Despite working with renowned vocal coach Seth Riggs, Christina Aguilera's Kermit the Frog voice seems to be getting worse if her performance on season 2 of The Voice is anything to go by! Entering the stage singing Hillbilly Bone, I've never heard her voice sound so ...ugly. I'm sure some will like the tone, and timbre, but to me it's not pleasant, and is not reminiscent of the voice I fell in love with.
The performance didn't improve much for Christina Aguilera as she progressed to her own song, Fighter, where she managed to dodges all the big notes, bar right at the end.
Perhaps she was reigning in the voice to allow her team time to shine, because they certainly did! The first female singer sounded more like Christina Aguilera, than Christina Aguilera herself! She just must be thanking her lucky stars for the out of tune female who came in at the bridge; it kept Ms Aguilera from being the weakest of, a very good, bunch!
Strangely though, and perhaps a good sign, Christina Aguilera refrained from channelling "The Spirit" in this performance and so the vocal runs were near to non-existent. Her confidence and swag was off the scale though, and I can't but love her for that. Fierce in all but voice.
[Update: Just read the Dailymail article on the performance. They are literally saying the exact opposite of me: "Christina Aguilera has The Voice... but not the look" . Head on over if you want a contrasting opinion. Link]
Thoughts?
You should put a fierce pic from the performance! :3
ReplyDeleteOther than that - she sounded fine to me.She was letting her team shine and in the beginning she showcased her infamous "Tough Lover" riffs and rawrs which are loved by ones and hated by others.
I think that's the thing: Christina Aguilera's vocal styling is becoming more and more an acquired taste. I still love how it sounds on her albums but live, its just not sounding right to me.
ReplyDeleteAs for the photo, i tried screen capturing a better picture, but the quality was Awful!
0:27 - She needs to learn how to walk in them shoes!
ReplyDelete1.25 - not a good song to pick for a group song. At least they are all singing live, as opposed to the old UK X Factor mimed group songs.Er, yeah. Christina's vocals sound bad again. IS she doing any work with Seth Riggs do we know? I'd be surprised if she is with that tone...she's forcing it more than I've heard her do in a long time. Ho hum. Rawrs are fine in moderation, but when that's ALL you do in a performance I'm afraid people will start to question whether you can hit the notes or not. Also it makes you sound increasingly like a lion.
I could not have agreed more with your critique. I was so disappointed by her vocal. It's like she SO over confident that she won't invest in a proper vocal coach and use the technique learned. Her technique was so gravely and rough.
ReplyDeleteYou can use a pic from her fansite!
ReplyDeletehttp://xtina-web.com/
There's a rumour she'll premiere her new single during the finals of The Voice.I am very interested in what she will bring to the table this time as she describes her new album very personal and Introspective.If that turns out to be true I'll be looking forward to your review.I really love and appreciate all the hard work you're putting into this blog.
Maybe send her a copy of your newly acquired singing course! Might help her... I'm glad that there are people agreeing with me. I've been reading quite a few articles and comments saying how great her voice was in this performance. Thought I was going mad... and yes I am starting to question if she can still hit the notes...I'm pretty sure she's not a lion though...right? Might take a recording of this performance to London zoo. Play to the Lions, see what happens!
ReplyDeleteI was reading the comments over on the post you guys did. Couldn't quite believe people saying it was an amazing performance and that it was more proof of her "voice of a generation" title. I think people are selling themselves, and the generation short, by tacking it onto this performance.
ReplyDeletei was quite...disappointed...i think she was,kinda weak '-',i mean...it must be hard to keep that tone YEARS on,with bad techs.she was known for her great dramatic tone,BUT,her extra-dramatic voice is getting weaker,that's too bad xtina :/,i think she seriously needs vocal rehab.
ReplyDeleteThis performance was horrible. I was literally laughing out loud throughout the whole thing. I think it's great that they sang with their coaches, but "Fighter" is obviously not fit for a group. And the choir was not necessary at all. I also noticed the other chick sounded more like her than her!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the choir! what was the point? The voices all got lost and muddied.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why people think is so terrible. For me, is no more terrible than all her performances of this song in recent years. Since Back to Basics she has always sounded the same , with that raspy tone and dying to try to hit the notes after the bridge. But can tell how bad is her "think voice" because she can't even talk with it (in Stripped Era she could easily talk with that thik tone). She should try to sing in her tone, because there's no way (Seth Riggs isn't a miracle maker) that she can keep singing like that much longer; her voice is going to be seriously damaged. I didn't expect improvement, because I think her thick voice can't improve... So, I did know how was she going to sound when she sang the first note.
