March 12th - my thought on the singing!

Today I thought the singing was not so great quality wise...

Lagan song by Naga was superb . The free for sargam by Sukhvinder was simply mind-blowing. God the way his voice moves within a note itself. !!!!!!!!!

The other standout was the technically flawless Malavika Sundar. She was great music wise. Her voice may be something that many many not like ( me included in that group) To be honest I thought she did more with the song than even Naga did. Naga had a superior song which an experienced singer could play with easily.

All others had issues with their singing . Loosing the sur and even sounding flat on occasions. The worst of the lot was Revanth. He has a lot of panache and supreme awareness of the orchestra . That helps him a lot - but today in the altar of flair he sacrificed the basics of scale .
But all said and done I think he will continue to rule the voting charts.

On a side note -- maybe I will get a lot of brickbats here but did you all feel Sonu Nigam was experimenting too much. His purity of the early days seems to have gone! I remember attending a lecture at Trinity school in London once he sang such a huge variety of numbers - what stood out was his voice, grasp on the music and simplicity. I for one am such a huge fan and when I hear random improve when not needed it sounds difficult for me . Maybe I just need to adjust my tastes ...

Just dropped in to second your observation on Sonu Nigam. That guy needs to chill and keep things simple. I generally don't like the trend of adding too much to the originals, unless it is an all out redone version. And Sonu Nigam's spoiling his own space- I long to hear something simple from him.

I agree on the Sonu Nigam bit.
Infact not just Sonu Nigam but a lot of singers, especially those who achieve fame young, try too many variations in songs.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes simplicity is beauty.
Also you can't show all your skills in a song, the song loses its charm then.

I once had the privilege of singing with Pankaj Udhas (whom I admired), but I was so disappointed during the show, he used so many variations, which made the music lose its beauty. And during practice (we only had one practice with him) when he sang normally he sounded way better.

I agree Maalavika is going the Sonu Nigam way, infusing too many elements in a single song. She's trying to show her whole vocal ability in those 3 odd minutes.

I so agree on Sonu Nigam and his OTTness. I love his singing and I think he's phenomenally talented but why does he have this constant need to show off his prowess? I usually also love it when musical greats try to infuse something of their own into a song and take it to a different level - improvise, add free form sargams, harkats and what not. But Sonu takes this to a whole new level and ends up destroying the song. Improvisation is not the only way to show off your genius. Sticking to the basics and simplicity is what is the winning mantra most of the times. He should take a leaf from his spiritual guru, Mohd Rafi's book!

I want to chime in too about Sonu Nigam's extra improvisations. Very rightly said by all of you that a good song as composed doesn't need sudden and abrupt styling to portray one's skills. Everything has a place, just because you can sing certain way doesn't mean you have to poke it in everything. Sonu Nigam has a very soothing and warm voice. But when he adds all those shines to his songs, honestly it ruins everything for me. His USP is soulful voice and soothing texture, he should give us more of that.
Sometimes I feel that this habit of his has aggravated in recent years, probably because he feels the need to show how much he can sing even today or maybe trying to catchup with the new singers who are more western in their style. Come on, we don't need this proof, we already accept that he is a great singer. He doesn't need to prove such stuff.

I have had an experience of this transition listening to him during his live shows in the recent years. 5 Years back his show was absolutely heartfelt and soul touching as he presented his own songs and few old ones in their original style. But last year he totally ruined his show by over experimenting. We ended up hugely disappointed with that show.