Tell Me Something Tuesday: Who’s Your Favourite Celebrity (Alive and/or Dead)?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHO’S YOUR FAVOURITE CELEBRITY (ALIVE AND/OR DEAD)?

I used to be a music gal and not to care much about actors, until David Tennant entered my life in 2017. It was January 1st when I started to watch Doctor Who in earnest, and at the end of Season 1, when Christopher Eccleston's Doctor regenerated into Tennant's, I fell in love 😍 (I mean, not right away - I watched Tennant's introductory episode first...). Our relationship is somehow complicated by the fact that only a fraction of his hefty body of work was/is dubbed in Italian, and I hate to watch movies or series in the original language because spoken English is not my forte (and subtitles, where present, are distracting). But I adore him nevertheless, not only as an actor (and a pleasant one to watch 😁), but also as a human being who seems to have his heart in the right place. I'd love to meet him one day...but I'd probably make a fool of myself (especially due to having to find the right words in English without having the time to think them through like when I write a post), so maybe it's for the best that I don't get the chance to travel...

I mean, he could...look at me like this...and I would...asdfghjkl 😂.

I've always liked Queen's music, and I remember being saddened and shocked by Freddie Mercury's passing in 1991, but I didn't become a true fan until 1997, I think? It was the weirdest thing - one night I dreamed that Freddie's sister - which I didn't even know existed back then - was showing me his dressing room (in my dream, he was dead, and I was a fan who got the privilege to be shown a slice of his life, so to speak). I woke up with the strangest, yet warmest, feeling - like he had reached to me from beyond the grave. So I started a musical trip down nostalgia lane by relistening to all the Queen songs in my possession, and then I realised that they weren't quite enough and I wanted ALL of them, solo albums included...I even started to buy books about Freddie and the band, and videos, and whatnot...and Queen have stayed with me ever since. Freddie was a legend - the ultimate singer, songwriter and showman - but the part Brian May (guitarist and hair role model 😂), Roger Taylor (drummer and sex symbol 😅) and John Deacon (bassist and sometimes joker) played in the band is not to be underestimated, not only as musicians, but as songwriters as well. Come on...Save Me, We Will Rock You and Who Wants to Live Forever (Brian)? Radio Gaga, A Kind of Magic and These Are the Days of Our Lives (Roger)? Spread Your Wings, Another One Bites the Dust and I Want to Break Free (John)? Just to name a few...

A playful moment from the One Vision video

My oldest musical passion (or, my oldest passion in general) that hasn't faded through the years is Billy Joel, whom I started to listen to when I was a teen, thanks to a radio station that used to play his music a lot. Now, Billy has never been huge in Italy (though he's done a couple of concerts here, which unfortunately I couldn't attend), but I love him like the next American 😂 - I have all his records, including his rarities boxset My Lives, and I even bought his biography written by Fred Schruers. I've always adored his voice and his musical versatility. I respect him a lot for his decision not to put out new music (bar a couple of singles) since 1993 because, as he put it, the well had run dry. Too many artists keep recording new songs that are nowhere near as good as the ones they used to write, or persist in singing when they don't have half the voice they used to anymore. Billy though...he still tours/releases live albums, and he's still a hell of a singer, and I'm in awe. (He also dedicated a song to me haha. Seriously, there are only two songs called Roberta that I know of - the first is an old Italian one, the second is his...).

A funny excerpt from the All for Leyna video

Well, that's it for now. Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to participate in the meme on a regular or semi-regular basis, and get emailed the prompt list? Just head over here and fill in Jen's form! (Of course, you can jump in anytime you like - you are under no obligation to actually do all the posts, or even most of them, just because you signed up, and you can remove yourself from the list at any time). And if you're interested in participating in a more casual manner, or only in commenting, here is the TMST prompt list for the rest of July and the month of August:

• Jul 9th: Have you kept any hobbies that you started during the pandemic?
• Jul 16th: Stars, letter grades, nothing...how do you rate books?
• Jul 23rd: Book cons: are you attending? Would you like to attend? Which ones?
• Jul 30th: Where is your favourite place to read?
• Aug 6th: What is your favourite summer treat?
• Aug 13th: Do you have a musical talent? What is it? 
• Aug 20th: How long have you been blogging? And has your blog changed over time? (a question I submitted - this one has actually been done already a while ago, but if there's someone out there who didn't get the chance to answer it in the past, or whose blog has undergone any changes since then, please tell us! 🙂)
• Aug 27th: Which books are you looking forward to reading this fall? (September-November)

I'll only be back for the meme on Aug 27th, because I'm taking a break from blogging/bloghopping and such in July (I'll post my June wrap-up in 3 days, and then I'll go radio-silent), and I'm going to put all my effort into reviewing my ARCs in August. I don't think I'll ever be able to catch up with the meme until I've crossed all those ARCs from my list...😬

Now tell me something...which artist(s) do you love most/look up to?