I Am A Singer 나는 가수다 30 October 2011

나는 가수다

This recap of an extra special episode of “I Am a Singer” is extra special itself! With Anna away in Korea for the time being, today we feature two guest commentators, widhi, who contributes to Indieful ROK as well as the Indieful ROK Spot on TBS eFM’s radio show Indieful Afternoon in Korea, as well as, none other than, The Korean of Ask a Korean!, both who are regular viewers of the show. The episode itself takes a break from the main competition and features past performers from “I Am a Singer” performing for the Melbourne audience of two thousand and having a competition among themselves, too.

Click behind the jump to see what we have to say about the show and leave your thoughts and picks in the comments!

All performances can be watched from Bugs Music’s special 나는 가수다 site. Click the tab saying “10월 30일 방송” to find the performances discussed below.

Melbourne with Past Singers

This week featured a special episode of “I Am a Singer”, following the contest round last week which saw Cho Kyuchan tragically eliminated after his only round on the show. In addition to the seven contestants, several singers who were previously on “I Am a Singer” also tour and perform in Melborne and for the first part of the episode, the crew follows these singers, as well as some of the contestants, around Melbourne. It seems wherever the singers go, they amass a small crowd of Korean (and foreign fans) and some end up performing for them.

Deciding the Order of Performance

As it was previously decided that the former singers would also have a light competition amongst themselves, they also return to picking their order of performance by the lottery balls. The results:

  1. JK Kim Dongwook (4th to pick, desired 6 or 7)
  2. YB (6th to pick)
  3. Park Junghyun (Lena Park, 2nd to pick, desired 6 or 7, her former manager, Kim Taehyun arrives and picks 3rd for her)
  4. Kim Yeonwoo (3rd to pick, desired 6, Kim Kyungho present and the emcees comment that they’re like a couple)
  5. Kim Bumsoo (1st to pick, desired 1 or 4)
  6. Lee Sora (automatic)
  7. Kim Johan (5th to pick)

tk: In a pattern that will be repeated throughout the show, Lee Sora simply does not care about the show other than the singing part and refused to participate in the show-y number drawing. (The official reason is that she was tired and went to sleep early.) Sometimes I wonder how she can bear being a celebrity at all.

rd: I’ve noticed this too. Aside from hosting, Lee Sora has missed mid-round performances and showed up on fewer interviewers than the other singers when she was on the show.

JK Kim Dongwook’s “상록수” (“Evergreen” originally performed by Yang Heeun)

JK Kim Dongwook takes the stage in a suit with his shirt casually unbuttoned and his signature bare feet. A quiet piano opens up the song leading into JKKDW’s husky voice, finishing the first verse with simply accompaniment and moves into the second verse with the same, JKKDW’s vocals taking greater strength in the second verse, leading into the third where the orchestra and background chorus join in. The arrangement isn’t considerably different from the original, replacing winds with pianos. JKKDW gives a little R&B-style roll in part of the performance leading into the final verse, opening up into a falsetto before going quiet for a little anticipation before the high finale. At the end, comedian Ji Sangryul comes out, also barefoot, to escort JKKDW off.

rd: The original is a folk song with orchestral and choral elements that’s almost hymnal in nature and I thought it was quite befitting for JK Kim Dongwook’s voice. His husky voice is the most notable change to the song, compared to the rich, river-like voice of Yang, but I have to admit that I don’t find much unique or interesting about this performance that distinguished it for JKKDW, being a fairly straight cover. It was merely okay, although some in the audience were clearly moved by it.

widhi: I really like the piano at the beginning of the song. it is really calming. I myself has never been a fan of JKKDW’s voice. His voice was too strong for this kind of song. However, he delivers the song’s emotion well to the audience. So, though this performance is not really special, the people enjoyed his performance.

tk: If there was a theme in this round of competition, it would have been “How to & how not to remake a legendary song.” And JKKDW’s performance falls right into “how not to.” Evergreen is one of the most legendary protest songs for the democratization protesters back in the 1980s. It is another Kim Mingi song, and its popularity among protesters was second only to “Morning Dew” (“아침 이슬”). Especially the last verse — “We will realize, advance and finally triumph” — is an obvious call for mobilization against dictatorship. There is so much history riding in this song, and JKKDW fails to bring out the history through his performance. (Although, to be fair, few truly can.)

