About Masterclass Lady
Rosanne (Giallonardo) Simunovic began her musical career in Timmins, Ontario. She studied piano with Anne Pizzale and later, at an advanced level, with Soeur Anita Vaugeois (Sister Cecile of Les Soeurs De L’Assomption in Timmins). Her vocal and accompaniment skills were nurtured by her aunt, the late Dorothea Mascioli.
When Rosanne graduated from O’Gorman High School, she moved on to the University of Toronto where she continued her piano and vocal studies while attaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She was hired as a piano accompanist for several musical companies, most notably, the National Ballet Of Canada. She presently holds an A.R.C.T. Teacher’s Diploma in Voice from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Rosanne has studied choral conducting with numerous well known Canadian Conductors, including Wayne Riddell of Montreal, Quebec and the internationally renowned Dr. Elmer Iseler.
She has been a founding member of numerous community-based arts organizations: the Timmins Arts Council, later known as Arts & Culture Timmins, the Timmins Symphony Orchestra, and, the Timmins Youth Singers…as well as the TYS Alumnus choir, the Timmins Concert Singers. In 1987, she was also selected to be the conductor of the Timmins Board Of Education Choir, comprised of talented students from Grades 5 to 8.
In 1988, she was elected to the Board Of Directors of the Ontario Choral Federation (now known as Choirs Ontario), where she served as Chair of the Festivals Committee for six consecutive seasons. In 1996, in honour of the Ontario Choral Federation’s 25th Anniversary, Rosanne was selected as one of 25 recipients of the OCF’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contribution to the choral art. The ceremony was presided by Lieutenant Governor, Hal Jackman.
In November 1997, Rosanne Simunovic was selected by the Rotary Club Of Timmins to receive the prestigious Paul Harris Award for her years of dedication to the artistic development of young musical talent in Timmins.
In August of 2002, Rosanne Simunovic was selected by the Board Of Directors of Choirs Ontario to serve as Conductor of both the Provincial Junior and Teen Choir Camps, now renamed in honour of the Camp Benefactors, Don and Lillian Wright.
In November 2002, Rosanne was the one of the recipients of the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, honouring her work in the development of the arts in Timmins.
Under Rosanne Simunovic’s direction, the Timmins Youth Singers and the Timmins Concert Singers have been featured in numerous choral festivals and performing opportunities outside of Timmins. In 1985, they were selected to partici
November 5, 2011 
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Maybe by next season they can perfect their lip lynching and auto-tune the constants too. They could then change the name of the show to just X-Out. Sad….these hopeful future entertainers deserve a better show.
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i was writing somewhere, and by mistake i wrote ‘fear factor’ instead of ‘x factor’. at first i didn’t catch the mistake and when i went back i saw it and i thought it was a funny mistake. i’m ‘fearing’ this ‘factor’ isn’t all it is cracked up to be.
simon talks about his perfection. i want perfection to be honest, not ‘entertainment’, so i don’t want his brand of perfection. or…stream of thought here…i guess we’re being entertained by discovering all these goofs in his supposed perfection.
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do the other countries complain as much as we are here? ‘here’ meaning with mcl. i don’t know if other americans are upset. oh, come to think of it, i know a couple who are. i guess i need to check around on the internet. and i guess we’ll see based on ratings. yes, there will be an x factor next year, but i just wonder if this year’s will be as big as he wanted. i find that comment that malden made about simon not being the caustic simon we know on idol very telling and interesting.
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Pamela and Bee – I think today’s generation accept lip synching. They love the smoke and mirrors productions on stage and the actual singing is less relevant to them.
I can’t – and won’t – accept it. It is a huge step backwards and leads to a rising acceptance of mediocrity in the arts.
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Bee,
You asked if people in other countries complain about this. I can speak about the Danish version of X Factor which I like to follow on youtube because, oddly, most of the songs they perform are in English.
The Danish viewers seem to have completely embraced the idea of having all the raw quality of authentic, live singing airbrushed away with electronic manipulation. Recently, the Danish show seems to have thrown out the whole idea of live singing and now appears to feature fully lip synced performances. In an earlier post I mentioned this remarkable video of Jesper from last year’s series:
His perforance begins at 1:30 and is very enjoyable. But the whole thing looks and sounds very much like a carefully edited music video, and I suspect it was lip synced from start to finish. This video is a great illustration of what Simon’s concept for X Factor can become when stretched to the ultimate degree.
