artistry hennessy @ 西門紅樓

the prerequisite to making the billboard charts in taiwan is to have no balls. either u're a woman OR you've castrated any hope of testosterone production for the sole purpose of that GAWDDAMNNED FALSETTO! (note: let's for now put aside the whole anorexic androgynous femme-look male artists have adapted- the japanese have taken this to a ridiculous extreme). anyways, it seems that no matter how chinese artists adapt to all genre's of music, including their own aboriginal tunes, they heavily induce the airy, high pitched, nasally falsetto as 90% of the melody. the only hint of a man singing could be a small bridge or just the talking btwn the verses. but that's what the people like and that's what the people get. so in short, if u can sing like a woman, u can be a star.

with the femme-voice trend in mind, last nights event coordinator for the HENNESSY ARTISTRY EVENT was quite brilliant. they booked a perfect buffet of jazzy, boy bandy, poppy acts that all tie in the easy listening unisex appeal. with bigger budgeted events being pushed into the growing markets of shanghai/hk....taiwan made use of it's compromised capital with the quaint 西門紅樓 venue. It's an east meets west living room with a chinese facade that houses 2 floors of modern bar atmosphere and a small stage with great sightlines for almost 300 degrees. (i would love to have a private party there)



until june started the show. they look like they went to prep school and sound (as expected) like postal service/grandaddy/deathcab.   trendy pop with lots of oo's and ah's in falsetto which i think wowed the audience.  if that didn't work, this did...月亮代表我的心



then came joanna wang.  there's no doubt she has talent and there's no doubt that she's been trained (not to mention that her dad is a producer) but her hunched back lazy singing style was seriously so tough to stomach.  "看的很痛苦!" -L.LEE.  she sang a full set of oldie hits (summertime etc) but at age 20 she hasn't developed any sense of her own style to give her rendition that extra ummph.  didn't warrant me to take any pictures....

then a short cameo by pretty boy dj tom price.  girls flocked to him for photos even though he only lazily spun 2 songs.

ended with shane ward.  great "american idol" type voice.  had a few songs with a dance team behind, did the boy band "come hither" look most of the time.  sang "apologize" by one republic and had a duet with joanna ward.  good voice, veteran stage performer, not a bad night.