These two videos were posted today in the main thread with a request to compare the two. What brought this on, was that a reviewer of a Michael Jackson Tribute show, presently playing at the West End in London, had reviewed Ricardo Afonso's singing voice favorably, and had compared it to Freddie and Adam.
entertainment.inquirer.net/144135/west-end-tribute-to-michael-jackson-keeps-energy-at-fever-pitchThere are multiple versions of Ricardo Afonso singing TSMGO available on youtube and this one was picked, and then in contrast to that Adams Hammersmith Day 3 version. We know that was not Adam's best version by far, but in fairness, Ricardo also has more interesting versions of TSMGO out on youtube than the one posted here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQdNpWM1hEwww.youtube.com/watch?v=OK40qL0sf00===================
First of all, I find Ricardo a brilliant singer, and I can fully understand the comparison, actually the one to Adam more than the one to Freddie, tbh. But the reviewer certainly knew a thing or two about voices, if he picked up on that during an MJ tribute show, where presumably Ricardo only sang MJ material, and not Queen.
Ricardo has a fully trained (classical training) voice, has musical theater background and sings on West End right now. Just like Adam, his musical theater background comes through in his singing in multiple ways. In his performance style it comes through even stronger so, Adam has here already successfully moved away from those roots and developed his own style.
Here are my vocal observations: He shares with Adam a headvoice that seems limitless, and just when you think he reached his upper range limit, he can go higher and higher still. I don't think though, even though a couple of videos are a bit too little to really tell, but I don't think that Ricardo has no break in his voice. I think he does have one. I don't get the impression he can slide up and down the scale quite the way Adam can.
In his lower register (the little bit we hear of it, starting at 1:13), he has a beautiful tone, and more strength than Adam.
But both in his lower register, as well as in the higher one, he sounds very nasal. Based on what I hear, I think that is his Portuguese accent coming through, but at least to me, it was at times quite annoying. His phrasing is sometimes odd, but strangely, not because of a need to breathe, he seems to choose to phrase that way, not sure why, perhaps, some vowels are harder to pronounce for him, I don't know, I am guessing here.
In fact, his breath support is great, he can sustain notes, just like Adam can, and does so in the high registers too.
He cannot compete with Adam in diction, but he is not a native speaker. He can compete in some other technical skills, though. I find Adam's voice richer, rounder, but I do like Ricardo's strength.
I tried to find some other vocals from him, and found a different version of TSMGO, and it is interesting for multiple reasons.
a) he has to sing with an ensemble behind him that is a nightmare, no other way to put it - they are butchering Queen. He holds his part together in spite of that, except at the very end, where his pitch is off, but clearly in a way that tells me he could not hear at that moment. With that band, it may have been a blessing, but I think he could hear enough to know that they were a mess.
b) he does not have to do quite the theatrics and over-stylized performance effects that the other version has, and that makes it more interesting to watch.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iay2N1YQmYsVocally, this is a very strong performance. I have to say though, that I will always prefer Adam. More depth, more control, more soul, more at ease with the performance. This becomes even more evident, when you compare WWTLF. I have found only one performance from Ricardo and it is a mess in many ways, but it is also a shared performance with another singer, has this same ensemble playing again. Those are both things outside of his control, but it also is nowhere near the class, the depth, the transformative quality of Adam's WWTLF. Not even close, here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=au4jxzNNN68In general, Ricardo stays in musical theater performance mode. Remember Kara's comment: 'It's still all musical theater to me, it does not touch me here...', from Hollywood week. I have never, at least based on the pieces we got to see from Adam during idol, felt that this was a fair comment for him. For Ricardo, that is exactly what I am thinking. It is over-wrought musical theater acting, instead of really felt and that is why Ricardo cannot or does not connect with the audience, like others can.
Finally, knowing that he was on the Voice UK, and knowing that he did not win, but was kicked out, I asked myself, who had the vocals, to kick him out of the competition. Well this was eye-opening to see.
First of all, it is one of my major gripes about The Voice, that once the sing-offs happen, the singer has not control over song choice, which means, he can get screwed over by the coach. Which is exactly what happened here.
Their song was "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, and that is within rock a much more hard rock, punk rock, metallic leaning rock sound, and not at all where Ricardo has his strengths.
The other guy, upstages him as well as out-sings him in that type of rock, Ricardo falls back into his musical theater training from an performance standpoint, and vocally in the higher ranges, he does so as well. The other guy just plays the 'natural rocker' card, and wins.
How would Adam have fared, if put into that same situation? Vocally, I think, the same thing could have happened too, that he would have sounded at times too lyrical and not raw enough for the taste of many rockers, but Adam probably would have pulled a few vocal tricks out of his bag to impress anyways. But still, tough and unfair battle. But I am totally sure, that Adam would have been the natural performer that he is, and competed with that head banger just fine, just being himself, and putting his rocking self in the ring. He is a natural too.
Overall, Adam wins for me against Ricardo, no surprise there. But I have to say, that of all the voices that I have heard Adam compared to, this guy is the closest it has ever come, imo. This guy is good, I got to give him props.
Oh, yes, and here is that sing-off from The Voice, UK:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HYIHNvhV00So, these are my comments and thoughts about this guy? Would love to hear from others here, especially those with more vocal training than I have, what your thoughts are on his singing.
Nite all.
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Let's celebrate the music together!