed by Missy Elliott. Simpson appeared on the cover of Teen People with her sister Jessica for the December 2005/January 2006 issue, and is also on the cover of Blender for the December 2005 issue. She is on the cover of Cosmopolitan for the second time for the January 2006 issue. On December 6, she performed "L.O.V.E." as part of a performance with Pretty Ricky at the Billboard Music Awards.
Image and personal life
Simpson has a decidedly different image from that of her sister. Previously blonde like Jessica, she dyed her hair dark during the recording of the MTV reality show after she finished filming for the 7th Heaven television series, although after a year with dark hair she returned to blonde in 2005. Simpson's songs also have rock elements absent from her sister's music, and Simpson often wears shirts with "punk"-style designs, sometimes displaying band names, and typically has her fingernails and toenails painted black. She has three tattoos: a star on one wrist, two cherries on her ankle, and the word "love" on her other wrist.[14][15]
Her vocals, while generally not thought to equal her sister's range, have been praised by some as fitting the style of her music, and are sometimes described as raspy. Simpson and her sister Jessica were tied for third on oft-quoted celebrity-fashion critic Mr. Blackwell's list of the worst-dressed celebrities of 2004. Blackwell wrote that "from gaudy to grim to downright frenetic these two prove that bad taste is positively genetic."
She has refused to discuss her sex life, in contrast with her sister Jessica, who openly stated her intention to practice sexual abstinence until marriage. "I decided that I didn't want to talk about that because it's super personal," she said of the situation.[16] Simpson's relationship with Josh Henderson lasted about two years and ended during the first episode of The Ashlee Simpson Show. Soon she began her relationship with musician Ryan Cabrera, a relationship that was also featured in the reality show, and Simpson appeared as Cabrera's love interest in the music video for Cabrera's song "On the Way Down." The two were reported to have split up in August 2004 due to their busy schedules, but they were sometimes seen together in the months that followed.
At the beginning of the second season of The Ashlee Simpson Show Simpson indicated that they had resumed their relationship, although the two broke up again in early 2005. Simpson says the single "Boyfriend" from her upcoming album I Am Me "is about [how] every girl out there sometimes thinks you stole her boyfriend. It's just making fun of that." She says it is not about Lindsay Lohan and Wilmer Valderrama, although there have been rumors that Simpson stole Valderrama from Lohan.[17]
She is currently dating her guitarist, Braxton Olita, which she announced at the Billboard Awards, December 6, 2005.
In November 2005, Ashlee created controversy again while promoting her album I Am Me in Toronto, Canada. In early November, the Canadian entertainment news program eTalk Daily broadcast a video of a late night visit made by a clearly intoxicated Simpson to a McDonald's fast food restaurant in Toronto. In the video, she refused to pose for a picture unless the person kissed her foot and then verbally abused him when he did not. She also verbally abused an employee, and was seen trying to climb onto the counter. Reaction to the incident was mixed, with some criticizing Simpson and others regarding it as merely an amusing consequence of excessive drinking, and not uncommon for someone her age. Simpson said of the incident that the person who had asked for a picture had first called her "gross," and then only asked for a picture when he found out who she was, and therefore she reacted negatively. She also said that she had learned a lesson from it, that people have camera phones and record her when she is in public, and in an interview on The View she lightheartedly said that she told herself to "grow up" after the incident.
Criticism
There have been arguments that Simpson is a "manufactured" artist with little singing talent. Such critics cite incidents like the SNL episode and the Orange Bowl performance as proof of their claims, while others consider Simpson's image instead of her music to be the reason for her continued success. Critics also point out that because she is Jessica Simpson's sister, this may have been the main reason she was able to get a record deal.
Much of the media speculate that Simpson was pushed to fame through the aggressive management style and contacts of her father, Joe Simpson, who is her manager and was the executive producer of her reality show. Some think that Simpson has lip-synched on occasions other than the SNL episode, comparing the impact of the SNL incident to the incident Milli Vanilli had in 1990 in a live MTV performance in which the guide track skipped, revealing that they had lip-synched.[18][19][20]
Videos on TRL
The following Ashlee Simpson videos were ranked or featured on MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) program:
- 2004-"Pieces Of Me" 6 days @ #1
- 2004-"Shadow" Peak #2
- 2005-"La La" Peak #6
- 2005-"Boyfriend" 3 days @ #1
- 2005/2006-"L.O.V.E" Peak #2 Currently #2
Discography
| Album information |
|---|
Autobiography
|
I Am Me
|
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Undiscovered | Clea | Major Movie Role |
| 2002 | 7th Heaven | Cecilia Smith | television series; until 2004 |
| 2002 | The Hot Chick | Monique | minor role |
| 2004 | The Ashlee Simpson Show | Herself | Reality show; until 2005 |
Notes
- ^ "MTV "For The Record" report for August 1, 2005". September 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ Although the minimum age for admission was technically 12, Joe Simpson said that he lied about his daughter's age to get her into the school in an October 2004 interview. (Leeds, Jeff. The New York Times, "Who Wants to Be a New Simpson?", October 3 2004.)
- ^ Brown, Janelle. Seventeen, "Ashlee Simpson". November 2004, pages 86–89.
- ^ "Metacritic Autobiography review collection". September 7.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Rolling Stone review of Autobiography". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "E! Online Autobiography review". September 7.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Press (and awards) from Ashlee's official website". September 7.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "ABC's Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ SNL incident video (WMV) at eBaum's World
- ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (25 October 2004). "Ashlee Blames Gastric Distress For 'SNL' Lip-Synch Snafu".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ Pulskamp, Andrew (5 January 2005). "Ashlee Simpson's Halftime Performance Falls Flat".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ "MTV - Orange Bowl halftime show story". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Audio of Orange Bowl performance (MP3)". September 7.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (26 August 2005). "Michael Rechtshaffen's review of Undiscovered".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ Elder, Robert K. (August 2005). "Robert K. Elder's review of Undiscovered".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ "Metacritic.com - Undiscovered reviews". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "BBC Undiscovered opening weekend numbers". August 30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Yahoo News - Online petition story". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Sun Herald - Simpson comments about petition". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Cosmopolitan February 2005 Cover". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Cosmopolitan February 2005 Article (Image)". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ Moss, Corey (17 February 2005). "Ashlee Simpson Soldiers On, Like Always, Through Tour-Launch Snafus".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ Bird, Rick (8 March 2005). "Ashlee Simpson at the Taft".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (25 March 2005). "Ashlee Simpson Going '80s, Getting Personal On Next Album".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ "It's All About Ashlee: Simpson Scores Another #1 With I Am Me". October 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Ashlee Simpson Celebrates Her New Album With A Tattoo - Softpedia". September 4.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ Adams, Patty. YM, "The Sister Who Rocks". September 2004, pages 112–117.
- ^ Moss, Corey (15 August 2005). "Ashlee Says New Single Isn't Directed At Lindsay Lohan".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ Walls, Jeannette (26 October 2004). "Ashlee Simpson just paying lip service to fans".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ "Ashlee Simpson criticism from ishkar.com". September 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ Graham, Renée (11 January 2005). "Ashlee Simpson's career comes courtesy of Daddy dearest".
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|org=ignored (help) - ^ "MetaFilter posts about astroturfing claim". August 27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Wired jargon watch for May 2005 (includes Ashleeturfing)". September 10.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help)
External links
- Ashleesimpsonmusic.com - 'Official site'
- Ashleesimpson.net - 'Unofficial fan site'Template:Tvtome person
- Ashlee Simpson at IMDb
- Template:Nndb name