Music

Here’s a clearer video of just her singing the song (no distractions!) :

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

This is a long overdue post about this singer I’ve came to know from China’s “I Am Singer” Season 1 (which was like 2 years back?). When I first saw her, my first impression – “Wah this auntie like a bit ugly looking hor…?”  I’m sorry for being so superficial, but when she opened her mouth to talk, that’s really my first honest impression.  But, by gods, her vocals totally won me over.  With her first song.

Her very first line gave me goosebumps.  After she finished her second line, tears were welling up in my eyes.  By the time she finished her first chorus, I was already crying.  Her hoarse vocals portrayed the feelings so well, so well that you couldn’t help but be transported into her world.

Instead of just posting up the song, I’ve decided to post up the entire before/after clip, to let people know more about this singer.  Yes it’s all in Chinese, but I’ll try my best to translate under the clip (even the dialogues).

00:03 Host: “I Am Singer”, the fifth competitor. I want to make a special introduction about her.

00:07 Guy with Specs: “I’m the 6th?”

00:08: Host: “She might not be someone that the whole of China knows, but at the mention of her name in this music industry, everyone agrees that her vocals is one of the best out there.  Today, the song that she’s singing, is a song that 10 years ago, Wang Feng had written for her. A heart wrenching song. I think, the title of the song probably resonates with her return to this stage.  The name of this song is called ‘Waiting’.”

00:46-00:50  Everyone in the backstage couldn’t get an idea what song is “Waiting” or who the singer could be.

01:18 -01:21   Everyone got a shock.

01:22 Beyond bandmember: “Powerful.”

01:24 Qi Qin: “Huang Qishan!”

01:26-01:30 Guy: “It’s Huang Qishan?!? WHOA!  She sings super well!!”

01:31-01:33 Guy with specs: “She is definitely a pro singer.  Definitely.”

01:40 Interview starts.

Qishan:  “All these years, I’ve learnt how to face and accept, and… this kind of quietly accepting certain things – this is really very important.  This world is already full of frustrations.  Everyone has lost the patience, the determination.  So I want to use the title of this song, to tell everyone to quietly accept, and wait, and someday, you will definitely get what you are waiting for.”

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Lyrics of the song:

几年前你一走就没回来 (You left a few years ago, and never came back)

从此我的爱变成了无奈  (From then on, my love has become helpless)

可我知道有一天你一定会回来  (But I know some day you will definitely come back)

这世上的孤独  我需要去忍耐 (The loneliness in this world, I have to bear)

Chorus:

等待 永久的等待  (Waiting, forever waiting)

树叶绿了又黄你还没来  (Leaves have turned green, and brown, but you are still not back)

等待 永久的等待  (Waiting, forever waiting)

在这世界上  你是我的唯一 (In this world, you are my only)

等待 (Waiting…)

我尝试过许多次想忘记  (I tried many times to forget)

我试图说服自己一切过去  (I tried to convince myself that everything’s over)

可这完全是在欺骗欺骗自己  (But that’s just trying to lie to myself)

我永远无法忘记你  (I can never forget you)

** Repeat chorus**

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It’s a simple song.  With simple lyrics.  But the melody.  The words.  Her vocals.  Her emotions.  Everything just fits like a jigsaw puzzle. I can’t help but feel drawn into her emotions.  I can really feel her pain as she’s waiting for the person to come back but the person never came back.  I can re-watch this 10 times and I would tear 10 times.  Maybe it’s the live ensemble that makes the song more epic than it really is towards the end.  Maybe.  But I think it’s really just the way she sings that carries the whole song through.

Not to mention the fact that she hits the “Dolphin notes” so damn easily.  (In English they called it “whistle register”.)   Her range is… whoa.  Unbelievable.  Her vocal control throughout the whole song.  How she ended the notes.  I could just go on and on… The entire rendition is just perfect. Not just pitch perfect – but perfect.

Let’s remember her name.  黄绮珊 Huang Qishan (Susan Huang).

 

 

Amazing. There’s only one word to describe her. And that’s – Amazing.

I stumbled across this article while surfing around:-

“American Idol” isn’t the only launching pad for aspiring singers. Across the pond, “Britain’s Got Talent” scored a huge boost in the Buzz after an unassuming contestant gave an amazing performance.

Susan Boyle (remember that name) became a Web phenomenon after singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. The performance brought the audience to its feet and left the judges (including Simon Cowell) either speechless or in tears.

Before going on stage, Ms. Boyle admitted some self-deprecating facts about herself (she’s never been kissed and lives alone with her cat, Pebbles). For those reasons and more, audiences were expecting the female William Hung. They were wrong.

Lookups on the sudden star posted huge gains. A no-name just the other day, Ms. Boyle quickly surged into our top 5,000 overall searches. Blogs and gossip rags went wild. The Mirror jumped on the story, reporting that while Ms. Boyle thought she “looked like a garage” on TV, she received a standing ovation when she showed up at her local church.

Other sources write that as a child, Ms. Boyle was the target of bullies because of a disability. But, with her newfound fame, she is getting the last laugh. In fact, she’s already meeting with officials from Mr. Cowell’s Sony BMG label. This may have been the first you’ve heard of her, but it certainly won’t be the last.

That article had a short video of Susan Boyle’s audition, but I knew it was not the full version. So, I went to Youtube to search, and viola, I found this video that was being viewed 2,721,614 (at point of writing) and counting. Of course, that couldn’t be compared to Paul Pott’s (Year 2007 BGT winner) video performance during his BGT finals (42,890,148 views – wow!), but hey, the video had been there for 2 years. And Susan Boyle’s video has only been up for less than a week.

Her stunning performance brought tears to my eyes the moment she opened her mouth to sing. At the end of her performance, when she sang the last line, I was smiling and crying at the same time. It was totally unexpected – it was absolutely brilliant. And it’s just totally amazing to see the audience, who initially laughed at her, ended up gaving her a standing ovation after her performance.

I hope she wins.

Most of the full-length videos of her audition disabled embedding, so I’m giving you the raw link here:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Never judge a book by its cover – this phrase has, again and again, proven itself right and this time, it’s been proven once more again, in the case of Susan Boyle.