ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 11/14/2008
Posts: 24,988
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Quote:
Britney Spears' opening act pushes into the big time
Britney Spears' "Femme Fatale Tour" tour will open Thursday at Power Balance Pavilion with a performance by Jessie and the Toy Boys, led by singer-songwriter-dancer Jessie Malakouti, who goes back a long way with Spears' music.
"I did my fifth-grade talent show to 'Baby One More Time,"" Malakouti said by phone from her tour bus, which had just rolled into Sacramento Wednesday afternoon. "It is hysterical that everything has come full circle."
Malakouti won that contest at her Southern California school, by the way. After spending most of the ensuing decade performing solo or with the gritty-pop girl group Shut Up Stella and honing her songwriting skills, she is again feeling like a winner.
Getting to hang out with Spears and fellow Spears opener Nicki Minaj recently in L.A. was "a dream to me," Malakouti said. "It was kind of bizarre. And I thought, 'I just did it! Seven years of grinding, and it's working.' "
The Femme Fatale Tour, which kicks off in Sacramento, will put Malakouti before the biggest crowds of her career. Those crowds should be familiar with her dance hit "Push It," a song that makes the Salt 'n' Pepa hit with the same title sound demure by comparison.
"Everything I write is sort of tongue-in-cheek," Malakouti said. "The interesting thing is that combination of maybe more racy, or in some cases dark, lyrics with happy, bright pop melodies."
Malakouti learned how to meld those melodies with Euro-style electronic beats when she hooked up with Xenomania, the British songwriting/producing team behind hits by Cher, Kylie Minogue and the popular British girl group Girls Aloud.
"Push It" appears on Jessie and the Toy Boys' new EP "Show Me Your Tan Lines," on which Malakouti collaborated with such top-tier producers as Jimmy Harry and Tony Kanal (of No Doubt).
Writing her own songs has given her more of a sense of control of her career. "To cut through, you have to be a genuine artist and be involved in everything," Malakouti said.
The busy performer will follow her Power Balance Pavilion set with an 11 p.m. club show at Splash Bar, 805 15th St.,Sacramento.
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http://blogs.sacbee.com/ticket/archi...ey-spears.html
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gurl please.
It doesn't start for like another 7 or 8 hours
