eveningsout

June 20, 2003

Cancellation gives Cleveland Pride a Wash

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland-Scheduling conflicts are stopping Blu Cantrell from co-headlining Cleveland Pride on June 21 in Voinovich Park, but, according to Pride co-coordinator Brynna Fish, the festival's entertainment will just get better because of it.

Not only will the "Queen of Clubland" Martha Wash be filling Cantrell's spot on the

Martha Wash

entertainment line-

up, co-headlining with Sophie B. Hawkins, but youth activist Jonathan Jaxson of Atlanta's The Edge talk show has also been added to the bill.

Wash, long a friend to the LGBT community, needs little introduction.

From her early days in Two Tons of Fun to the Weather Girls, where she sang the nowubiquitous song "It's Raining Men," and on through C+C Music Factory's "Everybody Dance Now" and Black Box's "Everybody, Everybody" and "Strike It Up," Wash's voice has been the soundtrack of two decades of gay men and lesbians first hitting the dance clubs.

"The gay men have given me a continuous following and I'm happy about that," Wash said, saluting her queer fans. "You have kept me out there."

According to Wash, the success of "It's Raining Men" took her and fellow Weather Girl Izora Rhodes completely by surprise, although she said it was a happy surprise.

Her continued success as a studio singer

with C+C Music Factory, Seduction and Black Box, leading to the release of her first solo release in 1993, producing the dance hits "Carry on," "Give it to You" and "Runaround." These songs proved that Wash could 'be successful at the front, not just when she was pushed into the background, as was the case with C+C Music Factory.

C+C Music Factory's album listed Wash as a backup singer, instead of as a lead vocalist. C+C, as was the case with Technotronic's first single, was worried that the woman singing their song might not have a "marketable" look, since Wash is by no means svelte.

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However, as has been the case with opera divas since the beginning of the art form, the big girls seem to have big voices, and that makes Martha a diva in more than one sense. of the word.

Jonathan Jaxson, in addition to hosting a cable show and interviewing celebrities, has appeared on a slew of talk shows, starting with Forgive and Forget with Mother Love when he was 15.

Now 18, Jaxson's message is simple: If you are an LGBT youth, come out and live your life proudly, a message that will be echoed everywhere during Cleveland Pride.

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