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Thor View Drop Down
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    Posted: 16 Apr 2009 at 8:01pm
I don't know how American Idol works, but apparently, Cowell and entourage go to other countries to get people to audition for the show.  I guess the video for this particular audition's been getting a lot of hits on Youtube.  It's really kind of touching, a great performance, and a nice departure from the usual young auditioner who's looking to be the next pop diva or divo.
 
(I deleted this video, because I found a better one, a few posts down)
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Irishman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2009 at 8:22pm
Thor, this is from the British show, 'Britain's Got Talent'(NBC has its own American version of it), which is the successor of 'Pop Idol', the show on which 'American Idol' is based.
While 'Idol' is all about singing, 'Talent' includes contestants who are good in other aspects of entertainment(music, comedy, magic, etc.) Basically, it's 'The Gong Show', but with people who are actually good!
Simon Cowell is one of the creators of both shows, so, just as he does on 'Idol', he's one of the judges. 'Talent' doesn't just limit itself to good looking twentysomethings; a year or so ago, a little girl with an amazing singing voice was one of the finalists(losing to a man who plays the piano.)
The audience reaction to Susan in this clip, before she sang,  actually reminded me of the 'Gong Show'. It was nice seeing an audience (and judges) won over like that!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Big Momma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2009 at 8:31pm
She really is quite wonderful!!!!Approve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote meinga Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2009 at 8:34pm
Clap I really enjoyed that.  This lady is talented.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2009 at 8:34pm
Originally posted by Irishman Irishman wrote:

Thor, this is from the British show, 'Britain's Got Talent'(NBC has its own American version of it), which is the successor of 'Pop Idol', the show on which 'American Idol' is based.
 
See?  I told you I didn't know!  LOL
 
The following video includes the performance along with her reaction to the judges' reactions (along with someone else's performance).  I like this lady.  She seems genuinely amazed at the judges' responses to her.
 
 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pcgh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 9:07pm
I like a feel-good, "in-your-face, beautiful-people" story as much as the next guy, but something just seems kind of fishy about this whole story. Maybe it's just my cynical nature, but I just have a feeling there's more to this than meets they eye. Kind of like when you go to Sea World and the audience "volunteer" falls in the Shamu tank and then rides Shamu all around the pool, then they tell the audience that the "volunteer" is really one of their highly skilled whale trainers.
 
The lady does have an awesome singing voice, though. Hopefully I'm wrong and it is a genuine rags-to-riches success story.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 9:25pm
Originally posted by pcgh pcgh wrote:

I like a feel-good, "in-your-face, beautiful-people" story as much as the next guy, but something just seems kind of fishy about this whole story. Maybe it's just my cynical nature, but I just have a feeling there's more to this than meets they eye. Kind of like when you go to Sea World and the audience "volunteer" falls in the Shamu tank and then rides Shamu all around the pool, then they tell the audience that the "volunteer" is really one of their highly skilled whale trainers.
 
The lady does have an awesome singing voice, though. Hopefully I'm wrong and it is a genuine rags-to-riches success story.
 
Well, she already has a page in Wikipedia, and there seems to be no evidence of anything fishy (though one writer who was cited states that the reaction to her was probably anticipated).
 
Anyway, the page is pretty good.  It goes into why people have reacted to her so positively, and also offers the critique by musical critics of her voice (the worst being "good").
 
excerpt:
Tona de Brett, a London vocal coach was enthusiastic in her praise of Boyle; stating: "Her breathing sounds good, her tuning is perfect, and she puts in real emotion without being overdone, which is a tremendously good thing, because so often in the pop business, the emotions are superimposed," and continued to say that Boyle had a knockout, real natural gift.
 
 
I like the above Wikipedia quote, 'cause I can't stand the ridiculous emotion that so many pop singers use these days.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 9:29pm
Apparently, she recorded Cry Me a River on a CD for a benefit show for a school in England back in 1999. 
 
 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 9:32pm
You know, take away the bushy eyebrows, re-do the hair, lose a few pounds....wow, she looks like Simon Cowell! 

