“I’m an icon. You either have it or you don’t. It’s something you’re born with," said Paris Hilton recently. Next up on her list of things to do: take the pop world by storm with her new album “Paris is Burning.”
“I loved doing it," Paris said of her recording experience, then added her own two cents. "I’ve always had a great voice.”
OMG. She's done a horror movie, a popular TV show, a kinky sex tape, penned a (ghostwritten) bestseller, designed a perfume, bagged a couple of Greek billionaire boys on the side, and gets paid $100,000 just to show up at a party for 15 minutes and look great. She's hounded by paparazzi and she's done it all.
But maybe what she REALLY wants is to be a pop star -- and rumors are circulating that the new Paris Hilton CD may actually be good music.
The L.A. TIMES asked superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold, who remixed Hilton's song "Turn It Up," to sums up her singing. He had prepared himself for the worst but was in for a shock. "I was surprised at how good her vocal was," the DJ says. "I've gotten a lot of good response on it. A lot of DJs who go on after me ask who it is. I say Paris Hilton and they're really surprised."
And another interviewee, Kara DioGuardi, a successful songwriter who has written hits for Top 40 stars and who co-wrote three songs with Hilton, claims the heirhead has found a musical niche: "It's fun music, it's danceable, with elements of Blondie, a little reggae and great beats. She has a very sweet voice, very breathy. It sounds exactly like what you would want Paris to be doing."
Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto, who interviewed Paris for Out's cover story, even admitted to being won over by her music. "I've written a lot of negative stuff against her," Musto says. "I came to bury her and I've ended up praising her."
"Her fans are not responding to the concept of her fame for fame's sake," Musto continued. "They're responding to her personality. The blankness. I'm not saying it as a diss. She has the quality of allowing any viewer to project whatever they want on her. That's why she transcends all media."
Paris has spent 3 years working on her debut album, with producers Dr Dre, Scott Storch and Fat Joe. It will be released this summer.
