Backstage With Julie Insogna, Oxygen's Vice President of Talent and Music

In suitable Oxygen style, Melissa was the first artist chosen to kick off the Oxygen Network's new Custom Concert Series, a program designed to enable fans to customize their favorite artists' stage show. Melissa's Custom Concert was taped on April 20th and was the first in a series of custom concerts that will air on the network. The Custom Concert series is the brainchild of Julie Insogna, who co-produces the program for Oxygen.

Using an online poll, Oxygen asked fans what songs they would like to see Melissa perform, in what setting they would like to see the concert take place ~ everything down to what Melissa wore on stage the evening of her performance. The concert aired on Oxygen on July 17th and a Watch and Win Sweepstakes was run in conjunction with the airing of Melissa's concert. Stay tuned to www.oxygen.com for the winning names to the Watch and Win Sweepstakes that will be announced August 14th!

15 M.E.I.N. members and their guests were present this very special evening when Melissa gave a knock out performance of tunes selected by fans from the online poll. She also previewed for the audience three new songs from her latest album, SKIN, which hit record stores July 10th.

Read on as Julie Insogna takes us backstage at Melissa's Oxygen Custom Concert…

Can you tell the fans a bit about what you do for The Oxygen Network?
My official title is Vice President of Talent and Music Programming. So, basically myself and my staff are responsible for booking all of the musical guests and all of the celebrity guests who come one our daily shows. We have three shows that are really music oriented. One is "Pure Oxygen," which is on five days a week, Monday through Friday, from noon to 1:30 p.m. It's a live show and they have a musical guest everyday and they have a celebrity guest everyday. The show is your typical "The Today Show" meets "The View" magazine format.

Melissa has been on that one…
Yes. She was interviewed on that program. She was actually on "Pure Oxygen" I think it was maybe our first or second week of production and that just further proved to me how awesome she is because it was a time when celebrities didn't really know who we were and they were afraid. Oxygen knew had something to do with Oprah and it had something to do with TV for women, but they really didn't know exactly what we were about. Melissa, within the first or second week of our premiere, was already booked to come on and do an interview, which was amazing. Melissa was also on the program "Exhale " hosted by Candice Bergen. We book many musical guests and celebrities to be on that show. We had Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Joni Mitchell, Jewel, and obviously Melissa. About six months ago I developed a show called "Daily Remix." This is our daily music show and I developed it with my husband, Seth Jarrett, who works here as well. He is the co-executive producer of "Daily Remix." We wanted to come up with a music show that was unique and apart from MTV, VH1 and Much Music. We thought to ourselves, the one thing we think is lacking in music television is multi-genre programming. So, we developed the show, "Daily Remix," which is a half-hour magazine format show where we do interviews, performances, music videos of artists of all genres. In any half-hour you may see Destiny's Child, Hank Williams III and then Melissa Etheridge. It is very eclectic. You go from rock, to pop, to jazz, to blues all within one half-hour. Melissa has appeared on several of our various programs. Over all, what I have been trying to do in my job is to continue to develop music programming that is unique. This is how the particular concept for the Custom Concert: Melissa Etheridge came about.

Can you give us some background as to how exactly the Custom Concert series came together?
Part of the goal was to come up with something that hadn't been done before. We considered the avid watcher of MTV and VH1. It was quite a challenge because there is "Storytellers," there is "Hard Rock Live," there is "Unplugged" and it felt like everything had been done before. Oxygen's mantra is co-creation with women. We really try to get our viewers, our fans and our on-line community to help us co-create our programming. We pay a lot of attention to our message boards. My original idea was to do a concert where it would be a franchise ~ a music franchise as it were where the musicians themselves would actually customize the concert each time. So, if we did one with Melissa she would say, "Well, I would like my set to look like this and I would like my wardrobe to be like this and I would like the theme to be this, etc." And if Sheryl Crow did one the next week, she would customize hers. So the idea was for it to be a sort of a music franchise, but it would be the artist customizing their own concert. Then reality hit. I realized, "Okay that is not going to happen." (laughs) It is a lot of work and musicians do not really have the time to conceptualize and design their own set for instance. The I thought, what if the ultimate fans of these artists actually had the opportunity to create the concert for the musician. I knew that "The Today Show," for example, had online visitors vote once concerning a wedding. People voted on what a wedding dress would be and the wedding cake and the wedding dance, etc. I thought, "Well, why couldn't we do something like that with music?" The fans would design the set and they would design what the artist would wear and what songs they would play.