In an earlier post, I mentioned a British reality show I watch that is refreshingly honest about its own fakery. Each episode is introduced this way:
“Welcome to the The Only Way is Essex, a semi-reality show were the tans make be fake but the people are real, although some of what they do has been set up purely for your entertainment.”
It would fun to see a show like Danish X Factor use a similarly honest introduction like this:
“Welcome to the X Factor, a semi-talent show where the singing may be fake but the people are real, although some of what they do has been set up purely for your entertainment.”
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There are a number of people who are very upset. Personbally, I don’t like it. Then there are a group who are looking for mistakes because it’s funny. Too bad Simon cannot present a terrific show without all the manufactured sound. It’s really bad in the Group production numbers? I would rather there be mistakes in those numbers but have the actual people singing right at that moment.
I don’t that Simon plans on changing anything about this show. All their flaws may encourage Nigel to make a better Idol show in Season 11.
It has also been mentioned that the weaker acts will often have the dancers to distract from their performance. Poor Rachel. Melanie can go out there without any fancy background or lights, no dancers, and no auto-tuning and present a beautiiful song. Why? Because she’s a terrific singer.
I hope there will be some changes, but I do not like what I am seeing with this show!
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I don’t think Simon plans on changing anything about this show.
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So Milli Vanilli wasn’t so wrong after all, other than the fact that they were using someone’s else’s voice…but wait is it so different? With the Auto Tune Microphone’s aren’t we getting someone else voice…look at the difference in Tiah, her audition she couldn’t sing in key and sounded awful, next she was pitch perfect!
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Failure at lip syncing is a good thing in my book. Kudos to Leroy.
Interestingly, one of the primary factors leading to the demise of that long list of musical variety shows that we were reminiscing about the other day was lip syncing. Some of them also employed canned music, like the X-Factor, and some had musicians who pretended to play their instruments. Then there were the elevator music style arrangements of our rock hero’s songs being performed by Vegas lounge singers. All of this in a time when we were all going to concerts and live music event of many kinds. It simply wouldn’t sell to our generation.
Idol isn’t innocent here either. I saw one instance of lip syncing during a competitive performance from Stefano last year. It was the reinforcement style where a previously recorded track was used behind his live performance to cover his stage movements. They also began to put more emphasis on big performances last season, all though there had been a few in past seasons. Most of the changes in Idol last year could be attributed to a preemptive strike against The Voice and The X-Factor. Judging by a TV commercial they are running now, Idol may be contemplating the inclusion of groups next year. Yuck.
Simon Cowell is the worst thing to happen to music since Disco, and that includes Rap.
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Gene – really? Stefano was lip synching/reinforced during a competitive performance? Oh brother. I knew the Group Numbers on Results night were pre-recorded but not the performance shows. So disappointing.
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MCL,
You may recall I mentioned it when I first saw it during the season. I think I said something to the effect of there was another male voice that could be heard at that point in the performance even though the only backup singers present on the stage during this song were the two young blonds and it was either an off camera backup singer or a previously recorded track of Stefano. I had forgotten which I saw this in but I remembered he was cruising the sway bots at the time, so I looked at several of his videos today and it’s in this Top 7 performance of “Closer.”
I don’t think you can detect what I saw if you are viewing it on a small computer screen, I know I can’t, but on my large HD TV it was very noticeable. Just after the 1:05 mark in this video when he rises up from the handshake and begins to sing “I just can’t stop” the sound of his voice began slightly before his mouth began to move. The words “I just” sang themselves.
The cut away shot to the backup singers that they used during his stage walk is a technique that can be used to cover lip syncing. Camera angles of many types can be used, such as the view of the rear of the singer, random audience members or the judges. The mic eating that Malden mentioned is another technique used, but unfortunately, there are way too many singers who employee this annoying style routinely to assume that they are always lip syncing if they are eating their mic. (I know that he didn’t say always) With regard to Stefano, I think they employed a prerecorded backing track just to cover the periods when he was moving around al lot. He would have had to be a very accomplished lip syncer to do it throughout the song with so many close-ups of his face and mouth.
I watched the rest of the season with great interest to see if I could spot someone else doing it, given the number of performances that had a lot of stage movement, but I never saw it again. I’m inclined to say that if they used it for one that they used it for all, but looking at this week’s X-Factor show, that wasn’t the case there. You could hear the effect on Drew’s breathing when she got up from laying on the stage.
