Genuine and Earnest performances by Wei Lian, Kris & Cheer

What should a performer do when he/she is on the stage? Sing like hell broke loose? Sing till the last energy that he/she had? Well, maybe. In a certain extent that shows showmanship, without constraints on stage. But let's fall back a little on studio recording. Personally the above descriptions will work very well for live performances (and immediately caught others' attention), but comes to studio recording, well it is another thing. As for 'durability' in such performances, I will be wow in the first round, but soon get tired over the exaggeration in performance (if it kepts repeating the same mould).

To me, music is not just showing how good you are but to be able to connect, is a tough thing to understand/intrepret by singers, especially good songs are hard to come by. Even the best singers if don't have good songs to complement with, will be hard to reach out to more people.

Recently I attended one of the live performances by Wei Lian, and heard his second new song, titled 孤单好吗?. At first when I heard was just alright, but the more times I heard, (after I formatted into mp3) slowly his flavour stood out. I did commented that some parts of the lyrics were not as good as expected(a bit more 诗情画意 would be perfect), but certain parts of the songs were subtly good. The first four verses, the 'di da di da la' interlude singing and last part when he sang '像个小孩他并不听话', are the climatic parts to his songs, and if the studio recording is as good/耐听- no worries that this song will be loved by people.


NTU Red Cross Charity Show - Gu Dan Hao Ma



Kris Allen - Ain't No Sunshine



The similarity between Wei Lian and Kris is they are blackhorses. Yes, Wei Lian has a good voice, but the truly awesome performances of his came much later in the show, that pushes his popularity even higher to eventual champion. (e.g "我的生活在哪里", "走出黑暗的世界吧! 朋友!", "HEAVEN KNOWS", "我真的受伤了") Just like Kris. At first, I see Kris as just a charming boy-next-doy. But this song show a more emotional and rawness of him. He's there to perform not to compete, which makes him more attractive and the judges agreed in the sense they never compared him to others and said his confidence level came across very well. Let's hope he will be able to proceed on till at least top 5. (I just feel that Adam will be overall champion since he's of a total different league, the rest is just to 陪跑)

Another singer/song I would like to introduce is 陳綺貞 - 魚. The whole song didn't mentioned about fish related stuff, but rather depict how fish can 自由自在 in the marine world, drawing a parallel to human world. She is a good composer who writes songs that reflect not just love but life as well.



收放自如 type of singing is what will capture my attention. Able to play music instruments while singing at ease is even more desirable, add points to the singer of being more a musician than a performer. Eventually when I buy an album is to listen not to see (I don't think anyone will keep seeing how good the photos are in an album, but definitely good songs will be on the repeat mode in their player).

So looking forward to Wei Lian's performances in CSS night! All the best! :D

Androgynous singing in trend?

Yeah, long time never update my blog leh. Today is such a crazy day - thunderstorm like anything. Last week or so, super duper hot (even when I am outstationed). Think must be global warming la, that caused weather to be topsy-turvy (heard that the iceberg at North side of the world are melting at faster rate than usual). sighz. Are we human the source of global destruction? I believe so, and am gulity of certain action, like switch on of aircon. (hoho, a vicious cycle - because hot then switch on the aircon, but that action also indirectly harm our world) But my home grew a lot of trees and flowers, so hope this little bit of "help" is useful.

Hmmm, back to my main thread topic: Androgynous singing in trend?

In the past 潘美辰 is a classic example (still is), now she's doing more backstage: opening music school and more song-writing.

What is an androgynous: http://www.answers.com/topic/androgyny

Well, currently here's two good examples of ex-contestants from singing competitions - because of them being androgynous, eventually won them fans (gals get crazy over their coolness, and guys find them hot in a different way) and the competitions. Between these two gals, which one's vocals do you feel sounded more like a male than a female singing? And for androgynous style singers, they like to choose very "man" kind of songs to perform. Below is the very famous 王杰成名曲:"一场游戏一场梦", so let' see how they sing.


Chris Lee李宇春_一场游戏一场梦



20080126 超級偶像@張芸京-一場遊戲一場夢



Actually I prefer the second one (張芸京) as least she looks much nicer/"handsomer" and got a more comfortable tone of voice...Doesn't she look a bit like mediacorp's Yuan Shuai? haha. Anyway, she is going to release her first album in May.

I like this performance from her. 超偶人氣王-張芸京～「落葉歸根」經典曲目！



She may not be technically the best singer, but I saw a few performances of hers, her stage presence won my praise over. Her eyes are attractive and got that idol material quality in her. Will listen to her new album then.