LIVE or Lip-Sync?

Surfing the internet on a Sunday night after a long day... Quite a contrast from my teenage years in Moscow back in the 90's, that's for sure :-)

Just came across George Michael's live rendition of "Praying for Time" on American Idol, which fortunately was captured on tape. Aside from the obvious relevance of the lyric, probably even more so now than when it was initially written, the truthfulness of this far-from-polished performance made me appreciate real, honesty artistry. Clearly affected by a cold, he delivered such a genuine rendition of an earlier, near-to-perfection record and even managed to compromise the lack of spotless purity in the voice with something so much more admirable and effective than a merely "auto tuned" perfection.

And that really reminds me of what artistry used to be and what it's become in our day and age.

As a teenager, I used to look forward to live albums of the artists I loved, knowing that the acoustic renditions of my favorite songs would not only provide a brand new glimpse into the essence of a song I had already fallen in love with, but also allow the listener to witness the very transformation of the artist's work into something familiar yet fresh and unpredictable (a new arrangement, an unexpected riff, a slight detonation here and there - so real and so credible!)

Nowadays, we basically have to keep our fingers crossed for most (not all!) singers not to miss the lip-sync spot, or at best - maintain a more or less bearable pitch throughout the song... Again, not always the case - thank goodness for that! - but more often than not, that's what the commercial market has to offer.

All very nice that we have the luxury of discovering fresh talent - real talent - online and at various clubs around the city... Great news, I agree, BUT let's face it, who wouldn't want to see that caliber of talent (and even more than that, for I genuinely think the average level of artistic metier and musical integrity is beginning to deteriorate throughout the industry and beyond) on our television screens, radio stations, big concert venues, etc. like back in the day of the Golden Era of Pop/Rock... You name it!

We can all argue about how wonderful myspace is as opposed to what the limited radio Top 40 used to offer to us back in the 90's and the 80's, but hey... Let's face it... This ain't all that wonderful either. We're just left with our own means for finding good music - and REALLY looking for it...

Wouldn't you want to witness a new breakthrough career of a real mega talent?

No denying - something's gotta give BIG TIME in the music business, the internet can't solve this whole mystery by itself - there's got to be another "complementary" route - and the industry's still looking for it. Let's just hope they don't end up wasting too much time and eventually STILL come back to the original form - the traditional way of how it used to be done.

There's only one way to do it, really, although the formats and catalysts are evolving by the day and that only makes it more exciting! :-)

A voice on the radio

In a strange way, everything started when I was lying in bed one night with a mild brain concussion and listening to one of the Russian commercial radio stations - something I had never really done before. Madonna's "Frozen" had just premiered on a show called "Live from the West" hosted by Yegor Shishkovsky from the UK. I was fascinated by the show, the unusual format (not many stations back home were so up to date about foreign music and news live from the West in the late 90's) and its charming host who spoke the classiest Russian I had heard in years!

And so the 14-year-old girl with her earphones plugged into her ears in the middle of the night waiting for Shishkovsky's weekly program became a fan. I think I even emailed him one day, but of course, he never replied! Too many fans, too little time, I thought.

However, one day I heard that he was coming to his native Moscow and hosting a quick meet & greet for his fans at one of the primary expo centers near to my home in the city. Having the coolest father in the world, the moment I asked him if we could go, he didn't hesitate for a second. Why was I bothering? I have no idea! I'd never been a "fanatic" of any kind, I could care less about autographs and signed pictures no matter how much I love someone for their work. Even my mother raised an eyebrow when she saw us standing in the doorway at 9.30am on our way to meet the radio DJ. "You're both crazy," she mumbled and gave us a quick wave.

The amount of fans at the venue was quite overwhelming, I barely got to the front of the line, but was disappointed when all I got in return was a generic "hi, what's your name? Tina. OK, he's my photo with an autograph! Thanks for coming. Bye." Abrupt or what, I thought... I wasn't giving up so easily - no, not me!

So I approached Yegor once again and gave him a demo mini disc with two song: "Quand On N'A Que l"Amour" and "My Heart Will Go On" (oh come on, it was a HUGE hit at the time and I was only 14!!!) - he smirked and probably considered throwing it into the bin the moment I turned away, but as a result he hesitated...thankfully!

The next morning, I got a quick email from an unknown sender: "Tina, I heard your disc, call me asap. Yegor"

(I forgot to include my phone number!)

I will never forget that feeling of utter excitement, pride and anxiousness I experienced while I dialed the number... It was one of those moments when you know it's the start of something new, something you've been waiting for as long as you can remember yourself!

The rest is history... Yegor became my first manager, a dear friend and someone I still love to bits and have a great deal of respect for. He not only helped me to launch my career from the very early days but also inspired my journalistic endeavors in press and radio. A childish infatuation became a lifelong friendship and the beginning of my musical journey. I got an email from Yegor this afternoon, in fact, and he wrote "I am so proud of you"... I knew he meant it from the heart.

One of the most important encounters in my life? Definitely! In fact, thanks to my 2-week long concussion that left me stranded in bed next to my dad's FM radio, I was not only exposed to a great program and its host who became a very key figure in the very beginning of my career, but also got totally hooked on the medium itself - my current part-time radio job!

I have no idea how we got from the first paragraph of this piece to this very last one, but this is certainly one of those stories that I keep getting back to time and time again whenever I try to determine the starting point of a journey that has now become my life - not just a musical adventure but a path I have chosen to walk through thick and thin. The final destination will be truly blissful, I am sure, but the process - the journey itself is such a great adventure in itself, you can't replace that - no way!