Steemit's Official Open Mic Judge @Verbal-D's Top 5 Entries For Week 63 (Original Blog)
Steemit Open Mic Week 63
My Top 5 In Order
As one of the 5 judges, and as an original artist also, I aim to represent the best original artists in this contest from our wonderful Steemit community. I am keeping my ears open for cover artists as well, don't worry but creating an original song is indeed impressive, especially if executed and performed well. Best of skill and performance to you all next week. This week was great and had a lot of entries. There were many gems I found and there were still many talented performers who entered, so forgive me if I didn't list you, I definitely heard everyone's entries. See you next week!
1. @amyinautumn's "Eat You Alive" Original Song
A song like this indeed embodies a certain beauty rising from a place of cold despair and pain. You have performed this original moving song so passionately that the feelings translate near tangibly as you belt out your strong, and admirable vocals. Not only did you sing this well, you performed it with fully, well-controlled emotion to convey the heartache and bitterness that results from a harsh severance between once connected love. Glad to see and hear you have created something wondrous out of a dark place which represents your dignified self respect. You are without a doubt talented with a lot of attitude and style. Thanks for sharing this with us.
https://steemit.com/openmic/@amyinautumn/steemit-open-mic-week-63-eat-you-alive-original
2. @olaivart’s "When She Loved Me" by Sarah McLachlan Cover Song
Your entry was such a pleasure to listen to. There is no need to apologize for the wonderful acoustics your bathroom provided to enhance the experience of your beautiful voice. You captured the sweet essence of this moving song and maintained the profound tender aura of each note that brings to life this memorable song. I was in tuned to every high and low note you sang and was rooting for you from start to finish in your near flawless delivery. This highlighted your gift of music and this was a great cover choice that shows the soft and sentimental side of you. Your vibrato was spot on and I can only imagine how you sound when you’re not holding back your full force vocals. Thank you for sharing such an inspiring, yet simply commanding entry.
https://steemit.com/openmic/@olaivart/steemit-open-mic-week-63-when-she-loved-me-by-sarah-mclachlan-or-toy-story-2-ost-cover
3. @kayclarity’s "Only Ever You" Original Song
Absolutely fantastic original song. The lyrics are really well written with a depth of poetics and the way you have crafted your melodies from beautifully dark tones to bright hopeful revealances of your love truly shows your level of high quality artistry. You guitar playing and captivating singing really made you a force this week and I hope you continue to see more success for such wondeful music you share with us. Your voice is silk woven and free flowing as spring blown flower petals. That’s the best way I can describe how amazing this song and your entry is. Looking forward to your next performance, you’ve got skills.
https://steemit.com/openmic/@kayclarity/open-mic-week-63-original-song-only-ever-you
4. @jamaris' "Pieces" Original Song
I could feel the pain embedded in this personal story revealment song of yours and it was an emotionally charged performance that demands respect, acknowledgement and appreciation. Your steady rhythmic attack of lyricism describing the turmoil you face with your mother’s love, the stability of your family and your siblings that take their own paths into a less desirable direction of your mother’s expectation is what makes this a very powerful and unique, stand out entry. Not only do you emcee/femcee rap well with timing delivery and conviction, but you have a really nice voice as well to compliment the aggressive and serious tones. Both skill sets balance each other out wonderfully and remind me of my own style to how I approach Hip Hop with Soul and R&B intertwined. I would love to see more femcees take part in our Steemit Open Mic Contest so thank you for participating and showcasing your talents with us all! Respect!
https://steemit.com/openmic/@jamaris/steemit-open-mic-week-63-pieces-original-song
5. @kjablonski’s "Who Will Save Your Soul” by Jewel Cover Song
Don’t let this fifth place placement fool anyone reading this. @Kjablonski, you’re one of our elite performers in this Steemit Open Mic Contest, week in and week out you continually stun us listeners in the audience with great, consistent performances back to back to back. This entry is no exception as you bring to life another powerful song with your fierce, yet compelling vocals. Your son adds that extra charm to your submission and you completely do this song beyond justice with your overall presentation. Oh and regarding that “obnoxiously long note” I thought it wasn’t bad at all, maybe a second or two would have been overkill but it was a nice transition as you were rifting and you also have great control and delivery over your effective vibrato. Thanks for another memorable performance.
