X Factor final

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

(haha this almost ended up on fooptimists through not paying attention)

I've watched Pop Idol and X Factor a lot, but this is the first time I've felt myself really caring about who wins. We have Ray, a charming and likeable young man who would like to have been in the Rat Pack, and Leona, the first woman in an X Factor final, a powerful singer in a Mariah/Xtina vein. Ray is fine, but his singing is pretty limited - I suspect he will crop up in a big West End show in a few months, and probably do well in it. Leona strikes me as having ability that could make for one of the greatest three or four female voices the UK has ever had. I really think she is hugely talented, and the moment where she started singing A Million Love Songs and her backing vocalists joined her on stage, and they were Take That, was jawdropping.

I hope she wins it, but I suspect they will already have the song ready for the winner, and it'll be a lame ballad about chasing a dream or something that will suit neither of the contestants (nor the Rod Stewart/Joe Cocker type, Ben, who finished third). Give her the right songs and production, maybe only available in the US, and I think she could make records to stand comparison with Christina. Give her limp ballads produced to not offend anyone, and she'll have one #1 and fade quickly into the distance. I fear the latter is the more likely scenario.

Comments

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

it might happen, i am reminded of Carrie Underwood, won American Idol, and instead of giving her the usual mellissima heavy over singing that is expected of the genre, gave her a country career. And the career was as a angry, almost violent, and against love.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was listening to Before He Cheats just this afternoon - a great record. I will be surprised if they handle Leona as smartly (whether she wins or not). Actually her last song in the final, All By Myself, would be a decent first single.

(If Ray wins, someone will put out a swing album of old Sinatra favourites and the like, and it will sell pretty well.)

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

well, well - the single is a standard-issue soppy ballad about "some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this".

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that! Didn't stop her making great records soon after. Actually, I wrote my comment on it while Ray was singing it - when it came to Leona's turn, it sounded rather more impressive. I'm very pleased Leona won it, anyway.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes, the single is really awful, but most reality TV type winners tend to start off making deeply conservative dishwater music - on the evidence of Will Young and Kelly Clarkson's debuts I wouldn't have guessed either would end up being the fantastic pop stars they are now. I suspect a lot will depend on Leona's own drive to ensure that she makes her mark - I'm very glad she has the chance to do so.

On a positive note, the rate of reality TV failures whose careers are now dead precisely due to dishwater balladry is so high that I'm sure there will be people around Cowell warning him not to piss away Leona's talent.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

This was the first time I gave a damn about who won. I'm worried that Leona is going to have her talent messed about by Simon Cowell & co i.e. that she won't be allowed to make her mark. But then I didn't notice Kelly C until she had gone through the first flush of post-american idol stuff and went rock. On the evidence of some of the stuff Frank has linked this year, she seems to be totally great. I hope the same thing happens with Leona, and sooner rather than later. She seemed like a young woman in charge of an amazing talent, but at risk of being led, rather than taking the lead.

[koganbot]

You might be interested in Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review of the first Kelly Clarkson album over on Allmusic; he raises the same issues you guys are, and explains how he thinks Kelly got around them; also, "Miss Independent," the first single from the album, is quite good; you should track it down. Aguilera's one of the co-writers, so's Clarkson. (Got to post this in two parts, 'cause it's long):

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Anybody older than 18 who's watched American Idol for any length of time will undoubtedly find the similarities between this talent contest and such square '60s/'70s variety programs like The Andy Williams Show startling and unavoidable. Whenever the kids are hauled out to sing an oldie or stumble through a production number, AmIdol goes into a time warp, particularly because they're nearly always singing the same songs that would have shown up on The Andy Williams Show those many years ago. That's because this is a show-biz creation, not an organic pop phenomenon. It goes for the choreographed razzle-dazzle, it has the sense of "let's put on a show!" and it's about the televised show; the music is there to serve the program, not vice versa.

This makes for splendid entertainment, but the format of the show and its inherent squareness do make it difficult for contest winners to appeal to listeners their own age, since the show has positioned them to be as unhip as possible. Take Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first American Idol, aired in 2002. Her first single, "A Moment Like This," may have been a number one hit, but it was such a staid adult contemporary tune that it suggested that her career was over before it really began, since it was not a work that played to her age or audience, and it gave her no room to grow. Somebody - whether it was Kelly herself or her monolithic management - realized that she was not on a path to either a long career or a successful one-shot album and rethought the game plan for her much-delayed debut album, Thankful.

[koganbot]

Part two of Erlewine's review of Kelly Clarkson's Thankful

Originally, this album was going to come out mere months after the end of the original American Idol, but it was delayed for a variety of reasons, including Clarkson's taxing schedule and difficulty in cobbling together workable material. Ultimately, the decision to delay the record paid off, because Thankful is a sharp, versatile modern pop record, showcasing her voice, to be sure, but being much better than expectations, much better than the scores of flop diva records that cluttered the pop landscape in late 2002. Why? There are many reasons, but the biggest is that everybody involved managed to make Kelly Clarkson seem younger and hipper without slutting her up like Christina Aguilera (who, ironically, co-wrote "Miss Independent," the first single from Thankful) while retaining a strong sense of melodic songcraft. She still can appeal to a wide, mature audience, but no longer does the music sound quite so static. Witness the new mix of "A Moment Like This" - it's still the same treacly song, but it now breathes; it doesn't sound stiff and reserved, it gives Kelly's voice room to roam. It's a major step forward toward a fresh sound, and Thankful follows through on its promise, delivering dance-pop that's catchy and flirty without being trampy and ballads that are tasteful without being boring. Amazingly, the album has a light, effortless touch, an impressive feat considering that it was certainly as overworked as any of the big, leaden diva discs of 2002. Much credit is due to executive producer Clive Davis, who masterminded the effort, deftly balancing the dance and ballad sides, making it sound easy. But the record simply wouldn't work without Clarkson, who can navigate the shifts in sound with vigor and personality. Although it hardly breaks any new ground, Thankful is much more demanding than an episode of American Idol, since it's all new material covering the spectrum of mainstream pop music. Throughout this record, she makes it seem effortless and charming. She can croon, she can belt out a song, she can be sexy and sassy while still being graceful and as wholesome as the girl next door. After listening to Thankful, it's hard to imagine any of 2003's American Idol contestants - including the two favorites, loverman Ruben Studdard and clenched, show tune-loving Clay Aiken, since both have taken one sound and driven it into the ground - being able to produce a record so versatile while sounding like it's all so easy. True, Thankful isn't a record that's earth-shaking, but in 2003 it is something special all the same: an unapologetically mainstream record that works and is very enjoyable. Maybe American Idol really does turn out pop stars.

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

The single for the winner was ready to go, yep. Or it was on the schedule-type-things anyway. Although if Ray won, the single was going to be a cover of You'll Never Walk Alone, with A Moment Like This (or I presume it is called that) as a b-side.

I think they could do something with Leona - maybe launch her as a British Christina (okay, a poor man's Christina) and see how it goes. But then, I always said that they could have made Shayne Ward into a poor man's Justin Timberlake, and look what happened there...

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I don't watch television, is there anywhere to hear it online?

[genie22.livejournal.com]

Most probably on YouTube - her voice is FAB!