A Boy Like That from West Side Story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oxfOncYiag

A proper duet full of real emotion for them to really get their teeth into. It gives me goosebumps just watching it and I think it would be perfect for the already emotionally charged final sing-off. My favourite pairing would be Lauren and Steph as they are the only two that I think could pull it off - or maybe I am over-estimating them and it would just be too big an ask.

What does anyone think?

Whoah - that is a really big duet -it used to be one of the ones I sang.

Thing is each part is very different -they are not comparable - one is a pure soprano and the other is far more character mezzo - the only time you could compare them is the final line where they sing in harmony.

Sorry to dive in ------ been lurking and occasionally putting my spoke in since Maria

Yes I see what you mean. Do you think the soprano part goes too high for any of the girls? Or is it just that it would be too hard to compare because the parts are so different both melodically and emotionally?

Any more thoughts on this for the final sing-off?

The sing-off songs have to fit into a short time-frame. I don't think they'd want to use such a long song, and if they did, it would have to be heavily edited to fit into the time-frame. It's also a song that doesn't really work 'out of context'.

There also seems to be a long wait until the second singer comes in with her part. In order for a song to work as a sing-off song, each singer has to be given an equal amount of singing time. Hence the fact that most of the sing-off songs have been solo songs which have been arranged for two singers (So, Singer A gets the first few lines, then SInger B, then back to Singer A.....etc). And because of that, both singers are singing in the same vocal range. It would be unfair to expect the sing-off contestants to sing in two completely different vocal ranges. Apart from anything else, it makes it impossible to compare 'like for like'.

A Boy Like That could work as a duet if OTR follows the examples of the previous series and has the semi-finalists pairing up to sing duets (but even then, there could still be an issue with the different vocal ranges required for the song).

Bring him home as sung by Daniel and Lewis in adwd would be good,depending on who was in the sing off.Would like to see Steph and Lauren sing it,think they would be great.

Going by previous shows there will be two duets on Saturday this would be perfect for that.

I wanted Jessie and Rachel to sing it in their duet.

I'm not sure any of the girls have the soprano range to sing the Maria part on this.

I'm still recovering from the awful accents in America.


Would be nice to see something a bit lighter for the final sing off.

Esp not Danielle... much as I love her, she has a lower voice, prob the lowest of the remaining girls.

The song could be abridged - all of the performances we see are shorter than the original, but you are right, Maria and Anita's parts are so different that we would not be comparing like with like and the range is a problem too.

I dunno, I would just like to see a really dramatic duet where the girls can show what they really can do. I find stuff like 'Tell Me on a Sunday' pretty insipid when there are better duets out there to be sung, and they resort to solos split into duets.

That's probably true - and the parts aren't interchangable, so if two of the girls who are more comfortable in the lower range ended up in the bottom two, then they just couldn't do it. Shame - I long for something more meaty and sometimes the shows are a little frothy for me when a song like this could definitely sort out the wheat from the chaff.

It's essentially a power duet....which means Lauren would knock the others out of the park.

The sing-off isn't the place for challenging songs. It's there to give ALW an idea of their voices and a straight 'like for like' comparison. Also, the sing-off is stressful enough without adding to the stress by giving the girls a complicated song to learn.

It's also important to remember that they're casting the role of Dorothy, so they don't actually need to give the girls anything that they wouldn't be expected to come up against should they win the role of Dorothy.

Something from grease. I get the feeling that either they can't aford to pay for the songs, or they don't rate it as a good musical. It's probably the most well known amongst young people especialy. I've never seen half the musicals they have songs from. I do like MT but just not that much....

I have never seen A little night music, or L M. And wouldn't want to either... And as for west side story, I hate that film. We all watched in school once, and the teacher had to turn it off, becuase everyone hated it.

There are worse things I could do.... That's what I think should be the final sing off.

I agreed with most of your previous post, but I don't believe the sing-off is for the benefit of ALW for one moment - he's made his mind up well before they perform the sing-off! The sing off is purely for dramatic effect. And every week they are asked to do stuff that is not required for the role of Dorothy, so one more song won't make any difference.

I think Phantz has probably hit the nail on the head - if such a challenging song were to be performed, it would only serve to make the other girl(s) pale into insignificance beside Lauren.

perhaps they should do, the devil in disguise, Elvis.... you cheated and you schemed.....