How did you come up with the questions that you asked online, who determined what the criteria would be?
We did that with our online entertainment online group. With a concert there was only so much that you could vote on. Obviously, a wedding has 50 or 60 things you could vote on, but with a concert it's a little more difficult. The great thing about this is that the fan can have a chance to say, "Oh my God! I hope she plays (insert favorite song.)" You always hope that your favorite artist would play your favorite song, so now we are giving the fans a chance to make that a reality. We called it Custom Concert, which was really a working title because it sounded almost too simple and then the more we thought about it we were like, but that is what it is, you are customizing a concert. So when we came up with the concept we had to pitch the show to get it off the ground. We had to pitch it to all the partners and then our president of programming and production. When we pitched it the concern was if the artists would be into letting fans dictate their show. Then we said "We'll only know if we try." Then we thought who do you think would let us do this? Obviously, being a fan of Melissa and being in touch with her manager, Bill Leopold, over many, many years and knowing that she had a new album coming out, we thought of her. We knew that of all the artists that I've been in touch with over the years that she is one who has a tremendously strong fan base. And so we pitched the idea to Bill and he pitched it to Melissa. It took a few weeks, but she agreed to do it ~ obviously because here we are! (laughs)

All us here at M.E.I.N. are happy for that.
Exactly (laughs) I mean that is the thing. A lot of artists obviously have fan Web sites, but I have seen Melissa many times in concert and I attended Equality Rocks. I went to her Hard Rock Live taping and I went to her MTV Unplugged. I have always had a sense of her fan base. It is huge. Not that a lot of artists don't have large fan bases, but hers in particular is so large, so dedicated and so loyal. That is what we needed for this concept to fly.

We need you to become a member of M.E.I.N.
Exactly! You are right! (laughs) It's so obvious I should have done this a long time ago! It works. Yes and you know when we covered Equality Rocks; Oxygen sent a crew down and interviewed Melissa and all the different artists who were there and celebrities and she was just SO not rock star-ish. She was so nice and so warm and, again, I knew if there was someone who would agree to this concept it would probably be her. And she did.

In working directly with Melissa when you were coming up with those concepts what was her initial reaction to the ideas you had for the concert and it's design?
From her point of view it was more like, 'Do you think people will want to vote?' (laughs)We were like, 'trust us.' The first thing that we dealt with was the set list and we had to orchestrate the polling so that every week you got to go on and vote on a different song out of a group of four. You got to vote on your two favorites out of a group of four. It was such a challenge, especially for us because we tried to group the songs where the fans favorites would definitely be represented. Melissa and her team were really helpful in trying to figure out what they and Melissa thought her strongest songs were and what she thought were the songs that the fans would really want to hear. We had to really break down that voting process. And the second thing was the wardrobe because how do you tell her what you think she should wear? We asked her to give us four favorite outfits and if she would take pictures of them so we could put them online, because obviously describing them really wouldn't be enough. Let us put the pictures up there. Obviously we asked her to give us four choices that she was willing to wear. She gave us all four and the one that she ended up wearing was the American Woman T-shirt and the jeans. We called it "Mamma Let Me Be" and it won by a landslide. I think it was like 64%. And for us it was always. "Oh my God what if there was a tie?" How do we pick between two? But it actually won by a huge percentage. Then there was the set. The set was an interesting one because we wanted it to have a theme and we wanted to have something that that was unique. She is obviously so creative in her music videos and she uses a lot of imagery and we wanted to create a set that would be unique from anything that she has done before. So, we came up with "Summer Rooftop" because we knew her album was coming out in the summer and I had never actually recalled seeing her perform on any kind of rooftop. Then we came up with this "Latin Romance" idea and though we hadn't heard the album yet, we thought about just rich really beautiful colors. Then there was this Western idea and I don't know if Melissa really liked that idea. I never really talked to her about it, but people were like, "Yeah! Melissa in a western kind of cowboy theme!" Melissa and her management seemed to think it was worth putting into the voting. The last set choice was called "Film Noir." I liked that idea even though it didn't win and it actually it got a lot of the votes. Melissa and her management team were into it as well, but "Summer Rooftop" won. It was great and it turned out to be beautiful it was very "summer rooftop-ish" (laughs)

Can you give us a brief overview of the evening? When the actual night was happening what were some of the highlights for you?
My biggest highlight was that I didn't really have a chance to talk to Melissa before the taping to really go over the voting process and what won and how many people actually voted. I really wanted her to be prepared so that when she went onstage she could really embrace what the show was about. And for me the biggest highlight was that she didn't even need any preparation. She knew what it was about. She knew everything and she said things like, "Welcome to my 'Summer Rooftop. I guess you guys really like me in jeans. I wish every town that I went to someone would customize my concert." She said things that were just so relevant to what was going on and she was talking about things on the set and how 'All American Girl' was the highest voted on song. I mean none of these things were things that we had told her. These were things that she knew just by logging on to oxygen.com and seeing the voting That is my biggest highlight. Also, I have never seen her play acoustically. This may have been the first or second time that she performed a full concert for TV without her band. And she doesn't need a band! The highlight for me was, oh my God! She sounds absolutely phenomenal and she just has a guitar! Her voice was amazing and she looked absolutely beautiful. I am biased, of course, but she looked the most beautiful and stunning I have ever seen her look. She looked so happy and comfortable and her performance was great. The fans and the audience were so into it. I guess another highlight would be that she sang three knew songs from SKIN, which just blew me away and I could just tell that the people that were hearing those songs for the first time were amazed. I mean Tipper Gore was crying. The fans stood up and cheered when she sang the new songs. I guess every minute was a highlight! (laughs) Again, just the fact that she was so present and aware of what was going on. Sometimes you never know with a celebrity… are they just showing up or are they really being involved? She was so obviously very, very involved and she was saying things that she would only know how to say them if she was being part of the process.

