Super Bowl Open - Christina Aguilera and what about that Glee girl?

[IM WHO YOU THINK]

Originally Posted by paultools

Hello old friend!

Whitney was smart enough to pre-record it. It was still stirring.
Woulda been a neat trick to record an "acapillow" version. LOL
Some of y'all get it...

Whatup Paul?

I couldn't find Al. (I saw it when he sang for the game but strangely it's not anywhere online (that I can find )

But here's the "singles" national anthem (and a great performance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myLkS...layer_embedded

[Happy Musicfan]

The simple truth about bluesy/pentatonic vocal embellishments is, less is more. Seriously. If you are unleashing them every 2 beats, they lose their wow-factor in 1 minute due to overkill. If you use them every 4-6 measures, they *really* surprise and stimulate the listener. They actually *embellish* because the *embellishing* is the *exception* to the norm.

[paultools]

Stop the presses while we go to the videotape...

The timing inaccuracies suggest a live performance, but something just didn't seem right to me. She looks like a ventriloquist... singers, where are the physical mechanics of that big vibrato @ 1:17 and the final note? Just sayin'...

Lea Michele of 'Glee' Performs 'America the Beautiful' at Super Bowl XLV - AOL Music Blog

[RMJAZZ]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

OMG. I thought she was great. Yeah she lost focus and forgot the words at one point. Then almost went some place else but recovered.

I guess all of us know how it feels to sing the national anthem in front of millions and millions of people, some watching from all over the world, with tech people and producers jumping down your throat and tremendous pressure every where. Yeah, how silly. You guys should cut her some slack. Next time you do that give a call so I butcher your every attempt.

Yeah, I have performed the Anthem at numerous NBA games and also in front of 100,000 people with our current president in attendance.......and it is VERY easy to loose focus. With that said, I think she messed herself up by trying to add too much to the melody.

But what was the deal with the black eyed peas????? I thought they were horrible. The mix for broadcast was just as bad!

R

[tribeofenki]

1. That particular song wasn't supposed to be an eclectic drill for the singer.

2. I was into a big choir ensemble when I was a boy. I performed in many
roman catholic churches some Gregorian Chants as 'Ave Verum'.
Every single Church has different sonic qualities, so adapting while performing is difficult.

3. As opening of a top national event the singer should just do a clean, open-heart artistic action...



Like this! Just listen to him, ignoring the particular meeting if you want.

[blue]

Black Eyed Peas - The show was great. BUT - the vocals... okay, they are just shouting and didn'd sing. Anyhow, it was awful IMHO.
And the mixer should get an occupational ban - vox was way to loud.

[tapermark2006]

She knew the words when she was 11!

YouTube - Young Christina Aguilera sings national anthem

[steveschizoid]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Who says "ramparts" anyway? I call it a re-write.

- c

thumbsup steveschizoid likes this

Originally Posted by bcgood

....she had some shall I say, "interesting" note choices particularly the all important Brave, last note which was totally different than the original and it didn't work in my opinion.

Perhaps, but given the fact that she was simultaneously thinking "I just screwed up the National Anthem in front of millions of people worldwide, I think she she pretty well Rocked!

Originally Posted by djanthonyw

Football sucks. All team sports suck and have no purpose. It's like watching cavemen argue over a rock.

You'll have that.

[pan]

Anyone been to the aftershow party with Prince and Erykah Badu?

Pricing was a bit steep for me: 1,500.- plus flight...

[Kenton]

Ah Christina - "soul yodeling" at it's best.

It seems to be the vocalist's equivalent to "shredding" and about as musical as well. Sure it's impressive for 20 seconds but I wouldn't want to listen to a whole evening of it.

I wish I could sing like that though, and then choose not to...

[Remoteness]

...AKA vocal calisthenics.

Great during practice, not so much during the performance.

Originally Posted by Kenton

Ah Christina - "soul yodeling" at it's best.