YB’s “붉은 노을” (“Red Sunset” originally performed by Lee Munsae)

Yoon Dohyun comes out rocking a pastel pink biker jacket and shades and flashes rock and roll fingers at the audience. The music starts with the horns section as YDH asks if the audience is ready, getting the audience on their feet. The band comes in as the horns section fires off a fanfare, followed by a shouted “Hello!” from YDH. After another shout, YDH gets the audience clapping and dancing before going into the chorus, taking on the song in a very YDH style, with crunchy guitar hits at the end of each line and going straight into the chorus, complete with background shouts on the opening lines. Moving into the second verse, the horns die out and the band cools down as YDH takes the verse. In the second half of the verse, the drum kick starts thumping adding energy and tempo and the band starts rumbling leading back into the chorus, which repeats the same energy. After the chorus, YDH lets out a shout as the band goes for an instrumental break and YDH gets jumping along with him while ad-libbing shouts. The third verse doesn’t see as much a cool down as the second as the guitar hits still highlight the verse and the band continues with a fourth, abbreviated chorus. Then in a fifth verse, YDH takes a walk towards the front of the stage, pumping up the crowd as he leads back into the chorus, with the band dropped out after a hit, letting YDH, the background chorus and the audience shout out the main line of the chorus, before coming back in and YDH shout-singing before dropping himself out and getting the audience to sing a line before joining in with them, taking an extended note at the end of the chorus while the rest of the band and background chorus repeats, followed by another energetic instrumental break and YDH popping in with “사랑해” ad-libs before going into a rocker wail as the band wraps up with an instrumental breakdown. The crowd chants YDH/YB with rock fingers thrown up among them as the band takes a bow. Park Huisoon comes onstage to escort the veteran band off stage to great cheering from the audience.

rd: There’s no doubt that this Australian audience loves upbeat numbers with both Insooni and Bobby Kim’s high marks during the past episode and YB easily hooks the audience with the high energy song by Lee Munsae. YB’s arrangement definitely sticks to the rock formula, but adapts the more synth-string soaked original well, making a great choice to use a punchy horns section to fire it off and giving the song a more earthy feel. Furthermore, the energy level of the band was high and the choice of song is great for a large audience like this one, especially with the shout-along chorus. YDH does a great job of getting the audience involved and engaged from the start and this song is perfectly built to have them sing along on the choruses. This is as much as you could ask for a YB performance on the show and I think the band proves well why they lasted seven full rounds on the show. When YB is firing on all rock cylinders, they can excite an audience like no one else.

widhi: Firstly, I have to say, I like YDH’s pink leather jacket! This song is just a perfect choice. The trumpet sound at the beginning gave a good opening to the song. The changing between slow and high pace especially at the chorus was also very nice to keep the audience engaged not only by singing but also jumping along with the music. I really like this performance a lot.

tk: Here, we have an example of how to properly repackage a classic song. This is YB doing YB thing — projecting his sincere energy. It’s a great performance, and the arrangement fits the band like a glove. My only nit is that the energy sagged a tiny bit in the middle. I think YB could have cut the song by about 15-30 seconds and keep the energy level high throughout the performance.

Park Junghyun’s “널 붙잡을 노래” (“The Song to Keep You” originally performed by Rain)

Park takes the stage in a simple one shoulder-baring asymmetric black dress and takes some bows. A simple tinkling jazzy piano line opens up the song and Lena Park starts with a bluesy vocal ad-libbing, then going into the intro line with the piano like a lounge singer for the song intro. The piano closes out the verse as the synth orchestra quietly joins in for the first verse, keeping the focus on Park’s R&B vocals. The band comes in for the chorus, also quietly, keeping Park’s chorus line front and center, the band’s guitar and bass responding to the end of her lines. Park fires off some light melisma for the end of the chorus. The orchestra comes in stronger at the end of the chorus to set up for the verse, a ringing guitar leading into the second verse, easily a more swaying R&B sound with soft keys continuing to ring through it and Lena Park using her wide vocal capacity, emphasizing some points with a strong throaty attack. As the song moves into the chorus, background joins in along with a funky scratch guitar. The bridge brings in stronger hits from the rhythm section as Park builds up the song, leading into a long high note as the background fills in repeats of the refrain with Park ad-libbing the chorus line, with synth hits punctuating Park and some interesting rhythmic build-up from the drums, chimes and piano breaking the chorus which leads into another long note as the music drops out. This gets the audience cheering as she finishes her note. After a beat, Park comes back in with just the piano with a lounge close to the song to match her beginning. Park takes a bow and her previous manager, Kim Taehyun walks her off stage.

