Talk:Anita Baker/Archive 1

Sade influence
I remember reading somewhere that Anita was influnced by Sade. Does anyone know if that is true. --Ezeu 04:35, 17 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I thought Anita came out before Sade did? She may have been, though... FamousBobby 22:54, 5 March 2006 (UTC)


 * The timeline is right there in the articles; Baker's Songstress was in 1983, Sade's Diamond Life came after in 1984. I doubt either influenced the other a great deal as they are basically contemporaries. AU Tiger ʃ talk /work 04:41, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks y'all for clearing that up. --Ezeu 00:39, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I wouldn't put any credence in this alleged comparison. Ms. Baker is an American Soul\R&B\Jazz\Blues artist with a wide range of talent, stemming from her African American heritage. Sade is a frist generation African Briton, and "pop" artist. Anita has had nearly a dozen hit records with consistency (barring domestic, and professional-legal inteeruptions!

By the way, has England ever invited Sade to sing whatever passes for Britain's "national anthem" at Soccer games? --216.214.178.66 (talk) 17:08, 7 May 2014 (UTC)Veryverser

back up singers
Does anyone remember the name of the group that Anita Bakers former back-up singers formed back in the early 90's? They made an album and I believe there was only one song that did really well. They were an opening act for her at the time back in then...trying to remember. Thanks if you can.

Ldyshay05@yahoo.com She didn't have any backup singers.And her influences were Aretha Franklin her aunt, Ella Fish Gerald,Nat King Cole,Natalie Cole,among other family members.That came out in the family of soul.And I also recall her music to fall into the catogy of R&B-Jazz (unia.aunik@att.net) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Uniah (talk • contribs) 23:05, 4 May 2008 (UTC) she was very pretty. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.227.73.226 (talk) 15:46, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Grammar
The grammar in this article is a mess and the repeated comments that Anita should record an all-jazz album are not NPOV. It seems like the majority of the bio was written by a fan whose first language is not English (or copied from a foreign fan site). --Crnk Mnky 00:38, 11 November 2006 (UTC) Yes it was a group called "Perry" I have the CD Called PERRY. Regards Paul xxx(keep the faith)

Sorry But Not a Fan Site
Recently, a user wrote the following information underneath Ms. Baker's Extrnal Links session:

"Anita's behavior was very unacceptable and outrageously disrepectful to her audience."

Although this user may not think so, but this is an opinion, and opinions of other people should not be put on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is only meant to state factual information. I'm sorry, but this is not a fan site. Therefore, I have deleted this sentence and moved the article up, above the discography to its proper place. LovePatsyCline 23:15, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Paramount Theatre - Oakland December 2006
I was at this concert, and this article is an untrue, personal attack on the artist. The author failed to give any supporting evidence from the Paramount Theatre, and failed to mention the comedian that performed before Ms. Baker. The author also failed to mention the announcement of technical difficulties by the ushers. Please remit this article as a biased opinion on this concert and please attend all facts if there must be a revision printed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Travbe (talk • contribs) 19:38, 12 December 2006 (UTC).
 * Travbe, the edit you removed was sourced to a Mercury News article. I'm not sure what you mean by "not mentioning the comedian", as that's not the relevant part in this article; what is relevant is that she was late, and some fans were upset. Both items were sourced in the news article referenced. -- nae'blis 23:43, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I am sorry, but just because an article is mentioned doesnt make it true. The comdedian is completely relevant, because of the time frame of the evening. I was there at the concert, and it was amazing. Yes she was a little late, but with the explanation from the ushers; this article was completely untrue. I didnt mind the wait. The concert was genious, and I didnt see anyone leave. The house was packed as she got a standing ovation sfter almost every song. She has performed in many cities on her Christmas tour, should we comment on every show as relevant to her Biography? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Travbe (talk • contribs) 01:53, December 13, 2006 (UTC)
 * Have the other tour dates gotten media coverage? Maybe we should. The problem is I think you're mistaking "truth" with "verifiability". It doesn't matter what you as an individual know to be "true", it only matters what we can prove through reliable, external sources. If you can find a better news article that covers the usher aspect in a more balanced format than the Mercury News article, by all means let's use that. But to exclude unfavorable information because you don't like the way it paints a favorite singer is not responsible. -- nae'blis 19:49, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Edited to more closely reflect the article's opinion on the subject. TIMES of 7:30-8:00 and concert start time of 8:47 on record with Paramount Theatre  Paramount Theatre Administration: 510-893-2300

