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Jessica Simpson Squeaks Out
09/03/2006 1:33 AM, E! Online
At least this proves she wasn't using a backing track.
Jessica Simpson, just one week and two nixed TV appearances
removed from receiving physician's orders to rest her voice, went on the
Today show Friday to perform the second single from her new
album, A Public Affair.
She may have been better
off following the good doctor's advice.
"My voice is
shot," she told anchor Matt Lauer. "I don't know if I had a screaming,
crying or coughing attack, or a sneeze or what."
The
songbird, who was ordered to keep mum earlier this week after a busted
blood vessel bruised her vocal cords, began her two-song morning show
set with "I Belong to Me," the follow-up track to her debut single, "A
Public Affair."
As Simpson performances go, it got the
job done.
Between songs, Simpson attempted to soothe
her pipes with a concoction that Lauer described as "gnarly looking."
Unfortunately, it didn't quite do the trick. Despite
sounding fairly scratchy during her opening number, Simpson gamely made
a go of straining through a second song, "With You."
Toward the ditty's end, when the former reality star was due to hit a
high note, her voice cracked, causing her to briefly pause midsong.
"All right, I tried," she said, before starting up again to
finish the tune.
While the timing of Simpson's
medico-issued gag order couldn't be worse, she appears to have taken it
in stride, telling Lauer her first reaction after learning of the vocal
damage was "Oh, dang it!"
The diagnosis came as Nick Lachey's ex was due to kick off a wave of publicity for her new album,
which was released on Tuesday.
She canceled a scheduled
appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman earlier this
week, only to appear on MTV's Total Request Live Tuesday. She
whispered her way through an interview and autographed CDs for the
audience but ultimately bowed out of singing.
"It
doesn't really sound like Jessica," the pop star said of herself on
TRL. "I'm so sad--I sound like a donkey."
She
made another promotional pit stop Thursday night, appearing as a
presenter on MTV's Video Music Awards, for which she croaked and flubbed
her way through the solo banter, awarding the Pussycat Dolls with the
prize for Best Dance Video.
(Proving her luck hasn't
been all bad, she won a car in a celebrity raffle during the pre-VMA
activities. She has also reportedly hooked up with John Mayer.)
"The VMAs were a blast," she said on Today, not that
she stayed long to enjoy them. "I was only there for a little bit."
Following her morning performance, Simpson will likely want
to give her voice more of a rest before rejoining the promotional
circuit--something she doesn't have much time to do.
The Dukes of Hazzard star is tapped to be the first guest under
Rosie O'Donnell's View purview Tuesday.
Simpson
has also promised to make good on her canceled TV appearances later this
fall.
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