rd: Park’s take on Rain’s song is decidedly different, instantly taking on a more lounge-like R&B approach, away from Rain’s own intense and emotional approach. It’s still a strong interpretation and one that Park performs well, but I think the looser arrangement does blunt the impact of the line “나는 어떻게” (“What do I do?/What about me?) and while Park’s range of vocals is on display and she shows off with long notes and melisma here and there, I don’t feel like her performance fully colored the underlying emotion in the lyrics, simply because it was too pleasant and maybe even because of Park’s strong technical proficiency hiding any rawness. Still, it was quite a pleasant performance with good range exhibited.

widhi: This performance was just okay for me. I can’t argue that Park does have a very wide vocal range. But I think that by giving this song too many vocal techniques, this song becomes just flat, which is too bad. I do however like Park’s bass voice at the beginning and the sexy R&B feeling that I got from the song. Not the best from her, but it was quite a challenge for Park as she mentioned earlier.

tk: I am very conflicted on PJH generally. In my estimation, she is one of the best when she belts out high notes, above average on mid-level notes and techniques, and unbelievably annoying at low notes. (The little whine that she does at the low note makes me murderous.) So for PJH to score well on my card, she has to get to belting as soon as she can and keep doing that. (Sort of like the way she did in Deul Guk Hwa’s “그것만이 내 세상”.) But in this performance, she hardly resorted to any belting. Four thumbs down.

Kim Yeonwoo’s “내 사랑 내 곁에” (“My Love, At My Side” originally performed by Kim Hyunshik)

Kim Yeonwoo steps onto stage wearing a textured plum jacket on a black shirt with tie, not looking that different from host MC Yoon Jongshin, in terms of style. His song begins with the full band, driven by piano, instantly taking a gospel vibe, before leaving just the piano to lead into Kim’s clean and measured R&B hinted verse. As the song hits the pre-chorus, a background choir and the band joins in, helping to fill in the sound. The drums hit as Kim builds to the chorus, going in pretty straightfoward, but a horns section punches the end of the lines and Kim actually adds some stress to the end of the first stanza and even more vocal punch to the second (although the note bent strangely) with the band whipping up the music tight for less than a beat before Kim and the band blows into the end of the chorus and Kim ad-libs just a little at the end before a quick guitar solo break. A cute little organ leads into the next verse, which Kim adds more inflection into than the first go around. Just the keyboard and chimes are left for the beginning of the next pre-chorus and drums hit at a dramatic point in Kim’s performance leading to the rest of the music to jump in as Kim leads into a falsetto whoop and going quiet for the background choir to lead into first line of the chorus, ad-libbing into the rest of the chorus and a dramatic finale that goes quiet for effect, causing the audience to cheer. Kim comes back for repeats of the final stanza, with another dramatic silence before a extended vocal play with the guitar as the song closes to cheers and shouts of “Kim Yeonwoo”.

rd: Kim Yeonwoo mentions that he prepared a knife for five months for this performance and I do think it shows to some effect. Kim’s adaptation of the song is definitely different from the almost folk-rock vibe of Kim Hyunshik’s original and I wasn’t certain whether or not Kim Yeonwoo’s cleaner vocals would play a song that had Kim Hyunshik throwing a lot of grit in his vocals, but I think Kim Yeonwoo actually did make it work for himself. The gospel-tinged arrangement helped a lot with this, establishing a different kind of soulful backing for the song and while Kim’s range wasn’t as broad as Park Junghyun’s, I think his focus was tighter leading to some rousing moments within the song. I think this is his strongest performance on the show, including his short-lived original outing.

widhi: This is one of my favorite Korean songs and I have heard a lot of versions for this one. Though Kim was short-lived [on the show], his performances remain my favorites, especially when he sang Kim Janghoon’s “나와 같다면”. In this performance, I can see that he took the same approach, with an orchestra background, he sang with his clear and strong voice. He shows that he can make this song sounds exceptional and different from the original version. It was good, but still it can’t beat his performance of “나와 같다면”.

tk: This is another case of “how not to” repackage a legendary song. (Somewhat funny that Kim Hyunsik and Kim Kwangsuk’s songs got played back-to-back. There should have been a Yoo Jaeha song to complete the “K-pop geniuses who died early” trifecta.) “내 사랑 내 곁에” is all about squeezing out all the pain in the heart and pleading the lost love to be your side. KYW sings it like a 15 year old boy in puppy love. Technically everything was there, but I was appalled.

