Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Andrew Lloyd Weber week

Just back from Hawaii and I was out celebrating my birthday with friends tonight, so my entry is a little late.

Andrew Lloyd Weber week

I personally am not fond of Sir Weber's schmaltzy songs; maybe that's because I had to sing them year after year early on in my career at weddings and country club dances.
However, I was impressed with the suggestions he gave to the singers tonight. He is a good performance coach and I feel that his tips really made a difference in the performances. I give the same advice to my students about making the song real for them. If the singer means what she is singing about, the audience will be pulled right in.

My take on the evening:


The 3 best performances of the night were:
David Archuleta
David Cook
Carly Smithson

I think either Brooke or Jason will get voted off tomorrow night. It's not really their fault. Their voices are just not made for these songs. This is a singing contest, after all.

Syesha Mercado-One Rock and Roll Too Many
Good performance. She looked great. A bit pitchy a usual.

Jason Castro-Memory
Boring. Not his style, he doesn't have the vocal range for this kind of music. It didn’t really do anything for me. I felt for him. He shouldn't have to sing this kind of stuff. I think his days are limited on the show.

Brooke White-You Must Love Me
Andrew gave her some good performance coaching. Weber’s songs are really written for big voices, and Brooke just doesn’t have that big voice. But she did a good job, considering that she had to start again. It happens sometimes, you forget the words and have no choice but to start again. I saw Robert Goulet start over again once singing Memory on Johnny Carson. It happens.

David Archuleta-Think of Me
Wow!!!!!! That was a great performance! He took a theatrical sang and made it into a pop hit. He made it his own. Simon was wrong. He did a great job.

Carly Smithson-Jesus Christ Superstar
Great song choice for her. Andrew Lloyd weber gave her some good advice to sing this song instead of the ballad. Good singing but a little pitchy. Good performance. I still think that she holds back her energy a bit. The key seemed too high for her. She pushes her voice harder than she should.

David Cook-Music of the Night
That was a powerful performance. I was really surprised at his vocal control, vulnerability and accessibility. He really can sing anything and seems to gets better every week. Again, great advice from Andrew.

2 comments:

cdecotis said...

Happy Birthday, Vickie...hope it was a great one for you.

So far, ALW is my favorite mentor this season. He seemed to really put the contestants more at ease and offer fine suggestions...very cool guy.

When the show started, I said to my husband, "If anyone sings Memory from Cats, I will poke my eardrums out with a fork."...so I spared my eardrums but cringeddddd when I heard about Jason choice. He admitted from the start that he didn't have a clue...I love how honest he is and I think he gave it a good shot considering...I wish ALW had asked Jason to consider a different song (like he did with Carly).

He and Brooke should be the bottom two. If I had to pick, I'd send Brooke home (not because of her false start...things like that don't bother me a bit). They both seemed extremely nervous with those huge songs...but Jason's performance came across with more confidence.

David A. sang beautifully, as always...he's seems so genuine (and I loved how hard he tried to sing with his eyes open).

I enjoyed the softer side of David C--very nice.

Carly and Syesha were very entertaining--glad they had a great week.

Vickie said...

Thanks, it was a fun birthday.

I'm with you all the way on your comments.
Yes, Memory, I think I've sung that song once too many times to ever be able to enjoy it again.And Jason didn't really help it too much.

Let's see what happens tonight.