https://steemit.com/openmic/@kjablonski/steemit-openmic-week-63-who-will-save-your-soul-cover-feat-ben
Honourable Mentions
My Top 7 In No Particular Order
1. @tombalistreri’s "You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch" Cover
https://steemit.com/openmic/@tombalistreri/steemit-openmic-63-your-a-mean-one-mr-grinch-cover-performed-by-tom-balistreri
2. @wilins’ "Ruido" Original Song
https://steemit.com/openmic/@wilins/steemit-open-mic-semana-63-cancion-original-ruido-wilins-mendez
3. @pechichemena's ”Mapa Tesoro" by Nicolas Ibarburu Cover Song
https://steemit.com/openmic/@pechichemena/steemit-open-mic-week-63-mapa-tesoro-nicolas-ibarburu-cover-song
4. @drewley’s "Rising From The Ashes" Original Composition
https://steemit.com/openmic/@drewley/steemit-open-mic-week-63-rising-from-the-ashes-original-piano-piece
5. @steembirds’ "Introduce Yourself" Original Song
https://steemit.com/openmic/@steembirds/steemit-open-mic-week-63-introduce-yourself-original-song
6. @donatello's "Lorenzo" Original Composition
https://steemit.com/openmic/@donatello/steemit-open-mic-week-63-lorenzo-original-guitar-composition
7. @yourmercury’s "The Thrill Of It All” By Sam Smith Cover Song
https://steemit.com/openmic/@yourmercury/steemit-open-mic-week-63-the-thrill-of-it-all-sam-smith-cover-by-me-yourmercury
Thank you for viewing and reading this post in its entirety, I hope you enjoyed it for what it's worth.
All Gifs used from Giphy.com
Next Post coming tomorrow
@yourmercury vocal really hit me what a voice! would love to have him in the studio a day just incredible. great picks my friend big love to you. always thoughtful deep and brilliantly laid out post with @verbal-d
Yeah she commanded attention from the get go like your entries often did. And said "him" by the way lol
Fix it then I can edit my Pointing of it out away so no one is the wiser. :)
and thank you always for showing me love and support. truly appreciate it my friend
Thank you so much!
Very happy for the honourable mention.
All the Best!
You’re very welcome, glad to mention your wonderful music. All the best indeed. Steem On!
Thank you @verbal-d. We sure have a lot of talent to pick from this week. Really appreciate your ear on this little thing of ours.
You’re very welcome bro. We hit almost 120 entries this week. Pretty hefty amount for sure. But still a great listening journey. My ears are picking up on all the skill it’s a win win :)
Thank you again for the kind and thoughtful words! I love reading your reviews, and it is an extra added bonus when I make your top 5 :) I appreciate you taking the time to listen and contribute your thoughts.
You’re very welcome my friend. So glad you love my reviews, thank you for the compliment. I can say that you shouldn’t have much of a problem making my lists often with your consistency. Music is your second language
Compliments given where compliments are deserved.. and yes, I believe it is my second language. I would say the same for you.. it's a blessing to be able to express emotion thru music and/or poetry.
I agree completely, thank you. It is truly a gifted blessing I use daily without hesitation and share
@verbal-d
I am more than grateful for your consideration, friend. You know that what I do can touch others makes me, seriously, very happy. I hug you, brother.
I will follow you and I will be in tune.
Thank you for the follow, glad to give you a mention for your nice music @wilins. It’s nothing but love
Thanks brother. Seriously Steemit and the openmic contest are saving my life, the everyday (to literally have something to eat) and the artistic to experience and grow. I live in Venezuela and the crisis is overwhelming. I will not mention it more because it is already part of the general culture to know that we are bottoming out. In any case I reiterate my gratitude and I hope to continue being of your pleasure. Without intentions to disrespect, I present here the last song I composed. https://steemit.com/openmic/@wilins/openmic-songwriters-challenge-week-4-because-we-can-original-song-porque-podemos
You’re very welcome, yes I have heard about Venezuela and my condolences and prayers go out to you and your family and The People there. That is why we need to spread the word about Steemit and the cryptocurrency revolution. This can truly help the world not starve to death and solve a lot of financial problems and house the homeless and feed the hungry and heal the sick. Money rules the world but cryptocurrency will level the playing field.
