Lightyears

Mariah Carey’s new single “Touch My Body” sounds great! Preview the clip here at her website: www.mariahcarey.com . Well, although she does not use much of her vocal acrobatics stuff, nor is the song a strong powerful ballad, she does not disappoint with the lead single to her much anticipated follow-up to the best-selling album of 2005 - The Emancipation of Mimi.

It’s been quite some time since I heard an amazing voice, and I have to say Leona Lewis’ voice really blew me away. I have never watched “X-Factor” but somehow I got to know of her voice and name, through my friend. I would say her delivery is somewhat like Whitney Houston’s and Celine Dion’s, just that she has a Mariah Carey-like voice. At times, she sounds like Kelly Clarkson too. God knows where she has been all this while.

Her debut album, “Spirit” (the first album I bought this year!), is a collection of ballads, with only some mid-tempo songs. The former is probably what she does best, and the whole album is full of them. Her first single “Bleeding Love” is a great song, with great beats, and somewhat catchy too. A great song to introduce her to the world!

For a new artist, it’s amazing how sensitive she is towards the lyrics she sings, and to deliver songs without overloading them with emotions is trully stunning. And it helps to have a voice with great clarity too. My favourite tracks have to be “Here I Am”, “Bleeding Love”, “Whatever It Takes” and “Footprints in the Sand”. I can’t wait to hear what she has to offer in time to come!

Rating: 4 / 5

It’s the year of the Rat!

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year!

 All the best in your endeavours!

What comes to your mind when someone mentions a piano concert? Dull? Boring? Serious?

Joja Wendt’s concert breaks all these stereotypes, for he put up an amazing performance at the Esplanade Concert Hall last night! There wasn’t a concert programme to start with, and it was quite exciting to hear/see what songs he would perform. Reading the write-up about him didn’t reveal much about what he was going to play, though it did mention something about jazz.

Anyway, the concert started off with a beautiful piece which I had no idea what the title was. He played songs inspired from different countries because I don’t think he played anything that was original; every song seemed to be infused with jazz in one way or another. Although I wasn’t really a jazz type of person, I was definitely wowed and mesmerised by his playing.

Throughout the concert, there was no doubt about his technical abilities, and in between songs he cracked jokes about how difficult each songs would be (I would assume they are technically demanding), and how had a short description about how each song came about and such. Never had I attended a concert with the performer speaking so much (not even for pop concerts I attended).

In addition, there were also special effects, like having the piano “move”, and extra “hands” etc., the former being done by his stage effects person and friend, Christian (if I got his name correctly), whose birthday happened to be on the same day as the concert. Joja willingly played a few “impromptu” versions of “Happy Birthday” for him in the styles of well-known classical composers like Mozart, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky (think I made some spelling mistakes with the names). It was simply amusing!!

 All in all, it was an amazing concert and I have to say that Joja is a great entertainer! I would definitely attend his concert if he comes back again, as much as I don’t really enjoy jazz.

 Oh by the way, his website is: www.jojawendt.de