New record company deal for Katherine Jenkins

[Natasha]

I doubt Katherine will be singing at La Scala in her 30's if ever. I used to be a big fan, but her voice has really taken a turn for the worse with that awful uncontrolled vibrato... who knows tho, maybe it can be fixed?

Anyways. and *back on topic* maybe now that she's in the US maybe I will see her sing live... you never know

[fusilier23]

Katherine's voice does not need "fixing," like any voice it will contiue to develop for at least 4 more years. I doubt Maestro Domingo, possibly the consummate musical grand master (singing, conducting, teaching, administering) would take her on in any way if he thought her voice was "awful" in any aspect. Not to mention Warner wouldn't offer her that kind of money if they didn't think she'd sell.

[Natasha]

I have to respectfully disagree. Voices develop at different paces, but fast, overused vibrato is not a natural part of the process (take this performance for example www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1sP88ct6sU ). The word "tremolo" has already been used to describe what's happening with her vibrato. I don't know if that's true but whatever it is, it is not a pretty sound to listen to. Also, IMHO sales and quality are often two very different things.

However (before the Mod's kill me for keeping off subject! sorry you guys!) I am interested to hear what this new album sounds like, and also equally interested to see the tracklisting - does anyone else think Katherine just might cover a few Josh Groban tunes?

[BarefootSoprano]

Hey guys!
This thread caught my attention so here I am. lol. I could say a lot on this issue, but I've got to go study for a diction test.

I think Katherine's voice is fine, for the most part. I don't think it is her vibrato that is the issue as much as lack of correct placement and pronunciation. If she were to correctly place the vowels and make sure the consonants were always created without tension, the sound would come forward, sound clearer, be more understandable, be more resonant and her voice would, theoretically speaking, be more free. Once this all falls into place, her vibrato will be fine.

Her studio recording of Hallelujah (or at least the sample I heard on iTunes) is a great example of a step in the right direction. notice things sounds very clear, the vowels are made with the right parts of the mouth, and the consonants are crisp and clear. However, on "abide with me", for example, the sounds are not as clear. that can be easily fixed by making sure consonants are crisp, and the right vowel sound is created. There are many different ways to pronounce any given vowel. For example, in the sentence "Many a baby has a tall father" there are six pronunciations of the letter "A". So its just a matter of knowing what pronunciation goes with what word. (it’s really a little more in depth than that, with lots of rules and exceptions, but I won’t bore you all…e-mail me if you want to talk diction lol.) Ok, ya, that’s all from here. Katherine voice is improving and I’m excited to see what she does with it.

Kris

I don't think she'll cover JG songs, I think they will write her new ones

[fusilier23]

I agree, most likely Katherine will have her own crossover songs written for her, although I can see her covering the well-known crowd-pleasers like "You Raise Me Up."

Her vibrato is notceable, true, but I for one prefer a voice with a vibrato to a straight sound like a boy soprano, which frankly sounds like an out-of-tune oboe to me, annoying. Believe me, I worked with a woman with such a voice for three years, so I think I know what I am talking about.

The question of whether her voice is a pretty sound is subjective, of course, but the folks at Warner and Universal didn't get where they are in the business by not knowing what will sell and what won't. Ugliness might sell in heavy metal, but for classical crossover you need a sound that is generally considered attractive. Although I won't dismiss your comments by saying come back when you get your multi-million dollar contract, the fact that KJ has gotten this far seems to put you in the minority. For the moment, I think we ought to just say wait and see.

[annie]

Wow-it seems on this forum that successful SIGNED singers have alot to learn from the "singers" who want to be famous. I for one find it hard to believe you are so critical of someone so successful. As fusilier23 said, maybe you should wait to judge people like Katherine Jenkins till AFTER you get your multi million dollar contract.

[fusilier23]

Ouch!

[annie]

I didn't mean to be too harsh but really...I am a new member to the Hayley forum and I have just been surfing around and reading everything and there is alot of criticizing other artists I think. People seem to love to criticize Charlotte Church on here as well. I just don't think you need to be openly critical of other artists to be a fan of someone. The other 2 girls who have said things about KJ obviously want to be singers themselves and you don't get to the top by downgrading successful singers. And when you do achieve success you would never criticize other singers the way people do here.

