Nelly Furtado performs "I'm Like a Bird" at Thursday's Women Rock! benefit
Photo: Image Direct

HOLLYWOOD — Mary J. Blige and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines rocked Etta James' "At Last," Nelly Furtado rocked an acoustic "I'm Like a Bird," and a host of female singers rocked the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" at Thursday's second annual Women Rock! — Girls & Guitars breast cancer benefit.

The concert, taped for broadcast October 26 on Lifetime, was a four-hour extravaganza of collaborations that brought together leading female artists in rock, country, folk and soul.

"We're such a pairing of unique voices," Pat Benatar said after the show. "It's one thing to hear someone on record, but to hear them right up close like that is amazing."

Benatar opened Thursday's taping with a raucous rendition of "Heartbreaker" performed with Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks and newcomer Shea Seger. She followed by dueting on "We Belong" with Seger and showcasing her guitarist and husband Neil Giraldo on "Invincible."

"We wanted to do 'Invincible' because it's such an uplifting song about strength, and 'We Belong' because the sentiment is so beautiful," Benatar said.

Benatar and many of the other performers have close ties to breast cancer and spoke adamantly about Women Rock! and Lifetime's goal of raising awareness about breast cancer and finding a cure.

"My mother passed away from breast cancer two years ago," Giraldo said. "If she would have known about the awareness programs that are around and knew what to do, she would probably still be here. It was attached to her bone and it was too late to do anything. So it's very special for us to be here."

Seger said her mother dealt with a different form of cancer and that she had close friends who have faced breast cancer. "It's a hideous disease for women," Seger said. "Like what was said tonight, the ignorance about it is far more widespread than ignorance about a lot of things. This opened my eyes to learning about taking care of myself."

One of the evening's performers, Beth Nielsen Chapman, has recovered from breast cancer. Both Seger and Furtado, the youngest performers at Women Rock!, said they learned a lot from talking to the singer.

"Something Beth pointed out, she was saying that it kind of bothers her that people use words like 'battle' and 'survivor' when they're talking about breast cancer," Furtado said. "That's the problem. We're trying to remove the stigma from breast cancer, 'cause it's such a real thing. I'm 22. Young people don't want to think about breast cancer. They think it's their mom's disease. That's why I'm here. I'm trying to get rid of that stigma. Talk about boobs. Talk about examining your breast. That's what it's all about."

Furtado's tranquil version of "I'm Like a Bird" midway through the show garnered some of the evening's loudest applause.

"I love playing it that way because that's the way I wrote it," Furtado said. "There's a lot of elements to what I do, so it's nice to showcase different sides. One minute I'm rapping, and the next I'm singing and playing guitar."

The Canadian singer returned to the stage only for the grand finale, which included all of the Women Rock! guests sitting on stools in a half-circle and jamming out to the Eagles' "Take It to the Limit" and the Stones' "Honky Tonk Women."

The Dixie Chicks, especially Maines, were the evening's most frequent performers, taking the stage with just about all of the acts. Their highlights included a duet with Crow on her "It Don't Hurt" and the standard "Mary" with Nielsen Chapman and Emmylou Harris.

Blige was the show stealer, however, pacing the stage and belting out the title track to her latest album, No More Drama.

India.Arie, who was scheduled to perform, and Allison Janney of "The West Wing," who was scheduled to host, did not make the event due to scheduling conflicts, according to Lifetime.

• Mary J. Blige
• Pat Benatar
• Nelly Furtado
• Dixie Chicks
• Sheryl Crow

Mary J. Blige
Photo: Jason Campbell

Mary J. Blige, Nelly Furtado and the Dixie Chicks will headline the second annual Women Rock! Girls & Guitars breast cancer benefit in Los Angeles in October.

The show will be taped on October 18 at the Wiltern Theater and air as a two-hour special October 26 on Lifetime, the network said Tuesday.

India.Arie, Pat Benatar, Emmylou Harris, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Shea Seger will also perform at the event. "The West Wing" star Allison Janney has been tapped to host.

Women Rock! Girls & Guitars, which is sponsored by Marie Claire magazine, is part of Lifetime's ongoing campaign, Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Breast Cancer for Life. Proceeds from the event will go to the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations and the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Lifetime said.

Last year's Women Rock! saw Destiny's Child, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, Cyndi Lauper and Amy Grant perform at the Wiltern.

Nine days after Lifetime's concert is filmed, Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins will host a breast cancer benefit show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles with performances by Billy Corgan, Deftones and Sugar Ray (see "Third Eye Blind Frontman Plans All-Star Breast Cancer Benefit").

• Mary J. Blige
• Nelly Furtado
• Dixie Chicks
• India.Arie
• Pat Benatar

Photo: RCA

Shea Seger's lush, emotionally evocative debut album is a musical tale of two cities. It brings together the blues and R&B she heard growing up near Fort Worth, Texas, with the dance beats she discovered after moving to London two years ago.

"London is where I got my love for hip-hop and dance music," said the 20-year-old Seger, who released The May Street Project on June 5. "But the classic groove comes from my upbringing. I couldn't separate those sounds or genres just to make a record that would neatly fit somewhere." The mix is evident on the album's opener, "Last Time," which is already receiving heavy airplay on "adult album alternative" radio stations. The tune combines Nashville strings with hip-hop beats and electronics, and it sounds more than a little like Dusty Springfield on Pentium.

Don't be fooled by what sound like drum loops and samples, though. "Most of the drums people think are loops or samples are live," said the singer, who also plays piano but stuck to vocals for the album. "I love loops, but the sound's authenticity is important to me. The live drums make a huge difference to me." Seger credits her music-fanatic father with introducing her to Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield, although she says her biggest influence is Tom Waits, another musician who combines traditional styles with experimental sounds.

She sees The May Street Project as the culmination of her first 20 years, which saw her win a scholarship to a Virginia theater school, where she rejected stage musicals as too emotionally detached for what she wanted to express. Songs such as "Clutch" (the first single) and "I Love You Too Much" are personal accounts of romantic obsession and loss, although she tries to avoid sounding like she's just singing a page from her diary — something else she learned from Waits.

"I write for sanity's sake, not for recording material," she said. "I'm working on keeping the stream-of-consciousness thing within reason, like Tom Waits." Seger co-wrote most of the album's songs. Among the more moving of these is "Always," a loping country ballad she sings with Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith, whom she met at a performance many years back. "I just called him up to say, 'Look, here's this song I've fallen in love with, and it's actually one I didn't write,'" she said of the tune penned by producer Martin Terefe and musician Nick Whitecross. "'And seeing as how you didn't write it either, we might as well make it ours!'" Seger opened a few dates for David Gray last spring and hopes to put together her first headlining tour this fall.

• Shea Seger

Shea Seger Photos

• Shea Seger