Back in the 90’s everyone loved these two- and by everyone I mean your mom’s and people who listened to country music, and I am neither so I didn’t really have an opinion about them either way. I knew who Yearwood was because she sang that “She’s in Love with the Boy” song that I felt was the anthem I would ride off into the sunset with JTT to (JTT= Jonathon Taylor Thomas, who will get his own blog at a later date). LeAnn Rimes became famous when she was like 13 (I don’t check facts, this stuff scarily comes from memory. 90’s pop culture knowledge takes up the space that should house math and science in my brain). She apparently sang “Blue” (Pasty Cline? Is this correct?) really well so people in the county music world went nuts. None of this matters, it’s all back story.
In 1997 or 1998 both of them wanted to sing the title song for the Nicholas Cage movie Con Air which happens to be a pretty good movie. Rumor has it Rimes was all sulky and pissed that they chose old hag Trisha Yearwood instead of her and she went off and recorded the song anyway. Her version was more popesque and benefited from that weird time in music where country music singers were making “crossover” hits (oddly enough pop people weren’t trying to do any crossing over, this just shows you where the money comes from). Anyway, her version was more universally popular and I guess she felt vindicated. Then awards season came around and they were both nominated for Best Country Vocal at the Grammy’s for the same song! This was back when awards shows mattered, by the way. Now the only show that matters are the Oscars- even the Grammy’s are shrug worthy in regards to talent receiving recognition. Anyway, it’s about to get really freaky with my memory. Because I actually remember how this shit went down.
So LeAnn sang her little “Blue” heart out to a song that wasn’t “Blue” and was in fact, “How Do I Live?” Now the category was either right after this performance or pretty close because she was still backstage when they were announcing it and Trisha fucking Yearwood won. Hold on while I check YouTube to see if there’s a video of this precious moment. There is!!!
Sadly, there is no shot of LeAnn’s reaction even though I thought there was. Also, if you put that search into YouTube there are a lot of people who think they can hit that note on “how will I ever, ever survive” and they cannot. But listening to Trisha’s speech is so gosh darn amazing. First of all, it’s one long jab at Rimes who had been bragging about how her version was better and reached a wider audience (ie those who listen to pop), which is why Yearwood threw in that thing about country radio. Personally I hate both of these women, they both cheated with married men (Rimes with that Eddie Cibiran creature and Yearwood with Garth Brooks) but Yearwood isn’t narcissistic on the outside and a toasted crazy on the inside like Rimes is so good on her for being the winner. This is odd since I usually have a gold star and special place in my heart for girls who wear these outfits:
I can't believe this hot piece lost |
But for a hot minute this is what constituted as rivalry in music. Two women recording the same song, being nominated for said song and one of them coming out the winner. Personally, I think the lady who sang “Did I Shave My Legs For This?” definitely should have been the winner, because indeed by losing, she had no reason to shave her legs.