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Culture vultures

Get tips on theatre and art from other Mumsnetters on our Culture forum.

singers who can't sing, voices that are overrated...

127 replies

lucykate · 01/02/2007 21:59

give me a minute, my minds gone blank, all i can think of are bucks fizz

OP posts:
tortoiseSHELL · 02/02/2007 10:52

Dh's Grandma met PP and BB when she was playing the piano for a school concert of St Nicholas - they wandered up and introduced themselves, thus quadrupling the nerves!

Marina · 02/02/2007 10:54

Given how waspish they were renowned for being about other musicians, she must have been petrified

NadineBaggott · 02/02/2007 10:59

Ronan Keating
Janis Joplin
James Taylor
Tracey Chapman
Katie Melua
Amy Winehouse
Michelle McManus

Tortington · 02/02/2007 11:02

janis joplin

shes great.

marthamoo · 02/02/2007 11:03

Any female singer who does that wibby wobbly vocal acrobatics type rubbish - especially in the last note of a song when they should just sing the damn thing and have done but no, we have to have up and down and round the houses and let's go round again wibble wibble blearrrch.

I'm thinking of, say, Whitney Houston singing I Will Always Love You...the last bit, particularly.

"...will always love yo....oooo....ooooouuuuu.....ooh....oooh...wibble wobble...

marthamoo · 02/02/2007 11:05

And every single wannabe on Fame Academy/Pop Idol sings in the same way...wibbly wobbly why sing one note when you can fit 27 in....I hate it.

Molesworth · 02/02/2007 11:13

god yes moo I hate the unnecessary wibbling

aDad · 02/02/2007 11:14

agree with most on here. keating and williams - how have they got away with it??

In defence of Bowie - he hasn't sounded good since the 70s but I loved his voice on hunky dory, ziggy stardust etc. Not a textbook 'could be in a choir' singing voice - not by a long stretch, but individual, brilliant and so suitable for the music he wrote.

JoolsToo · 02/02/2007 11:16

Kylie - gorgeous but no voice

aDad · 02/02/2007 11:16

marthamoo - spot on about the wibbly wobbly wailing stuff. Don't people realise that is just avoiding hitting the RIGHT notes?

Marina · 02/02/2007 11:29

That gargling round the note thing is dreadful, agreed. Why do they do it?
Hate David Gray's singing through thin lips voice too

eemie · 02/02/2007 11:34

Amazed - I just assumed the whole thread would be about Sarah Brightman.

Marina, I don't think PP was waspish, was he? Think that was more BB. In the letters the difference between them is striking, PP much more warm and human.

Never managed to hear Bostridge live, the four (4, IV) times I tried he was 'indisposed' and a dep sang. Maybe he actually does have consumption?

Marina · 02/02/2007 11:49

I should read the letters before making generalisations like that eemie, I freely admit
Oh you are so right about Sarah Brightman. And actually Lloyd Webber, for writing vocal material that actually seems tailored to torment singers and listeners alike.

Marina · 02/02/2007 11:50

Gosh wouldn't it be terrible if the poor man did have some health condition that made him just look etiolated and peevish to the casual onlooker eemie - that thought had honestly not occurred to me...

DeputyMacDawg · 02/02/2007 11:54

Califrau and Marina, am so glad other people hate Russell Watson's singing. Thought I was alone

DeputyMacDawg · 02/02/2007 11:56

The entire cast of 'Me Too'

franke · 02/02/2007 11:58

Nelly Furtado - she sounds like a model aeroplane in overdrive.

CocoLoco · 02/02/2007 12:05

Dido

FrogPrincess · 02/02/2007 12:06

oh god yes russel watson and the uber annoying lesley garrett, chris martin, whingy james blunt, robbie williams (plus many many others): they can't sing and are useless

however: bob dylan, vincent delerm, charlotte gainsbourg, serge gainsbourg, jarvis cocker: can't sing but are still fabulous

Molesworth · 02/02/2007 12:06

OH GOD YES DIDO!

I had blocked her from my memory

FrogPrincess · 02/02/2007 12:09

best thing to do with old dildo

Crotchety · 02/02/2007 12:12

Well I know she was a great and all that but I can't listen to Maria Callas for more than about a minute...

clemsterdarcy · 02/02/2007 12:29

I just can't stand the OTT warbling.

But the guy from the lighthouse family has a lovely voice surely? Mellifluous even?

Hear Kylie on the TV of the SHOWGIRL tour couple of weeks back ... excrutiating .. like nails scraping down a blackboard.

Just didn't get that small fella on X-Factor. Only saw final. He couldn't hit a single note. Pals kept saying I was mean and the songs just 'weren't his tunes'.

Urm -- if you're gonna be a singer, surely you should be able to do the basics ... like be in tune ... whatever the type of tune.

Ranting now -- like flippin' actors who just have 3 expressions and are basically themselves in every role:
Jennifer Aniston (kooky, puzzled, shout)
Tom Cruise (intense, grin, run)
and the MOST irritating of all ...

JULIA ROBERTS (garfy grin, massive frown with shout, incredulous head shake)

went a bit off tangent there ... but YKWIM

jura · 02/02/2007 12:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FrogPrincess · 02/02/2007 12:40