Music Addict...
Again, I agree with you. I recall a comp at Marrickville RSL where there was a guy who started singing Black Dog Night, I think it's called by Led Zeppelin (who incidentally nearly called themselves The Whoopie Cushion when they started out)? Well, he sounded JUST like the lead singer but as a result he was gonged off the stage in next to no time because the older crowd didn't enjoy that style of music. Now, in that case, I could understand because part of the criteria there was Audience Appeal / Response and that is also a common piece of criteria in karaoke comps, I've found cos I've performed all over Sydney and in a few venues in Queensland too. That song and style for that venue was totally out of order. My biggest advice to would be comp contestants is to always, always take your audience into consideration. You may love your song. You may do it better than anyone on the planet but if you're the only one who loves that song in a venue filled with people who hate it and the style it's done in, you are not going to win no matter how well you do it when audience appeal is part of the criteria. For the 'Song Choice / Versatility' criteria Friday night, I noted how well the songs appealed to the audience and used that to gauge the song choice as much as my own personal taste in music. It's only fair.
To answer your question, Jenny who won was AWESOME with her Melissa Etheridge number of Somebody Bring Me Some Water. I think she really excelled herself on the night. Song choices were very different styles from each other but she gave them all her unique style and really gave it her all.
When you are familiar with someone's style of singing, it can be difficult to not be biased but so long as you keep that in mind and focus purely on the performance as it is happening rather than what you've witnessed in the past, you can easily judge in a fair and impartial manner. It just takes mental focus. Nothing peeves me more in a comp than when a friend of the judges wins undeservedly. I'm happy to say that that was not the case on Friday night and as far as I know, I was the only judge she knew of the 3.
Whilst 'hello's' were exchanged with many of the contestants on the night, I deliberately did not engage in conversation with anyone until after the comp because no matter how innocent, watchful eyes can reach all sorts of conclusions as to who won / lost and why and EVERYONE has their own opinions!!
A few others chose rock songs but were not quite up to standard and would have done better to pick something else. First act in the comp was a guy who sang Tina Turner's The Best and for him, it was a very good rendition and he really put his all into it. He was let down by his dress sense and vocal mistakes on my scoresheet. I suspect my fellow judges were a lot more harsh in their judgement of him though for other reasons which I'll not go into as it is a suspicion only.
One point I forgot to mention btw on dress in a comp is that not everyone has the budget for the big and glamorous clothes either but again, colour co-ordination, mixing and matching and the addition of even something like a wrist band can go a long way towards making a poor outfit look way better than it is.
Shortly into the comp a woman sang Long Way To The Top.by AC/DC. It was okay. A larger lady, so again, costume is hard to judge but she was actually not too bad on that front and her hair was done okay so the effort was made - extra points for her there. She lost in the 'vocals + performance' category due to off notes and little performance value. Don't be too extreme here people it's not like there is either stand there or bust moves like Usher or Janet Jackson. There are subtleties that exist also in any performance and that's what I mark.
Submitted by Johnny B on 23-07-2006

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