Let me start this post by saying that I generally love the UK’s X-factor; after all, they gave me one of the loves of my life, Mr. Shayne Ward. Not only that, they followed him with the amazing Leona Lewis, who’s Bleeding Love is a song that I still have in heavy rotation; months after I initially heard it. However, with all that good, there too can come some bad. Even though I heard that this year’s winner Leon Jackson was to cover When You Believe, the amazing song from the Prince of Egypt that was originally sung by none other than the divas Mariah and Whitney, I had somehow avoided hearing his version, that is, until recently. It came on U-Pop the other day, and I listened, in order to hear the magnificence that the UK had chosen to win X-Factor. Instead of being impressed, I was horrified.
Not only does he clearly lack the same level of talent that Shayne and Leona possess, but his singing voice doesn’t even seem to be at a level higher than amateur. Not to be mean to the poor kid, but seriously, this is just a bad cover of an otherwise great song.
This brings me to my other gripe: Whomever chose When You Believe as the song that the winner would sing is either a sadist, or just an asshole; because if you are going to do a song that Mariah and Whitney did beautifully, the only way to do it successfully, is to do it better (which that, in and of itself, would be a difficult task indeed). Even without the powerhouse divas singing the original, what on earth were they thinking handing this enormous song to an “undiscovered talent”? Wow. To me, this is just a recipe for disaster, and makes a situation that only sheer luck could bail them out of. Unfortunately, the likable, and in my opinion, much more talented brother-sister group Same Difference did NOT win X-Factor, so we cannot know whether or not their version of the song would be superior to Leon’s; but one thing I do know, is that his version is almost un-listenable. But don’t just take my word for it, see (or rather, hear) for yourself.
First, I give you the Mariah and Whitney version; which is in my opinion, a flawless pop song. It is well written, and their voices compliment each other beautifully. Also, need I even mention that it is fucking Mariah and Whitney, which again, begs to question why one would ever try to cover something that big, unless they KNOW for certain they can do it better?
Now, check out Leon’s version of When You Believe (sorry, but the real video can’t be embedded). I can’t believe they went there, to be honest. I guess it is a little like Leona’s version of A Moment Like This (which is quite terrible as well, but she has managed to distance herself from it quite well), if you have heard a superior version of the song several years in advance of some practical nobody doing a sub-par version of it, what is the fucking point of them doing it at all? There are TONS of songs out there he could have covered; so why this one?
Oh well, we can never know what prompts these producers to rehash the same pop trinkets on other shores, but I can hope that future incarnations of shows like X-Factor, and even the dwindling American Idol, can manage to pull out some better songs, suited for the potential winners. If they are going to stick with sending these poor singers out there with rehashed, sub-par covers, can they at least pick some songs that they would be better suited for? Clearly, in this case, that did not happen at all. I just don’t think that we should have more tragedies like this one, littering the airwaves, and making my ears cringe when I hear them. Clearly, believing that you can sing the song better does not mean that you actually can. Poor Leon…