I might have written this as a matter of ridiculous to sublime but it wasn't so extreme. One side was the Sun Princess pop choir. Pop choirs are one activity that cruise ships may have. They are simple things, volunteers who gather a few times to singalong, mostly in unison but harmonies are allowed but not written. Somewhat like a group karaoke, I guess. This was the best I've done, and given the expectations, it was pretty good. We sang five uber-pop songs: Here comes the sun; Hit the road Jack; Blame it on the boogie; New York New York; Sweet Caroline. All obvious and common. The keys were mostly OK although I found just a few lines in the Boogie problematic, always going high. The Frank Sinatra was damnably hard to carry off, given it's known by such a quintessential jazz singer. Sweet Caroline is always there, but then it's easy and everyone knows the actions (except me). The largely spoken male lines in Hit the Road Jack need confidence. My favourite was Here comes the sun, which was not so much easy as melodious and commonly interpreted. There were clearly numerous choral singers amongst the group. I stood next to a cabaret singer from Adelaide and even a member of my choir, Russell, was onboard. Small world. Later I caught that cabaret singer in The Voice of the Ocean, a takeoff of the TV version (I understand, with rights paid). Six singers performing with orchestra and background singers before judges on rotating seats and the like. I've never seen the TV version but don't need to now. There were heats earlier in the cruise that I didn't pay attention to, and a strange series of judgments, first by three judges, then of the judges by the contestants, then of the chosen contestants by the judges, then by the audience of the final three. There were some decent singers, some with experience and some without, singing some pretty obvious country or soul or crooner songs, mostly cut strangely short. Singers had a limited range of songs to choose from, presumably popular numbers with band charts available. And then the jokes and generous commentary (the singing passenger is always right). I chose a different winner, but so it goes. That was the last night and quite fun.
I might have written this as a matter of ridiculous to sublime but it wasn't so extreme. One side was the Sun Princess pop choir. Pop choirs are one activity that cruise ships may have. They are simple things, volunteers who gather a few times to singalong, mostly in unison but harmonies are allowed but not written. Somewhat like a group karaoke, I guess. This was the best I've done, and given the expectations, it was pretty good. We sang five uber-pop songs: Here comes the sun; Hit the road Jack; Blame it on the boogie; New York New York; Sweet Caroline. All obvious and common. The keys were mostly OK although I found just a few lines in the Boogie problematic, always going high. The Frank Sinatra was damnably hard to carry off, given it's known by such a quintessential jazz singer. Sweet Caroline is always there, but then it's easy and everyone knows the actions (except me). The largely spoken male lines in Hit the Road Jack need confidence. My favourite was Here comes the sun, which was not so much easy as melodious and commonly interpreted. There were clearly numerous choral singers amongst the group. I stood next to a cabaret singer from Adelaide and even a member of my choir, Russell, was onboard. Small world. Later I caught that cabaret singer in The Voice of the Ocean, a takeoff of the TV version (I understand, with rights paid). Six singers performing with orchestra and background singers before judges on rotating seats and the like. I've never seen the TV version but don't need to now. There were heats earlier in the cruise that I didn't pay attention to, and a strange series of judgments, first by three judges, then of the judges by the contestants, then of the chosen contestants by the judges, then by the audience of the final three. There were some decent singers, some with experience and some without, singing some pretty obvious country or soul or crooner songs, mostly cut strangely short. Singers had a limited range of songs to choose from, presumably popular numbers with band charts available. And then the jokes and generous commentary (the singing passenger is always right). I chose a different winner, but so it goes. That was the last night and quite fun.
Sweet Caroline has actions? Who knew?! Not me, either it appears.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a bit of fun, Eric, and a way to pass the time.