I have a love-hate relationship with what has come to be known in America as “Awards Season.” Most of the time you have to squint and wince to see past inflated egos in order to find any redeemable God-given talent; often you really have to prepare yourself for all manner of bizarre and/or inappropriate fashion or political statements. Sometimes you just groan and shake your head, wondering if all the world has gone daft. Sometimes I have yelled at the TV, as though it had any control over people’s choices, artistic or otherwise. And yes, I do realize that I have control over the remote, but what fun is that?
However, there is a sassy little songstress by the name of Joy Villa who has successfully and royally rankled the Hollywood and Nashville creative establishment, and is currently laughing all the way to the bank. She made history for her notable moxie at the recent Grammy Awards, and to me her story is utterly refreshing as well as worth the telling.
First, we are going to look at Joy’s appearance, the wonderfully diverse package in which she lives. Next, we will discuss her dress designer, along with the now iconic dress Joy wore to the Grammys. Finally, we will discuss the blowback as well as her currently burgeoning bank account.
Joy is quintessentially American, a veritable one woman melting pot. Her father was an Italian American Reverend, and by contrast, Joy is a Scientologist. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for those discussions! Her mother was African American and Choctaw, and Joy sports a ‘fro that vies that of Angela Davis, as well as cheekbones that would make Senator Elizabeth Warren green with envy. The coup d’état is that Joy is married to a Danish photographer and writer by the name of Thorsten Overgaard, and he happens to be nearly a quarter century her senior.
Joy’s dress designer, Andre Soriano, legally immigrated to the United States from the Philippines and is homosexual. He is also by his own admission a Trump supporter, a lover of America, and according to one interview, he said the dress is made out of a Trump flag he had flying at his house. When Andre heard statements made at the Women’s March suggesting that it would be a good idea to blow up the White House, he had had enough. He told Joy, “You know what? We have to make a statement, we have to put America together, and we have to promote love. And since her music is about love, and I have this Trump flag in front of my house, I’m like, ‘I’m going to make you a Trump gown, sweetheart,’ and then that’s what happened.”
So, Joy arrives at the Grammys doing deep cover in a white cloak, removes the cloak, struts the gown, and boy, then it was on like Donkey Kong. The ever tolerant and love-centric Left called for her death, literally, or at the very least, the death of what they felt was a pathetic career. She was called a “red carpet troll,” as well as other things which cannot be printed, but I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams and/or nightmares could have anticipated what happened next.
On Sunday night prior to Joy’s gutsy move, her 2014 album, ironically entitled, I Make The Static was listed on Amazon at number 543,502. Honestly, I had no idea they had ratings that went down by half a million, but there it was. And then, it blasted up to the Number 1 slot, past Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, et al, and it was still there when we went to print. As is the case with so many things going on today, the only thing you can do when something like this happens is scratch your head and mutter something along the lines of “Only in America.” Joy Villa has intestinal fortitude, and our country is rewarding her for it far more than it is vilifying her. When asked why she did what she did, Joy said simply, “You can either stand for what you believe in or fall for what you don’t.” I couldn’t agree more.
