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Year 2 of Lockdown, Day 80
Happy pride to this post (it's a Tumblr classic <3)
BBC: The LGBT history you probably didn't learn in school
~~
Two tree petitions:
Rare and magnificent Mimosa tree in the heart of Chelsea is being cut down.
Stop the destruction of 67 oak and 3 beech trees on Oakdown Farm warehouse site.
~~
Daily Dimash 12: Confessa+The Diva Dance
Yay! Diva Dance Day! \o/ \o/ \o/
So, for Episode 12 Dimash first sang Confessa (Italian song, by Adriano Celentano) which would have been a perfectly great song all on its own. Very gorgeous, very passionate.
But he then throws in The Diva Dance on top of that! Because why not sing The Impossible Song as well? As I’m sure you know, The Diva Dance is the song sung by the alien in The Fifth Element - you can watch the scene here, although if you are not familiar with the film it’ll spoil a LOT. Basically it was written as being un-singable by a human and (afaik) the singer who recorded it for the movie sang the notes individually and they then put them together electronically. The funny thing is that so many people go ‘OMG is Dimash an alien?!?!’
Of course the fact that it’s supposed to be impossible hasn’t stopped singers tackling it since (more about this under the cut — Dimash is not the first, although I’m pretty sure he’s the first male). Anyway, here he is on The Singer:
Now he also performed it at his Bastau concert, so you can get it in isolation (only 1:41 long, it's a short piece). I give you The Greatest Singer in the World:
But my favourite version requires a longer explanation, so I’ll put it under the cut:
Dimash Kudaibergen + Li Yugang: Drunken Concubine/Diva Dance
Dimash was a performer at the Shanghai Spring Festival Gala 2020. In this performance he is doing a duet with Li Yugang. Li Yugang is a Chinese opera singer, specializing in female roles (this is called ‘nan dan’ — I don't know much about Chinese opera but apparently this is A Thing). They are singing a snippet of a famous Peking Opera called ‘Drunken Concubine’ (Dimash is the Emperor, Li is the Concubine) and then they just sort of add The Diva Dance in the middle, it's magical.
It's the fact that this song was written to be impossible. And there are a few female singers who have managed it (see below), but this is a duet between two male singers and I just... *hands* The harmonies are so beautiful it's unreal.
There is a video with background info before the performance, but it's blocked for me. However it might work for you, so figured I'd add it.
Otherwise you can find some background to the story of Drunken Concubine here. The very basics are these: It’s set in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and tells a story of emperor's beloved concubine Yang Yuhuan, also known as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. One night she arranges a banquet in an imperial garden and waits for the emperor to come, but the emperor never turns up. Yang realizes he chose another concubine over her and feels humiliated, furious and depressed. As far as I have understood, the growly low utterance is the Emperor ordering the concubine's execution. Not sure about the chronology of the whole thing, sorry.
However this all illustrates one of the most rewarding things about this particular rabbit hole: There is so much beautiful music out there that I never knew about before. My horizons are expanding exponentially.
~
And finally, here are a couple of reaction videos by The Charismatic Voice (she handily adds the sheet music for the song, which makes the impossibility visually striking):
Diva Dance on its own:
Diva Dance + Drunken Concubine
~~~
Now there are a number of female singers who have tackled the Diva Dance and The Charismatic Voice did a whole video on them. The reason she didn’t include Dimash was because he sang it a semi-tone below at the Bastau concert and a touch lower than that on The Singer, (unsure about the duet, although there he goes up to a F7… I think. I never learned music theory stuff). But she is very fair, and wanted the performances to be to the exact specifications.
ANYWAY. If you want to see other singers tackle the Diva Dance she handily did a nice compilation:
The Fifth Element "Diva Dance" - Opera Voice Coach REACTS and COMPARES performances
If you go to the video, you can find links to all the individual performances in her description. I think my favourite is the last one, who literally just sits down in front of her computer and simply sings. Humans are amazing. :)
ETA: And a very good analysis:
Dimash Masterpost
BBC: The LGBT history you probably didn't learn in school
~~
Two tree petitions:
Rare and magnificent Mimosa tree in the heart of Chelsea is being cut down.