[roger]

Fair comment, Annie, thank you. This might be an opportune moment to say that HWI does not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed on this forum but, by its very nature, we must allow members to express their views subject to ProBoards Terms of Service.

Roger

[BarefootSoprano]

Ooooh! First, lol, I didn't mean to be critical...just analytical. Its a discussion forum. Re-read my comment and you'll see it says a lot of positive things about KJ.

2nd- I don't want to be a singer...I am a singer!!! (record deals are not the only things that makes a singer a singer )

3rd- I've got to go study before Church. I have a performance later today, and then I shall eat chocolate.

4- You'll probably take this comment all wrong. lol.

Cheers!
Kristyn

PS the music world is cutthroat

[Dave]

Interesting comments! I'll just add that no singer is perfect and anyway, people have different tastes in music. When their imperfection(s) are mentioned by those who have noticed them, it can easily come across as negative but in reality, it may just be part of a fair and balanced criticism. All singers should expect to face some of that during their career and my goodness, Hayley has certainly had her share!

However, the reason we exist as a forum is to provide unofficial support to Hayley, so you would not expect to find much criticism of her here. This does not necessarily apply to other singers and it will always be more likely that for them, members will mention aspects that they do not like or are not so keen on. I would hope they also mention things they do like about them - but it's easy to leave out the bits you like and then, the whole message may give a misleading impression. So when expressing negative criticism, it's always best to try and balance it with some of the positive too (which has indeed been done in several of the messages above).

Cheers, Dave

[comet]

Firstly, I have bought each of Katherine's albums as they were released and have her Live at Llangollen DVD, my money is where my mouth is, I like most of her material so far and assume her record buying fans have bought her cds for the same reasons more or less. Her style of singing was down to earth, natural sounding and unpretentious, I listened to her quite a lot and still do.

I listened in horror to her singing recently at the Opera House in Wexford performing vocal gymnastics just for the sake of them,
I think this may alienate some of her fans. These sounds and tricks may be technically difficult to achieve and some singers may aspire to being able perform these vocal stunts, But then, do they start to sing songs just to SHOW OFF their new tricks ? It all becomes a bit of a circus act to me at that stage. It makes me shudder in revulsion at how unnatural the sound is.

Have I said I like Katherine, I do, I admire her greatly as a singer and as quite a charming personality,
I will buy her next album in the hope it is not full of newly acquired vocal stunts. If it is I probably will not buy the following album.
It is probably more difficult to recover a lost audience or fans then to acquire new ones, also she may not be accepted by the market she is aiming at......

[fusilier23]

Hehe, for once comet and I are on the same page. He can relax, her current album does not make use of coloratura fireworks, and the next one, which, I think, is going to be produced for the North American market, is unlikely to make use of them either, though there may be some obvious "big tunes" by David Foster. But that's not a bad thing, he achieved great things for classy adult contemporary artists like Josh Groban and Celine Dion.

Criticism of Hayley is going to be light on this site, obviously, since it's a fan site, although it's not a tyrannical site like some others I could name, where the slightest criticism will earn you a lifetime ban. By the same token over-enthusiastic posting is light, since most of us have been here a while and grown past the "she's the greatest" posts. However, everyone's got their opinions of other artists, some good, some bad, and you are right, Annie, some of us do go a bit overboard at times. However, if we get close to the line the mods slap our hands before we cross it.

You have more insight than you think in your comment that a lot of unsigned singers seem to think they have a lot to teach the signed ones (pm me if you want more thoughts on this).

The fact is that Katherine is probably the most successful of the young crossover lot, although she didn't start as young as Hayley or CC. When this new deal finishes she will have 11 albums to her credit and hopefully have conquered the North American market, something CC only managed for about 3 years and Hayley not yet. What is more, she'll have done it through actual talent, not by being a glorified novelty act. If all works out, KJ will actually have reached her full potential as an artist, something Hayley hasn't yet achieved (but she has time yet) and CC threw away.

[comet]

Interesting article in the Mail on Sunday with a U Turn on the statements in GQ Magazine !!!

[martindn]

Yes, I saw that. We have all made mistakes in life. Especially in our youth. Katherine told a lie, and couldn't live with it. That says a lot about her.
OK, so the cynical might think that it was done to get a front page headline in a Sunday newspaper at a time when another singer, Hayley, is being heavily promoted.
But I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt and beleive that ths is genuine!

Martin