The Sing-Off shall return

[Caretaker]

This is a few days old, but no one has posted it yet (I reminded by this due to the thread about The Voice 4). The Sing-Off is coming back to NBC for season four. Having just seen season three's winning team, Pentatonix, in concert - I really look forward to see three.

[intrinsical]

Yeah I heard about it. I am over the moon that I don't have to depend on the terrible fallback that is The Sing-Off China. I hated that the winning group, Freemen, adapted Pentatonix and Street Corner Symphony's works and passed it off as their own (view the links for examples). The only decent, creative and totally original group was Micapella from Singapore.

However, I didn't post here because it seemed only a handful here seem to like the show.

[Mark_Nguyen]

Love a cappella, loved the show. Thought it was cancalled - so another sign the NBC is digging waaaay deep these days. Looking forward to it!

Mark

[Spot's Meow]

I had no idea it had been un-cancelled, thanks for posting this! Even though this isn't necessarily my favorite show, I do enjoy its simplicity and of course the awesome music. I'm happy to hear it will be back, I will definitely tune in.

[gblews]

In terms of the sheer amount and quality of vocal talent, this show beats them ALL.

[Mark_Nguyen]

Now that I've seen the Sing Off China clips (which I didn't know existed), I'm wondering about the re-dos. Surely those were because the actual song arrangements were done by people on the US version, and thus they were intellectual property that the franchise could re-use? Thus, it's not REALLY Freemen's fault that they were given the arrangements to do... I'm guessing they weren't alone in that sense.

Mind you, the a cappella arrangements of C-pop tunes were great, as much as I didn't understand what was being sung. I've got some great covers of anime tunes sung by Japanese a cappella groups in my collection. That, and Rag Fair is awesome.

http://youtu.be/HB5OmLj9Q84

Mark

[intrinsical]

Mark_Nguyen wrote:

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Now that I've seen the Sing Off China clips (which I didn't know existed), I'm wondering about the re-dos. Surely those were because the actual song arrangements were done by people on the US version, and thus they were intellectual property that the franchise could re-use? Thus, it's not REALLY Freemen's fault that they were given the arrangements to do... I'm guessing they weren't alone in that sense.

If they had only stuck to songs sung on The Sing-Off, I might have agreed with you. One of the most egregious group is called ET and they simply copied Pentatonix performances, including songs not sung on The Sing-Off such as Telephone which young Scott, Mitch and Kirstie sang when they were still in their school choir and Somebody That I Used To Know which was done after they had won The Sing-Off. Its plain simple, they copied.

[Caretaker]

Wow! I totally did not know the show had been exported to other countries. Those were - fascinating video clips.

[intrinsical]

As far as I know, there's now versions of The Sing-Off in France, Netherlands and China but out of these I have only watched the China version. A capella is still pretty much brand new in China so some of the groups had taken to cutting corners by copying arrangements. However two groups stood out for me because they did totally original arrangements and had their own unique styles. A word of warning, most of the songs linked in this post are in Mandarin, hopefully they won't be too lost in translation.

One group is of course Micapella which I have already linked a couple of videos. I like them partly because they're from my country of Singapore. More critically, they are very smart in fusing together multiple musical genres in their music and like all the good Sing-Off groups, they are able to elevate the original song to new levels. By the way, Micapella came in second.

The other group is called Hey Boy, formed by 5 young men who insists on interpreting traditional chinese songs for the modern era in their music. Sadly, they were eliminated early but did leave a couple of good performances.

[Mark_Nguyen]

Yay, thanks for that info! I'm fully francophone. Off to find Sing Off France clips!

Mark

[intrinsical]

Since its still months before Sing-Off 4, I figured just for fun... What are your favorite Sing-Off performances of all time?

Here's my favorite ensemble performances:

1. Good Feelin' - Flo Rida, Pentatonix, Urban Method
2. Fix You - Street Corner Symphony, Backbeats, Committed, Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town
3. F**king Perfect - Season 3 Group A Contestants

And here's my favorite performances:

1. Creep - Street Corner Symphony
2. Grenade - Delilah
3. Landslide - Backbeats
4. Video Killed The Radio Star - Pentatonix
5. Love The Way You Lie - Urban Method
6. American Boy - Afro Blue
7. The Way You Look Tonight - Vocal Point
8. Bad Romance - On The Rocks
9. Let's Stay Together - Committed
10. Let It Be - Kinfolk 9

[Spot's Meow]

My favorite was Pinball Wizard by the Dartmouth Aires.

[Mark_Nguyen]

Quite liked this opener. Always a sucker for a good anthem song.



Mark

[Sakrysta]

Oh my goodness!!! You just made my year!!! I am obsessed with this show. I didn't see it until Season 3, which honestly is the best one. I hope they get Ben, Shawn, and especially SARAH back as judges.

Trying to list my favorite performances would make a really long list. I agree with most of what Intrinsical posted. Here are a few others:

• "Put Your Records On" - Afro Blue
• "Viva La Vida" - Sonos
• "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" - Afro Blue
• "Poison" - Urban Method
• "How to Love" -Delilah
• "This Is Halloween"/"Werewolves in London"/"Ghostbusters" - Combined group performance
• "Queen Medley" - Dartmouth Aires
• "Here I Go Again" - Urban Method
• "Every Little Step" - Vocal Point
• "Bittersweet Symphony"/"Hollaback Girl"/"Baba O'Reilly"/"Last Friday Night" - Combined group performance
• "Never Say Never" - Vocal Point
• "The Way You Make Me Feel" - Combined group performance
• "Not the Same" - Dartmouth Aires featuring Ben Folds

Plus every Pentatonix performance except "OMG."

[intrinsical]

Sakrysta wrote:

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Plus every Pentatonix performance except "OMG."

By the way, I have a playlist of all post-Singoff Pentatonix songs for your enjoyment.

PS: Please tell me if you notice that I have somehow missed out a PTX song.