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Gene – thank you so much for the link and your extensive analysis.
They certainly do employ long and wide camera angles on X Factor. Sometimes, they televise the judges’ reactions during the performance to divert the viewer’s attention from the audio enhancement and/or lip synching.
Drew may have been singing live but there was a lot of tweaking going on with her voice. I still love her but I wish this show would let each singer evolve as a deserving “X Factor” winner.
To crown someone this soon is pointless and, in effect, boring. Why watch? There is no excitement there! It’s the process, the adventure that creates the excitement and encourages viewers to tune in each week.
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MCL,
Keep in mind that I’m not accusing Stephano of anything. He was the only one that I saw doing it. All of the more lively acts probably had some help.
I agree with you about enjoying the growth process and you have to see the mistakes to appreciate the growth. We were able o see a lot of growth in Haley last season on Idol and during the process she grew on me. That growth has put her into the ranks of the best all time contestants even though there are better singers than she. She played the game well and we were along for the ride. Jazzlyn would have been a good contestant to watch grow on the X. You are right about tweaking Drew’s voice too. Actually, that is why it was so noticeable when she made a little huffing sound as she got up from the floor. I thought that it was odd that they left that in the final mix.
Who knows, maybe they are tricking us about who the likely winner is. Based on her work so far, Melanie would be a worthy winner. I would have awarded her the title at her first audition. I don’t think they can market her as well as they can Drew though. I really don’t want either of these girls to be scrubbed clean of their talent and have a head mic and a pair of dancing shoes issued to them by Simon. Bieberization you might say.
That ridicules amount of prize money continues to irritate me. The amount perverts the whole process of this alleged competition so much and leads to the trickery and predetermined winners. There is too much at stake for the public to decide. I think you could get Pavarotti, Paul McCartney, Barbara Streisand and Mick Jagger to compete for at least three rounds, maybe five, for a five million dollar prize. Yeah, five rounds at one million dollars per round. Let’s throw in BB King for fun. They all have plenty of money, but I swear I think you could get them for that much money. I like several of these competitors on X-Factor but when you weigh them against the prize money, none of them measure up. Last week the X-Factor UK drastically reduced it’s already much smaller prize winner’s prize package.
http://www.examiner.com/the-x-factor-in-national/the-x-factor-u-k-grand-prize-money-drastically-reduced
While I believe the US prize is way too large, this may be a sign that the UK version of the show is in big trouble.
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In response to the controversy about lip syncing on X Factor, the American Idol producers rather this statement:
“American Idol does not lip-sync. All of our solo performances, both during competition and after the contestant has been eliminated, are sung live with no vocal background tracks. Our ensemble performances are sung live with a background chorus track. During ALL solo and ensemble performances, our band is live.”
Regarding solo performances, the statement says they are “sung live with no vocal background tracks.” This is a key issue that the X Factor producers carefully avoided addressing in their own recent statement about this. In all 10 seasons of Idol, I have never observed any persuasive evidence of lip syncing during a solo performance. (I have to disagree with Gene about this.)
On this issue of lip syncing during solo performances, I would give Idol a grade of A.
Regarding lip syncing during ensemble performances on the results show, the issue is more murky. The statement Idol released says they are “sung live with a background chorus track.” This is essentially what Stereo Hoggz did, being a mixture of live and recorded vocals.
This statement is accurate regarding Season 10, when producer Nigel Lythgoe returned after a 2 year absence. However, during seasons 8 and 9 when Nigel not there, the ensemble performances were lip synced during most weeks. This caused a controversy because the Idol producers failed to be upfront about it. Initially they denied it, with a spokesman saying “The Idols don’t lip-sync, period.” But later the producers admitted it was true, as reported in this New York Times article:
Adam Lambert has said the contestants were not happy about the lip syncing, and that there was at least one week during season 8 where the contestants persuaded the producers to use live vocals during the group song.
On the issue of lip syncing during group performances, I would give Idol a grade of C minus for inconsistency and lack of candor.
Given X Factor’s emphasis on production value, you might wonder why the show does not use a live band. I think one reason is that not having a live band requires the show to use a backing track for the music, whick makes it much easier to incorporate various sound and vocal manipulations into the performances, including the performer’s own pre-recorded vocals.
