The Vocal Stylings of Jayson Fernandez and Jonathan Leong

So how did the idea for this blog entry come about?

Well, I was browsing around in YouTube, the way I always do, just to listen to my favourite music and watch videos of my favourites artists... and I was listening to Rivermaya's Jayson Fernandez singing one of my most favourite Rivermaya songs, "214".

I've posted the video here before, but just for the purposes of this blog, I'll post it here again.

I love this song... I love the music... I love the lyrics... and I love the way Jayson sings it here... whenever I listen to this particular rendition of "214", and whenever I watch this video of Jayson's performance, it just takes me to a whole other place... one could call it heaven.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZh3Z8oONa0

Speaking of heaven, this is another song that I really enjoy listening to Jayson sing... it's called "Himala" or "Miracle".

He starts singing the verse with such sweetness in his voice, then as the high notes come around, he takes them on with such vocal power, dragging out the long notes almost effortlessly. It is so lovely to hear him pull off these high notes, and it is such a joy listening to him perform this number... this is Jayson Fernandez singing "Himala".

(Note: If you can't view the video, please click on the link instead).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7og3j10_gY

Now as I continued to watch videos in YouTube, I went on to listen to Singapore's very own, Jonathan Leong, who is one of the "Singapore Idol" finalists from Season 2.

Jonathan is another vocalist I enjoy listening to, and coincidentally, Jonathan and Jayson have both gained public recognition through singing competition-type reality shows like "Singapore Idol" and "Bagong Liwanag".

In Jonathan's case, he was competing to become the second Singapore Idol.

In Jayson's case, he was competing for a chance to become the new vocalist for the immensely popular and influential Filipino band, Rivermaya.

In this video, Jonathan sings Electrico's "Runaway". Now Electrico played on the results show for that particular season of "Singapore Idol". Similarly, Rivermaya had played on the results show for "Pinoy Idol".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG2GuYA3834

When you listen to the judge's comments at the end of Jon's performance in this video, and after you've heard Jayson sing "Himala" in the previous video I posted, you'll know what judge Ken Lim is talking about when he tells Jon that his real competition are the folks who perform on the results show... folks like Jayson from Rivermaya.

Now just take some time to re-watch these 2 videos of Jayson singing "Himala" and of Jonathan singing "Runaway"... compare the standard and quality of their performances... can you see what judge Ken Lim is saying?

"Himala" sung by Jayson Fernandez...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7og3j10_gY

"Runaway" sung by Jonathan Leong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG2GuYA3834

That being said, Jonathan Leong does have his merits. For one, his cover versions of some songs sound way better than the way the original singer sang it. "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol was one of those songs, and Jon did it so well, it became his signature tune for Singapore Idol.

But I personally don't think that "Chasing Cars" was his best cover song. My personal favourite is this one originally by Dreamz FM called "Should I Stay". I love the way he sounds singing this song, and it's such a vast difference from the original song too.

Most surprising is the high note he hits at around 2:22 of this video. So although his voice is mostly deep, you can't quite say he doesn't have range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv-3xOt2yd0

Actually, hearing Jonathan sing "Should I Stay" kinda makes me wonder what Rivermaya's Jayson would sound like singing the same song??

Hmmm......

P/S:

I've mentioned Jonathan Leong in my AnD blog before... I had spotted him hanging out at the 1st Singapore Tattoo Show when I was there with Quinn Johnson earlier this year...

http://www.alivenotdead.com/jedijean/The-1st-Singapore-Tattoo-Show-profile-464405.html

Well yeah, this is the one and the same Jonathan Leong that we saw there :-)