No really...she is a breath of fresh air.  I hope she makes some money before all the other leeches take their booty. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 9:36pm

Apparently, she's already been parodied in South Park.  And I think, in her Wikipedia page, it mentions that Cowell wasted no time in signing her to some sort of contract.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote PaWolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 10:28pm
I almost stated a thread on this one the day after it aired; she floored me! TOTALLY unexpected, wonderful.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote musicman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2009 at 1:16am
That scene was like something that could have been the finale of a movie.
 
The fact that they left the music to her karaoke performance going after she stopped singing only added to the movie sound track feel.
 
(I mean karaoke in its purest sense.  Singing to canned music.  Not a judgment of her singing talent.)
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Pirate Alyx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2009 at 1:52am
Freaking Simon with his scrunched up face when she says "I am 47"...what an ass...like only young people can sing....everyone gets old...no matter how you slice it.  I am glad she stunned them all!
 
I agree a make over would do wonders for her...a nice trimmed up hair cut and some highlights and an eyebrow pluck...and voila...fantabulous babie!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Prometheus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Apr 2009 at 11:44am
"American Idol" was merely created as a show for Simon Cowell (who has no demonstrable musical discipline), to act as a critic of talent to fulfill his narcissistic fantasy of being a "decider" of the talent for which he lacks. His panel includes a washed-up 80's pop-star in an attempt to lend credibility to him and his narcissistic fantasy-world, where he determines the fate of others in an attempt to fill the void he has from his earlier years growing up to make up for his shortcomings in his earlier years of life.

"American idol" and "Britain's got talent" are merely an extension of this controlling fantasy of his, and should, in no way, be a legitimate means to determine actual talent by any means.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Apr 2009 at 2:16pm

My first thought after reading your post, Prometheus, is that I don't know if Cowell so much tries to "determine actual talent" as he tries to determines what sells.  Then I thought, "is he really good at that?"  After all, who buys American Idol records, and how many of the winners over the past number of years do we even hear of anymore?

Then I realized that he and American Idol don't exist as much to sell records or even to create stars as they do to sell the show itself.  The whole phenomenon exists in a vacuum, and the whole show is nothing more than an advertisement for itself.  So, not only is it total narcissism on Cowell's part, it's also total cynicism.  Not that this doesn't exist in the music business already, it's just that Cowell and American Idol are more blatant about it.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HollyRock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Apr 2009 at 2:59pm
Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson are both doing well.
 
Then there's Jennifer Hudson, who was "sent home" at fifth place, or somewhere around there, when she took part.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Apr 2009 at 3:17pm
Yeah, there are a few recognizable names, but considering the huge phenomenon that Cowell/American Idol is, you'd think he'd have a better track record.  I can't name one song that those people do, or even recognize their voices if I heard them.  Hell, I'm not even sure if I'd know who they were if I saw them in a lineup.  That's not a great track record, if you ask me.  Hell, you'd think that, by now, Cowell would have come up with the next Elvis.
 
It's like he's holding a contest for the best chocolate chip cookie.  He may find it, but in the end, it's still just another chocolate chip cookie. 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr 2009 at 2:12am
Well, "Idol's" over here in the east, and I have to say, that's the most talented group of kids yet. 

Amazing. 

If you watched it, and still think they are half-rate talents, then I would question your judgment.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote musicman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr 2009 at 2:35am
Originally posted by Hootman Hootman wrote:

Well, "Idol's" over here in the east, and I have to say, that's the most talented group of kids yet. 

Amazing. 

If you watched it, and still think they are half-rate talents, then I would question your judgment.
 
I agree.  This year it is really hard to say which one is the best.  Clearly Adam has "mad" talent.  Yet not everyone may go for his type of heavy metal scream singing.
 
It's the strongest group ever.
 
To think that I read some lame Idol critic earlier this year saying, "This is the worst group yet."  Yeah right, those guys say that every year.
 
 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr 2009 at 6:55am
Originally posted by Hootman Hootman wrote:

Well, "Idol's" over here in the east, and I have to say, that's the most talented group of kids yet. 

Amazing. 

If you watched it, and still think they are half-rate talents, then I would question your judgment.
 
Don't get me wrong.  I think they can sing.  It just all seems very cookie-cutter to me.  It seems they're all ready, willing, and able to imitate any style of singing they're told to.
 
