Andrea Bocelli Gets McPheever

[frazzledspice]

Katherine McPhee will be singing with Andrea Bocelli at three of his California concerts June 9-11.

We've just received confirmation that AI second place winner Katharine McPhee will be appearing with Andrea Bocelli at the California concerts, June 9-11; unfortunately, the Hollywood Bowl concert is already sold out. Tickets for Sacramento (June 9th) and San Jose (June10th) are still available through TICKETMASTER.COM.

http://www.bocellionline.com/

[phoenixx]

Good for her, actually. He is much more in line with her musical style than pop is.

[amykhar]

I hope he can teach her to sing songs with feeling. He puts so much soul in his music. Maybe she can learn a bit from him.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I can't remember now, but was she the contestant who originally trained in opera? I learned classical music first and still have a hard time going over to pop music. It isn't a lack of soul, but more an over abundance of training that prevents you from doing things like slurring that make it SOUND more like you are emoting.

[phoenixx]

No, there was a different girl who trained in opera. McPheever did do some acting in musicals and plays though.

[lynnzop[$]]

Good for her...while I didn't think she was a great pop artist, I did think she had talent,and this is obviously a great move for her!

[Joubert[$]]

McPhee was the one whose mom is a voice coach, though, right?

Taylor kicked butt on Today Thursday. He had that crowd in his hands. I think Takin' It To The Streets will be the follow-up single because he did that one again. Wonder what he and Michael McDonald would sound like together? And before you start, Michael McDonald puts on a killer live show. Between the Motown covers that go for long jam sessions and the horn sections and some of the Doobies stuff, it's a really nice time.

McPhee needs acting lessons. I see her on Broadway, but my complaint has always been the same as Amy's.

BTW, have you guys seen the articles talking about the huge jump in sales after Stewart, Manilow, Bocelli, Shakira, etc. appeared? They were HUGE.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

pippadaisy said

It isn't a lack of soul, but more an over abundance of training that prevents you from doing things like slurring that make it SOUND more like you are emoting.

Melisma, scourge of our times

[pippadaisy[$]]

I meant the lack of ENUNCIATION, but that'll work. Runs... ack.

[frazzledspice]

pippadaisy said

I can't remember now, but was she the contestant who originally trained in opera? I learned classical music first and still have a hard time going over to pop music. It isn't a lack of soul, but more an over abundance of training that prevents you from doing things like slurring that make it SOUND more like you are emoting.

I think you can learn to sing a variety of styles, even if you concentrate on one. That is why versatility is so important in American Idol.

Mandisa has a degree in vocal performance. I'm sure she studied classical art songs and opera as well as gospel, jazz, and pop, but it didn't detract from her expertise in other styles.

If listening to Mary J. Blige mumbling her way through a forgettable song and trying to ignore the person she was supposed to sing a duet with didn't make you see the value of good diction, I don't know what would. "Didn't she start out as a rapper?" someone in my family wondered...

Taylor's diction was right on, and sometimes over the top. As in "in the getttttt-toe."

Interestingly enough, Taylor was at the Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting on Friday. Beyonce was, too...now that we know we can hear free concerts if we own some Wal-Mart stock, we'll probably get a few shares and head up to the meeting next year. I believe that the main meeting is in the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, which is less than an hour away.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Yes, but Mandisa would have started out singing in church. It's not a matter of not learning how to sing another style, but of losing the style you are most familiar with. I learned to do it a bit better than a college friend. We were in the same show together. She had been a NYSSMA winner in high school. But EVERYTHING she sang sounded like opera. She hadn't learned to make the switch.

[frazzledspice]

There are different types of voices, as listed here on the Aria Database.

http://www.aria-database.com/help.html

I never knew there were so many different types until my daughter said the choir director at choir camp told her she had a "beautiful lyric soprano" voice.

When Mandisa was studying in college, I would say she was probably a dramatic mezzo.

I'd say that Katherine was probably a lyric mezzo.

The other difference might have been that Mandisa, at 29, was out of school 7 years working in a musical area other than opera, whereas Katherine's vocal studies in a Boston conservatory were very recent.

[Joubert[$]]

Um, about the whole Mary J. Blige thing. Yes, she went over the top, but the whole thing has been blown way of proportion.

