Well, well, well. Last week, the second season of Rockstar Supernova came to an end, with what was to me a surprising result. Lukas Rossi was selected to front the band. I figured that either Dilana or Toby would take top honors. Dilana has been incredibly strong throughout the competition (from a performance standpoint at least) and her intensity on stage and unique vocal identity made her a shoo-in for the top two (she did land there of course), but her emotional breakdowns due to the negative portrayal she received on the show put question marks on what I thought was a sure thing. And of course there always is that question as to whether the band would really pick a female to front them. Toby Rand was an early frontrunner before turning in a couple of lackluster performances in the middle of the season. But he pulled a few killer performances out of the hat towards the end of the season and came up with an amazing original. And the fact that he is a chick magnet and has a musical style that is well suited to Supernova’s made me think he may just prove to be the upset of the season.
The upset did come of course (at least to me it was an upset) but not in the form I was expecting. I knew Magni wouldn’t make the top 3 (in fact, I felt that the only reason he made it this far was so that the show would rake in massive voting revenues in Europe, particularly in Iceland). But if I had to put money into it, I would have bet that Supernova would end up choosing between Dilana and Toby. Good thing I didn’t.
Interestingly enough, the winners of the two seasons of the Rockstar, er, “franchise” came from Canada - JD Fortune who now fronts INXS and now Lukas. With JD, I feel the selection was made mainly because his style of music matched that of INXS more than anyone else in that season. With Lukas, however, I feel the decision was made for two reasons - because he was consistent throughout the season (Supernova could count on him putting in one solid show after another), he wouldn’t breakdown emotionally like Dilana (or at least he hasn’t shown any signs of it), and he was never in the bottom three at the end of voting (which meant he had a very strong following which could translate to more sales for the band later on). Of course, I still agree with Jason – Lukas’ singing sounds too constricted, and in fact in a lot of cases I don’t actually understand the words coming out of Lukas’ mouth which means I personally don’t think his performances were all that solid. But well I guess it’s all a matter of preference. To each his or her own, as they say.
All in all, a pretty great season with a lot of great talent. My favorite of the season has to be Ryan Star, who I believe was eliminated prematurely (my favorite performance of the season has to be his ‘Losing my religion’ coz prior to that I actually thought he wasn’t good at all and then all of a sudden, just like that, I turned into a fan. I put the video below...). So it was cool that he ended up being a fan favorite and won for himself a car. Dilana is naturally up there, probably my second fave. And for someone who hates singers with pitch problems, I am quite surprised that I actually really enjoyed watching Zayra (or well okay maybe I enjoyed watching her and not listening to her).
I wonder whether there will be another season of Rockstar. And if there will be one, will it be for another band that, together, has never come up with an album prior to the show. I guess the band is a bit lucky that they have the popularity of reality TV to ride on because I really think that their originals are not too good. Ryan, Storm, and Toby all had originals that are so much cooler and edgier. Good luck to everyone on the show. I hope they all got the jumpstart to their careers that they all would have wanted.
Oh, and for those of you who don’t know who I am talking about, here are some videos for your enjoyment:
Ryan Star performing REM’s ‘Losing my religion’
Dilana performing Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’
Zayra performing Tommy Tutone's '8675309 Jenny'
No comments:
Post a Comment