7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show
7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show
7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#1
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:02pm
Brilliant? or just creepy?
Is teaching kids to sing like this child abuse?
Channeling Drag Queen, 7-Year-Old Belts It Out On 'Today Show'
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#2
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:10pm
"Brilliant? or just creepy?"
Creepy. He's a wind-up toy. I can almost see the turnkey in his back. He looks shell shocked... and a little nutty.
"Is teaching kids to sing like this child abuse?"
I would equate it to the little girls whose doting mommies dress them up in full makeup and high-swept hairdos. Not for fun, for profit.
I'm far from entertained.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#2
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:13pm
I think he's demonic, like Chucky.
Every time Anthony sings, a talented person somewhere is mysteriously stricken and dies.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#3
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:13pm
Very talented, but very creepy.
Great voice, but still...
He's probably peaked too early, and will end up doing a great Liza show at some gay bar - once he's a little older, a little fatter and a little more drugged-up...
He really looked like he was forcing himself to look like he was enjoying himself. He was most likely terrified, and would rather have been at home playing with trucks...or barbies.
It probably is some form of child abuse....gotta agree with Bestie on that!
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#4
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:14pm
Lena Zavaroni is reincarnated! My prayers have been answered!
Lena in all her glory!
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#5
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:14pm
I don't know if I'd go so far as calling him demonic...
Just some scared kid with crazy parents...
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#6
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:16pmDear god, Sueleen, you're right!
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#7
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:17pm
Yeah, but Lina could SING, as creepy as she was.
And I mean SING.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-QC0AGPzHBM&feature=related
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/12/04
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#8
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:45pm
I must say, I found that deeply disturbing...
Checking out Lina, now...
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#9
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:47pmI had never heard of Lena, so I watched all the vids of her. WOW! What a voice! But so sad to read about what happened to her.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/12/04
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#10
Posted: 12/15/07 at 12:53pm
Huh. Bestie, how old was she in that clip? She looks like a 25 year old in a little girl outfit. WEIRD.
And yes, she's a sad story, from what I've read so far.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#11
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:16pmI'm disturbed that the Today Show would refer to a 7 year old as a "drag queen."
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#12
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:21pm
I closed my eyes and got Brenda Lee.
** and I wonder how he'll sound after he has his tonsils and adenoides removed.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#13
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:24pmljay, it was the Gawker blog that used that term, not the Today Show.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#14
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:28pmI think the negative feelings he calls up in some of us are because he reminds us of a part of ourselves we don't like.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#15
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:33pmVery wise. Like Anne Frank, you put us all to shame.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#16
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:34pmYou're so right. I wanted to BE him when I was 7. I still do.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#17
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:35pm
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#18
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:40pm
I wanted to be her. 
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#19
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:43pmWho was that creepy child singer that Rosie O'Donnell was pimping on her show in the late nineties? He did this snake-meets-a-hose song that was so chock full-o phallic imagery that you couldn't believe that someone....ANYONE didn't say anything. Never underestimate the pedophile dollar, I guess.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#20
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:44pm
You have to remember that Judy Garland, Petula Clark, Julie Andrews and many others were also looked upon as "weird freaks," when they first burst onto the scene as young children with adult-sounding voices.
Erika---Lena was 10 years old when she had her first hit record in England. The clips you're looking at are when she was probably 12-14.
And keep in mind, it's equally disturbing to some to see a 16 (turning 17 on the set!) year old Garland, with her breasts bound and pigtails "trying" to look 12 in The Wizard of Oz.
We accept it as an iconic film image now, but if you think about it, it's just as creepy. An adolescent, dressed up as a child, with an adult singing voice.
Why do we buy it?
And Namo---For me at least, it's not calling up any part of myself that I don't like. I was FAR from a child star in my youth, but I was a "working actor" making 40 educational films by the time I was ten, modeling, plays, music, etc. I was also on a music scholarship to the university when I was in the ninth grade. I wasn't forced into any of it, and my parents didn't push me. They encouraged me to pursue whatever dreams I wanted to. Sometimes I think they didn't push me or help me enough. But hell, how far was I going to go in Kansas?
Kids get f*cked up by growing older, whether they're driven hard by their parents or not. Whether they're molded into "little adults" or not. You might say, it's a no-win situation. Life is going to come along and rob innocence and instinctive behavior from our youth, no matter what adults do or say. Time and nature will take care of that.
Maybe that's the most disturbing part. Maybe seeing it rushed along is the disturbing part, too.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#21
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:47pm
Oh. This:
He swallered a frog
And hollered "yum yum"
He slid down the hillside
And guarded his tounge
He entered the garden
On this bright moonlit night
And he stopped in his tracks
It was love at first sight
He said "my skin is black"
And "your skin is green"
You dwell in a garden
I live by a stream
Although I'm short and stocky and
You're long and green
I've got a crush on you
And he squeezed her tighter
And tighter
And tighter
I've got a crush on you
He said "I'm a king snake"
And you'll be my queen
With a butler and servants
And your own private stream
And if you refuse me
It would be such a shame
Because I'm so tired of doing
My own thang
And he squeezed her tighter
To excite her
And delight her
I've got a crush on you
And I'll be back tomorrow
Next day when he got there
A two legged man
Was holding sweet green thang
In his big human hands
Her long jet of water
Shot out of her nose
Oh king snake had fallen in love with a hose
He said "my skin is black"
And "your skin is green"
You dwelled in a garden
I live by a stream
Although you're made of plastic
I think you're fantastic
I've got a crush on you
But I don't think it's gonna work out
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/03
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#22
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:49pmI'm not a huge fan of child performers to begin with, to me, most of them have a sort of trained monkey aura about them. However, I wasn't all that put off by this kid. Yes, he had a couple of affectations that were not entirely pleasant to watch (the wink and the hair sweep), but I blame that on whoever is coaching him. I'd sort of like to see and hear what he would do with a song, without any "performance" coaching. Just singing the song and making sense of the lyric. Of course, I wouldn't mind that in any number of adult performers as well.
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#23
Posted: 12/15/07 at 1:56pm
Erika---correction. Lena was ten years old in that clip I posted.
Here's a tribute to her:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=auRl-cMgBhE&feature=related
WARNING: The tribute is very disturbing, and shows some shocking pictures of Lena battling anorexia.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/12/04
re: 7-Year-Old AnthonyG on the Today Show#24
Posted: 12/15/07 at 2:05pmb12b: She was preternaturally talented, for sure. But you hit it right on the head when you posited that the disturbing part is seeing the growing-up process rushed along. I think that's what I find unsettling sometimes.
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