Wednesday, July 8, 2009

This Week on Digicel Rising Stars




This week’s contestants all left something memorable after coming to the stage; whether it was their soulful voices, ability to hit every note, audience charged energy, or their fabulous outfits.

Monday July 6 Kingston, Jamaica: If you missed Sunday night’s Digicel Rising Stars performances, you missed a great deal. Sunday’s show had the last seven contestants who are vying for the final five spots left in the Digicel Rising Stars’ Top Ten. Though this week’s line up was once again dominated by the women, the fans of the two male performances made up a large chunk of the crowd. Spurred on by their lovely and vivacious host, Yendi Phillipps, each contestant brought their ‘A’ game with some showing their true Star potential, while others, as Anthony Miller put it fell as “flat as a pancake.”

Outstanding Performances
This week’s contestants all left something memorable after coming to the stage; whether it was their soulful voices, ability to hit every note, audience charged energy, or their fabulous outfits. Two performances however stood out above the rest, leaving the audience in a satisfied frenzy. The first was by Andre and Fabian, members of the male duo ‘Moments’, with the song Muriel. Moments not only achieved perfect harmony in their rendition, but also had the right steps to complement their performance. The audience agreed fully with judge Clyde McKenzie, who congratulated them, saying: “you guys really captured the moment.”

Diva-to-be Adena Myrie gave the second breathtaking performance of the evening. Her goose-bump inducing, soulful rendition of Gladys Knight’s Midnight Train to Georgia left not only the audience, but also the judges in awe. Even the extremely critical Anthony admitted: “that was the best performance I have seen tonight.”

Fashion
The contestants not only displayed their talent in song, but following in Yendi’s stylish footsteps, their great sense of fashion. Yendi dazzled in a beautiful cream, layered ruffle chiffon dress, which showed off her long, sleek legs and tasseled animal print stilettos. The contestants came in at a close second, with Sandy Smith, the vocal replica of Celine Dion, wearing a gorgeous above-the-knee fuchsia dress, with what appeared to be a brown chiffon belt and train. Another contestant, Stacheal Smith, also glowed, with a black one strap mini dress which appeared to be the sister to Yendi’s.

Moments represented for the guys, appearing very dapper in a combination of red shirts with a black vest and tie and of course, square toed shoes.

Notable Judges Comments
While some contestants pleased both the judges and the audience, others fell short. Though the first contestant, Donielle Goddard, performed Whitney Houston’s You’ll Never Stand Alone to the satisfaction of the audience and judge Nadine Sutherland, who said: “you did not disappoint, you had it girl, you had it!”

Killer Miller without hesitation quipped that her performance was “competent, but overall bland.”

This was not the only variation between the judges’ comments, as Stacheal Smith who performed I Can’t Help Myself by Four Tops was at first complemented on her sense of musical maturity by Nadine, but shot down from a high by Miller, who opined: “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch is an upbeat and exciting song, but you did not display that. That was as flat as a pancake.”

The harshest comment of the night came when Killer Miller struck again at the expense of Dennilee West when he scorched: “I honestly don’t see you as a Rising Star”. A comment the killer claimed was an effort at tough love after her attempt of The Shirelles Will You Love Me Tomorrow.

Audience Comments
The audience appeared to have fully enjoyed the show, with most audience members coming to support at least one of the contestants. One contestant who seemed to have had more luck with the audience than the Judges was Jeremy Campbell, who, after his performance of a medley on the “Love Bump Riddim” got a mere passing mark from the judges; most of the audience however cheered loudly. While some members of the audience agreed with the judges, with one member stating: “Him can sing still, but him want a likkle more vybes,” a greater majority believed that: ”Campbell should be a name in every household in the world, he is the next Rising Star.”

Stay tuned this Friday on TVJ when Jamaica will chose which five of these contestants will make it to the top ten joining Angelle, Brown Sugar, Stratdon, Crissy & Winston and Princess Tiana.

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