I am not bothered by the lip syncing during the ensemble performances on either Idol or X Factor, as long as the contestants are reasonably competent in their lip syncing technique and the producers are honest about it and don’t try to deny it (as Idol did at one point).
During competitive performances, I do not like X Factor using a performer’s own recorded vocals on a backing track because I think this meets the definition of lip syncing (although the producers would no doubt dispute this definition). But I could accept it without complaining if only the producers would be honest about it. It bugs me that, in their recent statement on this issue, the X Factor producers didn’t come clean on this issue. They simply said that contestants performed to a “backing track” without acknowledging what we now have conclusive evidence of with the Stereo Hogzz: that the backing track includes not just music, but also the performer’s own pre-recorded vocals.
What makes this noteworthy is that, to my knowledge, no other American singing competition show has ever done this before.
I hope the media covering this show will put this issue directly to the X Factor producers so they are forced to come clean about it, just as Idol was forced to admit using lip syncing during season 8 and 9 group performances.
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Malden – very well said. I just can’t get behind a show that manufacturers talent. It doesn’t matter if the talent is innovative or not because the producers wave their magic wand and, voila, we are presented with a processed package.
Out of all the performers on the show, the only true singer is Melanie.
Drew is wonderful but she is presently performing within her comfort zone, with some sparkle added from the production crew.
This is why you could hear the breathiness when she stood up – there is only so much technology can do to mask vocal deficiencies. Or maybe they added it so we would think she was performing live. Who knows? Who cares? She is the chosen one and will win this show.
And that is why people can’t warm to The X Factor. The element of surprise has been eliminated.
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MCL, I think you nailed it perfectly by saying the “element of surprise has been eliminated.”
Before the public voting even began we all knew the only possible winner was Drew or Melanie. Part of the fun of Idol was the sense of discovery as we watched unpimped contestants slowly emerge to become serious contenders. I don’t think we will ever have that sense of discovery with X Factor. The whole thing seems carefully pre-planned to achieve a forgone conclusion.
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Malden, you are right about that element of surprise on American Idol. The odds-makers had Clay Aiken winning Season 2. What they didn’t count on was the break down of the phone system and its inability to handle the Claymates overwhelming calls.
The second surprise was Adam Lambert not winning Season 8. Kris Allen was the dark horse and surprised a lot of people.
In Season 9, many had speculated that the Finale would include Crystal Bowersocks and Siobhan Magnus. To many, Lee winning was a shock.
I have always loved Group Performances because you never knew what mistakes or brillance would come out of the performance. Again Season 7 ranks as my favorites.
I wish I could link the YouTube performance of Adam Lambert singing with Queen at the EMA. MCL, I’d like your opinion of Adam’s live performance.
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Kariann,
Yes, Kris Allen was the ultimate example of the umpimped, “cannon fodder” contestant emerging to surprise all of us. At the start of the finals, the betting sites ranked him in 11th place out of 12. His emergence from cannon fodder to the final sign-off with Adam was the kind of discovery and surprise I doubt we will ever see on X Factor. Simon is too much of a control freak to allow that to happen.
My own favorite example of an initially umpimped contestant on Idol is David Cook. I remember the sense of discovery I had watching him give one surprising performance after another to emerge as the unexpected winner.
The unpredictability of a Kris Allen or David Cook is what I like about Idol, and what is sorely lacking with X Factor.
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Kariann 1,
Here is the link to Adam with Queen at the EMA’s
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Adam should definitely be the front man for Queen…I had forgotten how beautiful he is and how much I love his voice!!!
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Good post Malden,
If that is their official position I have no reason to doubt the veracity of it. My problem is that I know what I saw. I discovered last night that I still have all of my show recordings from last season on my DVR so I was able to watch, not only Stefano’s performance but several others. I discovered what happened in the segment I mentioned before. The backup singers began to sing a few beats before Stefano. At that point they were singing a reinforcing vocal (same lyrics as Stefano) and they sounded pretty much just like him, so it sounded like his voice began before his mouth moved. Mystery solved. Unfortunately a new one was uncovered. Just past that segment, about 1:20 on the You Tube video, one of the backing vocalist begins a new line singing “I just can’t pull myself away, no I just etc,” This vocal sounds exactly like Stefano and I recall now that when I posted during the season I said that you could clearly hear an additional track that was him, but in fact now I know that it was one of the young blonde backup singers that always sing together. This obviously wasn’t their natural voice and equipment, even at a price point that an average lounge singer can afford, is available that will convert a female voice to a male with the press of a button. They would likely use something much more sophisticated, but here is a link to a series of demo videos of one such device.