Entire article is still unsourced
Any assistance in this regard would be appreciated. JBsupreme (talk) 17:51, 27 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I've edited that subject's DOB with the reference shown. Additionally, I have removed the "1991" Grammy award/nom as there was no response at the Grammy's winner's search page for the subject for that year.   There may exist a source or sources that support the subject's nomination that year, however.  Regards  Tide  rolls  17:39, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Date of birth
I have reverted an edit which changed the subject's DOB (without addressing the citation) from sourced content. If there are reliable sources that differ on the info, I'd like to discuss the matter here.  Tide  rolls  10:23, 15 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Date of birth is incorrect, Anita has confirmed herself repeatedly via twitter and in person that the date is not correct. Wish to change to correct date immediately. If you google it, you will see that the dates do not match.

http://www.google.com/search?q=anita+baker+birthday&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

You guys seriously make things much more complicated than they should be. -E 22:25, 27 April 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Empress Ericka (talk • contribs)


 * The link you provide shows as a Google search result for me. Is that what you meant to show?  The date of birth that I entered was published in International who's who in popular music as the citation shows.  You have changed the date (twice now) without offering a source for your edit.  Also, please sign your posts properly by adding four tildes at the end.  Regards  Tide  rolls  03:27, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * EmpressErika, in re-reading your post it occurred to me that you may not be familiar with Wikipedia's guideline regarding content sources. You can read the guideline at WP:Identifying reliable sources.  Tide  rolls  05:03, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi, The page was supposted to take you to her google page with her birthdate info on it. at the top, it clearly says January 26. I work for the woman. I am one of the 30 people she follows on twitter. This is not her birthday and she is not happy about it. I really am not too concerned about whatever your rules are at this point, sorry to be mean, you guys play too many bullshit games and make people jump through too many hoops for the average person to sit here and give too much of a fuck.


 * If you dont change the date, I will have Blue Note records call in and file some type of complaint. This is ongoing with several music artists on several pages and its ridiculous. I know you guys are intelligent, GOOGLE THE WOMANS BIRTHDATE. YOUR SHIT DOES NOT MATCH. Change it. Im tired of this. People have jobs and a life and dont have time to sit here and argue with you about stupid shit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Empress Ericka (talk • contribs) 12 May 2011


 * Believe it or not, Ericka, the reason we're being such sticklers about this stuff is because we care about accuracy and want to be sure that we get this stuff right. Just because something shows up on Google or Twitter doesn't make it the truth; surely you know that.


 * We rely on reliable sources. Fan sites and Twitter accounts generally don't qualify, because any random anonymous person on the internet can set up a web site or a Twitter account and claim to be someone they're not.  Anybody could show up on here and claim to be Anita Baker's friend or Anita Baker's personal assistant, or even claim to be Anita Baker herself.  We can't just take them at their word.


 * The whole point is that we're trying to protect people like Anita Baker from having false information spread about them. You may think that we're just doing this to make you miserable, but that's not the case at all. Trust me, we've got better things to do than that.  I happen to be a fan of Ms. Baker, and I'd like to be sure that the Wikipedia article about her contains accurate, factual information.  So please help us out on the birthdate issue.  Fan sites and Twitter accounts aren't going to cut it.  We need something more concrete than that.  Quite frankly, if you want to get her record label involved, that might be the best solution because I imagine they have the proper resources to prove Ms. Baker's date of birth.  In the meantime, I'm going to remove the disputed date of birth from the article until we can come up with a date that is supported by a reliable source.  It's better to have no information than to have possibly incorrect information. –BMRR (talk) 13:14, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

