Or is he an alto? How do you decide that? Is there any such thing as a man being considered a soprano?

I don't know what he would be considered. He tends to sing at a whole lot of different registers. His voice sometimes has the raspiness you usually hear only on baritones, but the guy can sing pretty high notes too without resorting to falsetto.

Definitions from classical music are seldom that applicable for pop music, but I guess "tenor" would be closest to the truth.

Yeah, I think he must have a range like Bilal has. I forgot about the baritone category. Are there are lot of people who sing rnb and pop that are baritone?

Wait, don't you have to sing falsetto to hit high notes?

whatever he is, he's awesome

I saw him yesterday live concert in Torino (Italy). Believe me the man is such a genius, I came with friend who only knows Sign your name and If you let me stay. They felt in love with his voice and new music instantanly. After the show he takes time with people to sign autograph and take photos, we spoke awhile. He really is smart and gentle. By the way his new name is Sananda Maitreya. P.S : Hi Sananda, I know you read the .org, see you next time ! Marshall

He would be a perfect Unsung ep. Never could figure out why he went downhill in the states

tunnelvision5 said:

Did he tell you he does?

scriptgirl said:

Lots of factors probably: his label had a hard time promoting him after "Hardline", he rubbed a LOT of music critics the wrong way by saying his debut was the best album of all time in the face of those who favored Beatles records (I think he said his record was better than "Sgt. Pepper's"), he wanted to be a rocker but his label wanted him to be a R&B musician and he basically didn't promote much in the states, also the hip-hop and teen pop at the time was starting to cut on his U.S. audience.

In contrast, Sananda (formerly Terence) always had a European following, that's why he lived in London, and then Italy, in later years. He actually stayed in London for a bit before releasing his debut album in '87.

Timmy84 said:

He also loved in Germany once before he got famous and then again before he moved to Italy.

Serious said:

Oh yeah that's right. Germany, I think he lived there after he was discharged from, I believe, the Navy. Didn't he form his first band in Germany?

I don't know why his label-what label was he on-had a hard time promoting him. He was the perfect mix of MJ and P. If you put those 2 in blender, you would come out with Terence.

scriptgirl said:

Maybe because he didn't have the same freedoms MJ and Prince has as an artist. Though like MJ and Prince, I see him complain about the attitude of major record labels. He actually dug it when Michael, George and Prince went open about labels' handling of artists. Sananda's totally independent now.

Timmy84 said:

He came to Germany when he was in the army. And yes he was in a band there and they made an album. He was working with Frank Farian back then who later formed Milli Vanilli as they reminded him of TTD.

Serious said:

Must've been the dreads and looking like clones.

Timmy84 said:

I guess he was really pissed that TTD got famous after he stopped working with him. He said it was the only time something like that happened to him.
I remember that he was telling in a talkshow how thrilled he was when "not just one but 2 Terence Trent D'Arby's" entered the room . Too bad that they didn't have TTD's voice or talent though .
[Edited 7/20/09 16:16pm]

Serious said:

Frank definitely screwed up big time because while Sananda/Terence is still revered, he ended up having to expose that those clones was paid to be phony.

"Girl you know it's, girl you know it's, girl you know it's..."

Timmy84 said:

And I always thought it was completely unfair that all the blame was put on them and not on Farian. It was his idea after all and they did what they had to do to become famous while he already was a famous and rich producer. I guess as nobody cared that the guy in Boney M was not really the singer he probably thought nobody would care .

Serious said:

Yeah, I don't know why people got all hardcore on them. When you're under a contract, you do as you told and they did what they was told by Frank: look and act pretty and hopefully get money. And the plot worked until they couldn't take the bullshit anymore. That's why I dug when they finally told the truth because they said "we don't deserve this" meaning the Grammys making the Grammys out to be the bullshit awards show it is.