The review is continuously updated during transmission. New Saturday, new All-Star Game! Autumn’s most exciting song competition is starting to drag on, and we can actually call this broadcast a quarter-final. It will be fought in the dizzying combination of big band and Latino pop, not exactly Helan and Halvan that. With only four artists remaining in the competition, we can certainly hope for a high level. Tonight, Mari Bella, Odd René Andersen, Tone Damli and Aleksander With will swing on both hips and fedora hats, naturally in their own genre. Tonight it will therefore be exciting to see how easy it will be for the participants to switch between two very different genres. They coped well during the hip-hop and vise broadcast last Saturday, so I’m crossing my fingers that things don’t go badly this weekend either. Although it’s also a bit of fun, then. The evening’s performances in order: Large band: 1: Aleksander With: “Still Crazy After All These Years” Aleksander has gone for a voice that is confusingly similar to his own. It can be a good choice, but you always have to be careful not to just bang out an imitation cover, but he can solve that by dragging in a bit of Ray Charles. Ray Charles x Aleksander With x Paul Simon, sort of. When Aleksander gets down to business it quickly becomes clear that he has acquired an impeccable chemistry with the orchestra and plays the instruments well. He also fixes the crooner look where you often stand and offer an ever so small serenade to the audience. We’re getting spoiled with wonderful Aleksander performances now, so unsurprisingly he’s right on the mark once again here. Have managed to weed out the biggest Paul Simon imitations too, granted! For my part, he can cut the unnecessary camera flirting, but this was very well done! Not quite fireworks, but definitely another fine Aleksander number. 2: Mari Bella: “Don’t Rain On My Parade” Mari Bella comes straight from a nerve-wracking voting session last Saturday, and is probably in high spirits tonight as well. She has chosen Barbara Streisand’s “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, and you have to be very rhythmic and charismatic to be able to excel with it. Mari Bella has often been able to soar on her powerful vocals, but the challenge is quite different this weekend. But Mari Bella dares to let the vocals enter this musical tonal language, and also manages to play on the lyrics in the language of the stage. As usual, she gets good traction from her vocal skills, but who can really pull for that? Here, I think Mari Bella is back in top form, and shows a good understanding of the genre’s vocal technique and dares to be stylishly carefree in her performance. Grandiose, mighty and magnificent! 3: Tone Damli: “Can’t Buy Me Love” Our beloved Tone has chosen to interpret The Beatles in the big band evening! Rather Ella Fitzgerald’s version, but this song must be translated quite well to enter the genre. Now Tone will vibe with the big band, yes! Gets off to a rather rusty start here, it’s clear that singing imperfectly is quite a foreign concept to her. In the verses, as expected, she has full control, offers some controlled and welcome vocal riffs, but in the chorus it is more painful and strained than desirable. If this song had been a collection of verses without a chorus, this would probably have been a perfect interpretation, because it is only here that Tone dares to challenge himself and take speed in the perfect. It picks up strongly towards the end, so if only she had entered that groove earlier, this could be called a very successful performance. 4: Odd René Andersen: “Hallelujah I Love Her So” So the stage is set for one of Norway’s best vocalists, who will interpret one of the best vocalists of all time. Charles reportedly had a register of three octaves, and it takes its vocalist to convey his emotional life in a way that had not turned Ray Charles into a festering, table-pounding man with disgust in his eyes. However, this is a genre Odd René has a very good understanding of. It also becomes completely clear from the first note here, and you really have to look for a long time for better vocal control, that is. Odd René also manages to be playful, flirtatious and loose and shows that he has full control over the song, the arrangement and the reliable communication of love that Ray Charles has performed. He also has complete control over the audience, and really captures the entertainer aspect of this genre. Odd René is and will be a clear favorite to win the entire sulamite, and he shows that time and time again. Without committing an Anders Grønneberg headband scandal, I will in any case eat something bad (a beetroot) if Odd René is not at least in a final in Stjernekamp this autumn. Another absolutely perfect edition of Østfoldingen! Latinopop: 1: Aleksander With: “Liar” Photo: Jonathan Kise / news 2: Mari Bella: “SloMo” Photo: Jonathan Kise / news 3: Tone Damli: “Havanna” Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug (2017) Photo: Jonathan Kise / news 4: Odd René Andersen: “Despacito” Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee (2017) Photo: Jonathan Kise / news
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Stjernekamp quarter-final 2023 – big band and Latin pop 21 October – Reviews and recommendations