ReplyDeleteTotally!
ReplyDeleteI wish there were more close-ups of her in this performance, then we might be able to see what's going on with her larynx. Who has been saying her performance was great? The same people who think Cheryl Cole and J Lo sing live?!
ReplyDeletehttp://thatgrapejuice.net/2012/04/watch-christina-aguilera-performs-fighter-the-voice/
ReplyDelete"mr.m
BEST SINGER OF OUR GENERATION .. who’s mad?
no one have her STRONG UNIQUE TONE and her POWERFUL PIPES ..
ALL THE BLACK BITCHES SOUND THE SAME!!!
CHURCH SINGERS ..
bye"
I'd pay to see just sit and watch Seth and Christina's lessons, I'm sure it's quite comical. But I digress, this performance was pretty sad in my opinion looking back at how much potential she had when she first started, she had the mid-range, potential for the lower register, potential for the upper-belts, hell her falsetto even went up to Bb6 she didn't even use whistle to reach those heights.
ReplyDeleteand she just wasted it all away. I hope that Seth can pull some kind of witchcraft and bring her voice back because performances like these aren't showing much promise for her future to be quite blunt and honest about it.
On a more positive note, glad to see she's lost some weight :D
Lol I have heard worse from her, but yeh I am not sold on this! I can hear glimpses of the old Christina in there but its like her voice itself is being suffocated at points and extremely strained.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think she was the worst though, not by a long shot! The chick that comes on at around 01:45 is awful...and yeh the choir was not only pointless but looked like something you would hang up on a gala day!
I agree, and if we are going down the 'voice of a generation' route I think at this exact moment in time there are far superior candidates.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've been hearing the "frog effect" in all of her recent performances. And her higher notes are abrasive. I wonder if it's chord damage.
ReplyDeleteIt was just a hot mess. I really want her to get to grips with the voice she has now. I don't care if she can't sing the old songs any more the way they were sung. Just fit them to the range you have now and work on strengthening and working on what is there. I honestly think she is surrounded by Yes men and women, who tell her everything is great.
ReplyDeleteI'd throw in a couple of coins if I could come along! lol.
ReplyDeleteHer performance at disney- I think it was there- was quite good last Christmas. It gave me false hope about the progress she was going to make http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQz7A-nMwoo
ReplyDeleteCher lloyd, right?
ReplyDeleteLets hope not. :(
ReplyDeleteYeh I think she can and cannot hit the notes, she probably could if she could actually absorb the correct technique but I she defo cant with her old habits as witnessed in the vid. I think years of abuse to herself is all she knows and all the lessons in the world probably wont help. It's just frustrating really, I think your'e probably right about the people around her...but yeh at this point rather than kill herself trying to hit it she should rein it in and give us what is comfortable for her to deliver, maybe then would it be a pleasant listening experience.
ReplyDeleteLOL too far DD, too far!!! Obviously my Kelly C has nabbed the title ofcourse!!! Anyone who dares argue with me shall recieve a backhander hehe
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced they've come to blows at least once lol.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that when Christina is on that damn stage! God. I mean im sorry but it is usually ONLY when Christina gets on that stage when the growling demonic mess of a voice comes out. I was so excited by watching her on the show, how much lighter her SPEAKING voice had become and how free and unclogged her throat sounded mixing with pure exclamations etc. but why does all of that go out the window on stage? She is SUCH a perfectionist in studio and sounds great when she holds back. Im positive that she does well in her sessions with Seth Rigs but jesus christ. Im beyond disappointed in this performance. and is it just me or is her singing becoming muddled more and more with Growls? Like every lyric had a growl in it.
ReplyDeleteand what bothers me the voice is how much potential she has for recovery. Her instrument MUST be great for it to recover repeatedly from every tour with all of the closed scratchy vocals. The strain, the growls, the screams, if it can withstand all of that it has to have the capacity for recovery. If only she would demonstrate proper technique on stage then she would have no problem getting at least SOME of that old range and clarity back.
ReplyDeleteAww, I like the girl at 1:45, not in this performance but on the show in general.
ReplyDeleteI have not really watched the show, so judging on this performance alone is unfair but this song did not suit her at all, mind you it didn't really suit Christina either lol
ReplyDeleteI feel for her. She's stuck between a rock and a hard place...if she uses correct technique her tone will really lighten up, but is that what the megafans want? She may lose some of her trademark sound if she applies proper technique. Also she would be fighting against 20 years of bad habits. Sometimes you go on stage with all the best intentions in the world, but when you get nervous, the voice tightens up, and all the bad habits which you previously relied on to 'get you through' a performance come flooding back. The problem is that they have a cumulative damaging effect on the voice.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. At least she sang live I guess.
