spreading the lady love: Christina Perri

I'm really tired of seeing women hating on women wherever I look. It's stupid, it's unnecessary, and it's hurtful. Why so many people feel the need to waste their energy on negativity, I will never understand. So, in order to put some positivity out there, I'm going to start doing a randomly-posted series of blogs on women I love. 'Cause there needs to be more lady-lovin' going around. First up is Christina Perri.

Beatles-esque melodies, an incredible voice, and a dreams-come-true story makes me love Christina Perri a lot. A lot. I was lucky enough to find out about her before she blew up thanks to So You Think You Can Dance, because she's best friends with Keltie Colleen, whose blog I've been following for ages. These two women give me so much hope and inspiration in following and achieving dreams, it's crazy.

Perri is talented - really talented. She taught herself to play piano and guitar (and I believe that, just like Paul McCartney, she doesn't read music), and her voice is as strong as Fiona Apple's. In fact, she says that what she wants to be is the next generation's Fiona, because there's no women around right now to fill that girl-angsty, alternative singer-songwriter hole. I think the culture's shifted quite a bit since Fiona first surfaced, and also now there's Lady Gaga who does the outsider girl bit and fills the popstar shoes, but I see where she's coming from.

But the most amazing thing about Christina is how hard she worked to fulfill her dreams (she moved to LA by herself on her 21st birthday with a suitcase and her guitar and had been busting her butt since then), and how gracious and thankful she's been as they've come true. She got a record deal because of the overwhelming response her song received when it was featured on So You Think You Can Dance, and since then she has never once stopped encouraging her fans to follow their own dreams. She also hasn't forgotten that the dance community helped her, and so she's paid them back with little extras and giveaways and whatnot. What kind of rising star bothers being that decent nowadays? Not very many.

Plus she loves The Beatles - she's even got a tattoo of their names.

Check her out here:
www.christinaperri.com
www.youtube.com/lovemspenny