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I'm not sure if this has been posted, but if it hasn't here it is. A really great article about our girl
NEW YORK - All right, I concede - when it comes down to who's a better performer, Taylor Hicks has it all over Katharine McPhee.
While McPhee is pretty and poised, she also seems a bit too polite - unable to lose her inhibitions to deliver the passionate performance that make an emotional connection with the viewer. She relies solely on her engaging, equally pretty voice to make that link, and on the occasion when it fails, she leaves you empty and unfulfilled.
Hicks, on the other hand, has no shame. He's willing to play the clown, get spiritual and prey on your weakness for lovable lugs to suck you in, and you fall for him, even when you know his vocal performance was only slightly better than what you would hear at the church talent competition.
That being said, I also have to admit that while Hicks is a great live act, there's no way I'd ever want to listen to a CD full of his warbling.
For all his pizazz and charm, Hicks is really just an average singer - a Michael McDonald lookalike and soundalike without the vocal richness, the power and the soul of the original. That was extremely evident Tuesday night as "American Idol" came down to the final competition between him and McPhee.
Sure, McPhee fell flat in her rendition of KT Tunstall's "Black Horse & the Cherry Tree," but that's because it was a poor match for her Broadway-like pipes; Tunstall's smoky, sassy vocals give the song its unique charm, and McPhee just couldn't duplicate it.
However, she showed her true strength as she sang her rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," breathing new life into a standard that has been so oversung by overwrought divas that most people wince when the opening notes of it are played. McPhee actually put her own beguiling stamp on it, infusing the classic with the kind of grace and innocence that Judy Garland did decades ago, and making it seem fresh and new.
And while her third song of the night, the new "My Destiny," may have been a snoozer, as Randy Jackson noted, it would have been even worse had McPhee not been singing it. One can only imagine what she could do if paired with the right songwriters, was coached by the right producers and given enough time to develop - not only as a singer, but performer as well.
However, all the seasoning in the world can't change Hicks' voice. It's good enough for a karaoke bar, and you'd be wowed if he was a co-worker belting out tunes at your office party. But there are very few songs that will make Hicks sound original enough that you'd want to keep listening to him if you heard him on your radio dial; if you heard McPhee on the radio, you'd wonder, "Who's that?" With Hicks, you would have already turned the dial and forgotten about him before the song was over.
Part of the reason Hicks has gotten so far is because he's so darn likable; he tries so hard and is so earnest you want him to do well, and you feel like a snarky cynic for even saying anything negative about him. Why can't a regular guy finally win out in a competition defined by booming voices and slick packaging?
Maybe a regular guy can. But in the end, you don't want to listen to the guy next door on your iPod. You want to hear something special, something that makes your ears pop, something that makes you tune in again and again and again.
And that's the promise that Katharine McPhee holds.credit to www.ledger-enquirer.com
Katharine McPhee fans around the world