A Few Videos

As many of you know, I am a frequent peruser of YouTube videos, and I enjoy sharing good ones. That's what I'm going to do in this post. Enjoy.

First of all, I stumbled upon this guy a few years ago, but I'd completely forgotten him until I stumbled upon him again a few days ago. First, a little background. Back in 2003, when American Idol had exploded onto the scene, countries all over Europe had their own version of "Idol". So, at the end of 2003, there was a one-time competition called World Idol which pit the winners of the American, Canadian, Belgian, British, etc. Idols against each other. The general consensus was that Kelly Clarkson (US) and Will Young (UK) were the heavy favorites, but the general consensus didn't factor in a funny looking little Norwegian named Kurt Nilsen. He sang U2's "Beautiful Day" and, as you will see, he absolutely kills it:



This performance and his somewhat less than rockstar looks prompted one judge to tell him "you are a hell of a marketing challenge, because you have the voice of an angel, but you look like a Hobbit," and Simon Cowell to say "If this competition were on radio, you'd walk it" (which, it turns out, he did anyway). Anyway, I think he's got an unbelievable voice, and I love listening to him. There are tons of great videos of his performances out there (like here and here), but I'll just embed one more video of his here:



Speaking of Idol, I will share my thoughts on the top 24, since I know you are all waiting with bated breath for my thoughts on American Idol. I mean, how else are you going to know who to look up on YouTube? I do not claim to be a music expert (if I were, why would I be watching American Idol?), I often listen to bad cheesy pop music (again, this is why I watch American Idol), but these are the people I like:

Casey Abrams is really good. He's really confident and seems to have a clear sense of who he is as an artist. Also, he's really talented. That helps.



I didn't like Jacob Lusk until this week, when he gave an absolutely killer performance of "A House Is Not a Home". He's got absolutely crazy range.



Among the ladies, I really like Lauren Alaina (who reminds me of Kelly Clarkson) even if this week wasn't my favorite performance of hers.

The judges raved about Pia Toscano this week, and though I wasn't wowed on first listen, when I went back and listened again, I came away really impressed.



Most impressive for me, though, was Karen Rodriguez, who sang Mariah Carey's "Hero", half in English and half in Spanish. I can take or leave the Spanish thing, but she sang it flawlessly.



One last video before I go (So many videos. I know). Reed Berger introduced me to this guy last time I was in Cary, and I really like a few of his covers. I'm not a fan of all his stuff, but he manages to make the song "Firework" enjoyable, which I thought was impossible (seriously, that is the worst song ever written, ugh). I love this cover of "Just A Dream" which he does as a duet with another artist:



Well, I'm finished with my videofest for now. Hope you enjoyed them.