It seems to be the vocalist's equivalent to "shredding" and about as musical as well. Sure it's impressive for 20 seconds but I wouldn't want to listen to a whole evening of it.

I wish I could sing like that though, and then choose not to...

[jordanvoth]

Originally Posted by creegstor

Is it too much to ask to have a modicum of taste and sing it straight?? Really?


I guess at least Christina can sing somewhat. The Glee girl sounded like she was tunelessly choking on a donkey's knob! LMAO!!

Yeah after that fiasco I turned the toob off and decided anything is better than wasting my time on something I really don't care about. NFL is a complete joke, if you want to see a football game without the eye candy and distractions watch CFL.

[roonsbane]

The worst thing is ever since Whitney Houston invented this "Souless yodeling" and Mariah Carey exploited it to its fullest. "Barf!" Somehow the great, and I mean godlike voice of Aretha Franklin has chosen this direction on some more recent performances.

You do not need to display such unmusical tastes oh great one. You are the queen of soul and those other two should not be allowed to even look at you.

I do think Christina could be a hell of a jazz singer if she had even a smigion of taste.
Cameron

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Problems abounded.

The microphone for Stacy Ann Ferguson was off and suddenly came on about 4 seconds into the song. The mix was ALL vocals. I would not want to be the audio engineer on this one. 5 minutes to get ready, 100 million + viewers and a list of things that could go wrong 10 pages long.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

5 minutes to get ready, 100 million + viewers and a list of things that could go wrong 10 pages long.

a WEEK to get ready!

4 mics and a prerecorded backing track to get right!

[joeq]

Originally Posted by SynthLine09

1. Sing the right words to the national anthem please

actually this was an example of CA's brilliant musicianship.

She received a signal that the F18's from Naval Air Station Oceana were a few seconds behind and deliberately stumbled in order to delay the last note of the Anthem until the planes were able to pass overhead.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by joeq

a WEEK to get ready!

4 mics and a prerecorded backing track to get right!

I don't know how much TV audio you have done but a lot relies on team work between the "A1" who is actually mixing the show and the minions of people that actually make it work commonly referred to as "A2s"

There are literally a couple of thousand things that can go wrong from someone NOT patching together the right snake boxes to someone giving the vocalist the wrong microphone as they go on stage. No matter how many rehearsals they have or how good the equipment they are using it all comes down to the individual person doing their job correctly or the whole show can go into the crapper. For a show like this I have to assume that the hired the only the best professionals but even those people can make mistakes.

I have no idea what was really going on and we will probably never know but I doubt it was as simple as you are making it. I am not trying to minimize the mistakes we all heard but it may have been beyond the control of the person who actually had his hands on the faders doing the mix.

Sometimes for really large events there is a premix truck that is doing all the music mixing. Those music stems along with all the crowd microphones and other microphones are premixed and sent to the main audio video truck where the "A1" does his magic with six or seven stems. There also maybe, in the very small audio control room, a producer, an A&R person from the record company and other interested parties. You also have a director yelling in your ear and some "A2" trying to tell you that the microphone that he handed the lead singer was blue instead of green because the lights went out just when he reached for the microphone. Been there done that. So I guess we need to cut the "A1" some slack. As I said in my original post I would not want to be him or her.

YMMV and FWIW...

[Steb]

i dont care for the superbowl, but just checked out lea michelle (who I do like ) - I thought she was really good. There were some timing problems at the beginning (I assume there was something up with her in ear as she adjusted it after a while), and a few small pitch probs, but other than that she was GREAT.

christina was pretty damn good too - except for yes, all those damn trills!!

but then...this is gearslutz. the land where no positive words exist

[Kenton]

Originally Posted by joeq

a WEEK to get ready!

4 mics and a prerecorded backing track to get right!

And then you get tens of thousands of football fans turn up after the soundcheck and start screaming into the crowd mics and you have to readjust on the fly...
The live sound guy has to turn everything up to get over the crowd noise which in turn screws the TV guys mix. Comms get drowned out and the producer is screaming at everyone....