I shall listen to your newest song soon, thanks for the link, no disrespect taken. Don’t worry it is okay
Gracias, hermano.
De nada hermano
Great choices! Man, I don't envy your position haha! It must be hard trying to whittle down the choices. I've judged contests before so I know how hard it is, but picking from such a stiff competition must be doubly hard.
Thank you bro, you would be surprised to learn that the judging process takes a mininum of 3 and a half hours and the post write up afterwards is another hour and half to two hours so I treat this position very seriously and I have to be a tough judge otherwise my indecisiveness would require another 3-5 hours of confusion lol hahaha
Check out 1st place in my last judge list of the winning song from last week by the @steembirds
“If I Were A Judge”
https://steemit.com/openmic/@verbal-d/steemit-s-official-open-mic-judge-verbal-d-s-top-5-entries-for-week-62-original-blog
I'm not surprised at all. I think I take the same amount of time judging. It's tough to have the fate of people in your hands. I know it's not life or death or anything, but I really do take judging even the little contests quite seriously.
lol yes I completely agree. It does matter! Hope you enjoyed their funny song.
Very nice picks this week ! Thank you so much for including me in your mentions. I really appreciate it @verbal-d . Cheers!
I'm glad you like my picks, you guys are top notch performers. You're very welcome
Hi, @verbal-d! I just saw this and it made me cry. Thank you so much for appreciating my voice! I will do better next time. <3
Oh what a nice reply to come across. I am so happy to bring tears of joy to your face. You are most welcome. You have a wonderful voice, and if you did better than this entry, which I'm sure is possible, everyone will be pleased to enjoy your next song choice. If you have any originals please do share them with us, I'm big on originals, and when it comes to covers, if you make them your own stylistically such as this entry you showed, then it makes my judging that much easier since I'm so tough of a judge critically already. We have to be with more contestants joining each week. :)
I don't really sing in public that much, but Steemit has been nothing but encouragement to me, that's why I decided to join Open Mic. Although in all honesty, due to my nature of being a perfectionist, it took me several sittings to finally choose this recording although it is still far from perfect, but I guess it was okay. :) Unfortunately, the only instrument I can play is my voice, but I am learning to play ukulele, so let's just see in the coming months if I'll be able to write and play my own songs. For now, I still want to continue with covers since it's the least I could do!
Thanks a lot again! This gave me butterflies in my stomach. :)
You are most welcome. That’s okay if you don’t sing in public. I don’t mind to myself I just enjoy sharing the gift of music and I am glad you share yours with us.
Have fun with the ukulele and take your time. You can definitely write and sing your own songs with or without an instrument. The voice is the best instrument of all and all other instruments wished they could have the range and manipulation of tone that the voice has :)
Oye hermano excelente... en Steemit hay talento de sobra y me imagino el trabajo que debe tomar el escoger solo 5 de miles de artistas que siguen el concurso... La comunidad steemiana a mi me ayudado en abrirme como artista y espero poder seguir dando lo mejor de mi siempre... Recordando que debemos ser mañana mejor de lo que fuimos hoy... GRACIAS No esta de mas en decir, que estoy abierto para seguir creciendo como artista venezolano que ya esta de mas en decir las situaciones que vivimos dia a dia... te invito a seguir mi trabajo como yo seguire el suyo. Nuevamente GRACIAS
De nada. Estoy feliz de que seas parte de nuestra comunidad Steemit y puedas crecer con nosotros juntos como artistas que producen música que cambia la vida e inspirarte unos a otros para tener una mejor perspectiva y enfoque de cómo nos tratamos, y qué conocimiento y consejos compartimos con uno otro. Siga creando música y progresando todos los días. Tú eres tu única competencia. Mientras te hayas mejorado de lo que eres en el pasado, entonces estás ganando. Steem en mi amigo. Gracias por el apoyo. Espero con interés su participación en el Steemit Open Mic Contest. Dios bendiga a Venezuela