Monday, 31 October 2011

Leona Lewis turns cover star at the 2011Doha Tribeca Film Festival



Though not the most exciting pop star about, British X-Factor winner Leona Lewis has something that most pop Diva's don't have and would kill for: a great voice. Its with this gift that Leona took to the stage at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival to deliver a great selection of cover songs.

The songs chosen all shared the common factor of being originally sung by male singers. Featured were Grenade by Bruno Mars, Apologise by OneRepublic and my personal favourite out of the the songs that were chosen, Kiss From a Rose by Seal.

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Karen Clark-Sheard- Vocal Range/ Profile




Vocal TypeSoprano
Vocal Range: 2 Octaves  5 Notes and a semitone F3-Eb6
Whistle Register: Yes
Vocal Pluses: Voice that is rooted in the emotive Gospel music. Incredibly agile voice that allows for complex melisma up and down the different parts of the range, as well as the ability to manipulate it into healthy sounding grunts and growls. Mixes her head and chest voice ably to create sustainable, and masterful upper fifth octave belting.
Vocal Negatives: Higher head notes sound shrill.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Top Five Criminally Ignored Diva Albums of 2010:

This list has been a long time coming- yes I'm aware its practically 2012- but it's only now that I've found the time to finish this post. So FINALLY I present to you a list of my 5 most unappreciated Diva albums of 2010!


Honourable mention: 

Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas II You: Mariah Carey just scraped into the list with the December release of her second Christmas album Merry II Christmas. This album heralded, for me, the true return of "The Voice", the same voice that the Emancipation album promised but only kind of delivered.

Glorious voice, a return of the vibrato, stunning live instrumentation, the birth of new Christmas classics in the form of When Christmas Comes and Christmas Time is in the Air, and to top it all off a duet with Mariah's opera singing mother, Patricia Carey meant that this album deserved an honourable mention on the list! Please God, let the next Mariah Carey secular album use this one as a reference point vocally.

Friday, 21 October 2011

Faith Evans-Vocal Range/Profile



Vocal Type: Mezzo-Soprano
Vocal Range: 2 Octaves 5 notes and a semitone C#3-B5
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: Comfortable in her heavy, low range as well as adept in her light, agile chest register that she mixes well to achieve great sounding upper chest belts or keeps throaty to give a soulful rasp to.  The voice has a smooth tone and a smoky quality that lends itself well to harmonising well with others, as well as layering well over itself. The voice is dexterous enough to complete complex melisma through the registers.
Vocal Negatives: Her head voice isn't as characterful, or exciting as the rest of the voice.

Monday, 17 October 2011

Review: Coldplay Featuring Rihanna "Princess of China" (Listen below)



What  a strange pairing this is. Indie bores Coldplay have roped in edgy singer Rihanna to duet with them on a new song from their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto called Princess Of China. Though the lead singer, Chris Martin, claimed Rihanna was chosen because of a love of her voice, I'm thinking this is more of a madonna style increase your relevancy /fanbase/ street cred by association. Cynical,much? Whatever the case, the pairing works.

Saturday, 15 October 2011

X-Factor Week Two Live Show Performance Review


Week two of the live show and the theme  is "Romance and Heartbreak" . Below is my run down of the female- they don't classify as Divas yet- performances from Saturday 15th of October, live show numero dos!
These are the impressions I got after hearing the performances, but they may change after I've heard them again tomorrow. I will link to the videos as and when they are up on Youtube.

[NOTE: I skip the VTs that show before the contestants comes out, as well as the judges critique.] 

Friday, 14 October 2011

Beyonce's "Countdown" and Kelly Rowland's "Lay It On Me" both suffer plagiarism accusations.



If the BBC think Beyonce and the plagiarism accusations levelled at her new video Countdown is news then who am I to not post on it. Read the the original BBC post below, and find my two pennies under it along with the Kelly Rowland story.