Don’t Call Me Baby

Song: Don’t Call Me Baby
Artist: Kreesha Turner
Album: Passion




Last week I spent an entire glorious week on vacation in Provincetown, MA. I pretty much go every year and one of my favorite things to do is hear new music and see what is grabbing the DJ’s and audiences. While not as fruitful on a discovery front as a trip to Europe, what I do get from a summer weekend in PTown is usually a handle on what the hot songs are for the summer. Provincetown, if you didn’t know, is big homo vacation destination and not for nothing… fags tend to be a step ahead on the pop front. It was four years ago that I realized just how big Kelly Clarkson was going to be, and last year it was “Umbrella” all the time. So what was it going to be this year?

In Provincetown there is what is known as “tea dance” every day at the Boatslip resort from 4 – 7 PM. It’s basically a happy hour (minus any kind of drink special) where you can meet up with friends, make plans for the evening, watch the sun set over the bay, get a little drunk, and dance to hot remixes of today’s hottest pop hits. Now don’t get me wrong, tea dance isn’t the absolute barometer of what IS the song of the summer. When discussing this topic with my very good friend John and he threw out Madonna’s “Give it 2 Me” as his guess, though I needed to remind him that she’s the biggest homo icon still working it today… so despite hearing it at EVERY party (matched up with “4 Minutes” for good measure) both day and night all week, I didn’t really think it could count. It was sort of expected. Like running into dudes on ecstasy.

By the end of the week I had two contenders that I think have a good chance or seriously blowing up by the rapidly approaching end of Summer. First, there was Jennifer Hudson’s “Spotlight,” her first official single from her album that has taken forever to get done. (I mean… haven’t there been like four seasons of American Idol since she was on?) But to be fair she was busy getting a (wildly undeserved) Oscar for her role in “Dreamgirls” as well as the “Sex and the City” movie. And while I think she is a mediocre to poor actress that happens to have the biggest luck I’ve ever seen, the girl certainly can sing. I heard “Spotlight’ wanting to dislike it and was happily bored to tears. But I must be honest… the DJ played it towards the end one tea dance and I don’t know if it was the pina coladas that I had enjoyed by the pool all day, or just the energy of being surrounded by people happily dancing and singing along but the tune got to me. I really dug the dance version, and found myself LOVING the “woo-hoo’s” in it.

Take a listen to the album version:


In the end, I decided the song of the week was a pleasant surprise… and one hat I think is STILL gaining momentum. “Don’t Call Me Baby” by Canadian singer-songwriter Kreesha Turner was indeed a surprise for me. I heard it at tea dance every time I went, but was most shocked when I heard it at the Blowoff party Tuesday night. Ironically, I had been first introduced to Kreesha just two weeks before as she performed three songs live at a corporate event I attended. I hadn’t heard of her before, and while I thought she was good, sweet, and had a great voice I wasn’t BLOWN away. Her songs have been gaining a bit of play on shows like “Lipstick Jungle” but her album “Passion” doesn’t hit stores until mid-August. But the more I heard “Don’t Call Me Baby” I knew it had hit summer jam written all over it. It’s a “you done me wrong” anthem that speaks to women and gay men alike. I can’t seem to track down Rich Morel’s “Pink Noise Remix” which was played at tea as well as at the Blowoff party, but the original is actually pretty great. It’s not my usual thing but I’ve been listening to it a lot.

So what’s your song of the summer?

Enjoy

Don’t Call Me Baby


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