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Post by amg1977 on Mar 6, 2020 18:51:35 GMT -5
The Stargirl PR machine keeps rolling along. On March 13, the day Stargirl is available on Disney+, Grace will appear on ABC's Good Morning America. This was no doubt arranged by Disney - who just happens to own ABC.
Never underestimate the mouse.
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 6, 2020 18:59:32 GMT -5
Grace's PR Team is working overtime again. You may remember Grace appeared on Kelly Clarkson a few months ago; well, she is making a return appearance to promote Stargirl. The show will be recorded March 10. No firm date on when it will be televised. Probably by the end of March.
If you are in the LA area, you can request tickets here:
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 6, 2020 19:03:10 GMT -5
The PR keeps coming...
Rolling Stone has done a little write-up on "Today and Tomorrow":
Vents similarly had a write-up:
while 360 magazine has a broader range of Grace info on their writeup:
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 7, 2020 0:52:05 GMT -5
Jackie posted this to her Instagram Stories:
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 7, 2020 1:55:24 GMT -5
Between Stargirl and Chanel, Grace's PR team is working overtime this week:
She just was written up in Nylon:
Yes, she has the talent and personality but she also has a professional management team taking advantage of any opportunities for their client. You can see the difference between the pros and a mom and pop operation.
It seems that Jackie has a professional management team as well but what they can do is limited by her abilities. From her Facebook page: General Manager Marc Johnston // Marc@AlignEG.com Mike Evancho //mevancho@zoominternet.net Press Contact Kim Jakwerth Booking Agent Andrea Johnston - ICM Of those on her team you mentioned, Andrea Johnston is the only one who seems to have a track record on her job as she is the booking agent for other well known artists. However, booking agents do not dictate career strategy - they just try to secure venues and appearances. She may well have been the one who got Jackie the gig on The Masked Singer (assuming it is Jackie) since she is the only one on her team to have the necessary contacts. If that is the case, it validates my point about the necessity of professional management.
Including Mike as part of Jackie's "professional management team" undermines your position. Mike can only be considered a "professional" in the sense that he takes money for whatever it is he does. He certainly has no level of expertise in managing an entertainment career and perpetuates the image of a "mom and pop" operation. I have not found anything significant on the rest of the team ... maybe they are competent, maybe not. Regardless, her current career situation was not the target of my comments.
The point I was making is that Grace had a professional team in place from the beginning of her career. This allowed her to take advantage of early opportunities when she was basking in her AGT victory and lined up work that would keep her in the public eye. From the beginning, she formed a good relationship with Billboard, Rolling Stone, and other music magazines that continues to this day. She was able to get a foot in the door for a tryout for Stargirl - a move that is paying off big publicity dividends two and a half years after her first audition. When she started to have major growth spurts and look like a model rather than a little girl, they immediately got her signed to IMG. This would eventually lead to her current work with Chanel. So much of her current success was possible because of how she was managed in the first year and a half of her career. Because of that groundwork being laid, now the work comes to her rather than her having to beg for attention by wearing someone's jewelry on an Instagram post.
Compare this to the "mom and pop" operation that Mike and Lisa were operating in the early stages of Jackie's career. Grace's parents didn't need her earnings and her father (an executive VP of Marketing for a major electronics manufacturer) was far more qualified to manage someone's career than Mike and Lisa but still chose professional managers since he knew enough to know what he did not know. Mike and Lisa simply wasted any opportunity to build a successful long term strategy for Jackie's career. I'm not saying she would have been a superstar, but she would be in a far more secure place career-wise than her current predicament.
A perfect example of an opportunity missed was Stargirl in its original conception as a Disney theatrical release. Disney had originally purchased the rights to the book and planned to begin filming in the fall of 2015. The character "Stargirl Caraway" is supposed to be 16 and Disney was looking for girls who would be in the 15-17 age range when filming began. I'll grant you that Grace is perfect for the role but she was never a factor since she was only 11 at the time and was more than a year from being discovered. In other words, the role was wide open and they eventually signed a relatively unknown (at the time) Joey King for the role.
