I’m a little bit sad I have no one else to share this with. I think my dad would’ve loved seeing this clip of BiBi and Chris Lee together after all these years. It’s all gonna be so weird now, I have no one to share all my music with.
Archives For reality tv/variety
I subscribed to the KhamatovaInfo YouTube channel not long ago and they uploaded this clip of what seems to be the latest season of Lednikoviy Period (Ледниковый период) — or Ice Age, if you must. An “ice-skating with the stars” kind of TV contest. In the clip linked above, there’s a tiny appearance by Khamatova as guest (or maybe guest judge??), so I went quick-digging… and found this~
Scottish ice-skating turned ice-skating Riverdance with a totally focused Khamatova.
Apparently Chulpan was part of the first series of the show that aired back in 2007, in which she was paired with ice-skater (ice-dancer???) Roman Kostomarov, and pushed ahead to become the winner of the season. This is the moment that I grin knowing Chulpan is multi-talented — and actually remember that she used to ice-skate before an injury.
Plus, it’s really an advantage that the guy leads.
Here are the list of her performances I could find:
- Hip Hop (I suppose? or Urban?) – Performance 1 – Give it to Me by Timbaland ft. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake
- Performance 2 is listed above. (Perfect Score)
- 50s Rock n Roll? – Performance 3 – I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- Classic ? – Performance 4 – (Perfect Score)
- Samba? (Maybe Latin?) – Performance 5 – Mas que Nada by Sergio Mendes
- French? – Performance 6 [alt. link with audio] – Padam Padam by Edith Piaf
- Full-on Russian – Performance 7 – Love and Poverty (Любовь и бедность) from Hello, I’m your Aunt! (Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!) [1]
- Contemporary ? – Performance 8 – it’s supposed to be a piece from O Clone, the Brazilian soap unless there’s something else that’s called Clone. However, I haven’t been able to identify the name of the track.
- Classic (or Broadway??) – Performance 9 – Jesus Christ Superstar
- X – missing clip??
- Classic Russian – Performance 11 – The Woman Who Sings (Женщина, которая поёт) by Alla Pugacheva
- Russian Alt Rock (or Rock n Roll Twist??) – Performance 12 – What Do You (Что ты имела) by Neschastny Sluchai (Несчастный случай)
- Full-on Russian – Final Performance – Music Unknown
If I spoke fluent Russian, I would’ve taken a plane to watch her doing theater. xD
This year’s season of The Voice of China is a bit on the meh side compared to last year’s. Some good talents, but not as awing as some of last year’s. This battle for Wang Feng’s team, though, from Simon Chung (鐘偉強) of Hong Kong singing it out with Beijing-based Bi Xia (毕夏) with the classic Hey Jude was pretty emotional.
The whole father/daughter interaction going on, because Simon took the time to guide Bi Xia through the song and Bi Xia’s knowing what he’d done for her makes the whole elimination process all the more painful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzTgyORzEAA
Other battle highlights~
From Na Ying’s team:
Yi Guang Nian (毅光年) Vs. Sheng Yin Yue Tuan (声音乐团) – I Surrender (没离开过)
From Amei’s team:
Zhang Xin (张新) Vs. Liu Zi Chen (刘籽辰) – What’s the Trouble in your Mind (你在煩惱什麼) + We Are Young
Oh, man~ Liu Huan is gone from The Voice of China, and I thought he was the one elevating the show to a more professional level. Have no idea why he’s not there, but I hope he’s back later on.
And my prediction of Wang Feng being on the show [1] kinda became a reality, except not replacing who I thought he should be replacing. LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE3Tkvg2-8A
Happy to see A-Mei, though I would prefer her releasing new music instead.
I have nothing to say about Harlem Yu xD We are just not compatible. LOL
Korea has a show called Immortal Song that basically pits popular singers performing songs of a selected theme/singer/era in front of the audience made out of people who listened to that type of music. Think of it as a show where you would gather the likes of Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, sprinkled with a few picks like Demi Lovato and whoever people think are good vocalists nowadays, and having them competing against each other in things like “Themes from the 80s” and having all of them battle (A vs. B) with a song performance to move onto the next battle.