Kim Bumsoo’s “사랑했지만” (“Although I Loved You” originally performed by Kim Kwangsuk)

Kim Bumsoo’s wearing more of his standard outfit with a cardigan and a scarf, but his knee high boots do stand out. The band opens up the song, striking up a bit of soul and orchestra with a rich fill. Kim Bumsoo opens gently, mainly accompanied by the piano, continuing like this through the verse and into the pre-chorus, gaining momentum in the pre-chorus as his voice starts to push. But, for the opening of the chorus, instead of blowing it up, he dials it back, singing the high-line softly, the arrangement staying subtle with him, developing as he reaches the end of the stanza and then keeping tension throughout the next. It’s with the end of the chorus that the band jumps in with KBS’s still subtle close, adding some energy with a guitar solo. The next pre-chorus builds again with a staggered approach, perfectly leading into a more dramatic rendition of the chorus, but KBS doesn’t let the song overwhelm him, spilling out only towards the end as the backing chorus comes in with some good melody work from the lead axe. KBS continues to burst along with with the repeated chorus, taking a beat for a gentler closure to the song. Afterwards, he clowns around on stage with goofy dance moves, before embracing Park Myungsoo, who came to lead him out.

rd: I think one of the reasons why Kim was such a strong performer on the show is that he actually displays an understanding of subtle and dynamic variance in his performances. Like Kim Yeonwoo’s adaptation, Kim Kwangsuk’s original was spare and folk-like and a very grounded song, so giving it a soul coloring kept much of that rootedness, but the soaring chorus-line was obviously well suited to an R&B crooner like him to burst out. However, I like that he doesn’t just blow it out in the first chorus, but rather draws in the arrangement and performance, building towards a climax rather than just blowing it all up, which is what Yoon Minsoo tends to do on the show. I think the final result works well for Kim Bumsoo; a strong performance that I think spars well with Kim Yeonwoo’s previous one.

widhi: Oh my, the emotion! I really love the original version of this song and I have to say this is the best remake performance that I have seen so far. Kim’s soft voice with the new arrangement of the song with the violin, really brings out full emotion out of the song, but he also shows that he can still deliver the song well when he hits the high notes. This is definitely my favorite performance.

tk: Now THIS is how to repackage a classic. I believe KBS’s talent is simply a cut above almost everyone else on the show. Not only does he have the vocal range to cover almost any song, but also he has an impeccable sense of the “moment” where he knows when to push and when to pull. Everything about this was perfect.

Lee Sora’s “슬픔 속에 그댈 지워야만 해” (“I Only Have to Erase You in My Sadness” originally performed by Lee Hyunwoo)

Lee Sora continues with her bleached blond fuzz cut, but is dressed in a stylish black dress with jacket. The piano opens up this song, leading to Lee Sora’s warm, tempered vocals to water the lyrics, with her particular ability to carry emotion in the melody almost effortlessly powering the verse and a slight lift to build into the chorus, sung at the same potent degree. She quiets out for a quick break for the sole instrument in the arrangement before going into the next verse with a controlled range taking choices on a few individual notes to hold down the melody to the normal build, but she changes the key for the pre-chorus letting her voice open more, refusing to blow up in the chorus, but instead, using the depth of her voice to power it. She closes out the song as elegantly as she opened it, leaving the stage to find her original manager Lee Byungjin waiting for her.

rd: This is a song I’ve been hearing a lot of lately, due to it being one of the major ballads on the drama “네 멋대로 해라” (Ruler of Your Own World), which I’ve been watching lately and Lee Sora takes the original and strips down the arrangement to just a piano. Lee Hyunwoo’s original take on the song showed a great range for the singer, finding grit in the performance and is almost wild at its chorus. Lee Sora on the other hand, finds her own voice for the song and manages to use that same melody to do what she does best, which is subtle, but powerful expressiveness within a limited range. Her performance was not once particularly dynamic, but her amazing breathy reed-like voice manages to express a lot of emotion while under control and the result seems like an almost effortless and even magical expression of the lyrical content of the song. This is the voice that I’ve found to be unique to Lee Sora and made me miss her performances greatly–the reason I ended up buying a couple of her albums after she got eliminated from the show. Outstanding in both expression and subtlety–a moving performance.

