Talent

Could not resist but to post again today! I lost power last night so I am just now watching Miss America. Of course, I am a very tough critic on the talent competition. Miss DC sang the exact same Puccini aria I sang last time I competed in an MAO preliminary! What a copycat! haha Just kidding, Puccini is obviously a very influential composer but there is a lot of repertoire out there so it feels strange... Maybe this is a sign that I should compete in MAO again... and then later ANOTHER Puccini aria!? This is so weird! Miss Texas' performance in comparison with Miss DC was less accurate but I respect them both for choosing a more technically difficult style and not selling out to the pop scene.

I must say, the other singers can not touch the classical performances. It simply does not take as much talent, preparation, practice, coaching etc to sing a song from West Side Story or Wicked as it does an Italian Aria. The singing technique (or lack thereof) used in Miss Virginia's and Miss.Whoever-Sang-Les Mis's performance made me cringe. They both could really suffer damage to their vocal chords singing from the throat like that.
There she is! Miss America! AKA Miss Virginia who I previously mentioned, sang a gospel/poppy style song from Wicked. She had a question about teen/childhood obesity and I think she answered it very well, maybe better than the other contestants but it's hard to compare because of course they were all different. I think she'll be a great Miss America, and how exciting that she's from my neighboring state of Virginia, I'm sure we have a lot of mutual friends.


I'm sad to see that neither of the Puccini girls made the top 5 but I'm not surprised in the least because I know how this thing goes.. The judges always favor the girls who do pop songs and I think it shows the lack of culture and appreciation for art in America today. What do YOU think?