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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not be able to stand Katharine Jenkins' voice?

150 replies

shadowfax07 · 17/12/2014 23:18

Especially in her upper register? I can't understand what words she's supposed to be singing. It gives me the rage, I was always taught in singing lessons and county choir to enunciate clearly. No point in singing if no-one can understand you!

Her lower register's fine, BTW, even if what she does with her lips is just tortuous to watch.

OP posts:
shadowfax07 · 18/12/2014 00:44

Mardy, that link does speak for itself, thank you!

OP posts:
Theboodythatrocked · 18/12/2014 00:55

Know absolutely Jack about opera although she always sounds to me like a strangled cat and I turn her off.

Was charlotte church any good then?

I quite liked her voice but no idea if her technique is up to scratch.

Learning on this thread.

TeenyfTroon · 18/12/2014 02:31

I thought I was the only one! I don't know the right word to describe the bit of her voice that I so dislike, but maybe something like 'timbre'. Can anyone put me right?
She sounds as if her mouth is full already and her voice is mixed up with something else. I can't listen for longer than a few bars.

Hairylegs47 · 18/12/2014 02:39

What a relief, I thought I was alone with my dislike of her and her singing!
Can't explain why I don't like it, it's like listening to a great composition, then a note is flat/off, it disappears, then the 'off' note returns. I have to switch her off.
Her face when she received a standing ovation when she was dumped! Who does she think she is???
Is her dad 'someone'? Only way I can explain her fame, she knows someone. Very much like Lilly Allen or Stella MacCartney.

Tattiebogle · 18/12/2014 02:58

Someone further up thread got it in one when they said she offers bland opera to people who dont like Opera.

I go to the Opera often but still have to read up on the one Im gong to see beforehand - but I can still recognise a good singer when I hear one and KJ is no 'real' opera singer.

Adele - in the first line of that famous song of hers she sings of 'someone like oooooooo, instead of you. Thats her level.

Tattiebogle · 18/12/2014 03:01

Hairy - is KJ's dad someone? No he's not. She comes from the same town in Wales I have close family in and she's from 'up the Cimla' - a very ordinary place and in some streets a very very poor part of town.

NobodyLivesHere · 18/12/2014 03:44

I went to school with her. Throughly unpleasant human being.

holls2000 · 18/12/2014 04:03

friend of mine had to sing with her. stories make me Grin . v good PR. less good voice and not an opera singer... she has taken 'cross over' to a new level of cheesiness.

Hairylegs47 · 18/12/2014 06:19

Mam, so her dad's not 'someone'.
That only leaves the other option Hmm

I just want her to go away.

jay55 · 18/12/2014 06:50

I hate the way she operaises simple songs, overblowing everything with no ability to act or convey emotion.

ChristmasDawndonnaagain · 18/12/2014 08:40

Can't bear the woman, can't sing for toffee. I love opera. Can't stand KJ.
Again, nothing to do with pretty/blonde (I don't think she's either) she just can't bloody sing.

CyclopsBee · 18/12/2014 08:45

I agree OP
she gives me the rage too. Awful noise she makes. Just makes me laugh watching her!

GreatAuntDinah · 18/12/2014 09:00

She is indeed very very mediocre.

Costacoffeeplease · 18/12/2014 09:19

Cannot bear KJ but don't get the comparison to Adele - she doesn't pretend to be a high brow opera singer, she'd probably agree with 'good pub singer'!

Whatisaweekend · 18/12/2014 09:23

Interestingly, I once saw her on a chat show and the host (can't recall which but poss Parky) asked her to sing something just briefly to remind him of the tune so she used her "normal" singing voice just to sing a line or two. And it was utterly beautiful!! Simple, sweet and rich. Not the utterly ghastly, histrionic, vastly heavily over-vibratoed caterwauling we are usually subjected to!! I think she has some sort of weird idea in her head about how she is 'supposed' to sound like so warbles away when her natural singing voice is much much nicer. Someone tell her!!

RojaGato · 18/12/2014 09:29

I don;t get it either. I think it is looks. Think he rvoice would be better suited to the more grandiose end of muscials than opera. But then she would be compared to actress/dancers/singers int hat world and she wouldn't be ahead of the pack lookswise, so I think she has chosen wisely and marketed herself well to maximise her exposure.

JamNan · 18/12/2014 09:38

I see what you mean
YADNBU

Kundry · 18/12/2014 09:43

She is utterly terrible, never in tune despite missing out most of the notes. And so so bland.

Wish she would stop claiming she wants to sing opera as well - it will never happen.

Russell Watson is also shit, Alfie Boe could have had an opera career but now just belts out standards on autopilot. Terrible.

kwerty · 18/12/2014 09:45

Can't stand her either. I think her brand of over prepared prettiness appeals to blokes who then assume it is jealousy if a word is said against her. never have been able to stand her and hate it when she is wheeled out to sing at rugby matches.

Beangarda · 18/12/2014 10:13

Is she still saying she's planning to sing in actual operas? For years she kept saying in interviews that she'd do it once she hit 30, because 'no one's voice was fully developed enough for opera before that' (which I bet would crack up all the 20-something opera singers who are continuing their training and singing small parts while working up to bigger ones as their voices mature).

But I honestly cannot imagine any opera house with any credibility casting her in even a small part, and I can't imagine her being prepared to take a tiny part, even if she were offered the kind of small part young singers are generally offered, if they're lucky. Or is she deluded enough to think she will stroll straight to singing Violetta at La Scala from her current miked-up, heavy-on-the-reverb-so-no-one-can-hear-you-fluffing opera standards? Surely someone who has run her career so cannily can't be so deluded?

Danielle DeNiese is my personal pet dislike among actual opera singers (I think her voice would be better suited to musicals, and I'm baffled she gets cast by decent houses, though I suppose being married to the Glyndebourne chairman helps!) but even then, there is an uncrossable difference between her (fully-trained, a decent actor, capable of sustaining a performance over a full orchestra for an entire opera) and someone like KJ.

Chippednailvarnish · 18/12/2014 11:06

Russell Watson is also shit

He's as fake as KJ. I remember an awful programme with him and Meatloaf. The premise was that Meatloaf was going to teach him to sing in a rock style. This is the man who used to gig in pubs and clubs, not some classically trained tenor! Confused

DandyHighwayman · 18/12/2014 11:20

yy Chipped. Pub singer.

Smileybutstressed · 18/12/2014 11:24

Pretty girl, nice personality, the voice is just not my cup of tea!!

Theboodythatrocked · 18/12/2014 11:25

NobodyLivesHere

You can't leave it like that! More info needed. Grin

FreudiansSlipper · 18/12/2014 11:31

I do wonder who her audience is. she is very attractive but that is not selling all her records

when she sings in her non warbling voice she has a nice clear sweet voice, little emotion though. her warbling voice sounds like Vera Lynn after too many sherry's