Archives For big vocal chops

Take the Night (or Day) Off for this Laura Marling Medley

Not so much ‘big vocal chops’ as ‘lyricist to watch out for,’ but Laura Marling’s voice is lovely nonetheless. This is a lovely medley she did for WNYC with -probably- the strongest segment in her album Once I Was an Eagle; Take the Night Off, I Was an Eagle, You Know and Breathe.

She’s a 24-year-old from the UK… and this is hardly ‘new talent’ as she’s on her 4th album already. She’s 4 or 5 years younger than Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and 2 years younger than Rihanna.

Whatever happened to the US music industry?

Posted on August 11, 2014 In Clips, English, Music, Sharing , , , , ,
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Hyde vs. Beto Cuevas vs. Sanam – FIGHT!

July 18, 2014 — Leave a comment

We got a triple FIGHT!

It was the second half of 2003 when I was listening to La Ley quite non-stop, since it was only one of the handful CDs that I had taken to Canada, when my friend grabbed my headphones and told me, “Do you know l’Arc en Ciel? It sounds exactly like him, but in not-Japanese.” I’d always kept that at the back of my mind until today when I found this new Indian band called Sanam, and had a similar thought.

Of course, l’Arc en Ciel has over twenty years of history already, so it’s an obvious imbalanced fight. Though I do kinda chuckle whenever people refer to lead vocalist Hyde as a “chibi” person, as well as measuring other people as “one hyde and one inch tall” LOL

Note: Also love how the fans sing as a prelude.

Of course, if La Ley hadn’t decided to split mid-noughties, they’d have a couple of years into l’Arc en Ciel, and the image that I have of Beto Cuevas wouldn’t be so quite embarrassing.
Continue Reading…

In Celebrity, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Japanese, Misc., Music, Music Videos, Sharing, Spanish , , , , , , , ,
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BiBi Brings Back the Black Tangerine

BiBi placed last this episode. WHATEVER. I’ve already explained my opinion on people’s voting and how faulty the democratic system can be (specially on reality television and competitions). All that matters is that BiBi sang a GREAT arrangement of David Tao’s Black Tangerine (黑色柳丁).

It was around 9 years ago when my friend introduced me to David Tao via Ghost (鬼) and Black Tangerine, and I’ve never regretted it since. Then I discovered BiBi via the Beijing Olympics, learned about the Chinese music scene and the rest has been history. My relationship to Black Tangerine is a very strong one, and I’m usually not one for covers of great songs, but that was a great fresh arrangement. It was the song and it wasn’t — both at the same time. It was like listening to it once again and discovering it all over again.

That’s a great feeling to have.

It doesn’t matter if you placed last in this show, BiBi. You can very well go home knowing you did an amazing arrangement of a great song.

Posted on February 24, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
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BiBi Does It ‘Slowly’

I have far too many audience discrepancy, it seems. For some reason, people believe that the performance I liked the least (an admittedly funny but kinda cringe-worthy latinesque rendition of The Little Tigers (小虎隊) Green Apple Paradise (青蘋果樂園)) has been BiBi’s best performance. Okay.

So far, BiBi’s managed to escape elimination, but she’s been quite inconsistent with her placing. She’s literally been all over. In here she’s in the bottom half with a rendition of Jacky Cheung’s Slowly (慢慢) that almost made people cry… once again.

Posted on February 1, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Television , , , ,
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Happy Year of the Horse!

Happy Chinese New Year y’all!

Here’s my Voice of China 2 fave gurl Yao Bei Na singing an epic number for CCTV’s annual Spring Gala Festival, proving (once again) that The Voice of China voters don’t know how to vote. Such terrible exercises on the democratic system as well as the selected democratic system, LOL.

Other notable numbers on the 4hr show:

The performance by Attraction, the Hungarian shadow theater. If you ever wondered where Sophie Marceau was, she was celebrating the Chinese New Year in China with a performance of La Vie en Rose with Liu Huan [1], and the example of what Chinese people think is flexibility.

Also, there’s an official YouTube Channel for the Spring Festival Gala now.

Posted on January 31, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, French, Music, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
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BiBi for Mavis

Everyone is freaking crying. Tears rolling down their eyes because BiBi is performing a Mavis Fan song called Cried (哭了), and BiBi keeps bringing it vocally despite some fierce competition from Luo Qi (罗琦, dubbed China’s First Rock Girl) and her performance of I Look Forward To (我期待) [clip], as well as GEM’s own interpretation of Mavis’ I Want Us to Be Together (我要我們在一起) [clip].

I obviously have a bias. G.E.M’s performance was pretty good but the song is a rocking one to start. She kept it to the good standard and gave it a spin. People were bawling with BiBi’s performance. Performance-wise, I’ll take G.E.M and vocally, it’s gotta be my gurl.

My dad would’ve approved.

Posted on January 24, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Television , , , , , , , ,
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BiBi’s ‘Annoyed’ for I Am a Singer 2

One of the many reasons I love BiBi is because she introduced me to Mavis Fan when she sang a bit of You Don’t Trust Me at All [MV] in one of those talk shows where the hosts (all women) asked her to sing snippets of different songs. I remember she also did a bit of Leehom’s Julia, but I was struck by her bit on Mavis and ended up discovering her.

Now she’s introducing me to Shino (林曉培)- of course, not a guarantee that I’ll fall in love with her music as I did with Mavis’ but you gotta start somewhere. Bibi’s performance of Shino’s Annoyed (煩) was pretty awesome. The song was also composed by Sandee Chan. Suddenly, she’s overpopulated my music library.

Posted on January 13, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Television , , , , , ,
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BiBi for I Am a Singer 2

BiBi, Papa would’ve been proud of that performance. It brought so many feelings.

BiBi’s participating in the Chinese version of the Korean contest I Am a Singer, now in its second season. Last time, Laure Shang was in it and was eliminated fairly early on.

Let’s hope BiBi makes it through.

Posted on January 7, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Spanish, Television , , , , ,
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Frozen’s Libre Soy Let it Go~

What is this lady-boner that I got watching Frozen? I really liked The Princess and the Frog (despite Prince Naveen) and wasn’t much of a fan of Tangled (despite Mother Gothel)- Frozen, instead, achieves the perfect balance. And I love love love LOVE Elsa. AND I DIDN’T EVEN SEE the original audio, and I loved it.

Idina Menzel, though, wow. Vocal boner. I do kinda liked the Spanish latino version of the song, Libre Soy [1] performed by Carmen Sarahi, a little bit better in lyrics and meaning, but Menzel’s vocals take the song to unparalleled heights. Can’t wait to get to watch the original audio track.

Elsa… Elsa swings her hips when she walks! And she has a smirk! She feels and is in turmoil and doesn’t seek a man to fix her life. She wants to be left alone, but of course- all she needs is open up her heart to her sister! Of course I love it.

Posted on December 27, 2013 In Clips, English, Films, Music, Spanish , , , , , , , , , ,
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BiBi’s Unlock Concert Rehearsal

BiBi’s doing a concert in Beijing (if she hasn’t done it by now, it’s one of these days), and my pal is attending. And even though I doesn’t feel like I’ve been an ardent BiBi fan for a bit, this rehearsal has made me giddy (and slightly jealous) to be there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3JgZQoytc0

Guess I’m gonna miss the party. xD

In other news, I had NO idea that one of the songs on Time was written by Mavis Fan. The more you know.

Also how cut does BiBi look?

Posted on June 4, 2013 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing , , , , ,
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