Star De Azlan - “She’s Pretty”

Thank you last night I asked for somebody to review this song and then I wake up and there’s a review up! Yay!

Anyway I love this song, it’s probably one of the bet debut singles to come around in a while. I have a couple of friends who don’t listen to country radio today but when I showed them this song they loved it. I really hope that Star will be accepted at radio.

Y’know the same reasons that Star De Azlan’s ethnicity shouldn’t come into play are very similar to Rissi Palmer, an artist who, in a just country music world, would be as popular as Carrie Underwood. Her voice is certainly on par with that and her current single even rivals some of Underwood’s material. As for Star, I like this song and truly hope it does well.

Matt B., you’re right about Rissi Palmer, but I didn’t think her music was all that interesting.

Matt C., I never thought that her name sounded like a stripper and I’m not sure that radio will make that correlation, either. I’m inclined to agree with you about Shawanda, though.

Matt D., Oh, nevermind…

I don’t really consider Rissi Palmer’s music to have much of a country sound to it personally. That “country girl” song sounds like adult contemporary.

You don’t need a name change to make it, you just need a fan base. Let’s not put this to a race thing, because I think 98% of America is over that. Anybody can sing country, but I have to feel a connection to your music before I buy it.

Not expecting an artist with a certain name to be good can only be a positive if they are good in my opinion.

I’d say calling the 2% (for anybody that hasn’t read the rest, that’s not an official number, haha) country fans is a gross insult to country fans.

I haven’t heard anything from Crystal yet, anybody want to steer me in that direction?

I think with Star de Azlan, she has the voice, now she just needs somebody to get her the song.

There’s surely no question the majority of country fans are white. But then again, the majority of rap fans are white too.

I don’t think anybody can play any type of race card if somebody’s music isn’t successful. Charley Pride had over 50 million albums sold, and he had to do it way back then! When race was a HUGE problem. A trailblazer and he disproved everybody that thought otherwise.

I don’t think any of these people have Reba or Shania status songs. But then again, who does?

I’m totally jealous that Rissi was allowed to play the Opry already though!

one of the best women country singers in year,s who am talking about star de azlan when are we going to get her c d in the u k

I think it’s perfectly possible for a Black or Latino/Latina artist to penetrate the country market. They simply need to do what worked for both Johnny Rodriguez and Charley Pride - be more country than their Anglo counterparts. Quit trying to straddle the line between AC and country. Emphasize the fiddle and steel guitar, tone down the drums, place the singer front and center in the arrangements and sing real country music.

Race isn’t the issue, and the 2% for whom it is are more likely to be rock fans than country fans anyway

Quote
“make the same conclusion about Crystal Shawanda: I don’t think that it’s impossible for a black artist to succeed on country radio these days but it’s much harder for an artist with a “black name” to succeed (even though Shawanda herself is Native American). I’m surprised that record companies seem to have lost sight of this lately, given the number of famous name changes in country music history.”
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First and foremost, Shawanda is not a ‘black name’. Check out her CMT page, listen to the song ‘Dawn of the New Day,’ that is what Shawanda means. It is unfortunate the last name ‘Shawanda’ is spelled the “western way” as the early settlers was not able to pronounce the original writing of the traditional names. Therefor, there is history and teachings behind the names of Native Americans. To add to the comments…I agree that ethnicity has nothing to do about whether a arist will succeed or not, its purely fan based. You can hear it in her voice : Crystal was born country!