brassplyer
Well-known member
I should have specified female, I've edited my question.
60's guy
Well-known member
Umm, okay, female it is.
Whitney Houston
rob aylestone
Moderator
Well - one of the good examples of this particular song is this version by Lea Salonga who I first heard in the original Miss Saigon. You will also see hear throat muscles working very hard in the crescendo - something missing from the video. Nothing in this video rings warning bells at all - just a solid performance. The video we started with is a girl with a good, but not great, voice and I still suspect the audio and video come from different sources.
brassplyer
Well-known member
rob aylestone
Moderator
Sorry. I would need to hear her in an audition room, live. Lots of the colleges churn out nice singers, but can she sing two shows a day for months? Nowadays, newcomers for dance and MT do showreels which get them access to the audition room, but until they have the MD and just a piano, you cannot tell. Especially as they knock out videos like the one we were talking about. I cannot tell if this girl has it or not from a video that could be comped from twenty takes and then mimed to. She could of course be wonderful, and perfect for MT, but frankly, we just cannot tell. It is perfectly fine to like what you hear, but is it real, or as we used to say, is it memorex. Compare Lea Salonga’s carefully controlled vibrato, how it comes in and out always in the right place, how in some places it is totally missing? Different league. I have not looked this girl up. I do not know if she is is a new amateur or an already successful performer. I hate auditions. Nowadays, I often get to see and hear people where the jury is hung. A producer wants one, the director wants another, and they use me as the arbiter. That is not nice. So far this year its happened three times to break deadlocks and I hate it. However, I am not too bad at it. It’s actually worse with the dancers. The producer, director and choreographer all looked at me. Which one. That one! They all looked at me in amazement. She’s ginger!! I said I’d read the forms, she is also a qualified physiotherapist. Very unfair world. I would not stick my oar in for this girl, based on what I saw and heard. Good, not great.
I should probably also mention that I also said no to a girl, who is now on UK TV and radio, theatre and magazines. A career in shows like Saigon, and a popular girl band. I guess that makes me good but not great too?
I was in London, going to see a show myself, and I popped in the office in the West End. I was having a coffee with the boss, when he asked if I could just sit in with him for a few minutes. A very famous lady came in to audition for the lead in the very show I’d booked to see. He wanted to hear her American accent. She did it. He caught my eye, I gave a slight nod. She got the job. I like that one. My knowledge of US accents is very poor, but it sounded good to the UK ear.
I should probably also mention that I also said no to a girl, who is now on UK TV and radio, theatre and magazines. A career in shows like Saigon, and a popular girl band. I guess that makes me good but not great too?
I was in London, going to see a show myself, and I popped in the office in the West End. I was having a coffee with the boss, when he asked if I could just sit in with him for a few minutes. A very famous lady came in to audition for the lead in the very show I’d booked to see. He wanted to hear her American accent. She did it. He caught my eye, I gave a slight nod. She got the job. I like that one. My knowledge of US accents is very poor, but it sounded good to the UK ear.