widhi: This is what Lee Sora does best. With this lovely and romantic song, this is the Lee Sora that I know and like. She doesn’t need to hit high notes or show overflowing emotions. Her voice itself brings the best out of the song: the emotion. The impact of the performance lasted long. She gives me chills when I listen to this song. It makes me feel sadness and longing. The lyrics, the emotion, the music were just perfect. It was simple, but very strong.

tk: I should stop myself before I fill the entire space with my gushing for Lee Sora. She is just special. But I cannot help but think the wide outdoor setting hurt the reception of her performance. I could not tell if it was her sound system or mine, but Lee Sora’s voice at times sounded faint and distant. She would have been much better served by a more intimate setting in a smaller theater. Also, there are reports that she changed into this song merely four hours before the concert, and the piano arrangement was not necessarily by choice — her composer/arranger had to very quickly rearrange the song into a piano piece because that was the only thing he could do in a few hours. I love Lee Sora — in the field of entertainers, she alone is an artist.

Kim Johan’s “나는 문제없어” (“I Have No Problems” originally performed by Hwang Kyuyoung)

Kim’s performance attire is a simple black v-neck with a blue jacket. A couple hits on the hi-hat and Kim Johan goes straight into a simple intro chorus, backed by keyboard, with tiny flourishes from the band, the audience clapping right away. The guitar comes in on the second stanza with more of the band, but the focus stays on Kim’s vocals, which are decidedly in his style. A little drama in the arrangement closes out the intro and some R&B melisma, before a hit from the band and a “Yo Melbourne! Are you ready to rumble?” from Kim precedes a funky arrangement from the musicians, complete with funk guitar, horn hits and dancing from Kim. Kim gets the audience on their feet with a call and response before going into the verse, going for the soulful end of his vocal spectrum. An almost modal transition to the pre-chorus is a touch awkward, but Kim pulls the melody in and builds to the chorus. Horn hits lead into the funky dance chorus with a saxophone coming in for a solo as Kim finishes the title line of the chorus. During the instrumental break, Kim goes for more call and response and then goes for a scatting break down, also engaging the audience with a Afro-Caribbean rhythmic underpinning and a response from the backing chorus to get all the ajummas jumping. Another transition to the pre-chorus gives the Kim Johan to play with his vocals more before going back into the smooth classic chorus, but the backing chorus helps drive the song, with Kim throwing ad-libs and getting in a couple glory notes before wrapping up with repeats of the title line and a wind-up and close for the performance. When all is said and done, the audience chants his name and he decides to beatbox a rhythm to the chant briefly before stepping off like a showman.

rd: I think this is the kind of energetic and fun performance that people like to see from Kim Johan and I certainly enjoyed it. The original was the sole true dance song among the songs picked, so it was nice seeing something that reflected a rarely performed genre on the show. I do feel like the arrangement had a couple rough transitions where it couldn’t fully decide how to close the gaps between the parts since there is some difference between the more straight dance sound of the chorus and the funkier verses, which created some dissonance for me in the transitions, but Kim Johan was a solid (pun intended) showman this performance and I still ended up liking it all in the end.

widhi: It is really nice to see that Kim Johan enjoys his performance and so does the audience. It was fun and funky at the same time. The soulful approach of the performance also show what Kim can do best. I can feel happiness overflowing when I listened to this song. A very nice song to end the show.

tk: Watching KJH’s entire career, I cannot help but feel that he is one of those guys who was simply at the right place at the right time, i.e. Korea in the mid-1990s when R&B first came around. His singing is good but not as good as Kim Bumsoo, and his showmanship is good but not as good as Bobby Kim. His time at “나는 가수다” (“I Am a Singer”) basically confirmed my belief — that was about as much talent that he ever had. And this performance encapsulated my impression of him as a single nugget. It was decent, at times interesting and engaging, but ultimately disjointed and forgettable.

Personal Picks

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1) Lee Sora, 2) YB, 3) Kim Bumsoo, 4) Kim Yeonwoo, 5) Kim Johan, 6) Park Junghyun, 7) JK Kim Dongwook
The top two and the bottom two were easiest to sort out for me with JK Kim Dongwook’s straightforward and plain performance not quite doing much of anything for me and Park Junghyun’s arrangement of Rain’s song losing impact, it seemed more by-the-numbers to me. At top, it was a difficult struggle for me to choose between the great energy of my favored YB and the immense talent of Lee Sora, but she won out in the end for me thanks to a powerful, moving performance of a song that I’d come to know very well in a way that only Lee Sora could do. Although I did really enjoy Kim Johan’s performance, I found the transitional issues in his arrangement a little distracting, which left him in fifth, leaving the two male balladeers to battle for third and fourth. This was a really tough call for me since both were quite good, but I gave it to Kim Bumsoo in the end because of the more subtle and dynamic arrangement and performance.

