Ruth Martino - INDIVIDUAL SHOWCASE

Song title:             "Maybe I like it this way" 

Musical:                Wild Party

Composer:           Andrew Lippa

Song title:           "Dance with somebody"
Musical:               The Bodyguard
Composer:           George Merrill and Shannon Rubican

Song title:             "I don't know how to love him"
Musical:                 Jesus Christ Superstar
Composer:            Andrew Lloyd Webber

I have chosen this song "Maybe I like it this way” from the musical  'Wild Party’, as my ultimate first song instantly as I am a fan of this song as I see myself as having a similar singing voice to the main lead female character Queenie. Queenie attacks the song with a jazzy, soulful feel to it that is the reason why I’ve always been drawn to this song. I have always been afraid of singing this song as I tent to a thought that it would be too difficult to sing.

 However as time went on, I can honestly say that I’ve improved a lot as a singer and I have learnt to work of the vocal qualities that I am fantastic at, such as being able to use different timbre while singing. This is one of the qualities that would enable be to shine in my performance while singing this song. At the very start of the song it begins with…”I know it’s wrong, I know he’s rough” I could really show off the raspiness, soft side of my voice. This would enable the audience to be drawn to the rest of the lyrics.

The reason I love this song is because it allows us as a singer and an audience to go through the exact emotional journey the character goes through. At Bar:19  till Bar:26 the song gradually uplifts a little bit more as the character reminisces about what she adores about the guy she is in love with after all the feeling sorry for herself at the start of the song. I believe from this point of time I am able to bring the audience to another place helping them to imagine or even think about all the amazing things they like about someone or the partner they are with.

From Bar:45 and onwards I am able to demonstrate more the acting through song side, the feel of the song and tone is quite much so angry, dark and low as the character thinks about all the things she could do next, this can be shown by the way each sentence starts with “Maybe”. As a singer from this point on I will be able to show my wide vocal range, as my voice type is an ‘mezzo-soprano’. My I will be able to hit the high extended note which is “But look who is sitting here today”.

This song fits just right for me as I enjoy singing ballads and I also tend to choose songs that lets me use my powerful vocals to interpret the emotion, the feel to in the lyrics and mainly the climax. I could definitely act through song with the piece, I could also show the way I can comfortably use timbre within’ my voice. As a mezzo-soprano it is known that we have a wider vocal capacity this is why I’ve chosen this song as I strongly believe I could demonstrate this in my performance as I do want to stand out most importantly.

My second choice is “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” from the musical ‘The Bodyguard’ . The reason I have chosen this song is because I’ve always looked up to Whitney Houston and I would class her as my idol. This particular song allowed me to be a more confident girl on the dance floor as it gives you a feeling to just wanting to move your.

This song is a contrast to my first choice song as I would describe this so as more of a pop, upbeat musical theatre song. As an individual I am known to be a party girl and wanting to have a good time always while being out, so therefore this song wouldn’t be as hard to adapt to as the character Rachel is very similar to me in the day to day life. Rachel being a diva and having a male character looking after her at all the time is something I have.

The song starts off with “The clock strikes” this allows the audience to pay attention to what more I got to say as I will be using hand gestures the emphasise the feeling more. Bar:3 will enable me to show the warm, soulful side of my vocals. I will also be using a lot of riffs in this song as this is the other techniques I could use within’ my vocals, I would mainly be using this at most of the last words in the sentences, giving examples of “fade___” and “a-way__”.

As I will be performing in a quite enclosed pacing, this song choice will be perfect as It would enable me to more intimate with audience and being able to engage with the audience to a larger extent. Many of the audiences watching will be able to massively relate to the lyrics and be familiar to the song as it was the first single from Whitney Houston's second studio album ‘Whitney’.

 The song received mixed reviews from critics, who compared the musical arrangement to her own "How Will I Know" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." The song won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 30th Grammy Awards. The single was a commercial success, topping the charts in 13 countries including Australia, Italy, Germany and the UK. In the US, it became her fourth consecutive number one single and sold over one million copies, making it her biggest hit in that country at the time. It was eventually surpassed by her version of "I Will Always Love You. Therefore I could say this is a very well-known song.

From Bar:12 I would be able to experiment with my voice and being able to play with my vocal techniques such as using ‘Vocal Decorations’, using ‘Twang Quality’. LINK

My third choice is "I don't know how to love him" from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar the reason I've chosen this song because I could see this song being a R'n'B song, I am so in love with that type of genre of music. I could say this song has been my first Musical song that I got given by my musical theatre teacher in first year, and I've now grown to emotionally connect with the character inside out.

This song lets me be vulnerable with my emotion, I find this extremely exciting to experience each time I sing the song and I could tell I would be feeling the same way while I sing it at the Individual showcase performance. I can be very intact with the song, I will be using a larger vocal range to hit each note especially on the main chorus "Let my feelings out___". I am extremely comfortable with being able to switch back to a more softer tone as the song follows back to "What's it all about"

 I can massively relate to the song as I've found it hard to tell a guy that I loved him and this is the exact dilemma Mary Magdalene is in, she is so unsure about the way she feels towards him as she hasn't experienced this before. This lets me be able to act through song to a large extent as the song enables the audience to be drawn the lyrics as it uses emotive language.

I would describe this song as a classical, modern ballad. You wouldn't be able to tell that this particular song is sang about the son of the Lord. The chorus allows me to point the strong sides of my vocals, being able to use a very dominant, powerful voice as it says "Should I bring him down..."