Do I know they used this? Of course not. I wasn’t there. It’s interesting that such practice would not conflict with the statement that you posted from Idol and it opens the door to all sorts of mischief. This is the first occasion that I thought that lip syncing was being used. I know better now but the best argument against them using it in solo performances is that lip syncing is a hard skill for a solo or lead singer to learn and to master. It’s much easier to use in choreographed group numbers where the singers get much less face time. I too have watched every season so I don’t want to see Idol lower their standard to keep up with the Joneses. I also noticed on Haley’s performance of rolling in the deep that the powerful chanting backing vocal incorporated on this song sounded like it was sung in a lower register than these two girls normally sing and that it sounded fuller than two voices might normally sound. Both things can be done with the aid of the little box linked above. Haley also benefitted from the help of all five of Idol’s backing vocalist, singing the same lyric she was, again in reinforcing fashion, on the song “Beautiful.” I should mention that I haven’t seen the other three Idol backup singers that normally work together on R&B or Gospel style numbers do anything that seemed questionable. Their backing vocals seemed to be pretty much in the normal range.
With regard to trying to master the tricky “art” of lip syncing; why bother? If you can tweak the vocals of the backing singers at will to sound like the lead singer (contestant mind you) then they can lay down a backing vocal to provide a safety net when the contestant gets happy feet and goes for a dance. If the singer sounds a little thin, you can double them. If the backing vocals need to be beefed up, you can turn one voice into a choir. It’s evil genius. It may have a place in the real world but in my view it doesn’t belong in a competition.
Two quick points. I am not disparaging either Haley or Stefano. Haley was my favorite in fact. I’m not saying that I know that they did anything. I do know that in my experience, young blonds usually don’t have near the range of voices available to them that these two backing vocalist seem to. I also am aware that it is the duty of backing vocalist to make changes in their presentation to suit the lead vocalist and achieve a blend. These girls seemed to be way beyond that. If they are doing this naturally then they should be in line for a major award. Even that doesn’t matter; the backing vocalist shouldn’t help a contestant to the level that I saw in re watching these videos. Finally, this is way beyond auto-tuning or lip syncing. Whether or not we know that they have done it in the past is less important than watching for it in the future.
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What I want…a movie about the life of Fred Astaire; and Derek Houff to play him!!!
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Vonnie,
That’s a very good idea. He is a similar body type and has the swagger but he would have to smooth out his dancing style to the point of appearing effortless. It’s probably too late for this project because most movie goers are between 18 and 35; too young to know who these people were.
So who are you casting as Ginger, Gene and Donald?
Rickie of JR for the mirror ball?
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Gene,
Thanks for the video you linked to showing devices that enhance the sound of live singing. I’m sure similar effects are being used with the X Factor performances.
What I find most objectionable in a singing competition is including a performer’s pre-recorded vocals as part of the backing track, such as we saw with the Stereo Hogzz. Using electronic effects to enhance a performer’s voice is something I can more easily accept as long as all the vocals are truly live.
Outside of a competition, I actually enjoy how these electronic devices can enhance a live performance. Here is an example of what I mean:
You may remember Blake Lewis who came in 2nd in Idol season 6. Blake was an expert at using foot-controlled “loop pedals” similar to the devices you linked to, although he wasn’t allowed to use them on Idol. Here is a video of him using loop pedals while performing “She Will Be Loved” on a TV show immediately after the Idol finale.
Blake begins the performance with a little beatboxing and uses the loop pedals to record his vocal beats, which are then played back in a loop as a background to the rest of his performance. He also uses the loop pedals to add reverb and echo effects to his voice, all of which he controls with his feet.
What’s interesting about Blake’s performance is that nothing is pre-recorded. Everything we hear is either live, or recorded live right in front of us by the loop pedals at the beginning of the performance.
If X Factor were to allow this kind of thing, where the vocal enhancements are produced and controlled solely by the performer himself, I could accept it without any complaint. It takes a lot of skill for a performer to do this right.
But adding a performer’s pre-recorded voice to a backing track is something I really don’t like in a singing competition, especially when the show refuses to admit doing it.