Yeah, how difficult can THAT be?

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

....someone giving the vocalist the wrong microphone as they go on stage.

Yup, seen THAT happen...

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

I don't know how much TV audio you have done but a lot relies on team work....

I have done enough to be sympathetic to those whose good work was messed up elsewhere in the chain.

Nevertheless, the buck has to stop somewhere. How do "professional" companies get re-hired year after year with such crappy sound?

There are literally a couple of thousand things that can go wrong from someone NOT patching together the right snake boxes to someone giving the vocalist the wrong microphone as they go on stage.

we are talking about an event where for the last 15 years the musicians have not even been allowed to play their music live because it's "too important"

I don't do a lot of live sound, but I have never been anywhere where the snake was unplugged and replugged after the soundcheck. Nobody touches that snake. Not even a local club, never mind the Super Bowl! Someone is responsible to set up a system that works!

..I doubt it was as simple as you are making it.

It is certainly not as 'impossible' a task as you are making it.

Sometimes for really large events there is a premix truck that is doing all the music mixing.

it was a backing track, already pre-mixed.

Those music stems along with all the crowd microphones and other microphones are premixed and sent to the main audio video truck where the "A1" does his magic with six or seven stems.

Only there was no 'magic'. The music was pre-recorded and so low you could hardly hear it, and the vocals were dry as a bone. This was not something messed up "downstream"

Originally Posted by kenton

And then you get tens of thousands of football fans turn up after the soundcheck and start screaming into the crowd mics and you have to readjust on the fly....

sorry but after 45 years of Super Bowls, someone should have figured out that that tens of thousands of football fans will be screaming (however much they scream during halftime) and would plan to turn the crowd mics down. Duh.

The four Peas are wearing in-ears, so unless the FRONTS are bleeding into their mics, a change in the stadium sound is an unlikely source of a problem.

The live sound guy has to turn everything up to get over the crowd noise which in turn screws the TV guys mix.

After 45 Super Bowls, it strains credulity to think that this would not be anticipated. For that matter, it strains credulity to think that the sound system would not be more than capable of overwhelming the (non-football) crowd noise from the get-go.

The sad fact is that the sound never got better at any point during the show. That's an indication that they thought they were doing well. If they had a problem somewhere, why didn't they fix it?

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by Steb

but then...this is gearslutz. the land where no positive words exist

Why don't you search for the reviews of when Prince did the halftime show? Or the Who, or Tom Petty, or Paul McCartney?

[roonsbane]

Thanks Rob for the reality check!

Those past S.B. video performances are all sooooooooo much better than the BEP show. Also, the U2 performance is pretty much what you get when you see them live on their tour. Actually, it's amazing how tight how tight some of the performances are considering how spread out they are (I know they have in ears) also, how much is going on around them. I will also say the Who is really good, except for the fact that the medley arrangements are crap. But then again medleys are always stupid! Yes they don't sing the highest notes on Baba O'riley, but I imagine they didn't in the 80's as well. Those are really tough notes to belt. Also, as much as Pino Palladino is an amazing bass player, he has a very different playing style then John Entwistle. I imagine besides the Medley factor, this a lot like any post Moon/Entwistle Who show.

I will say generally the engineers seem afraid to use reverb or at least ambience on all of the mixes. The one performance that I think is equally bad with the BEP performance is the Stones show. I guess Mick no longer feels the need to sing anything with the slightest annunciation anymore or to sing anything even similar to the original melody. As long as his face resembles that caricature painting of his mouth while singing then everything is good in Mick land. Then add a bad mix and absolutely no reverb and it is very difficult to listen to, and I love many stones tunes a lot.

Could we really expect the BEP to compete with dudes that have performed probably 100 times or possibly 1000 times the amount of performances in their lifetime and 1/10 the amount artistic vision.

