Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Battle of the Small Town Boys

Rages on

The Canadian Idol contestants sang two songs each from Bryan Adams' repertoire. All the songs that the Idol judges praised, I found to be lacking. Those that they disliked, I thought best suited the contestants.

I think these are talented young men. These competition shows do bring out an interesting element: how does pop culture propagate its future singers? It's good to know that they do go back to the tried and tested performers. Bryan Adams, for all his light rock, is a good musician.

My choices:

Drew sang "I'm ready" with a steely, controlled emotion. Of course the judges wanted more gush.
Mitch's "Heat of the night" had energy which his rather chipmunkish voice needs to sound normal. Judges' verdict? "It was too angry!" This is rock we're talking about.
Theo's "When you're gone" had the Elton John approachable, singable melody but with more funk. Judges? Well, I don't know.

You can judge for yourselves here - video links are provided with the song title.

Toronto, the biggest city in Canada, has no contestants! But this is a whole other post (I will be writing about the rising condo market, and the destruction of architectural landmarks, in the next post. I just need to do more research. I think it is all related.)