Once a week. Yeah, impossible to do in America.
But so good for ratings, no? Could you imagine? I would pay money to see Christina Aguilera vs. battling with Britney Spears — not a duet, a performance battle. Simon, get to it.
ANYWAY, I completely digress.
Brown Eyed Girls member JeA has been on the show’s newest season, and though she lost her battle — T_T — the second half of her performance is pure perfection. She started off breathing too much into her microphone, but once the high notes began, she seemed to have gotten her footing and by the time she had to deliver those whispery notes… it was too much.
JeA is singing The Winter Rain Falls (겨울비는 내리고) by Kim Bum Ryong (김범룡), in honor of this week’s 80’s songwriter theme.
This is it. This is why I don’t follow reality TV contests, and this is my final posting on The Voice of China, which I had greatly enjoyed at the beginning for its variety in music styles.
But after a few episodes that tended to be on the frustrating side… I just… can’t take it any longer. I think the final is next episode (and Adam Lambert is supposed to be on). It was a good ride, but I do not wish to see the ending to this.
This is my line-up to the Top4:
I gotta admit that with Wang Feng being Na Ying’s coach, I thought I was going to get blown away by everyone’s performances, but seems like expectations were too high. Plus, YouTube cockblocking my watching.
Since Wang Feng was there to coach too, all of the arrangments had a lot (or, at least, a little) to do with some aspect of rock — be it rock & roll or plain rock (except for Zhang Yu Xia’s battle) — so, in the end, there was a lot of A-Mei being played and there was some extra Wang Feng going on too.
Anyway, there were only a couple of standout performances, and considering my favorites on Na Ying’s team from the beginning were Zhang Wei (张玮) [1] and Zhang Yu Xia (張玉霞) [1], I am rather ecstatic and sad. Super elated for the fact that Zhang Wei has a very good chance of being the Top4 (and may very well be the winner), and sad because Zhang Yu Xia — despite her flawless The Legend (传奇) performance in a battle vs. Li Min (李敏) — couldn’t advance any further. T_T
But, DUDE! The Zhang Wei and Ge Yu Sen (歌浴森) battle doing A-Mei’s Three Days and Three Nights (三天三 夜) was great~ Like, couldn’t pick between the two, and I was almost siding with Ge Yu Sen, but would have been perfectly content if either of those two won.
Damn. Was I just trolled? Did I just say it’s an OMG moment and had my pick of last week just eliminated??? I’m still uncertain, but it seems like Liu Yue was eliminated against her Feeling Good performance.
On episode 8, it was Harlem Yu’s turn. From his team, I had a few favorites — like Wang Yun Yi (王韵壹) [1], Wei Yu Nuo (魏语诺) [1], Jin Chi (金池) [1], and a very VERY soft spot for the Amisi Girls (阿蜜丝女孩) [1] coz their arrangement of Leehom’s Mei [MV] was so much fun xD. So I was BUMMED that I had to choose between Wei Yu Nuo and Jin Chi on the first round of battles.
At first, I thought that Jin Chi was gonna take it really easy because she has such control of her voice, but I was surprised by Wei Yu Nuo who gave her own UMPH while doing a battle performance of Aaron Kwok’s Give your Neverending Love (对你爱不完) [clip]. They were really great together and after rather two weak duos, they seemed to put themselves forward as the best of the episode with their number, until…
This The Same Moonlight (一样的月光) performance by Wang Yun Yi and Zhao Ke (赵可).
[you can check the video on bilibili or here]
and though… none of them made it after the deadly cut… with a rather weak “battle for my own” performance by Wang, they have a close to perfect performance with this. They maybe should collaborate in another project together.
I really REALLY hope Jin Chi makes it to the Top4, at least.
Next up! Na Ying’s team. It seems to be the strongest, but it also means a lot of good people are going to get cut.
Food opens more doors and makes more friends than any other form of diplomacy. It allows us to explore each other’s differences and find common ground while celebrating each other’s cultures, changing the way we understand our planet one meal at a time.
A kick-ass quote by Andrew Zimmern in preparation for the YAMYUM Food Blogathon ;D
It begins on Monday 3rd! So TOMORROW!