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Vonnie, thank you for putting Queen’s performance with Adam on here. I got to listen again. He is such a fantastic singer!
Gene, I agree with you, and I think it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the winner. Simon went overboard in his attempt to out do the other shows. Maybe America’s economic woes are part of why I am not pleased. I think Simon has this whole season planned out. Fans votes put the bottom two up for the judges. I wonder what will happen if those Simon wants gone don’t end up in the bottom two? Simon says there were 10 million votes cast. Unlimited voting does not impress me.
Regarding Stefano…there was never a need for him to lypsynch as he has such a good voice. I thought it was the style of the song that required a feedback, like an echo to what he was singing. Oh, dear I don’t know what that is called. But I couldn’t catch anything wrong with that performance! :o)
Malden, I had forgotten about David Cook’s surge. Once my Jason got eliminated, I thought either David would be a true star. Looks like it did turn out that way, and I am happy for both of them.
Vonnie, Derek is too good looking to play Fred Astaire! Maybe dye his hair and he could play Gene Kelly? I know he is more slender, but believeable. Sometimes he does get carried away with his dancing with Ricki. I would love to see an encore of his dance with Allison doing the Argentine Tango. That was spectacular!
Gene, I can’t see how J.R. can lose on DWTS!
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Gene, I was trying to blockquote you, but it didn’t work! I don’t know what to use.
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Gene W,
Oh! Well…Ummm! I actually didn’t think of Ginger, Gene, and Donald; I was too proud of myself that I had cast Derek as Fred!!! I will work on this, but I will assure you that it won’t be Jennifer Gray! LOL
Yeah! maybe the age bracket for this movie wouldn’t work, but it sure would be an awesome movie!!!
I say JR for the win…he is very good, consistant, a war hero, and has a warmth about him that I am sure is winning him plenty of votes. I would be surprised if he didn’t take that Disco Ball.
It is time for Maks and Hope to go home in my opinion…I felt like the judges were walking on egg shells with those two last night, her dances were nothing to brag about!
Bottom two should be…Hope and Nancy ~ of course dialidol has maks and Hope at the top, with Rob and Ricki in danger
Kariann1,
You are so welcome! Thank you for making us aware of the video with Queen and Adam…still think he should be their front man!
You know, last night as I was watching Derek and Ricki, I told my son that I know why Derek does so well in this competition…he dances his rear end off for his partner, but the viewer forgets he has a partner and watches him and then votes accordingly; not saying Ricki isn’t good, she is, but Derek makes his partners look great!
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Derek is a phenomenol dancer, and that’s a great point about everyone watching him instead of his partners. I definitely tend to do that. And I’d love to see him do a movie about a dancer’s life, whether it be Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire.
And, Vonnie, I have to disagree about Hope and Maks last night. I thought Hope was MUCH improved from the beginning of the season. I strongly believe it’s time for Nancy Grace to go home. I’m just afraid that Len’s comment might have made people vote for her more than they would have if he had not said it was time for her to go home.
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Louise,
I’m sorry…and you are right Nancy should be the one to go home tonight! I think when Hope first came on the show, she was kind of put-offish for me, she had somewhat of an attitude that I didn’t find appealing! So I think that makes it hard for me to see any improvement…well shoot, to be honest I fast forward alot through her performances, so I wouldn’t see any improvment at all…!!! Sorry Louise!
But all is well, like I said no clear favorite this year, I would like to see JR win, but I take who gets the most votes!!! 🙂
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I really wish Nancy would go home. She’s ready. I’m ready. Although, I do give her credit for being able to do a cartwheel at her age. I did feel some excitement from Hope, so they may slide through.
It’s hard for us because we watch “The Sing-Off” which is a show I thought you would enjoy, MCL. The show is available for viewing on line. If I had a choice between “The X-Factor” and “The Sing-Off” – I would choose to watch “The Sing-Off”. Right now I am still with Darmouth Aires and Vocal Point. There is so much talent on this show!
Nigel does Twitter about the performances, so I sent him a Tweet asking for the winner to appear on “American Idol.” At least he could be sure the Guest singers can really sing!
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Kariann – I know I should be watching The Sing-Off, but I always forget. I don’t know where the time goes around here but it is truly annoying. Lol
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Kariann,
Glad to know someone else has had their fill of Nancy Grace, but I agree with you completely about the cartwheel and handstand. I’m amazed that she can do that!!