widhi
1) Kim Bum Soo, 2) Lee Sora, 3) YB, 4) Kim Yeon Woo, 5) Kim Johan, 6) Park Junghyun, 7) JK Kim Dongwook
On the other hand, it was really hard for me to decide the top 3. So, I tried to sort it out based on the feeling that I felt for each song. At last, I pick Kim Bumsoo’s performance as number one because I really love the song itself. The last two were not only that the performances were not as good as others but also I did not get that much impact from them.

The Korean
1) Kim Bum-Soo, 2) YB, 3) Lee Sora, 4) Kim Yeon-Woo, 5) Kim Jo-Han, 6) JK Kim Dong-Wook, 7) Park Jeong-Hyeon
For me, there was a top tier of KBS, YB and LSR, followed by mid-tier of KYW and KJH, and bottom tier of JKKDW and PJH. I went with KBS as the first place because his performance was the most flawless. It was difficult to put LSR relatively low in the top tier because it was not fault of hers that she had to perform in a large outdoor theater, but I don’t think she sounded as optimal as she could have.

The Results

Lee Byungjin sits in for Lee Sora, who is ill.

tk: Again, Lee Sora really does not care about the “show” aspect of the show. She is there to sing, and she did only that. Frankly, I was surprised that she even gave a small interview, which was spliced in throughout the show.

5th Place
Park Junghyun
rd: She accepts it well as she believed she would come in sixth. I think the lower-pack ranking makes sense for her particular performance.
widhi: It is not very surprising for me.
tk: PJH is a little like 이승환 (Lee Seunghwan) in his heyday — she wants to try a lot of different things, but people want her to do one specific thing. She knows that she did not do that one specific thing this time.

4th Place
Kim Johan
rd: I think the energy-loving Australia crowd definitely went for Kim’s engaging performance.
widhi: I have to agree with rd. When it is upbeat and energetic it is almost certain you will get higher place.
tk: This rank is inexplicable to me, but truth is a lot of “I Am a Singer” final rankings are inexplicable to me. I’m just here for the songs.

3rd Place
Kim Bumsoo
rd: A good nuanced performance in line with KBS’ strengths, results in good standing.
widhi: Well, since it was also hard for me to pick the top 3, this result is not bad. He did well in performing the song, so I am happy.
tk: I don’t quibble with the high rank, but it still makes no sense that KBS is behind KYW.

2nd Place
YB
rd: Yoon Dohyun jumps up in excitement for getting second. And I found the performance certainly deserving of the top tiers of ranking with high energy and engagement.
widhi: YB deserves to be on top! So, this rank is good.
tk: No objection, since I also ranked YB seocnd.

1st Place
Kim Yeonwoo
rd: I bet he’s enormously excited since he prepared so long and hard for this and also since he was previously eliminated very quickly and never ranged higher than fourth place. It was a good performance, so I don’t dislike this placing, although it wasn’t my preference.
widhi: I did not expect that he got the 1st place. The performance was strong, but it did not provide that big impact, compared to KBS.
tk: Along with 7th place, the most outrageous ranking of this episode.

6th Place
JK Kim Dongwook
rd: I don’t dislike JK Kim Dongwook’s performance and it shared a kind of simplicity with Lee Sora’s and perhaps that’s what landed them in the final two places, but all the same, I easily found his performance the weakest of the batch so I find it just a little baffling that he was voted higher than seventh.
widhi: Maybe he was saved because of the song and the arrangement.
tk: No objection, except to the extent that he ranked higher than the seventh place finisher.

7th Place
Lee Sora
rd: My favorite for the night was voted last. It might just be that her arrangement was so simple and her performance the least exciting because of the spareness of the arrangement and the controlled temper of the performance, but that same simplicity and subtlety is her strength for me. That said, I expected her to land in the middle-lower of the pack due to what I thought fit the Australian audiences tastes–just not at the end.
widhi: Too bad that Lee got the last place. Well, to compete with other upbeat and energetic songs was hard. The simplicity seemed not to give any impact to the audience.
tk: I was positively screaming into the screen at this point. This made no sense. At all. I hope “I Am a Singer” does not return to Australia for another 50 years.

And that wraps up the recap and commentary from The Korean, widhi and me. See you next week!

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