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Celine Dion on the AMA

Botch

Botch

MetaBotch Doggy Dogg Mellencamp
Superstar
The American Music Awards were on last night. Watched the first half, recorded the second and am watching it now.
Celine sang a song, in French, that had quite a few in the audience crying buckets of tears. Got a standing ovation.
And it was the most gawdawful, out-of-tune vocal torture I've ever heard on TV. WTFF??? What am I missing here????
 
I hate Celine's singing, period.

I think some people only relate to the lyrics and the emotional energy of the singer, not the melody, tuning, or musical skills.
 
I suspect maybe the lyrics had something to do about the Paris attacks?? She is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me!!
 
She is the pinnacle of the Broadway style sing/scream in tune at the top of your lungs to show how terribly emotional you are about the lyrics style of performing, which was very interesting when it was first happening in the early 70s, and it did pretty well in through the 80s, but got completely out of hand in the 90s.

That said, I do respect her. She made herself hugely successful on her own terms and didn't sell-out to anyone. People came to see her performing the music she wanted to perform on a stage she seemed to belong on. I respect that considering the other "divas" who will do anything to garner more attention.
 
Botch said:
And it was the most gawdawful, out-of-tune vocal torture I've ever heard on TV. WTFF??? What am I missing here????
Click to expand...
It's obvious: you need a new TV / sound system.

:)

Jeff
 
Flint said:
She made herself hugely successful on her own terms and didn't sell-out to anyone.
Click to expand...
If by "on her own terms" you mean that she gave up the goods when she was 14 to a much older man that promised to make her a star, then I agree.
 
Zing said:
Flint said:
She made herself hugely successful on her own terms and didn't sell-out to anyone.
Click to expand...
If by "on her own terms" you mean that she gave up the goods when she was 14 to a much older man that promised to make her a star, then I agree.
Click to expand...
That's kinda the Coles Notes version of the Coles Notes version of the Coles Notes version.

She was 12 when she met Rene. Recognizing the huge potential he mortgaged his house to finance her first record. She "gave it up" to him when she was 19. The rest is history.

Like her style / voice or not, her professional, and then personal, relationship with Rene has been one of the most successful ever in the music business.

I suspect that she is his equal, or better, when it comes to the business side of the arrangement. Like Flint I don't see any "sell-out" in this story.

Jeff

ps. Off topic, but still relevant... if we are to look at her relationship with Rene as somehow inappropriate, I think we need to consider the times / circumstances at play here. Celine came from a large poor francophone Catholic family. Relationships between persons of very different ages was not at all uncommon. Heck, when I attended the 25 year reunion of the graduation of my grade 8 class (from a francophone Catholic school in a community not all that different from Celine's) three of the female graduates brought their 25 year old children to the festivities! By today's standards we are not amused. But back then it was not uncommon.

A hundred years ago, or so, my Greek immigrant grandfather, well into his 30s at the time, met and married my grandmother, straight off the farm, when she was 14. She was less than 16 when she had her first child. My grandfather and her built a very profitable family business together and had two more kids, one of whom was my mother. It's pretty hard to be anything but pleased that she "gave it up" to a much older man, when, had she not done so, I would not be typing this post! :)
 
Can't believe ya'll even watch that crap.
Now if we're talking about CMA.....that is worth my time.
 
Some interesting responses. I'm not a Celine fan (don't even own a Greatest Hits) but I don't mind her singing, as long as I don't have to watch her! Like Hall & Oates, if I have to watch them perform I feel like puking.
But, on the AMAs the other night, her singing was just damnedly bad out-of-tune, it was awful. Perhaps her monitors were out, or the soundman wasn't paying attention. I dunno. :think:
 
Botch said:
Some interesting responses. I'm not a Celine fan (don't even own a Greatest Hits) but I don't mind her singing, as long as I don't have to watch her! Like Hall & Oates, if I have to watch them perform I feel like puking.
But, on the AMAs the other night, her singing was just damnedly bad out-of-tune, it was awful. Perhaps her monitors were out, or the soundman wasn't paying attention. I dunno. :think:
Click to expand...
I'm not disagreeing with you at all.

I've often noted that I am a fan ... of her performances / songs in French, and in particular when she's in her Quebecoise style. I'm not a fan of her overly dramatic / chest-thumping / heart string-pulling English performances.

Don't know what happened at the AMAs. She was obviously in her French style (the third that she's recognized for). I'm still looking to download a high-quality version that I can play on my HT to see if I can hear what you heard - because the cheap YouTube clip that I heard did not give me the same reaction as you had Botch.

Putting music aside, I'm an admittedly big fan of her business acumen.

Jeff
 
So I downloaded a pretty decent quality copy of the AMAs overnight.

First thing I did was to sample a half-dozen or so of the live performance to get a feel for the overall sound quality and the consistency (or not) between performances. It sounded reasonably good to me throughout. I then moved to Celine's performance and a quick sample of it to confirm that nothing was out of whack.

At this point I should ask Herr Botch if perhaps the issue he was having with her performance was that he did not realize she was singing in French? (Just joking. :) )

She, of course, performed a very famous Edith Piaf song Hymne A L'Amour. I figured if Celine was to be critiqued on her performance it should be in comparison to Edith's. So I first pulled out a vinyl copy of a 1981 re-release of The Best of Edith Piaf and listened to her performance of the song twice on my main HT. Here's a good online copy of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTGmbA40ZQ[/youtube]

It had been a while since I'd last listened to Piaf and I was immediately reminded of what a great singer she was. But what I also noted was how much she "rolled" her Rs throughout that song - and in fact all of her performances.

With Piaf fresh on my mind I then played Celine's AMA version.

My conclusion: Celine pretty much nailed it. I was particularly impressed with how well Celine duplicated the part with the words "...puisque tu m'aime" (heard starting around 1:07 on the Piaf version) with the long hold on "m'aime" through note changes (if that's the correct musical terminology.)

The only substantive difference that I could hear was that Celine rolled her Rs much less than Edith. This actually annoyed me a bit since, as I have posted some months ago, Celine is quite capable of doing so. Perhaps she "dumbed it down" a bit for the audience? Maybe she was not aiming for a perfect copy (which I believe she could have done)? Don't know.

Botch, in any case can you point to any specific passage(s) of the performance where she does not otherwise pay faithful tribute to the original?

Jeff
 
So is a good rendition of a horrible song good or horrible?

(I'm not referring to the song in question here as I haven't listened to it.)
 
CMonster said:
So is a good rendition of a horrible song good or horrible?
Click to expand...
You'll find out when Elton and I cover some Radiohead tunes. :violence-torch:
 
This was just a dirty trick to make me listen to this again, wasn't it?!? :angry-tappingfoot:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTrw_8E_Xpc[/youtube]

She goes flat, very flat, in at least a dozen points in that tune. Her voice is mixed plenty high, so sometimes it's hard to hear the piano/orch, but she is flat. (Edith Piaf sounds fine to me)

I'm sorry, Jeff, but I stand by my ears. :text-imsorry: :snooty:
 
Hey don't be sorry Botch. If you don't like what you hear that's fine by me. Perfectly ok. Honest.

Jeff

ps. If a bunch of hosers dressed in beaver camo and armed with broken hockey sticks and empty cans of Brador beer show up at your door in the next hour or two, just tell them that you and I have "talked" and that I've forgiven you. Just pass on Rope's address and they'll be on their way. :)
 
Botch, I agree with you 100%. It's not just you.

Sorry Jeff. :teasing-tease:
 
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