But this is my absolute favourite thing. It is what inspired  me to write this blog. I was expecting her to be terrible. I will be honest. I thought; what can a pop star do with such an epic ballad? But I WAS COMPLETELY PROVED WRONG.  Nicole Scherzinger can sing. She blew my mind. And I am a hard customer to please.

There are just too many videos of this lady to put them all into one blog. But needless to say she WORKS HARD. She is everywhere. She is contageous. She is sexy, talented and in theory all women should hate her - but we don't we love her. We want to be her. Well I do anyway.

Think my next blog about a singer will be about an opera singer.

Pop stars are just much better at marketing and reinventing themselves. They are far more exciting to talk about.

Til next time.

I had an article published recently. You can read it here:

http://ccskills.org.uk/careers/blog/so-you-have-just-graduated?utm_source=newsletter184&utm_medium=email&utm_content=So%20you%20have%20just%20graduated&utm_campaign=newsletter

My top 10 tips on what to do to set yourself up in a creative career.

Hope you enjoy reading it!

JC

Well it did for me anyway. And I instantly became a fan of this guy. 

His name is Kevin Smith Kirkwood and he works over in America on Broadway. He is currently performing in Kinky Boots.

I was searching for the song by William Finn (who introduces it personally in this video) after a friend mentioned he was going on a sailing trip. Mr Finn also wrote many other shows but I would particularly recommend going to watch 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' (2004) as it is so very funny.

I have heard it sung before several times back when I was on the dark side and studying Musical Theatre (before my days of opera). It is such a simple song, but oh so catchy.

"I'd Rather be sailing" is from the Musical 'A New Brain'.
In the show Gordon Schwinn (the lead character) is a song writer who has to have potentially life saving brain surgery. He sings this song just before going under the knife. His biggest fear is dying before writing the greatest of all songs. In this beautiful moment in the show, he fantasies about being in his safe place and living a beautiful life sailing on the ocean and then coming home to his loving partner.

Kevin Smith Kirkwood has taken this song and definitely made it his own. He takes the middle section up an octave and really plays around with ornaments, blues notes and jazzing up the whole thing. Yet throughout showcasing his musical style he also demonstrates the versatility in his voice and power that he can create through it. I'm not usually an advocate of belting, but this guy uses his belt to create a dramatic sense of pure passion, desperation and overall emotional torment - even though the song is speaking of positive things, we still get the underlying subtext that he is about to have potentially fatal brain surgery.

The only part of this that I am not such a fan of is the ending. Egged on by the audience, Kevin gets a little bit over confident and adds in a few too many ornaments with little shoulder bops in them - this is slightly to much for the simplicity of the song in my opinion. But I forgive him, as during the context of this cabaret performance, I imagine it was done with a little tongue in cheek and a hint of satirical humour.

ENJOY!!!

JC

I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to sing at the opening of FC United of Manchester's new stadium Moston Community Stadium when it opens in 2014. The 5000 seat venue will cost the club £5.5 million to build. More than £2m of the money has come from a pioneering share scheme. Other partners include Sport England, the Football Foundation, Manchester council and the Manchester College.
The club hopes to move into Moston for the start of the 2014–15 season.

For more information about the build, see it's wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moston_Community_Stadium

I was invited to sing at the New Stadium after putting on an opera evening called "Access all Arias" for the Team's events organiser Vinny Jones at Manchester's Cafe Istanbul on Bridge Street off Deansgate, Manchester. I am very excited about this and I hope that it will be start of lots of engagements with FC United.

My favourite thing about the team is that they place a huge emphasis on the community of football and all the people involved in it. Putting football first and corporate sponsorship second.

I wish them the best on their new build! May it all go smoothly!

JC