Disney was obviously looking for something "magical" in their heavily musical adaptation of the book. I have to wonder what would have happened if Jackie had an audition and got her chance to sing. Without a lit firecracker like Grace in the running, they might have concluded Jackie's voice could supply the magic they needed. Maybe but we'll never know because no one ever went to bat for her to get a tryout. I'm not saying Mike and Lisa didn't want her to have the role - of course they would have loved that Disney money - but they did not have the contacts necessary to know the role was available and to know Jackie might be a good fit. Eventually Joey King was signed but demanded more money once she got a little fame and the project was shelved until 2018. Then someone on Grace's team pitched her to Disney and she got an audition ... and that was that. This is a possible role Jackie missed out on but I am sure there were others as well. Jackie and her voice would have been (and still would be) perfect for one of those Disney animated musicals. (By the way, now that Disney is remaking classic animated features as live action, why not pitch Jackie in one of those?) The simple fact is that Jackie's early career was horribly mismanaged and her natural talent was the only thing keeping it afloat. I would have loved to see what Disney and their magical handlers could have done for Jackie's career. Of course, that would have put Mike and Lisa on the sidelines and you can't have that.
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Post by Socal Fan on Mar 7, 2020 2:58:30 GMT -5
Disney was obviously looking for something "magical" in their heavily musical adaptation of the book. I have to wonder what would have happened if Jackie had an audition and got her chance to sing. Without a lit firecracker like Grace in the running, they might have concluded Jackie's voice could supply the magic they needed. I don't think Jackie ever had a chance to be cast as Stargirl. I don't think Jackie can act. (In "The Company You Keep", she simply played herself, a girl who loved her father.) Her voice is good but in an entirely conventional way, whereas Grace's voice is quirky and distinctive, which is a better match for Stargirl's character.
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 7, 2020 3:25:35 GMT -5
Disney was obviously looking for something "magical" in their heavily musical adaptation of the book. I have to wonder what would have happened if Jackie had an audition and got her chance to sing. Without a lit firecracker like Grace in the running, they might have concluded Jackie's voice could supply the magic they needed. I don't think Jackie ever had a chance to be cast as Stargirl. I don't think Jackie can act. (In "The Company You Keep", she simply played herself, a girl who loved her father.) Her voice is good but in an entirely conventional way, whereas Grace's voice is quirky and distinctive, which is a better match for Stargirl's character. You don't have to convince me that Grace would make a better Stargirl than Jackie - I agree. But Grace would not have been the competition in 2015. It was a bunch of other teen girls who showed no more connection with the character than Jackie. Also, the character is an outcast among her high school peers (she later becomes popular before being an outcast once again), so Jackie might have felt some connection to the role. Certainly, her singing ability would not have hurt her chances. Also, we need to consider that the original version was going to be a more "Disneyfied" production under a different director and with a different script rather than the indie film vibe the current production under Julia Hart exudes. I don't think it out of the realm of possibility that Jackie could have garnered some serious consideration at that time given the circumstances and the lack of any "home run" choice for the role like Grace in the running.
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Post by Just Somebody on Mar 7, 2020 4:31:13 GMT -5
I don't know if Jackie ever had that Disney spunk that we've been conditioned to expect going all the way back to Annette Funicello. Even Anna Graceman (AGT Season 6), who is very sadly a relative nobody, is still an official Disney kid – likely because of her fun and upbeat music videos from her eponymous first album. But I agree that Jackie's speaking voice, as well as her singing voice, along with her AGT fame, absolutely should have landed her SOMETHING during her sweet-spot period.
I barely recall that, early on, Lisa didn't want Jackie collaborating with other kid singers, and objected later to Jackie's younger photos being used by concert promoters. But then they milk the AGT thing long past its expiration date. It's like they didn't (and still don't) know what the hell they want. And that impression gives rise to the suspicion that Jackie's career as a karaoke singer could have gone a lot differently if she was handled by professionals.
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Post by eulenspiegel on Mar 7, 2020 5:02:43 GMT -5
As Heinsberg county was the place with the biggest impact of Corona virus in Germany so far ..
even this school had a few days off in recent days...so very likely some of the youngest pupils on this video also...as it was recorded in June 2014...they should be graduating this year.
