Katy Perry, surely you should be improving with all the practice you've been having promoting around Europe of late. So why is it that your latest rendition of Unconditionally at X-Factor UK was perhaps the worst you've had of the song thus far?
Effectively, you're only shading yourself getting on the stage of singing competitions- this one being the final of one, no less- and not being able to consistently maintain a tune. Take some vocal lessons, toute suite! And if you already are, get a better teacher for heavens sake! That is all.
[ Someone is doing their darnedest to remove any trace of this performance from the internet- seriously, it's almost as hard as finding a bad Hallmark movie (which is impossible, I'll have you know). Below is a clip from the Daily Mail, which will give you a taster, but the full thing can be seen here.]
Thoughts?
I just think that apart from the very shaky high belts and some off-key points in her singing, it was not a very bad rendition.
ReplyDeleteI have believed since the beginning that she cannot sing live. Her records are a complete studio by-product. Just like her peers Selena Gomez, Rihanna & Co.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this clip sounded so bad that I truly believe I can sing like this in the loo. She was wailing and shouting full force, out of tune. Insufferable.
The low parts sounded pretty good to me, but when she started belting out the first refrain... unlistenable
ReplyDeleteSometimes she sings well, sometimes not so much.
ReplyDeleteOh please. This is hardly news...
ReplyDeleteKaty has always been a horrifying 'live' singer.
Then again, at least she TRIED to sing live and didn't mime. However, the irony is that the winner of this show - a contestant - sang her four given songs last night (power-ballads at that) better than the professional recording artist who was, clearly, struggling to sing one. Oh, the irony.
Gotta give her credit for her consistency, though. I don't think there's a more consistent popstar when it comes to horrible live performances.
ReplyDeleteDoes she feel no shame?
ReplyDeleteI mean... even if talent shows are utterly useless...
To be performing like that on the finals of a talent show...
lol. Zing!
ReplyDeleteI don't consider her a studio product like a lot of other people. There have been glimpses of her sounding good here and there, but she's never had a solid performance that has made anyone go "wow". I think that since she considers herself an entertainer and not really a vocally strong one at that- she doesnt really go through any of the precautions that more vocally centered stars do. She probably doesn't rest, practice, or even see a vocal coach. It doesnt matter how often you sing, if you are out of tune then youll stay that way or get even worse as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteI actually (PLEASE NO HATE) like Rihanna's voice :O I know! A sin... lol
ReplyDeleteI like Rihanna's voice but she won't give me a reggae album so I'm pissed with her...
ReplyDeleteI, too, like Rihanna's voice. There is something, extremely, unique and interesting about her tonal quality. Besides, she is a Native- Caribbean just like me and so I feel heavily inclined to my West-Indian Brothers & Sisters. LOL.
ReplyDeleteYes. There's this texture to her voice that appeals to me.
ReplyDeleteHow the living FUCK does she not know how to sing yet? I heard her first album was gospel themed. I haven't listened to it yet but I really don't want to. How the fuck is she going to sing gospel songs.
ReplyDeletei dont know why she picked unconditional as her second single i thought that walking on air was a much more apparent choice
ReplyDeleteshes just not a good live singer which is sad because in my humble opinion i dont think you deserve to be famous and successful if you cannot even recreate studio vocals it proves that her act is all smoke and mirrors
i dont mind that shes using heavy production and an army of dancers to make her performances more interesting but in her case shes using them to mask the fact that she can't sing her songs correctly in a live setting
i do give her props for not miming though ;D
and atleast her performances of unconditional are nowhere near as her performances of roar - those are just .....
These performances just make me feel bad for whoever's in the studio for her to record the songs. Because she sounds good on the track, and it doesn't sound like she has much "help" done, so it must take her ages to record, unless she has the worst nerves in the world. Even I've given more on-key performances of this song.
ReplyDeleteIts not Gospel. Its more like acoustic Christian rock. Basically white trash.
ReplyDeleteIm wondering how the heck she manages to sell out shows sounding like this. I mean I can understand just being at a concert can make an alright performance sound amazing- just for the sake of being there-but c'mon! Shes just awful live. :(
ReplyDeleteWell that's what wikipedia said........