Stop the destruction of 67 oak and 3 beech trees on Oakdown Farm warehouse site.
~~
Daily Dimash 12: Confessa+The Diva Dance
Yay! Diva Dance Day! \o/ \o/ \o/
So, for Episode 12 Dimash first sang Confessa (Italian song, by Adriano Celentano) which would have been a perfectly great song all on its own. Very gorgeous, very passionate.
But he then throws in The Diva Dance on top of that! Because why not sing The Impossible Song as well? As I’m sure you know, The Diva Dance is the song sung by the alien in The Fifth Element - you can watch the scene here, although if you are not familiar with the film it’ll spoil a LOT. Basically it was written as being un-singable by a human and (afaik) the singer who recorded it for the movie sang the notes individually and they then put them together electronically. The funny thing is that so many people go ‘OMG is Dimash an alien?!?!’
Of course the fact that it’s supposed to be impossible hasn’t stopped singers tackling it since (more about this under the cut — Dimash is not the first, although I’m pretty sure he’s the first male). Anyway, here he is on The Singer:
Now he also performed it at his Bastau concert, so you can get it in isolation (only 1:41 long, it's a short piece). I give you The Greatest Singer in the World:
But my favourite version requires a longer explanation, so I’ll put it under the cut:
Dimash Kudaibergen + Li Yugang: Drunken Concubine/Diva Dance
Dimash was a performer at the Shanghai Spring Festival Gala 2020. In this performance he is doing a duet with Li Yugang. Li Yugang is a Chinese opera singer, specializing in female roles (this is called ‘nan dan’ — I don't know much about Chinese opera but apparently this is A Thing). They are singing a snippet of a famous Peking Opera called ‘Drunken Concubine’ (Dimash is the Emperor, Li is the Concubine) and then they just sort of add The Diva Dance in the middle, it's magical.
It's the fact that this song was written to be impossible. And there are a few female singers who have managed it (see below), but this is a duet between two male singers and I just... *hands* The harmonies are so beautiful it's unreal.
There is a video with background info before the performance, but it's blocked for me. However it might work for you, so figured I'd add it.
Otherwise you can find some background to the story of Drunken Concubine here. The very basics are these: It’s set in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and tells a story of emperor's beloved concubine Yang Yuhuan, also known as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. One night she arranges a banquet in an imperial garden and waits for the emperor to come, but the emperor never turns up. Yang realizes he chose another concubine over her and feels humiliated, furious and depressed. As far as I have understood, the growly low utterance is the Emperor ordering the concubine's execution. Not sure about the chronology of the whole thing, sorry.
However this all illustrates one of the most rewarding things about this particular rabbit hole: There is so much beautiful music out there that I never knew about before. My horizons are expanding exponentially.
~
And finally, here are a couple of reaction videos by The Charismatic Voice (she handily adds the sheet music for the song, which makes the impossibility visually striking):
Diva Dance on its own:
Diva Dance + Drunken Concubine
~~~
Now there are a number of female singers who have tackled the Diva Dance and The Charismatic Voice did a whole video on them. The reason she didn’t include Dimash was because he sang it a semi-tone below at the Bastau concert and a touch lower than that on The Singer, (unsure about the duet, although there he goes up to a F7… I think. I never learned music theory stuff). But she is very fair, and wanted the performances to be to the exact specifications.
ANYWAY. If you want to see other singers tackle the Diva Dance she handily did a nice compilation:
The Fifth Element "Diva Dance" - Opera Voice Coach REACTS and COMPARES performances
If you go to the video, you can find links to all the individual performances in her description. I think my favourite is the last one, who literally just sits down in front of her computer and simply sings. Humans are amazing. :)
ETA: And a very good analysis:
Dimash Masterpost
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*HUGS*
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