Lori Michaels, Living her Life Out Loud
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @erinpcapuano
Just when you thought the arts couldn’t get any gayer in walks Lori Michaels, The Dyke Diva, a sexy sultry performer who can dance, sing, choreograph, arrange and produce along with anything else you can throw at her. Her presence is immediately felt when she walks into a room it’s hard not notice her beauty, charm, and her body from hell. Her larger than life personality is what makes her so accessible to thousands of lesbians all over the East and West coasts.
Lori Michaels Productions, is home to her Me and the Girls live shows; for adults only, she caters not only to the lesbian community but also to the heterosexual community as well. Just replace the two hot female backup dancers and bring in some hot hunky men and she’s completely transformed her show. After spending many years in the dusty entertainment closet she came out in March of 2006 to begin her own transformation of sorts. Lori was never one to flourish in a dark and dusty closet she needs wide open spaces to accommodate her many ever growing ideas and many talents. In the midst of her coming out she began working on her freshman CD Living My Life Out Loud while putting together what would be her first tour; Live Out Loud Pride Tour. Her first single release Meet Me at the Partay was an instant success within the lesbian community and began her barnstorming media tour. Lori has graced the cover of GO Magazine in August of 2008’s music issue 100 Women We Love and featured in Curve, SHE Magazine, GirL, IN LA, PrideMag and many more.
Lori’s roots can be traced back to Fairview a small town in New Jersey where as a youth she studied dance at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City while also attaining her degree in pre-law from New York University. Lori is always very modest about her background and quick to praise all those who helped her get to where she is now. She founded a non-profit organization called Reach Out Inc. which helps educate youth on the dangers of drugs, alcohol and responsible living through interactive dance shows. Lori also sits on the board for the Joey Dipaolo AIDS Foundation for which she is very active. As both a philanthropist and entertainer she has always found time to give back to her community by supporting the local DARE programs, police, fire, and ambulance divisions.
If you are looking for a woman who has it all you have surely come to the right place, singer, songwriter, pianist, producer she does it all. Her energy reaches far more than just NJ/NY she is also well known on the West Coast and internationally. Lori can be seen performing at Ladies events; Dinah Shore Weekend, Women’s Week in Provincetown, and Asbury Park NJ Pride. Lori has even caught the attention of popular lesbian culture sites AfterEllen.com and SheWired.com. Satellite radio which has become an open venue for many indie artists to be heard has also taken a large love interest with Ms. Michaels. She has been featured numerous times on OUTQ (Sirius/XM) and also mainstream NY radio Z-100: NY’s #1 Hit Music Station, WEOW 92.7, G.I.R.L. Radio, AOL Radio, Voice of America and more. MTV’s PG-13 channel LOGO for the LGBT community debuted Lori’s video for Meet Me At The Partay the exclusive dance remix and it became one of the networks Ultimate Sexiest Videos and also aired on the Here! Network. Lori’s song Wild Ride made it to mainstream MTV on their Season 2 premiere episode of the reality series The City. Her songs are featured in the movies And Then Came Lola and Ptown Diaries. It’s hard to imagine with all this instant success that she can keep a level head but she manages to entertain and entice while staying on the straight and narrow.
Me and The Girls is a must see show, picture three sexy women dressed in little more than boy shorts and a bra dancing together sweating, touching all while Lori Michael’s sexy voice echoes throughout a packed club. Having had the wonderful opportunity to see a few of these shows I can say with certainty that it is literally a jaw dropping experience. If you think Lori is just a hip hop, pop, dance phenom you have another thing coming this woman can sing a love ballad like no other. Lori’s smooth sultry raspy voice exudes the heartache for which she feels. She has taken her love life and laid it out for all to hear bearing not only her personal life but her soul. Songs such as Unconditionally have become popular at both gay and straight weddings. Lori is able in her writing to touch upon the human emotions of love, loss and fear allowing everyone to relate no matter what their gender or sexuality. This style mildly echoes the writing of Melissa Etheridge who is able to reach a vaster audience by allowing the listener to relate no matter what their preference. While some of her songs are overtly directed towards the gay and lesbian community Lori makes sure not to pigeon hold herself into any one category.
Never too far from Lori’s side is longtime friend and collaborator Jamisin Lee who is also involved not just with the Me and The Girls and the LGBT community but also founded her own non-profit organization called A.N.G.E.L (Awakening New Generations Enhancing Lives), an initiative promoting mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Both women work tirelessly to enrich the lives of others. Jamisin Lee is known as the dark haired beauty who commands the stage with a strong talent for dancing and a smile that could make anyone melt. A dynamic duo for sure these two women are unstoppable and hard to ignore.
In a world where mainstream pop artists rule the airwaves it’s more than difficult to even have a chance to have half the success that Lori has achieved. With the inception of the internet and file sharing many independent artists have had a chance to be noticed and to be heard. While the music industry still has a long way to go embracing the business of downloading has turned out to be harder than one would think. Sites such as iTunes and Rhapsody have made it much easier for the average everyday person to find a new artist that they may have never had the chance to hear had it not been for the worldwide web and artists like Lori have definitely taken advantage of that fact. You can find Lori’s music on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and Verizon VCast as well as in select stores. Some would say Lori should have come out sooner but as it stands now she came out at just the right time. It was well worth the wait for me considering I’d been telling her for years she needed to come out with a CD but in the end it was the wait that made the debut that much stronger. Unlike most artists Lori took the time to get it right and this one she clearly hit right out of the park. So to all you baseball fans I say if you’re going to listen to anything these days get the world series of indie female music get Living My Life Out Loud.