Hello and welcome back to that wonderful article that looks into the voices of every single character on Steven Universe, "Hey, It's That Voice!" Today, we will are starting our look into each and every fusion, and we will start with the voice of Opal!
Opal, also known as "Giant Woman" to Steven was the very first (non-Garnet) fusion we ever got to see, and boy did she show off her stuff! Flipping around, punching the bird to rescue Steven (and Steven Jr.), and using her amazing archery skills to both poof and bubble the corrupted gems. To quote Amethyst, she really is a "Stone Cold Betty". She certainly showed us what could fusions can do when they work together, even if Pearl and Amethyst can't hold it up for long. But who got to voice Opal in her first appearance (and hopefully for any future appearances)? Well, that honor will be held by Aimee Mann!
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| "All you wanna do/Is see me turn into...." |
Aimee Mann was born on September 8, 1960 and raised in Bon Air, Virginia. She attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. However, she dropped out of the school to join a punk band called The Young Snakes. The band released one EP in 1982 before splitting.
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| The Young Snakes playing in Boston, with Dave Bass Brown on drums, Doug Vargas on guitar/vocals, and Mann on bass guitar. |
The next year, Mann helped form the new wave group 'Til Tuesday, joining as the band's bassist. The band gained quite a bit of attention immediately when they won WBCN's Rock 'n' Roll Rumble and their song "Love In A Vacuum" received local radio play. This helped the band being signed to Epic Records. In 1985, the band released their first album 'Voices Carry', which includes their best known song "Voices Carry". The song reached #8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #15 on the Australian and Canadian charts. The success of the song, written by Mann and said to be about her breakup with the band's drummer Michael Hausman, was large due to the music video which was put on heavy rotation on MTV. Directed by D.J. Webster, the music video and the band won the award for Best New Artist in a video at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. Mann also won an award for her performance for Best Female Performer at the Fourth Annual American Video Awards. The video was placed number forty on Slant Magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Music Videos", and was listed on Pitchfork Media's "100 Awesome Music Videos", in 2006.
The music video will be eventually parodied for Mann's single "Labrador", directed by Tom Scharpling.
'Til Tuesday released two more albums before breaking up in 1989, Welcome Home in 1986 and Everything's Different Now in 1988. While the albums were met with positive critical reception (particularly at Mann's songwriting), the albums were commercial disappointments. During her time with 'Til Tuesday, Aimee Mann joined Geddy Lee on vocals for the song "Time Stand Still" by Canadian rock band Rush. The song is a fan favorite and is still played by the band today. Over the years, she has also provided backing vocals to Matthew Sweet, Cyndi Lauper, William Shatner (yes, that William Shatner), Steve Vai, and Ben Gibbard.
Starting in 1993, Mann released a string of solo albums, all of which have met with critical praise. In order, they include 'Whatever', 'I'm With Stupid', 'Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Ramins of the Dodo', 'Lost In Space', 'Live at St. Ann's Warehouse', 'The Forgotten Arm', the Christmas album 'One More Drifter in the Snow', '@#%&*! Smilers', and 'Charmer'. In 2013, Mann joined with Ted Leo to form the musical duo The Both, and they released their first album in 2014.
As for acting, Aimee Mann has been in quite a few things. Her first appearance on the silver screen was in The Big Lebowski as a German nihilist.
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| Mann sitting next to Torsten Voges, who played Franz, in The Big Lebowski. |
Mann also appeared with her backing band on Buffy The Vampire Slayer performing two songs, "Pavlov's Bell" and "This Is How It Goes".
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| Mann in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. And yes, that was her line. |
Other shows Mann has appeared on includes The West Wing, Love Monkey, Lewis Black's Root Of All Evil, Portlandia, The Daily Show, @midnight, and Conan.
And that will do it for this edition of "Hey, It's That Voice!" Join us next time when we look at voice of when Amethyst and Garnet fuse!
