Why do we love musicals??
Why do I love it so much?
What kind of magic is this?
How come I can’t help adore it?
It’s just another musical
Archives For big vocal chops
Juanes said that he dreams in Spanish, so that’s why he usually doesn’t sing in another language, even though he’s collaborated with artists that don’t necessarily sing in Spanish. So when he did his song Hoy Me Voy [YouTube] — included in his 2007 album La Vida Es un Ratico — and did a Spanglish version with Colbie Caillat, it was interesting.
For the most part, the Spanglish version does a good job at translating the Spanish — “Devuélveme ese corazón que tú no supiste valorar lo que te daba yo de verdad.” to a pretty close “So give me back this heart of mine ’cause you didn’t feel the love that I would give to you every day and night.”
A literal translation would be “Give me back this heart that you didn’t value what I really gave to you.”
You know there’s a problem when you add the words “every day and night,” as well as the cringe-worthy random “baby.” xD Which they use in the chorus (nonetheless!!!) — “Tengo miedo de no olvidarte y por eso de ti me despido” with the line “I am scared baby, I won’t forget you and that’s why i need to let you go, so-”
The literal translation for that would be “I’m scared of not forgetting you, and that’s why I’m saying goodbye.” Compared to that, the Portuguese/Spanish version (Spanguese? Portugish?) goes the dramatic way with the line “Tive medo, fui covarde, é por isso que de ti me despeço” which translates literally to “I was scared, I was a coward, and that’s why I’m saying goodbye.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4K7zySqNas
Obviously, the mixing of Spanish and Portuguese is way more natural than with English. However, it’s super interesting that the changed lyrics in Portguese are even more dramatic than in Spanish… which usually have dramatic lyrics.
Anyway, I prefer the arrangements for this version with Paula Fernandes because it gives it a super serious and more devastating tone. The original version of just Juanes in Spanish is a little too peppy, and the version with Colbie Caillat is just… too soft.
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You all know that I like Brown Eyed Girls. I actually spent a huge chunk of my trip to Taiwan listening to Brown Eyed Girls’ albums (especially the first two), and then I realized something. I LOVE JeA, like… so much.
But I have a confession to make~ I didn’t really “get” her at first. To be honest, I was way too distracted by GaIn to notice anything, but as time has passed by… I finally get it. JeA, you’re amazing just the way you are. I’m sorry I took you for granted when I first started listening, but now I have a deep-seeded respect for you (as a person) and your talent. Your voice is beautiful, layered with feelings and experience that just flows towards your audience. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
When I was in Taiwan… in one of those nights I used to watch the news, I remember watching one note where they were talking (or, I guess… complaining) about how some “people” of the communist party where loaded with money, so MUCH money that women were able to showcase their Marc Jacob bags (priced at $20k USD apparently). The guilty parties? Gong Li and Song Zuying.
Bitch, please. Those two can afford their own Marc Jacob purses. They’re divas. They may be part of the party… because — come on, who DOESN’T belong to the party? You gotta be part of it to be a working actor or musician.
And if those two don’t buy their own purses, they get them as gifts. That’s how life is for this kind of people. No need to make it news-worthy complaining about the loaded communists. LOL
ANYWAY. I “met” Song Zuying when she performed at the Beijing Olympics (like ALL the other artists I met in that event — 谢谢，北京~). She sang with Placido Domingo and I totally heard her name, thinking she was Korean — come on, it totally sounds Korean when you sound it out~ xD Afterwards, I’ve seen her in several CCTV events and eventually got accustomed to her voice. She’s one of those people you just gotta WATCH when she performs live.
One of my favorite songs of hers is Love my China (爱我中华) — which some translate as (I’m looking at you CCTV) Our Love for China or I Love China — don’t be fooled. It’s Love my China and it’s about the 56 ethnicities in China and how they all sing their love for the country. It’s a VERY patriotic song, like… too much. But it’s so freaking catchy. Specially in the CCTV broadcast where I first heard it.
Her performance is the quality of Madonna LOL — it’s a big performance, almost unlimited budget coz it’s for the party… and Song Zuying may lack the sex quality Madonna has (because, COME ONE~), but she totally has that air of a magnificent diva. You may not like her political option, but my gosh~ she’s fantastically classy.
She even does it with regular versions of the song with a western chorus and a western audience [1]. Her voice has a magnificent quality once you get accustomed to its tone. However, I like her the best when she goes full-on Chinese with me. LOL Like in this crazy big performance of Good Days (好日子) [1] she did for the 60th anniversary of China. It’s incredibly… sentiment rousing. Them Chinese patriotic songs are good. LOL
Does this mean that Blind Spot is going to become a single? Because that was one of my favorite songs in the album, which you would know if you had already read my review of Black.Choice.White — which obviously wasn’t my choice of English translation but Gold Typhoon’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv48FKZgmZg
I think Black.Choice.White seems too simplistic as a translation — I mean… there’s the black with the Hei, and then they choose white even though Ming can’t be really translated to that. My chosen translation was Dark.Select.Clear which I suppose was playing with the Good/Bad concept with the Dark part being the bad, and Clear as a way of dissipation of the dark. It’s not fully bright, you see? xD
But then again, I’ve been called delusional before.