(a world wide youtube hit)
complete concert
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 7, 2020 5:13:11 GMT -5
A new Disney created teen recording artist who is making big strides is 17 year old Olivia Rodrigo. As a young teen, she starred on the Disney Channel's Bizaardvark. She sang some songs for the show and also for one of the Frozen movies. Now she is starring in the Disney+ series based on their successful High School Musical film franchise. Songs from the program (some of which she had a hand in writing) have been getting heavy rotation on Radio Disney (big surprise) but have also gotten some good placement on Spotify playlists aimed at teens. She has come out of nowhere when the program debuted and in only a few weeks has rocketed to over 4 million Spotify listeners (with 50,000 followers thus far). One of the songs ("All I Want") has streamed an astonishing 56 million times in only three months. By comparison, Grace only has three songs over 50 million streams ("Moonlight," "I Don't Know My Name," and "So Much More Than This") and all of them have a two to three year head start. Needless to say, "All I Want" could easily go over 100 million streams.
Now I will grant you that this success has a lot more to do with the allure of the High School Musical franchise than it does with Olivia at the moment. However, she is taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity where she has been given a dream role for exposure. It will be interesting to see if she can be successful beyond the HSM franchise. The first clue to that should come soon as she is currently recording an EP.
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Post by amg1977 on Mar 7, 2020 5:28:41 GMT -5
Even Anna Graceman (AGT Season 6), who is very sadly a relative nobody, is still an official Disney kid – likely because of her fun and upbeat music videos from her eponymous first album.
I have never understood why Anna has never been more successful. She is an excellent songwriter and singer and should have a sizable following. Now, I grant that her gritty style won't appeal to the masses used to cute pop songs but it should have earned her a following in indie circles. However, she never seemed to get her act together and, much like Jackie, her career seems to be pretty much an in-house mom and pop operation. As you stated, this lack of any level of success is a very sad state of affairs.
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Post by eulenspiegel on Mar 7, 2020 6:34:25 GMT -5
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Post by Socal Fan on Mar 7, 2020 10:23:48 GMT -5
I don't know if Jackie ever had that Disney spunk that we've been conditioned to expect going all the way back to Annette Funicello. Even Anna Graceman (AGT Season 6), who is very sadly a relative nobody, is still an official Disney kid – likely because of her fun and upbeat music videos from her eponymous first album. But I agree that Jackie's speaking voice, as well as her singing voice, along with her AGT fame, absolutely should have landed her SOMETHING during her sweet-spot period. Disney needs actors and Jackie is not an actor, not even a voice actor. Singing alone is not enough.
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Post by Socal Fan on Mar 7, 2020 10:32:46 GMT -5
Even Anna Graceman (AGT Season 6), who is very sadly a relative nobody ... I have never understood why Anna has never been more successful. She is an excellent songwriter and singer and should have a sizable following. There are lots of talented people in showbiz who will spend their entire careers under the radar. Anna is the rule, not the exception.
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Post by agog on Mar 7, 2020 11:46:34 GMT -5
Jackie and her voice would have been (and still would be) perfect for one of those Disney animated musicals. I must have said that a half dozen times or more on every Jackie proboards forum including this one. It's SO obvious except to Mike and Lisa. The failure to pursue roles that absolutely align with her strengths can certainly be placed at the feet of M and L. I remember when Jackie was still very much a child, perhaps eleven or even twelve, there was a television production of Les Mis. It was getting some attention. The various Jackie forums were hoping Jackie would be cast as the little match girl, the child on the famous movie poster. I forget the characters name, sorry. (Chlothild?) Jackie could have played that short but crucial role easily, even with her lack of serious acting chops. I do remember when it played, how terrible were most of the voices of the actors playing the main roles. Jackie would have stood out with her remarkable voice. It could have been a fine entry in her CV, even iirc the show garnered only middling audience and reviews, and a possible hook a decade or so later for her being cast as Christina, a role Jackie herself aspired to. The promise, the potential of the little girl in the red dress, with sparkling eyes and big smiles in interviews was unhappily, never to blossom. What happened? Did Jackie lose the genetic lottery and get Mike's milquetoast drive and Lisa's 'F 'em, buncha window lickers anyway' attitude? There are signs of both. I wish Jackie well, but I know I speak for many early Jackie fans who, like me, had never considered themselves a fan of any particular celebrity to the extent we became fans of Jackie Evancho when I say I'm sorrowed by and disappointed in her.
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