The woman has *three* Grammys from different years, meaning she has the respect of, you know, the people who do this for a living. She has also charted 15 Top 40 songs, including a #1 and 2 others in the Top 10 so millions of people like her in addition to her peers.

Did I like her duet? No. Have I listened to her and do I have a lot of respect for her accomplishments that aren't detracted from by a bad TV performance. Yep. I won't let her one AI performance dictate my view of the artist without knowing about said artist. She remains one of R&B's better modern performers.

As for Taylor Hicks and Beyonce appearing at the shareholders meeting:
1) Maybe they were shareholders
2) If they entertained, well, that's quite normal for meetings and conventions of all sorts. I've seen a half dozen artists over the last few years at those types of things.

(I thought Beyonce was doing something with a clothing line or perfume or something. Maybe she was there plugging that. Oh well.)

An acceptable pronounciation is "ghet-toe". It's actually the version the people growing up there in the 1960s and 1970s used. It's not the OED version, I'm sure, but it's the way I heard the kids calling it when I grew up.

Fraz, with all due respect, you sound bitter, and I think that bitterness is creeping into things that I thought you knew better. Trained vocalists cannot sing all styles. Ask Bocelli to freestyle rap and then tell me he did it. Better, ask someone one trained in opera to do traditional bluegrass or a jazz singer to sing metal. I don't think you're right. As for the "free concert", well, I guess you're being sarcastic, but let it go already.

Corporate America isn't all bad.
You are not a musical expert across genres.
Your constant complaints about Taylor Hicks tell me you don't understand modern entertainment.

[emeleel]

But EVERYTHING she sang sounded like opera. She hadn't learned to make the switch.

Sounds kind of like somebody that was on a PBS show yesterday. It was a film of some Broadway songs concert held on the White House lawn sometime fairly recently, Tom Wopat was one of the headliners, and then there was some lady who sang some songs, too. Lovely lady, beautiful voice, but she's obviously classically trained. "Tonight" is NOT opera. Neither are any of the other songs she sang. It was nearly physically painful to hear her sing these songs despite the fact that they were technically beautiful.

And heading back to Andrea Bocelli, is there anyone else that only likes him singing in Italian? I've heard him singing in English a couple of times, and for some reason, I really don't like it. I don't think he's uncomfortable singing in English, I don't know what it is, but I just don't like it. Go figger.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I'm okay with songs he switches back and forth on (like The Prayer), but yes, I prefer him in Italian and don't like his English stuff much. He's not as comfortable, and it shows.

[frazzledspice]

Taylor and Beyonce were there performing at the Wal-Mart Annual Meeting. Thank goodness Katherine wasn't with him, because if Katherine had been performing for free only 50 miles away and we weren't there, my hubby would have been really grumpy.

Truthfully, Carrie Underwood would be the American Idol that most western Arkansans would want to see. They were crazy for her when she was competing. One of the families in my church would run out of Wednesday night services early to see her (their son, whose Christian band is just phenomenal, had been in Carrie's band about 5 years ago, and they loved her.)

BTW, his band is one of the best Christian bands I've ever heard.

http://www.encountermusic.net/home.html

I'm not sure if they have any music samples onsite, but this group is probably my favorite Christian group next to Casting Crowns.

I can excuse bad performances, but not bad manners. Elliott was one of my favorite Idol contestants, and her behavior during the duet was dreadful. It's also reported that she and her husband left the theater immediately after she sang, not even waiting around to hear the results.

And yes, she's just a name to me. I don't know anything about her or her music, other than having heard her on SNL once. I don't pay much attention to R & B, although I will certainly believe you if you say that in an average cross-section of R & B performers, she stands out as an excellent representative of that genre.

Yes, the concert was free for stockholders attending the meeting, but I am certain that Beyonce and Taylor were very well-paid for their performances. I am well aware that he wasn't out there with his harmonica and an upturned hat to catch dollar bills.

I'm not bitter about Katherine's loss. I'm sure she will have a great career, and I hope that some of the others do, too.

And in some cases it won't be pop music. It might be gospel (Mandisa?) Or situation comedy (Kelly Pickler?) Or rodeos (Bucky?) Or Hollywood and Broadway (Katherine?)

I think she was hurt by the Scientology flap.

And being too pretty (the pictures circulating of her musical theater days, looking considerably heavier than she is today, might have helped dispel the image that she was a rich Sherman Oaks girl who was gorgeous and had all the breaks...)