Melissa is very passionate and on top of things and it sounds like picking her was really a great precursor for the Custom Concert as you move forward…
Yes. And I thought about this after the taping on Friday. You know we obviously want to do more. The goal for us would be to do four concerts a year and make this hour a franchise, but who can do it as well as she did? (laughs) It was just completely effortless on her part. She was amazing. The concept behind the Custom Concert is that you really need someone who has a lot of hits, who has a lot of records and who is willing to let the fans dictate what they wear, what the set looks like, what songs they play and so forth. I am hoping there will be more. And the thing about Custom Concert, as well is that we only plan to do them with female artists. Part of our other programming is obviously with male bands and we have men on because you know women don't only want to see only women all the time, they want to see men as well! But I think the Custom Concert, is such that we feel it should just be for female artists. Especially since I don't think, in my opinion, female artists get as much attention as male artists do and they don't have as many outlets. Oxygen would be the place where we can really offer that platform.

So that must have been rewarding for you and your husband Seth to watch all of this come off with out a glitch?
Yes. No glitches at all surprisingly. The only glitch was that Melissa ordered a tuna fish on rye sandwich, but we got it with a bagel but she doesn't know that we got it with a bagel because we ran to the store and got another one. But that was my big panic attack. I was like she needs another sandwich! (laughs) Also, another highlight was that we gave her a thank you gift, this ring form Tiffany & Company because I notice in all of her videos and at her concerts she wears a lot of rings, sometimes one on every finger. There was a feeling I had like, "Oh, it's Tiffany & Company and it is so cliché, she probably has it." We wanted to get her something so we got her what's called a 'teardrop ring' and she opened the box and she put it on and she wore it. Once again this says to me how completely amazing she is because she wasn't like, "Oh, my God! It is so pretty thank you so much!" And she put it on and she wore it. She is so gracious and thanked me a million times and thanked everybody on the crew and the staff and was just so warm. And the one thing I have always said about Melissa, and that evening only further proved this to be true, is that if you are not a fan or if you don't know her music well when you see her live you absolutely, instantly become a fan. And there were many people there who either had to be there because they were working or they were invited guests and weren't really sure what to expect. I have gotten emails and calls from people saying, "Oh my God! I never knew. She is amazing!" So, that is very rewarding.

That evening we have 15 M.E.I.N. members and their guests in attendance. Sometimes people are often quick to point out that her fan club members are present because they are the ones dancing and screaming…
I know Melissa recognizes them as well. I met two women from the club and they actually went up to Melissa and asked for autographs, which she gave. Though I didn't talk to many of them we had a camera crew downstairs at the check in and we also had some employees from my department checking people's names and bringing them to where they had to wait on line. It is amazing that my crew all said the same thing that her fans were the nicest and friendliest most sincere people that they had ever met. I mean I don't know why we expected a rowdy crowd. We were like we have to have police there and police barricades, but you could just tell that these were people who just couldn't wait to see the concert and they were so nice and so sweet. When we escorted them in and were showing them where to sit you could tell that they just loved being there. I mean there were only 95 people in the audience. So, it was definitely a very intimate show and the great thing about Melissa is that I guess most of her fans that she knew were sitting behind her and she constantly turned to them and played for them and faced them and addressed them. You know she tells her stories between each song and they would go, "Oh!" You know and they were riding the emotional roller coaster with her. She would turn to them and say, "Don't worry I am okay. Don't feel bad for me!" You could just tell that they love her and they feel the emotions that she feels and you could just tell that she loves the fact that they love her. So, I didn't get to talk to everyone I just sensed how great they all are and again the people that work here couldn't say enough about how wonderful the fans were as well.

The winners have been picked for the Watch and Win Sweepstakes and will be announced on August 14th. Can you tell us more about the grand prize?
It's an Ovation guitar. I am not sure if it is her official, official one. We actually got it that day. I know that Ovation has especially made a guitar for her, but it is not that one unfortunately. I know that she has played it however, but I don't know if it is that specific one. The grand prizewinner gets Melissa's autographed guitar and a Melissa Etheridge autographed CD and video collection. The first prize is an autographed Melissa Etheridge guitar strap that she used during the show, plus another CD autographed collection. And the second and third prizes are CD collections, autographed pictures and various Melissa Etheridge memorabilia. So really the grand prize is the autographed guitar.

Oh, well that works!
Yes. She actually held it.

Well, we definitely want you to be a member of M.E.I.N!
All right! I can join online?

Absolutely!

Stay tuned to www.oxygen.com for the winning names to the Watch and Win Sweepstakes that will be announced on or about August 14th!