This isn't complicated. Baker has a website - she can publish her birthday there. Her website links to her Twitter account - she can publish her birthday there, too, since her website authenticates her Twitter account. Either one would be considered reliable for a personal detail such as birth date. Fansites or other people's Twitter accounts, however, would not be considered reliable. Rklawton (talk) 05:03, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, here's the deal. I clicked on Anita Baker's website from our article. I'm assuming we've verified that this is indeed her website, if not, then we need to delete the link. It's called "anitabaker.com" - so I'm pretty confident its hers - it's managed by her label. From Baker's own website, I clicked on her "Follow me on Twitter" link. I think we can be confident that Anita Baker would not link to an imposter's Twitter account. I then checked her Twitter postings, and sure enough, right there she writes that it's her birthday on the 26th. The chain of links taking us to this posting is all verifiable and from reliable sources. And the information gathered (her birthdate) is not particularly controversial - that is, it's not something we're inclined to believe she'd lie about. Therefore, I've changed her birthday in this article to reflect what she's written. The only grounds I can think of for reverting this edit would be a claim that we don't actually have a link to her website or that her website has somehow screwed up and linked to an imposter's Twitter account - neither of which are likely. Rklawton (talk) 05:19, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I've also checked the linked source to the "Who's Who" book. The link needs work as it doesn't point to her birthday - though it's searchable via the linked page, so that's a start. The book does indeed give the December birthday. However, given a choice between a "who's who" book with thousands of entries and a tweet from the artist herself via verified Twitter account, I'd say we need to go with the artist's version as more reliable. Rklawton (talk) 07:21, 13 May 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, but where is your source for her year of birth? In this edit, you put 1958 in the infobox and the lead paragraph, and then you put 1957 in the persondata and the categories. It can't be both. ;-)  Her tweet about being born on the 26th and being an Aquarian is probably fine for nailing down the month and the day, but it doesn't tell us what year she was born. –BMRR (talk) 16:47, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
 * My "putting" was simply done through reverting - hence any inconsistencies. I have no knowledge of her birth year. Given that her birth year isn't controversial and given that EmpressErika was correct regarding month day, I'd be satisfied to take her word for it (never mind the legal threat business - which presumably goes away if we get the date right). Rklawton (talk) 17:23, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Anita's Vocal Type
The sole cited source used to describe Anita's vocal style has erroneously used the oft-abbreviated term "Alto." The proper terminology for a solo vocalist would be "Contralto." According to the "Alto" article here on Wikipedia: "Alto, like the other three standard modern choral voice classifications (soprano, tenor and bass) was originally intended to describe a part within a homophonic or polyphonic texture, rather than an individual voice type; neither are the terms alto and contralto interchangeable or synonymous, though they are often treated as such."

Therefore, being a solo vocalist (albeit contemporary, not classical) Anita Baker's voice would technically be labeled Contralto. I have several sources that use the exact term, in reference to Wikipedia's policy on the inclusion of the specific words in the sources. There are a lot more, but I believe I've included enough sources to convey the general consensus:

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20095085,00.html http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/03/arts/the-pop-life-anita-baker-and-her-musical-roots.html http://www.essence.com/2004/09/16/anita-baker-has-no-regrets/ (Is Essence considered verifiable or reliable?) http://articles.chicagotribune.com/keyword/anita-baker http://oreoluwa.com/AnitaBaker/archive/ebony1991.html http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19861102&id=x-8lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h_wFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4281,552510

It should be noted in the New York Times article that while she is described as a Contralto overall, she is also described as having a "high soprano head voice that extends her register to at least three octaves." The height of her register is not what determines her overall vocal type, but rather the range in which her voice resonates the best, which is the lower register (Contralto). The head voice that extends her register is simply that: her extension; notes that fit outside her standard range.

I will remove the "Alto" reference and replace it with these references to "Contralto."FreeSpirit80 (talk) 04:13, 23 March 2014 (UTC)FreeSpirit80 (talk) 04:13, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Anita Baker. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20071204025448/http://smoothjazznow.com:80/csja_winners_2005.htm to http://www.smoothjazznow.com/csja_winners_2005.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 14:34, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

FWIW
Articles for deletion/Ready for Your Love (Chapter 8 song) In ictu oculi (talk) 09:47, 24 May 2016 (UTC)