Tonight (Sunday, January 29th, 2010), as the opening act in the Grammys, Stefani Germanotta, also known as \u201cLady Gaga\u201d, will sit at the piano with Reginald Kenneth Dwight, also known as Elton John. \u00a0They will sing a duet. \u00a0Corporate communicators facing public affairs challenges could learn a thing or two from this appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First a note about history. This being the music industry, we are talking about ancient history \u2014 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fans will recall in that year\u2019s Grammys a moment similar to tonight\u2019s, when Sir Elton paired up with the rising rapper, Eminem. The ostensible reason for that year\u2019s duet was to save Eminem\u2019s career. Eminem had taken heat for a recently released song that included lyrics some judged anti-gay. John is gay. That he was willing to appear with the young star quelled the criticism. But it did more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before that night, Eminem \u2014 though highly popular \u2014 was in many respects a niche player in a niche space. Many saw him as something of a thug, which limited his potential popularity. \u201cStan\u201d \u2014 the song that he and John performed and that Eminem had co-written \u2014 was a tremendously sensitive, evocative piece that transcended the style of its music and lyrics. Eminem\u2019s appearance with an artist as widely respected as Elton John led audiences that would never have looked twice at him to tune in and listen with an open musical mind, and they came away seeing Eminem as himself an artist who deserved attention and admiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lady Gaga occupies in a similar place tonight, though without the homophobic baggage. She, too, is a highly popular performer in a niche space. Like Eminem, she, too, has the potential to reach a much larger audience. Appearing with Elton John in such a high profile event will win her open-minded attention from a wide range of people that would otherwise dismiss her as a passing musical fad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public affairs lesson here? You don\u2019t always need people \u2014 third parties \u2014 to speak for you. Sometimes it is enough that they simply stand with you. That very fact opens otherwise closed ears to what you have to say. Eminem used his opportunity brilliantly. We will see tonight if Lady Gaga does as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tonight (Sunday, January 29th, 2010), as the opening act in the Grammys, Stefani Germanotta, also known as \u201cLady Gaga\u201d, will sit at the piano with Reginald Kenneth Dwight, also known as Elton John. \u00a0They will sing a duet. \u00a0Corporate communicators facing public affairs challenges could learn a thing or two from this appearance. First a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[239,241,240,238],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication-strategy","tag-elton-john","tag-eminem","tag-lady-gaga","tag-music-industry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}