That's what it is.  To me, it seems like they're just imitating real singers or real styles.  Some of them do it really well, but it's like they're always putting on hats that don't belong to them.  I mean, when I hear some perky 18 y/o with the latest hairdo singing something really bluesy and tough, I dunno, it just seems fake and overly-stylized, no matter how well they do it.
 
A friend and I were listening to a somewhat rare Black Sabbath song earlier, and we both agreed on what a great voice Ozzie has.  It may not be good, but it's definitely one of the greats.  I'd bet he'd go nowhere on American Idol, though.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FaithSF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr 2009 at 7:05am
I was reading a story yesterday about Susan Boyle, the lady you're talking about, and Paul Potts, who won the contest three years ago.  He's this overweight cell phone salesman with an incredible operatic voice.

Apparently, both of these people were approached by the producers of Britain's Got Talent, because they had been seen before (Paul Potts had even sung for Luciano Pavarotti), and the producers wanted them on the show.  So all of it was a set-up.  I'm really bummed about that, but not all that surprised.

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Their life stories, as told in countless profiles, are oddly similar. Potts, 39, was raised in a scuzzy part of Bristol, England, we're told, by a bus-driver dad and supermarket-cashier mom. Boyle, 48, was one of nine children whose father worked in a car factory and mother in a typing pool. At school they were both bullied. When he turned up in front of the judges, Potts was a dentally challenged mobile phone salesman, wearing a $50 suit from the supermarket chain Tescos. Boyle, with her gold dress, black hose, white shoes and hedgerow eyebrows, was unemployed and, yes, living alone with her cat, Pebbles. Nobody, the show made clear, had any idea they could sing.

Well, not quite. Luciano Pavarotti, for one, had an idea about Potts. While Potts' hometown, Fishponds, is not an upscale neighborhood, he went to St. Mary's Redcliffe, one of the best non-private schools in Bristol. After he graduated with honors from university, he went on a quiz-cum-talent show hosted by Michael Barrymore and won enough money to take singing classes in Italy. There he performed for Pavarotti.

Upon Potts' return to England, he worked his way through the amateur opera scene. According to the program for a 2003 Bath Opera production of Aida in which he appeared, he had already sung with that company several times and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. But that same year, he had a nasty bicycle accident. Health difficulties and medical bills took him away from opera and into his job selling phones. (Read "Why American Idol Keeps Soaring.")

Boyle's story is similar but with fewer light notes. Her hardscrabble town was Blackburn in Scotland. She also auditioned for a Barrymore TV show, but didn't make the cut. Yet she took singing lessons and recorded Cry Me a River for a charity CD in 1999, the same year she made a demo tape. An observant Catholic, she often sang at church and on karaoke nights. So her talent was no surprise to her neighbors. "Everyone here knew she could sing," Jackie Russell, manager of the local pub, told the AP. "We were always saying, 'You should go in for talent competitions.'" What held Boyle back was caring for her aging parents. She entered BGT, after her mother died, because she was approached by talent scouts from the show who asked her to enter.

Potts and Boyle are not, in short, two undiscovered singers who never got their shot at fame. Their stories are less telegenic than the one sold by Britain's Got Talent, but much more common. Thousands of singers take their shot and fail, just as these two had.

But in a way, their true tales are more heartening. Paul Potts and Susan Boyle each wanted to build a career on their talent, even tried to. He got stalled; she got rejected. But the same things that barred them from entering showbiz — upbringing, luck, family duty and, in this TV-driven world, looks — are what delivered them eventually to fame's main square. They had the exact qualities the reality industry knows how to package. As Cowell said to Boyle, in what may have been the most honest comment in the whole program, "I knew the minute you walked out on that stage we were going to hear something extraordinary."

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1893282,00.html


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr 2009 at 7:16am
I agree with that author, Faith.  Specifically, the last paragraph.  Their true stories are more "heartening" than some outlandish Pygmalion sort of fairy tale.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Pirate Alyx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2009 at 1:45am
well they gave her a makeover....
plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is..............
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2009 at 3:11am
It's good that she did that.  That's what a person who appreciates her new chance at life would do.  Otherwise, it would appear that she'd prefer to remain an oddity, a sideshow freak, William Hung, capitalizing on her frumpy image rather than on her ability.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FaithSF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2009 at 3:48am
You're right, Thor.  
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