Today's Evil Beet Gossip

New Enemy Alert: Clay Aiken and Rihanna?

A photo of Clay Aiken and Rihanna

To be fair, calling Clay Aiken and Rihanna “enemies” is a bit premature at this point in the game. Right now, Rihanna probably isn’t aware than any gauntlet has been thrown down. But it has, by the always adorable and talented Clay Aiken.

Here’s a couple of quotes from Clay’s appearance on the show Watch What Happens last night:

The trouble started when host Andy Cohen asked Clay to name which current pop singer wouldn’t make it past the first few rounds of his reality show alma mater, American Idol.

Apparently, he was spoilt for choice.

“Oh God, there’re too many. Too many…Current pop singer? I’ve stopped listening to them because they can’t sing,” he said, biding his time before coming up with his answer.

“Um…Rihanna has some pitch problems for sure. She does…Now I’m gonna get in trouble, too.”

One of the funniest things about all of this to me is how E! reported it. After they shared that little exchange, they said “Pitchy, dawg? Sounds like someone’s been taking critique lessons from Randy Jackson.” Because noting pitch problems in a singer is so specifically Randy Jackson and just ridiculous to mention in the first place. They started off the whole article by asking “Did someone declare open season on Rihanna among the—how should we put this?—less than relevant of her musical peers?” Another less relevant peer they mention is Gene Simmons, who recently said “”We’re sick and tired of girls getting up there with dancers and karaoke tapes in back of them. No fake bullshit. Leave that to the Rihanna, Shmianna and anyone who ends their name with an A.” But right, according to E!, Clay Aiken and also Gene f*cking Simmons are less relevant than Rihanna. Honestly.

But anyway, let’s get back to the main story, shall we? Which is, in case you forgot, Clay Aiken just threw down! And by “threw down,” I mean “told the truth,” obviously. I’m usually pretty bad with picking out exactly what’s wrong with a person’s singing – whenever I watch The Voice and someone says that a contestant got too pitchy, I usually have no idea what they’re talking about – but I’m ok at picking out who’s not a great singer. And let’s be real here, Rihanna is not a great singer. When she started out, she was super cute and her music was catchy as hell, but I don’t think anyone was ever like “wow, that voice!” That’s just not the kind of singer Rihanna is.

What do you guys think? Was Clay way out of line in saying what he did, or was he just speaking the truth?

11 CommentsLeave a comment

  • just going by her performance with Chris Martin at the Grammy’s I agree with Clay. She could barely sing on key and sounded terrible. Clearly, she wasn’t used to having to sing live.

    She is just a product placement for producers she is auto tuned and lip synchs to pre-recorded tracks live.

  • It should be no surprise that most pop stars area autotuned for recording then when they sing live they aren’t up to the task. That’s why there is so much lip-syncing. The music industry isn’t selling music, they are selling sex and a driving beat–it’s more important than being able to sing. If it was about the music people like Mariah, Celine, the late Whitney, would be all over the pop charts. Unfortunately their music isn’t relevant in the world of pop. Adele is about the only female with a great voice although Lady Gaga is classically trained and could probably sound good without all the excess.

    • I’d just like to point out that just because someone has the ability to hit notes when they sing doesn’t mean they make good music. I don’t give a shit how high Mariah can sing, or how many stupid Woo-OO-AAaah-OOOOs she can do, her songs still bloody suck.

  • Agree with Clay. Rihanna can’t sing. She’s there just for the entertainment factor. But I think that can be manufactured quite easily just by putting anyone through the Hollywood system.

    It’s nice to see something like “The Voice” with its blind auditions. Especially when no one picks a contestant, turn their chairs around and you see Cee-Lo (usu) go “oh man!” because the girl is cute/totally marketable despite their less than stellar voice. Gives a glimpse of what the music market has become.

  • Andy Cohen was having Clay play that game Plead the Fifth, and Clay had the guts to answer rather than pleading the fifth. Good for him! He did take a minute to think it over, but it was live TV and he either had to say something or not, so he picked an obvious choice. What gets me is how the media is blowing it all out of proportion. It was nothing, people! I wish more people would learn to appreciate Clay’s talent and humor. His live shows are phenomenal. And he can sing all kinds of music, not just slow ballads. Thank you for reporting the truth, unlike so many others who just want to stir the pot.

  • E! is is nothing but a garbage site that always been spewing shit about Clay Aiken. I totally agree with what you wrote and many artists probably agree with both Gene and Clay but do not have enough balls to say it. Just because you sing and sell many catchy songs with the help of autotune does not make you a great singer. Remove the all the bells and whistles and put her in front of 3 judges…don’t think she would make it too far in the competition.

  • The funny thing about this is Clay isn’t getting blasted back for his comment. Clay even succeeded in making Harvey from TMZ look bad. How funny it was that Harvey’s minions even agreed with Clay. He’s right! Sex sells unfortunately over talent.

  • Thanks for writing the truth. The media coverage of all this is insane! Situation normal. Truth matters not in today’s world. Clay was asked on live TV about a pop singer passing Idol judges’s critiques. He thought about it and suggested that Rihanna has pitch problems. She’s a pretty lady with lots of production around her and autotuned in the studio. Many of today’s “pop stars” cannot sing well enough to stand on stage with a mic and just sing. Sad. It’s all about sex, skimpy costumes, dancers, laser show, and lip-syncing. Shoot, one rarely even hears good music on the radio anymore. Ridiculous.

  • Clay picked rihanna out, because he knows she has alot of haters just ready to take anyone’s side for being against rihanna. Rihanna can sing. She has a different style of voice. The only reason why she is out of tune for some performance is because she is not a consistent singer, and she can’t sing while moving around. Plus, the girl never takes a break. She has six albums back to back.

  • Dear sexy Mrs Rihanna this love song is dedicated to ya,and it is called What’s Up Shordy,and it was written by me Ike Nash but I wrote it to the instrumental of a rap song called Picture Me Rollin’ which was sang by the late honourable Tupac Amaru Shakur,my name again is Ike Nash and I reside in the city of Toronto you can reach I & I at 416.752.2165,much love to ya honay so this is ma love song to you that I wrote to the instrumental of Picture Me Rollin’

    Da song title:What’s Up Shordy

    Ma verse 1:

    No stressings,can I have a few seconds,girl I really love your essence,I’ll buy you presents,how’s thangs?hope you’re great,you’re sexy babe,still thugging it,with James,ma homies babe,and Johnny’s in the game,we like to chill,come to the Yorkville,let’s have some drinks,let’s hang,swang your sexy hips,wearing lipstick girl you are so great,babe do your thang,model babe,girl you look so great in your videos,baby do your thang,let’s conversate