...have been announced. link
Took a quick look through the singers. A few worthy, a few seemed to have snuck in under Roger's 'good looking' requirement over the more talented and a few too many with that theatre vibe that I hope is ultimately purged from this contest as there are other Queen related offerings for that. One guy had a vibrato so furious that it made Lambert sound like he had splints on his trachea the other night. Some of the choices may have been deliberately regional to drum up awareness of the event- there were for example about twice the number of Canadians you might expect all things being equal. Neither JJ Midnight nor John Anthony made it through, both names that have been promoted here in the past. Oddly JJ's youtube thread degenerated into an argument about whether he was fat or not just as it did here. LOL
Not confident that I have a refined enough ear for the instruments to tell between really good and great so don't know what's going on on that side of things. Probably only truly surprised that that I-love-myself-I-think-I'm-grand-I-go-to-the-movies-and-hold-my-hand guy from Detroit didn't make it through. He was obnoxious on his band website, but he did a good job. Probably to his detriment that he made himself sound like he was from Kazakhstan or something when he sang.
"Took a quick look through the singers."
No thanks.. but if I read the next sentence correctly.. good looks are all you need? Yep.... Bieber fans are bursting for the next vocal performance from the maestro!
I really was a little disappointed in how often Roger stressed the 'young and good looking' factor'. I've grown weary and cynical about what I view as the shallow values and priorities of a few music execs who think they know what the rest of us want having such an outsized impact on the quality of a lot of the stuff that gets made and promoted. But I wonder. Look how many Queenzoners found it necessary to point out that the performers in the winning SHA video contest were 'ugly'. It wouldn't even have occurred to me to notice something like that - even if I thought they were ugly, which I didn't - unless it was something so extreme it was kind of shocking. You need to be hot for your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend, not some strangers in a video. Sure everybody enjoys looking at someone they find attractive, but when did it become an apparent right to not be expected to look at 'ugly' people? In the Extravaganza contest a man auditioned who was really significantly overweight. His voice was no worse and no better than any of the dozens of other Thursday night karaoke stars auditioning, and appearing to be a reasonably smart man I'm sure he knew his appearance would work against him winning. But it didn't prevent him from apparently enjoying the process of auditioning, and good on him. That didn't stop some idiot on QOL from declaring the whole thing 'disgusting' and having some other person acknowledge that indeed he had laughed his head off. So whose fault is it?
I'm one of the peeps that made it through to round 2. Did Keep Yourself Alive on guitar....Jason du Preez, Vancouver BC.
Let me know what you think! I tried to keep the 'cheesy metal shredder' type playing out of it and stick as closely to Brian's style ;) link
I have to say there are many talented people in this!
The voting structure is not particularly engaging, which is the whole point of this exercise one would think. You can only vote once in each category. You'd think they'd let you spread your interest/loyalty around a little and allow three votes or something - there's at least a couple of dozen singers there! I wasn't sure about participating in the voting round in the first place, and now that I would have to think that hard about it I seriously can't be bothered.
youngballantyne wrote: I'm one of the peeps that made it through to round 2. Did Keep Yourself Alive on guitar....Jason du Preez, Vancouver BC.
Let me know what you think! I tried to keep the 'cheesy metal shredder' type playing out of it and stick as closely to Brian's style ;)
http://www.queenextravaganza.com/auditions/
I have to say there are many talented people in this!
Did listen to you earlier due to your Candianness. Good luck. :)
The vocal and bass choices for round two are too easy. Seriously? CLTCL? AOBTD? never got tired of listening to STL vocals and the TSSOR keyboard riff in round one, but BoRap? C'mon. Oh, I forgot. This is Roger's game. Silly man. Marc Martel's audition was hugely disappointing. Too pedestrian. Selcuk Cingi was the best, but Cody Bond has that hair factor going for him. And he can belt it out. At least the guitar requirement gives them something to sink their teeth into. Adam McDonald is giving Zukowsky a run for his money. And Zach Mullings? Somebody buy that dude a ginormous drum kit. The kid can slam!
Since John Anthony disables Youtube comments and is very hard to get in contact with, this is possibly the first time in 30 years that he's actually heard any variation of the sentence, "you are not good enough".
Your Fairy King wrote: I'm voting for Cody Bond's hair.
Ha! When I watched his first audition the first thing I thought was that he should be time machined back to the late 70's to star in some movie where Kristy McNichol loses her virginity at about an hour fifteen. He's got those completely inoffensive if slightly cliched good looks a la Jon Bon Jovi. Even his speaking voice sounds like everything he says would come out as "chicks dig me" when played backwards.
For the uninitiated and/or those who can proudly say they have no idea who Cody Bond is: Kristy, I looooove yoooou!
Your Fairy King wrote: The vocal and bass choices for round two are too easy. Seriously? CLTCL? AOBTD? never got tired of listening to STL vocals and the TSSOR keyboard riff in round one, but BoRap? C'mon. Oh, I forgot. This is Roger's game. Silly man. Marc Martel's audition was hugely disappointing. Too pedestrian. Selcuk Cingi was the best, but Cody Bond has that hair factor going for him. And he can belt it out. At least the guitar requirement gives them something to sink their teeth into. Adam McDonald is giving Zukowsky a run for his money. And Zach Mullings? Somebody buy that dude a ginormous drum kit. The kid can slam!
I think simple/obvious riffs make it easier for people without super discerning ears for instruments to make a reasonably intelligent judgment. Second round certainly has leveled the field - Marc who was overblown through no fault of his own has definitely been pulled back to earth. I felt the same way about his audition on first listen but liked it better on a second.