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can sing Gospel music alone with a guitar and nothing else. Especially with her level and type of vocals.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V18yk6nIMY
ReplyDeleteWho cares about KP's crappy live performances. I normally hate X-factor, but this rendition is so great.
If we are going by that, then none of the women in question have bad singing voices. Just are bad singers.
ReplyDelete"she's never had a solid performance"...pretty much the reason why I consider her a studio product. Her inability to recreate her songs live, I mean they aren't even 50% there. Shame that people have accepted her as a singer and continue to buy her stuff. I, for one, have not spent a dime on her music and never will. I don't think people like this deserve to be famous. Like the other poster says 'its all smoke and mirrors'. I understand mediocrity to an extent but this is way below, and she has almost 'always' been like this. She really has no shame. Or is probably deaf. Katy Perry is a product of elaborate marketing. Nothing more. And a few decent/okay performances won't change that.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18ezey_probleme-de-playback-pour-katy-perry-aux-nrj-music-awards-2013_music
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXz2EGp7aIo
So thought this might be interesting. I know it's hard to understand with the overdubbing. Katy Cat performs at the NRJ Awards, and the host stops her midway through after he noticed her lip syncing (but he was nice and called it "technical difficulties" and she sings live. She takes it in stride, and it's nowhere near perfect or great, but it's a lot better than previous performances of the song.
(In the first link you can see when the host stops her halfway through, but it cuts off the full performance, the second part is the full performance when she sings live.)
Gospel is often used as a blanket term for Christian music in general. A lot of gospel music is actually derivative of blues, rock, and country music, not always the big belting soul music you often hear in churches on TV. (:
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how people like Katy Perry make it. There are tons of hot females who can sing pop music -- live. And why do they keep giving her songs that she can't sing live?
ReplyDeleteShe sounds decent when she belts but I am not impressed rest of the time. When she sing quietly it's pretty shaky sounding.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be phoning in for this singer.
HUH? You are from bluegrass country and you think you can't sing gospel with just a guitar and nothing else???
ReplyDeleteI grant you Katy Perry can't but generally...?
Or did I misunderstand what you are saying about gospel in general?
Anyway..here some gospel for you guys which is not all about big belting but IS gospel. And no..not in a million years could Katy Perry pull this off. :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULxRRZJPXLw
lets turn this around and appreciate this great performance by Sam Bailey from the X factor UK
ReplyDeletesure i dont really pay attention to artists that come out of this singing competition but dont think about that or how well she will do on the charts
she slayed this vocal performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V18yk6nIMY
i wonder the same - shes not a huge touring act but she does sell out shows but unlike a lot of people in this blog - the general listening public isnt very knowledgeable when it comes to determining whether a singer is out of tune or if they're using improper technique
ReplyDeletesame with britney though - the bitch lips her way through and entire 2 hour+ set and people still go..... soooo just goes to show how many tone deaf people there are out there
How embarrassing
ReplyDeleteI see gotcha. I though her type of music would be some mellow christian rock or something.
ReplyDelete"derivative of"?
ReplyDeleteSnap..
ReplyDeleteAll of the live performances of katy i've seen shes sounded off key so this is nothing new lol...
ReplyDeleteI think reading the wiki entry on gospel music may be more helpful.
ReplyDeleteyeah, her belting is very well supported, but when she sings softly, it does sound uneven. :/ the thing going for her is that she has very good technique, altogether; even if some of her transitions sound awkward, her legato is as smooth as a baby's butt.
ReplyDeleteI don't know of the technical side and therefor don't look for good execution of any particular aspect tbh. I just listen as an average, fairly experienced listener/audience member.
ReplyDeleteI did notice that many singers today seem to focus too much on belting and a too little on what comes between the belts. This singer strikes me as suffering from that problem.
But I presume it is something that a singer who doesn't mind spending time with a vocal coach could totally master if they were aware of it?
Anyway those belts did seem, to my ears, to have a beautiful tone.
Gospel (or at least the Gospel that I bear witness to here) is usually spiritually powerful music with orchestral or Organ accompaniment and a choir or group of singers. Solo Guitarists that sing music of faith are considered Acoustic Christian singers.
