Check out the BBC website this week he has been given a slower song someone has lip read the vocals and guessed what it is but I am hoping it isn't because if it is the original is so good there is no way ben can top it. Plus, it is a very hard song to sing so it might be Taxi for Ben this week.

Oh and just a reminder Ben had some hard songs in the beginning *all by myself* which I know he butchered but is a very very hard song to sing for any one with a good range never mind someone with a limited one

But surely someone with a limited range shouldn't be playing a lead role anyway, i think the judges have to pick a song to push him this week as hes had such an easy ride recently.

Sorry, I meant if they HAD to choose pop songs / songs from the Hit Parade , they would do v recent hits that many of us wouldn't have heard of.

Lewis's mum gave birth to the crooning of Everything I do I do it for you. Surely this explains a lot?!

I was born to Bowie, Space Oddity to be exact - far more cool IMHO !

So long as the person can sing the range required for the role in question, it doesn't matter a damn. Some roles hardly require any range, some demand a huge range, it all depends on the part.

As for Joseph, I haven't actually seen the music in about 15 years, so I don't remember what kind of range we are talking about. It quite clearly isn't very challenging, cause it's being put on by schools all the time. I would imagine that every single one of the josephs picked for the top 12 would fit the vocal range of the part very comfortably. And as has been commented on many times in this forum, the performances of 'close every door' have been, without exception, excellent.

This is why it seems so unfair for the programme to stitch up contestants with songs that have vocal ranges far and away above what will be required of the part, like giving Antony Patience this year, or in Maria, having Abi sing Summertime.

I would have said that the fact that Ben is a far, far better actor than Keith, Lewis or Craig should stand to him.

I would say that close every door is a brill song that deserves someone with talent singing it - maybe in ben gets the part the could get the understudy to sing that song instead!

Exactly. We're not looking for the best vocalist. We're not, even necessarily look for the best person at theatre. We are looking for the best person for the part of Joseph. I think all 12 could have been able to sing the part fine. This is evidenced by the consistently good performances of Close Every Door, even from contestants who were weak during the show.

Sorry, i can't agree with the consistently good performances of close every door. i say there are 3 that were good.

Can I ask people who know the musical better than me - what do we need in Joseph? For me, it's a production I adored and saw many times and knew by heart when I was ten and saw as adult in the West End and enjoyed but was a bit bored by (they padded it out with repeating the songs a lot). In my memory, the Narrator did most of the singing and Joseph had the 2 big songs, obviously, and lots of running round, acting in dumbshow what the Narrator was singing, adding in the odd line here and there. In my memory performance and likability were more important than amazing singing - is that fair? I agree with the posters above that everyone left (and a few of those gone) could do it, though some do look more comfortable than others in the group numbers.

Having recently revisited the soundtrackwith Jason Donavon I think you've got a point. The only real show stopper for Joseph is Close every Door to me, where he has to hit that end note which I think a lot of the ex Joseph's did pretty well. Apart from that I don't think many of the songs are that taxing. Pharoh gets a belter in the second act and Benjamin Calypso is sung by a brother.
And you're right the soundrack seems to have various versions of Any Dream Will do and some cheesy 80's sounding Joseph Megamix for padding. I hope ALW rejigs the format for the naughties audience.