Quote Of The Day:
“It’s Written All Over Your Face”
Rude Boys, 1991
In the age of reality t.v. it seems that one can’t turn on the tube without seeing some kind of talent competition. As I was mindlessly surfing channels a few days ago, I caught a segment of the latest show that pits performers against each other called, The Voice. The scenario was a “sing off” between a couple of artists on Christina Aguilera’s team. To my understanding, they are on the same team but there is only one winner after they share the stage performing a song that was chosen for them – often out of their comfort zone. The loser of this pairing sadly has to pack their bags and go home.
We got to see the rehearsal footage of an unlikely pairing of the Nashville duo called, The Line, and the rappin’ r & b dynamo, Moses Stone. When they all found out they would be collaborating on the classic Stones tune, “Satisfaction”, it was obvious that the female in the duo, Hailey, was not pleased. Christina gave a speech to her artists saying that you have to be willing and able to be versatile in this business as you never know who will come calling to work with you and to survive you have to know how to morph into another artist’s energy. This is what she said it takes to be a career artist.
The displeasure of the song choice was obvious from The Line, but, Leland, the guy in the duo, took it in stride and when the time came to perform it in front of a live audience, he rocked it. So did Moses with his “give it all” energy and ability to entertain and grab the crowd’s attention by genuinely looking and sounding like he was having fun. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Miss Hailey. I am not sure if the poor darling has ever watched herself perform on video, but for most of the performance she bounced back and forth between looking like a scared beginner who didn’t test drive her wardrobe (see my previous blog on that) to someone constantly smelling bad cheese. Although she sang quite well, I felt like she gave little more than a half hearted performance while the dudes were giving it their all. This leads me to the title of this blog and the quote of the day that started this column. The audience “hears what they see”…think about it. This lovely blonde was singing well, but the look on her face was saying, “I am not enjoying this, I didn’t want to do this song, and I am throwing a little Diva tantrum right here for everyone to see”. Now maybe that was not the intent of the performer, but what her face was saying on that stage was enough to turn people off so that they didn’t even hear how well she was singing. Three of the four judges gave the nod to Moses and The Line was sent home to Nashville.
On the flip side of “people hear what they see”, an average singer can have a major coup with an audience by having a good attitude and by looking like they are having the time of their life, engaging the audience in their performance. Let’s face it, the average music listener isn’t necessarily a schooled musician or singer. They relate to energy (good or bad) and count on an emotional experience shared by the singer. If the song has attitude and rocks, then a singer with a sour look on their face won’t move them in any way, in fact, it will turn them off and ruin their experience. As a performer, facial expressions that match the mood of the song will win an audience and give them the emotional and entertainment value they are looking for be it light or dark. If you are having a bad day, suck it up, give it your best and be thankful that you are on that stage in the first place. Unless of course, you are singing about dark brooding stuff and being dour is your vibe.
Until next time… Breathe and Happy Singing!
Angela
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