Okay, first let me say that I love Sandra Bernhard as a comedian and as a performer. She's on my bucket list of performers I must see in my life. From the beginning of her career she has included song performances as part of her act and while they started off as comedic turns, as she gets older her vocals have taken a more serious turn and half the time I find myself cringing. Yet I can't pin why her vocals suck. From a technical standpoint, would her singing be considered off key, flat or what? I give her points for giving it her all but damn does she really try my patience at time.

First, here's an awesome performance of her serenading Boy George. He's almost in tears:



And then she butchers Elton John's Madman Across The Water:




Is the vocal technique competent and her style off or does she just not know how to sing? I ask this of the musically inclined folks of the org.
[Edited 12/14/09 22:13pm]

I didn't cringe she can carry a tune and the emotional delivery was def evident.

I've always thought she could carry a tune though,,,,saw afew portions of this when it aired in HBO..


And I knew then & there that she could work on her voice if she wanted to drop the theatrics,,,,,but then again, theatrics are the main attractions to her voice

I love Ms.Bernhard.
[Edited 12/15/09 3:48am]

i can't wait for someone to post her "little red corvette" performance onto youtube. I wonder how prince feels about that performance.

you really think she can carry a tune? so is it just her voice that causes me to twitch at times? kind of like how some loath the way stevie nicks and shakira sing?

Ms. Bernhard can't sing. Gee Club status voice: would do well in a group but she would never ever never get the chance to sing solo. She can sing in tune some of the time but her range is limited and the timbre of her voice is worrisome. At that, Ms. Bernhard could probably do with some voice lessons/breathing lessons to avoid singing "flat" in some instances.

She can carry a tune, not bad. Hell she 's even better then some of today's female pop stars. She might need a little help with her singing techinque. but overall she has a nice voice. No where near what i thought she would sound like.

I just think she has a unique styling. Her Next Time performance was so pure and honest. Most of the vocalists today couldn’t pull that off on a whim. I used to run her album with Little Red Corvette..

JackieBlue said:

Thats EXACTLY why I didn't cringe once,,,,,if the emotional element is there, it will carry the rest.

agree