Cameron

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by joeq

I have done enough to be sympathetic to those whose good work was messed up elsewhere in the chain.

Nevertheless, the buck has to stop somewhere. How do "professional" companies get re-hired year after year with such crappy sound?

we are talking about an event where for the last 15 years the musicians have not even been allowed to play their music live because it's "too important"

I don't do a lot of live sound, but I have never been anywhere where the snake was unplugged and replugged after the soundcheck. Nobody touches that snake. Not even a local club, never mind the Super Bowl! Someone is responsible to set up a system that works!

It is certainly not as 'impossible' a task as you are making it.

it was a backing track, already pre-mixed.

Only there was no 'magic'. The music was pre-recorded and so low you could hardly hear it, and the vocals were dry as a bone. This was not something messed up "downstream"

sorry but after 45 years of Super Bowls, someone should have figured out that that tens of thousands of football fans will be screaming (however much they scream during halftime) and would plan to turn the crowd mics down. Duh.

The four Peas are wearing in-ears, so unless the FRONTS are bleeding into their mics, a change in the stadium sound is an unlikely source of a problem.

After 45 Super Bowls, it strains credulity to think that this would not be anticipated. For that matter, it strains credulity to think that the sound system would not be more than capable of overwhelming the (non-football) crowd noise from the get-go.

The sad fact is that the sound never got better at any point during the show. That's an indication that they thought they were doing well. If they had a problem somewhere, why didn't they fix it?

It is always easier being a Monday morning quarterback.

I was not there and I trust you were not there so at this point it is all conjecture. I have done sound for three US Presidents, I have done FOH and monitors for some of the biggest in the business, I have been involved in televising award shows and major concerts and I know that there is one constant in everything I have done - no matter how many times you check everything something will go haywire at the last possible minute. The "fresh" batteries you put in the wireless microphones will fail, the channel strip that the President is talking on will go noisy or stop working, the XLR on the hanging microphone will come undone and drop the microphone to the ground 50 feet on to hard concrete. You plan and double check everything but with literally thousands of connections and miles of wire something that is inconceivable will happen and you, as the person sitting at the board, will be left with egg on your face.

As to never plugging or unplugging a stage box...good luck with that one on a field in the middle of the super bowl where all the SEPARATE platforms had to be moved into place within 5 minutes. I have been back stage at Radio City Music hall and watched the union crew unplug all the stage boxes so the main elevator could be raised into position with an orchestra on it and replugging the whole setup within a couple of minutes and this was done back stage with little or no light and under constraints that would cripple a mere mortal.

Believe what you want to believe but until you are sitting in the hot seat don't say it is NOT what it is.

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by roonsbane

The one performance that I think is equally bad with the BEP performance is the Stones show.

Yes, I wouldn't put that one up as a shining example.

[Rhodester]

Okay.. so I am in the UK and it's late, the SuperBowl is about to start and up pops the daft women from Glee. Right, a little bizzare, in the UK if this was a Football match it would all kick off and the chanting would begin and she would be off in a flash!

Then the bit that confuses me... Christina starts up and manages (as usual) to add anothe 256 notes to the US national anthem yet just as she finishes the Jets are there. Now if you ask me those jets were never anywhere near the Superbowl by the time she had finished warbling! I agree sing the song and stop all the crazy stuff!

The Answer! Let Jordan Rudess play the anthem on a Prophet 08. I'd buy a ticket!

Rhodester

[foamboy]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

Lol. It's all personal taste! But you know, I know how the song goes.

Well,maybe the NFL should have asked YOU to perform it then. AT least you would have known the words!thumbsup


fb

[johnsound]

I always wondered about a national anthem that begins with "uh-oh..."

Regards,

John

[creegstor]

John Eskow: Christina Aguilera and the Hideous Cult of Oversouling

This is hilarious. Some of the comments are great. My favorite:

Christina Aguilera can sing notes but she can't sing a song.