I really feel sorry for her partner. He is showing a tremendous amount of patience. I hope he gets rewarded with a good partner next time!
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Malden,
Season 7 of A.I. has been the best season without a doubt, and also the best finale! My very favorite was David A., and I’ll be a huge fan forever. But, I also loved David Cook, and the fact that they both gave each other a run for their money week and week made the competition so exciting. They are both incredible musicians. Speaking of the two Davids, they are both performing together tonight at a Ronald McDonald House event!
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Anita – is that right? I really have to get “with it” here and start publicizing these guys again. I love them both from the bottom of my heart. Stay tuned…..
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Rosanne,
Yes! Their at the Ronald McDonald House in New York City Fanscene already has some pictures posted on their site.
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Amita, I actually have a DVD copy of Season 5 and 7. I have such a fondness for Season 7. Although Siobhan is my favorite female Idol, it is more difficult to pinpoint my favorite male. Wasn’t Constantine also at the Ronald McDonald event? I love the respect and friendship between the two Davids!
MCL, I just thought The Sing-Off would be enjoyable for you because of the purity of most of the singers. I feel bad that their ratings are low, but they are going up against DWTS.
Nancy is finally gone. I will give her credit for actually learning how to dance, and I do like her partner. I hope Tristan comes back with a better partner next season. That was a cute skit with him and Dance Center. I am really impressed with what JR did tonight. He really is the best dancer this season.
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Malden, Thanks for the link. I didn’t know that Blake used the effects peddles and looping in his personal performance. Honestly, although he was good at what he did on Idol, I wasn’t a fan. One of the groups competing on the Sing Off this year found themselves with the same dilemma as you report Blake having. They all used various effects peddles in their performances prior to joining this competition but were not allowed to use them on the show. The found themselves in the unusual position for a singing group of having to learn how to sing. Personally, I don’t want to see this type of voice manipulation used in a singing competition. It is s skill in its own right and if it grows in popularity maybe a separate competition for this discipline will evolve. That’s what tends to happen in other competitive areas.
I did a little more research on the Idol backup singers. The young pair that I referred to who were singing with Stefano on the song “Closer” are a pair of sisters named Destiny and Paris Monroe. They are very young at 16 and 15 years respectively but turn out to be old veterans in the entertainment business. Their resumes are pretty impressive and dates back to their forming a girl’s group with a friend named The Clique Girlz. There Dad is a recording engineer who built the girls a recording studio in the back yard, and they were signed to a Sony Interscope recording contract by Jimmy Iovine, who is said to be very loyal to the girls. Who da thunk it? They have a number of covers on You Tube as well as some original material for sale at their web site. Their voices are fairly high, much like Wilson Phillips, on the original pieces and they are able to sign a bit lower on some of the covers they do. I found there ages as well as the fact that Dad is a recording engineer interesting. There work on Rolling in the Deep on Idol was likely their natural voices but I’m not convinced they weren’t enhanced on Closer. Kariann suggested that there was no reason to do this because Stefano is a good singer. I agree and don’t think they did it to hide his faults but rather to take him to the next level of being a better performer. I think they did it to simulate the original recording where the artist laid down his own backing tracks. Idol doesn’t allow that so (somehow) these two little girls sang like Stefano.
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I think they did it to simulate the original recording where the artist laid down his own backing tracks. Idol doesn’t allow that so (somehow) these two little girls sang like Stefano.
Thank you for explaining that Gene! It explains what I was thinking about the original recording. Stefano has a lovely voice and it sounded like pre-recordered music which didn’t make sense.
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Karianne,
I forgot to thank you for the heads up on Siobhan’s album. I have followed the progress of it but I hadn’t heard about a major label looking at her. I have heard the first two tracks that she released as singles. There growing on me would be a way of putting it I guess. I like the second one better than the first. For my personal taste, I wish she would pull back a tad from the dark side.
I read that Haley and Casey will release a single of “Baby it’s Cold Outside” on the 27th of this month. There are previews of it floating around the web.
Kendra Chantelle, who was my early Idol favorite last season and made it to 13th place, released her first album a few days ago. It wasn’t what I hoped for from her, but she got something out there.
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Some of the Idols never have the opportunity to make an album. The more talent reality shows there are, the more saturation taking place in the music industry! I can’t keep up with all the Idols, let alone the other contestants from other shows.
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