Tag Archives: gary Barlow

Anne Norberg’s Six Sensational Songs

As we come to end of the Summer Together Tour 2017 (just one date left), it’s once more time to indulge ourselves with six of Alfie Boe’s most sensational songs.  This time they are chosen by Anne Norberg, who, like Alfie, is a Lancastrian now resident in the USA.  These are Anne’s choices:

Run, chosen because “the VE Day celebration was the first time for us hearing Alfie sing this and it was so very poignant and moving. I would dearly love him to record this song.”

Forever Young at the US Memorial Day show 2015, chosen because “watching this on TV made my heart burst with pride and I clapped and cried. (I know many of you can relate). I had friends in other States all watching it too so it was something I could share with them. He displayed such presence, and commanded that stage. I love the way it built up slowly to that magnificent climax.”

Don’t Stop Me Now at Gary Barlow’s New Year’s Eve TV special, chosen because “Just WOW! Alfie was having so much fun and the audience were so involved and well, THAT VOICE! Pure energy and fun. Our boy can sing anything! It gives me burst of energy just to re-listen to this every time.”

Who Am I – Anne chose Alfie singing this at the 25th Les Mis concert but as it keeps disappearing due to copyright issues, I’ve chosen this 2011 TV version instead.  Anne’s reason for choosing the original is  “because I love the audience response when they first hear that incredible two, four, six,oh, one!!! And I would just be so excited for him when I was there in person each time!”

A Living Prayer, chosen because “the most amazing, beautiful voice cuts right through to my soul. And now I’m also aware of the purity of his younger voice then compared to the depth and richness it has now. I love both voices.”

Barcelona, with Laura Wright, chosen because it’s “spectacular, and another one of his power songs. He’s said this is a difficult sing and so I love his ability to master anything!”

Thanks Anne for your choices.  A Living Prayer is the most popular choice of your songs, having been chosen three times altogether, with only one song (Forever Young) appearing on the overall list.

If you would like your choice of six sensational songs to appear here, please fill in the form:

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On the Seventh Day of Christmas, Alfie Boe Sang…

…the Queen classic, Don’t Stop Me Now, on Gary Barlow’s New Year’s Eve show (thanks to Linda for sharing):

A complete surprise to us all (and to the annoyance of some who, like me, missed it!) this was the best bit of New year TV for years.  Come back and do it again next year Alfie!

I’ve already done my highlights of 2015 but a heartfelt thank you to everyone who reads, comments, shares and subscribes to this blog – I love you all and we’re well on the way to our first 100,000 hits.  That will be a real celebration post!

Happy New Year and hope 2016 is a very happy, healthy and prosperous year for you all

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Friday Round Up with Alfie Boe: No. 3

Last week we had the chance to hear Alfie on BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night, recorded back in October.  All I can say is that it was worth waiting for  – Alfie sang a handful of songs from Serenata and of course the obligatory Bring Him Home.  After all this time, Alfie sings this song differently every time and FNIMN was one of the most moving I’ve heard for a while.  Thanks again to Marcia for sharing:

Tomorrow is of course the first night of the much anticipated tour and last Saturday night saw the number one song revealed on the Alfie Boe Best Ever Live Song poll – if you missed it, here is the result:

Lastly, in a quiet week (rehearsals going at full pace I imagine), Serenata debuted at 14 in the UK album charts and 3 in the classical chart.  The surprise re-entry of You’ll Never Walk Alone in at number 8 on the classical chart shows that people are discovering all types of Alfie music. Go Alfie!

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Alfie Boe’s Best Ever Live Song – The Top!

So, with just a week to go before Alfie Boe’s Arena tour starts in Newcastle, the number one song in the Alfie Boe Best Ever Live Song poll is:

A powerhouse performance by Alfie at Gary Barlow’s 2013 New Year TV show – and a complete surprise to us all!  Imagine my annoyance when I missed it and woke up to a zillion messages on my phone and on twitter!!!!!

As we know, Freddie Mercury and Queen were a big influence on Alfie and this song is from the 1978 Queen album, Jazz. Mercury wrote both music and lyrics and is based around the piano; guitar being only a small part of the recorded version.  Here is the Queen version:

To recap the top 5:

Rank Strangers – Storyteller tour

You are my heart’s delight – Blackpool

Buona Sera – Belfast Proms

Jacobs Ladder / Barcelona (Laura Wright version)

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Alfie Boe’s Surprise Breakfast Show Appearance

If you were listening to the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on 18th March you may have been pleasantly surprised to hear the dulcet tones of Alfie Boe reading the “On this day” segment.  It was only a minute long but any mention of Alfie is always a treat!

This unexpected treat started me thinking about the difficulties involved in keeping Alfie’s appearances secret.  On many occasions, despite the best efforts of Alfie’s team, news of supposedly secret media appearances and performances leak out. My best guess is that this is due to social media; in the age of instant availability of information, one mention online of Alfie, or any other artist, goes instantly viral. This then leads large numbers of fans desperate to know if such and such performance or media appearance is really going to happen and before we know it, we’ve expended large amounts of time and energy on finding out something that simply can’t be confirmed, mostly due to the time honoured phrase “contractual reasons”.

So when a performance or appearance really is kept secret, it’s such a lovely treat for everyone, particularly when there doesn’t seem to be much else happening.  The biggest surprise in recent times was Alfie’s extremely secret and surprise appearance on Gary Barlow’s New year’s Eve TV show.  Social media went into meltdown, with Alfie trending on Twitter well into New year’s Day – and those of us who missed it (yes, I was one) were alternately highly annoyed that we missed it and then thrilled to see Alfie when we least expected it. At that point, there was nothing in Alfie’s public schedule for several months.

Speculation has it that Gary and Alfie planned this collaboration when they were both guests on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show in October 2013, so here’s another excuse to see the fabulous Radio Ga Ga

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