I have been following, though not very closely because time don't permit me to, the current American Idol competition. SH told me about Jason Castro's ukelele-version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and I went "Oh, dear". When I watched it over Youtube.com and saw him with the ukelele, I went "Oh, no". But as he sang on, I was won over. He was fantastic.
Here is the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's original version of the arrangement that Jason used, which I fell in love with. There is such a gentleness in his voice.
This year's Idol Gives Back is being carried out separately from the competition proper, due to possible conflict and when I found out that they did Darlene Zschech's "Shout to the Lord" to close the show, I had to check it out in Youtube.com. It was well done, though they did substitute the opening, "My Jesus, My Saviour" with "My Shepherd, My Saviour".
pearlie
We didn't watch Idol Gives Back but I'm not surprised they substitued "Shepherd" for "Jesus" in the song. There is a real move to remove the name Jesus and The Blood from everything and anything they can.
ReplyDeleteSusan
Hmm ... I think there's one too many falsettos in that version (please read this like how Simon Cowell would say it) ... I have to disagree with Simon, I just can't feel it. The ukelele? (now throw rotten tomatoes at me)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I was doing a background study on Greco-Roman worship, maybe you knew this already, I thought only the Cross was an affront, but you know the Greeks find the idea of resurrection as offensive too. More on this after I finish my study. Interesting ...
How can one sing about Jesus and leave out his name...sickening. :(
ReplyDeleteOn Thurday night the 8 AI contestants opened the show and they sang it using Jesus' name.. it was amazing to see a worship song sang on AI.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some negativism around the blogdom about the version without Jesus' name but I was praising God all the same that these young singers (and a gedillion TV viewers) were exposed to such a wonderful song. Some of the AI contestants are Christians.. wonder if that had any impact on the song selection?
And I liked Jason's version of Rainbow.. I think that he is a believer but I'm not sure.
And I think that it is okay to sing about Jesus and not say "Jesus".. many hymns and worship songs do that - like Worthy is the Lamb or the I Come to the Garden.
Thanks KB for summing up my thoughts as well. I come from an environment where these things are the ordinary (all publicised Christian events here and bibles are required to be marked "For non-muslims only" but some just indicate "A Christian event"), and I understand what they need to do since this show goes out internationally. In doing so, they have brought a worship song that is for our Lord Jesus to the world, downloadable on iTunes and spreading via Youtube. This is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd KB, I read somewhere that Jason is a Christian.
ReplyDeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteHaha, you being too Simon there :) though I don't think Simon would say "I think" - hahahahaha
I thought his falsettos are ok, unlike Michael made yelling at the end of his song.
Tell me more about your b/g study when you are done.