ReplyDeleteHa ha - dead right! I imagine that in the very first lesson he told it to her straight, and told her NOT to sing that way anymore. Not sure how she'd react to that, like you say she's probably surrounded by yes men all the time. Perhaps she reacted by giving up and not going back? She should listen to vocal technicians though. Although Seth's getting on in years, that means that he comes with a lot of experience. Quincy Jones says in his biography that he managed to raise MJ's range by 4 notes. The whole thing reminds me of an athlete who has an injury...if you keep using a faulty technique then your injury will never properly heal, and you'll accumulate a lot of damage over time.
ReplyDeleteBflat6! Crikey!!!
ReplyDeleteMy vote for 'Voice of a Generation' is Whigfield.
ReplyDeleteAh, I see. Well, 'M' must stand for 'Muppet'. Why do people always take these things so personally on forums like that? It makes me laugh, we're only critiquing a singer's vocals, not your mum's dress sense.
ReplyDelete"Saturday night, dance I like the way you move, na na na na na na dee na na dee na na " lol
ReplyDeleteToo true, I only wish she would get her hide here and read some of these comments because she is clearly not hearing what we are! And Brian is right, she is fantastic in the studio I just wish she would apply that sound live and do so in a healthy manner, but so far it doesn't seem likely anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteHaha, couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteChristina actually had lessons with Seth before and she dropped them because they took away (in her opinion) the characteristics of her voice that defined her, the pained and anguish of it...-____-
ReplyDeleteSo it is quite possible Christina could have repeated what she did in the past and up and left again.
Btw here's what she sounded back in 1999 doing scales (I'm assuming this is what her voice would naturally sound like without forcing the tone)
http://youtu.be/Pz_M4__QoiM
It was just an exclamation in falsetto but she sustained it for like 3 or 4 seconds o:
ReplyDeleteShe sings all of her highs in falsetto, she has only hit 2 whistle notes in her entire career I believe, 1 live and 1 in studio.
Even with bad technique it's pretty impressive that she can take her falsetto high up into the whistle range, if only she'd take a connected tone up there it be more impressive but still it's impressive none the less.
Yeah, the full tone and strain are her trademarks, if she got rid of that, it'd be sure to shake up some fans.
ReplyDeleteyeah the clarity was NOT there and idk if she can learn to belt properly anymore because its just been getting worse
ReplyDeletei mean im sure she can but idk its hard to tell because her recent performances have been somewhat inconsistent
omg i totally agree
ReplyDeletehave you seen her sing you lost me live ? she holds back just enough for us to hear the tender and beautiful part of her voice
agreed that girl lindsay was the one she saved tonight?
ReplyDeleteits sad the voice seems to bank more on finding a "unique" voice than finding a good singer
im a big xtina fan but im not deaf and its sad that some of her fans like this performance
ReplyDeleteeverything was off on this
like DIVA mentioned the intro was horrible and kinda akwards because it didnt fit in with fighter
her voice here sounded so murky and what disappointed me was that she did evade the big notes and when she tried belting them out - it was incredibly strained and nasty (haha)
i think the first two contestants that came out outshined her
and as for the look - christinas gaining weight and theres absolutely nothing wrong with that but she was falling out of this outfit and she needs to wear stuff thats flattering to her figure so that people cant really say anything about her weight - the makeup and hair was perfect though
there are alot of singers out there that dont have xtinas tone and range, but a lot of people are more pleasant to listen to live because they dont sound like a guinea pig being raped underwater
ReplyDeletehaha whoever thinks this was a good vocal performance is tone deaf
ReplyDeletepeople writing those articles and comments are more worried about how she looks and they either cant hear the mess or are just oblivious
her boobs have been looking great though! ;)
ReplyDeleteyeah recently shes been sounding worse
ReplyDeleteidk if shes really hanging out with seth riggs
christina is known to have an ego and most of the people shes worked with call her a beyotch so im sure theyve disagreed
ReplyDeletefeel so sad for her. The voice and the looks are trash. She looks like an old lady in the middle of a bunch of kids. How come Xtina looks much more older than Mariah?
ReplyDeleteThere's a classically trained opera singer on her team and he called her the most powerful voice of his generation. HA!
ReplyDeleteno thats madonna trying to be so sexual at the age of 53
ReplyDeleteI always get confused about the technical differences between 'falsetto' and 'whistle'....I'm not sure I've ever hit a note in whistle myself! Gsharp6 is my highest ever note....although it is all really just a squeak up there! It was such an effort that I find some of the upper range of Christina there and Mariah absolutely incredible. That anyone can reach the 7th octave AT ALL is some kind of herculean feat, on a par with a top-class athlete!
