You can take the girl out of Hollywood, but you can’t take Hollywood out of the on-camera reporter who has covered the entertainment industry in Los Angeles for years!
After reporting on film, music, fashion and celebrities at publications like E! News, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, and ABC7 LA, I have become a connoisseur of this news genre. That’s why all the way in Kern County as an on-camera reporter for 23ABC (almost four months—man does time go quickly) I’ve still managed to cover The Emmys, preview a film with Kate Bosworth and Edward James Olmos and now The American Music Awards. Somehow I’ve pulled this off in addition to my daily duties of reporting hard and feature news locally and nationally.
It was like a homecoming in a way—while of course doing the coverage from my home (we’re still in a pandemic, after all!). I covered the American Music Awards for the first time last year for Entertainment Weekly. In 2019, I was on the red carpet and in the photo room, face-to-face interviewing Lil Nas X, Shania Twain Daniel Levy, Dan + Shay and many others. Well, this year, I was sitting in my reading corner on a Zoom call with dozens of reporters and stars. On the screen, thirty of us correspondents watched as the likes of Bebe Rexha, Doja Cat and Dan + Shay took their red carpet photos on a step and repeat and answered some of our questions, press conference style (yes, it was a super weird format but hey we were still at the AMAs, even if virtually!). Given the fact that I was representing the only local news outlet and everyone else was from a national outlet based in Los Angeles or New York, I had quite the challenge ahead of me: to get my question in and somehow connect the subject matter back to Bakersfield.
For those that know me well, I always strive to rise to and excel at a challenge set before me. When I ask my interviewee a question, I also make it my personal goal to ask them something they haven’t been asked a million times in the hopes of seeing their faces light up with that storytelling magic that connects all of humanity together, no matter how different our experiences are from one another. I had conducted extensive research on every nominated AMAs artist and managed to discover a unique connection two 2020 AMAs winners had to Bakersfield…huzzah!
Last year Billboard reported that Dan + Shay dethroned Bakersfield Sound (one of the most iconic genres of country music) founding father, Buck Owens for having the second longest streak of the top first and second spots on the Hot Country Song chart. When I asked Dan + Shay about how Buck Owens and the forefathers of country music paved the way for them as country stars, they grinned from ear-to-ear and paid homage to Bakersfield and Buck Owens (watch the full story here) in a way even I wasn’t expecting!
Suffice to say, it was a successful day of covering the AMAs, and even though I didn’t get to walk the red carpet myself, I dressed in what I would have worn if I was at the ceremony in person. So, the award for taking forever to post this story on the blog goes to…me! I’ve been meaning to get around to entering these editorials into my style diary, but man does a job as on-camera journalist take up one’s time and energy (in the best way, of course!).
The American Music Awards are fan-voted, and this indigo dress has been a crowd pleaser for my fellow chicsters since I first introduced it on Instagram. It only seemed appropriate to grace the Zoom screen and our viewers’ televisions with this strong-shouldered showstopper! There are so many elements that make this number special, from the sheer sleeves, to the rainbow bejeweled belt, to the shoulder pads and the unique hue. I kept with the vintage theme and opted for these layered gold hoops I consigned from a boutique in downtown Bakersfield. I slicked my hair back to keep the look sharp and keep the attention on my winsome wear. This dress was from another favorite haute haunt of mine—my mother’s closet from the ‘80s and ‘90s. She wore this pinafore when my father asked for her hand in marriage, so I think it’s filled with some serious magic!
Who has been your favorite music artist this year?
Keeping it Krischic,
Kristin Vartan
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Keeping it Krischic 