(CNN) - The entertainment world may be in a swoon over Barack Obama, but one legendary soul singer is fuming at the new president and the pop star who serenaded the first couple on inauguration night.
Etta James, famous for her rendition of the song “At Last,” is apparently miffed that pop star Beyonce was tapped to perform the ballad as the president and first lady slow-danced during the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball on January 20.
“You guys know your president, right?” the singer asked an audience in Canada last week, according to audio posted on TMZ.com. “You know the one with big ears? Yeah, wait a minute. He ain’t my president.”
She then went after Beyonce: “That woman singing for him, singing my song? She’s gonna get her ass whipped.”
James added that she “can’t stand Beyonce” and that the starlet “has no business up there singing, singing up there on a big old President day, singing my song that I been singing forever.”
But is James flip-flopping on Beyonce? She did not raise an objection when the singer portrayed her in the film “Cadillac Records” - and just recently, James’s son told a New York paper that his mother was moved by the inauguration night performance.
From CNN Politics
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Arthur, that was Della Reese...we don't all look alike, ya know. lol
Etta James is alive??
I wasn't aware that having sung the song in the past granted her sole access to future renditions of that song. Was it "her" song that she wrote? Or did she cover it from another songwriter? It's a pity she's showing such pettiness and jealousy now.
Go Etta Go....or just re-invent yourself.
Like so many others of my generation, I was falsely led down a flowery path of hope. Let's hear it for Etta....she has it right when she says "he ain't my President".
Jesse Callahan
Brookeland, Texas
Pathetic................she's lucky she is still working.....Maybe should should become a Canadian resident and stay there.
Can we stop using the term flip flopping already? It brings up too many painful memories. People are allowed to change their minds.
Might be a good idea to listen to what the woman has to say. She seems to have a reasonable gripe and is speaking up about it. Its called freedom of speech for all you koolaid drinking team players. GO ETTA GO!
Obama should have done it right and asked James to perform her song-old singers and actors are freaky about using their movie lines, songs and whatever.............you go Etta-slap Beyonce a big one!!!
Excuse me Etta James was not on Touch By An Angle.
Sounds like Etta had a few too many preconcert cocktails!
Gotta agree with Marlo on this. Seems as if the new and flashy is valued over the tried and true. This isn't a comment about Beyonce, as I know nada about her...she may be amazing, but you gotta admit that we, as a nation, then to put our "tried and true" performers out with the trash.
I say don't heat the player heat the game.
She is getting up there in years..... I remember when my grandma stopped dating she started getting pretty crabby too.. I still love my grandma... She's getting old ... Old people get crabby....
Etta who?
Etta is right. Etta should have sang the song on Inauguration night.
That was wrong!
Della Reese is the woman on Touched by an Angel.
omg that lady is just some old hag who is like jealous of beyonce cause shes young, beautiful, and can sing better!!!
Etta:
This is so out of place for some one like you Oh by the way Libbby
You sound ike some one who needs to get a life and and needs to get over the fact thct the righ MAN!!!!! won with out outside help Frank only repub's drink the kool-aid
Etta, Life in the light is Over....Move On!
wow... Etta James is still alive? huh.
Jealous...
To all you people who say President Obama is NOT your president, you are all idiots. He is EVERYONE's President. HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA whether you like it or not!!! So get over it!!
Harry Warren wrote it along with Chattanooga Choo-Choo, I Only Have Eyes for You, Forty-Second Street and about a hundred other songs with Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald and tons of other famous singers. Etta you are just one in a long line baby...they will be singing that song when Beyonce looks like you and Palin's granddaughter is running for President.
Etta who? Seriously? I don't even know what that is. Someone mentioned the Celine should have sang that song. Yep – she did it the best!