Oct 11
BiBi’s Sherlock Holmes
I am just in love with this new track 福尔摩斯, which apparently is Sherlock Holmes’ name in Chinese xD. Can’t wait for the new album, and actually get hands on lyrics on WHY it’s called like that… like I did with Canned Fish~~~ LOL
The arrangements on the song is quite simple compared to other more elaborate BiBi songs, but that styles suits her great because her voice sounds quite amazing. At first I was struck at how soft the song started, which then builds up. After a few listens — yes, I’ve listened to it multiple times already — it struck me like a really soft version of Eason Chan’s Exaggerate [1] which then turns into this classical sounding Stefanie Sun-type song. I love it. At the same time, you can listen to BiBi’s voice and it’s all the much better xD
I finally bought the 2-disc Back to Basics concert DVD. I’ve become cheap because I buy other expensive stuff from Asia — I just spent $30 for a Bluray concert of Eason Chan because Exaggerate looked so freaking awesome. But I couldn’t spend more than 10$ for Back to Basics, even though I really liked the album.
I had… a like/don’t care relationship with Christina Aguilera since her debut alongside Britney — I was always a Britney fan because she had ‘something’ which we can call ‘it’ and I always felt Christina didn’t have that thing that make you want to root for her… but I was often blown away with her voice anyway. I knew the few steps to Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants and Come on Over… almost to heart. I also dug that she had spent some time singing in Spanish with some good quality ballads and that infectious Falsas Esperanzas. She was the prettiest during those days — do you remember how amazing she looked in the MV for Pero me Acuerdo de Ti [MV]?
Her skin complexion then, non-sun-tanned and platinum blond, made a perfect match with the pinks which were highlights among all those grays.
Then she went all Dirrty. I did have an issue with her Dirrty days, even though Beautiful and Fighter are a couple of her strongest songs and I appreciate the change to more grundgy or gothy looks, but her literally dirty look and the sexual nature of the concept just reminds me of Tara Reid in her Wild On days. It’s just really disgusting. In the end, I never bought that album and I sorta forgot about Aguilera (or Britney). In fact, during that transition, I was becoming a Pink fan — you can tell from this post.
I have a point, bare with me.
Alongisde my Back to Basics concert DVD, I bought the Pink: Live from Wembley Arena — which would be her I’m Not Dead tour, and I watched them back to back.
It struck me that I could get a better sense of Christina watching the concert than I did with Pink. As I sat watching the second DVD, I thought to myself “wow, Back to Basics has a more cohesive theme than Pink’s concert.” To someone that considers herself a Pink fan, I felt a renew respect for Aguilera then.
It was then that I got it.
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I was watching CCTV a couple of few days ago, when I saw the most awesome performance of the song Legend (传奇), which is sung by Faye Wong (I’m pretty sure she’s the original singer) in a beautiful way as well [1][2].
But this performance by Henan Opera singer Xiao Xiangyu (小香玉) literally brought tears to my eyes. I wasn’t able to get her name the first time I watched the show, but they repeated it last night and I wrote it down.
I managed to find a video with English subtitles. [CCTV looks better but it goes wrong after minute 15 or something – stuck on the freeze frame even when the audio continues]
[iframe src=”https://open.iqiyi.com/developer/player_js/coopPlayerIndex.html?vid=17928efefd8ba611dc8cac707ba8e835&tvId=2062401009&accessToken=2.f22860a2479ad60d8da7697274de9346&appKey=3955c3425820435e86d0f4cdfe56f5e7&appId=1368&height=100%&width=100%” width=”100%” height=”480″]
There’s even a bit of a funny part when they mention Jay Chou’s singing style. LOL They talk about the importance of Mulan in their national history, and discuss how Disney’s Mulan fell in love and there was a happy ending.
If you really want to skip all the show [Legend is about 20min. into the show], you can watch Xiao Xiangyu’s performance of Legend, but it doesn’t have subs and the quality is not the best.
The first edition of the Global Chinese Golden Chart was held recently in Taipei, Taiwan.
Besides Leehom performing All the Things You Never Knew, Bibi was also there performing a medley of her i.Fish.Light.Mirror singles, including a bit of Canned Fish (like… the intro LOL), Single Mirror, and finally closing with I Miss U Missing Me.
I’m happy that BiBi performs her best when there’s important people. LOL Like… she sounds pitch perfect when musician, producers, and actors are in the room. She doesn’t even need fireworks, outrageous clothing or flashy stuff, just her singing.
Ahh fandom… NSFW fandom.
Shane and Molly have Asian fans! It figures~ I wonder if some pairings are more popular in each region just because of cultural preferences. The fact that Shane wanted to become a better person… more studious, more knowledgeable for Molly is what sold me on the pairing. I also think it’s a very Asian thing xD
Plus, they’re hot… but Shane and Carmen was hot– but too much drama.
I liked they used a song by a Taiwanese singer called Joanna Wang. She reminds me of the style of those easy listening tracks by Kendal Payne, or those tracks used so often in Grey’s Anatomy xD And the ending of the video, so sad.