ReplyDeleteThis is priceless ! LOLOLOL
ReplyDeleteIn that case you seem to have a limited idea of gospel (no offense intended of course. I also thought gospel was pretty much defined the way you described until I, through getting into Bluegrass etc, learned more ).
ReplyDeleteWikipedia has a decent article on gospel music explaining the different traditions. :-)
On a related note..have you ever heard of Rosetta Tharpe? very interesting woman. A gospel singer in the thirties and forties who added the then newly invented electric guitar to gospel and was the first gospel cross over artist. People like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Johhny Cash and Aretha Franklin all cited her as an early influence and she was called the Godmother of Rock & Roll.
(also bisexual but that is of course unconnected to the music. Just an interesting tidbit).
Here she is in action some time in the sixties.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ
I learned of her through this song on 2007's Raising sand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sREAlkmj8hQ
I wouldn't call her consistent, she's always reaching new low points as time goes on :)
ReplyDeleteI can't watch the video you linked Diva :(
ReplyDeleteWhen I click on the link nothing comes up? Just other suggested videos lol...
Yeah probably lol.
ReplyDeleteA MESS!!!
ReplyDeleteRead... read.. (oh that's nice) ... SHADE! LOL nice one :D
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't even sound good on the track. The more attention you pay to the vocals, the more you notice the unsupported/shaky low notes and the struggle in the lower midrange. Imo.
ReplyDeleteI think I meant it the other way around. I don't know, it was a long day. Gospel music can include the genres of blues, rock and country.
ReplyDeleteLOL Yes that would make a lot more sense. :-)
ReplyDeleteI knew I'd this performance so I turned the channel and 4 minutes later I realised I was nearly a minute too early to turn it back and caught the ending… But was even funnier about the poorness of this performance is the statuses on FB and the tweets all unanimously saying how bad she was, even fans! Ha. I think you should have focused on the amazing Nicole's performance of And I am Telling You where she completely took the X Factor's so-called "best vocalist" and to school and slayed.
ReplyDeleteYou should have written about Nicole's performance too! :(
ReplyDeleteBecause she's "Hollywood pretty". I'm not saying she's hot but I do agree she's pretty, but I think they are far more beautiful people out there than her, but I do believe part of her huge success is her looks and her goofy persona she displays in public and in videos, as well as her cheesy commercial teen pop tunes.
ReplyDeleteShe's good but not that amazing and her duet with Nicole showed just how much she pales in comparison to true vocalists.
ReplyDeleteOkay, but surely this deserves some praise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eGe0KM7_D8 I prefer this to the studio track to be honest
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wC-GklWHGI Idk I like Katy's voice but that's probably because I'm tone deaf lol
ReplyDeleteAlthough her music is not my cup of tea, I personally quite like her voice in studio, the problem is that her live settings are, to say the least, very shaky.Anywa, excepting the last chorus, she sounded quite good there; I loved that head voice run in the beggining.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wC-GklWHGI
ReplyDeletethis is probaby the best she sung this
Ok get your facts right before speaking.
ReplyDeleteI saw the NRJ music awards on TV and I speak french, what happened was that the "sound engineer" (?) launched a FULL PLAYBACK of Roar, but at the same time the one with only the backing vocals to Katy Perry, they weren't even synchronized, she was singing on the right tempo, but that wasn't what the public was listening for. (They explained it, it's even on the official website)
Btw, for me Katy Perry is only a good acoustic artist. That's all.
ReplyDeleteI apologize for my misinformation here, I don't speak French myself, so I was only reading off of what other people were saying, and I guess there was miscommunication going on. I edited my post, thanks for letting me know.
ReplyDeleteNo problem :)
ReplyDeleteIt's better if everyone knows the real technical problem that has occured :)
Wow... I don't think I've ever heard her sound that good.
ReplyDeleteIDGI, don't they practice with a band? Not all the time does a singer know why they are off, especially if they don't have training--but you'd think someone would tell her this in rehearsal.
ReplyDeleteThis performance was just outright terrible.
ReplyDelete