ReplyDeleteWell, the difference between falsetto and.. well, everything else (low register, middle chest voice, upper chest voice, head voice, super headvoice/whistle register) is really big. I mean, if you know what falsetto (or false voice) means you can tell exactly what the difference is. You should read something and watch a couple of videos.
ReplyDeleteoh...yes,here,want a potato?
ReplyDeleteI agree, not only Herculean but incredibly rare that she can not only get there but make it sound good...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've read quite a few things about the differences, the problem is that different singing schools use different terminologies, so I struggle to understand which I'm doing. Maybe I'm doing whistle without realising it? IDK.
ReplyDeleteProfessional Opera Singer philippe jaroussky basically stated a little while back that Xtina's voice is basically an unsupported mess that is only truly singable from A3-B4 as the rest is disconnected or strained.
ReplyDeleteWell falsetto and whistle are both disconnected registers, the whistle lies above the falsetto (Don't quote me on that though, I'm not sure if I remember correctly) . The chords aren't connected at all during falsetto, however during whistle the chords are zipped up to the max. Whistle has more freedom than falsetto as well up there in the 6th (and higher) octaves. And speaking from personal experience the sensation of whistle is entirely different from falsetto.
ReplyDeleteIndeed he did, and he can say that - he has a fantastic voice and stupidly talented!!! But when it comes to the opera world my favourite soprano is Inva Mula (the woman who sang the mad scene in 'The Fifth Element') her voice is just perfection!!!
ReplyDeleteI heard that too.
ReplyDeleteHuh???
ReplyDeleteWell, he's really stupid if he said that. Her upper chest register may be strained (from C5 up to G#5) but her head voice (A5-A6) is perfect, clear, powerful and very supported and she hit those notes with such an ease.
ReplyDeleteHmm I'll have to give Inva a listen!
ReplyDeleteMy favorites have always been Natalie Dessay, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas and Ingeborg Hallstein all of so wonderful.
Falsetto IS NOT a register BUT a technique. You can sing almost every note in your register using the falsetto technique. The sound will be breathy, airy and fragile. Falsetto is different from EVERYTHING. Again, is not part of the register and IS NOT the same than head voice. People keep on using both terms like if they were the same.
ReplyDeleteThey are all fab divas, Loving Joan! I liked how she and Beverley Sills were always rivals too - both exceptional and so different! Just youtube Il Bel Sogno for Inva....great versions of superb arias!
ReplyDeleteI'm using register in the sense as it is part of the voice which it is.
ReplyDeleteAnd like whistle it disconnected.
And falsetto is a register, look it up, it can be referred to as a style but it is a register as well. It carries a dual meaning.
And not once did I compare it to head voice.
I took a listen a little while ago and I agree, superb rendition! Wonderful voice as well.
ReplyDeleteBecause Mariah has a great makeup artist and some high quality image editors whereas Christina somehow chooses to stick with one that focuses on the worse parts of her body like her cheeks.
ReplyDeletei also feel like christina chooses to look like a cholla sometimes
ReplyDeletei prefer when she doesnt wear a lot of makeup
her head voice is still unsupported. She has a beautiful head voice but and the reason why she sings those with ease is because she has a pretty high tessitura but no, it is a disconnected mess.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say her voice is getting worse but she didn't get rid of any of her bad habits. She growled waaaay too much in this performance and she strained as always. It's gonna take YEARS for her to actally improve.
ReplyDeleteyes the megafans wouldnt like that - they call her the voice of the generation even though her technique suggests otherwise
ReplyDeleteHer voice is a mess - sounds like she has been gargling with broken glass and rubbing alcohol....
ReplyDeleteI will say one thing. Somehow although the performance is riddled with growls...there seems to be the lack of that usual coarseness to her voice. As if it was healing.
ReplyDeletebut that's what the industry needs...unique singers....btw, what do you mean by "finding a good singer"....cause if you're talking about people who can belt 3+octaves (jennifer hudson, ect)....they arent the only ones who are good singers....some people cant sing naturally like that, like lindsay for example...she has a more softer voice, and its unique...but i dont think just because she cant belt, she's not a good singer... :)
ReplyDeletei wanna smack her in the face such a beautiful voice with such bad singing . nothing but growling and oh's and ahs she can do so much better
ReplyDeleteShe is the voice of the generation, but she doesn't have the technique of the generation
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure she has neither right now.
ReplyDelete