Putri Ariani in Qualifier Round

This post is about Putri Ariani's second appearance on AGT for the qualifier round. I believed this appearance was much awaited by many all around the world. The audition video earlier went viral and has gotten by now 51 million views. The video of her in the qualifier round has already reached 3.1 million views in just one day after its release.

Her performance was essentially stunning, like what everyone has said. The choice of U2 song, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For is actually a surprise to me. Some thought that it will be one of those songs that she has covered in the past but I think this would be too predictable and too easy for her. Her second song in the audition (Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word) was also a song that she had not covered before, if that it is any indication of the path she will take. I would be interested to know if the song was her own choice or someone else's suggestion. Whatever it is, it (the title at least) certainly fits Putri Ariani current journey to her dreams. Kudos to U2 (later revealed by Simon Cowell) who allowed her to use their song for her to perform (and in a way a recognition for Putri).

Her take on it was certainly different from the original, one which is much slowed down. I'll be interested to know if there were helping suggestions from others for the brilliant arrangement (see Simon's advice here). The whole song structure that Putri adopted was reminiscent of Whitney's rendition of I Will Always Love You. It begins with an acapella part, continues with a part that has her piano (music) accompaniment and then ends with a memorable vocal part. Given that I know her good and strong vocal abilities, this time I was probably more impressed by her musical arrangement of the song. Some of the piano parts reminded me of those of jazzier pop ballads. Heaping all praises for the performance may not be all the artist wants. I saw two places where further improvements could be done. First, the runs she did in her head voice (around minute 1:50). Second, was the belting part that seems to have some shaky moments (around minute 2;26). Some mentioned that these made the performance more realistic and more emotional (and I agree). I should also add that the visuals were also stunning with her in the grand dress under the spotlight with the white grand piano, adding breathtaking features.

Now some might be surprised why do I do this post. This is my second post really on Putri (see first post here). As I have said before, I have musical interests and every time I see good talent, I feel inspired. Some will probably say that an academic like me, should have discussed on more serious topics. I do have views on more serious matters but normally I don't air this too much (due to their complexity). On those matters, many made their voices heard on the social media (which I am now trying to shy away) though there are tendencies of (over) simplification. My views on such matters (if any) tend to be close to that of Snowden's (see e.g. here). I reserve my right to be silent particularly when I don't have the means to act on such matter.