Tag Archives: Poll

Nominate Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song 2019

It’s January 2019 and Alfie Boe fans around the world are already getting excited about his UK tour which starts in just over ten weeks!  Now, an Alfie Boe tour just wouldn’t be the same without our annual poll to find the best Alfie Boe live song.  in 2018 we had eight new songs nominated but the runaway winner was, again, Run.  Can it be topped at all? Whatever happens, it’s up to you to nominate and vote, so let’s do it!

These are the songs already nominated from previous years:

If your favourite Alfie Boe live song isn’t there, then nominate it on the form below:

Now, due to Alfie’s next tour getting underway in mid March, there’s only a short time to nominate before voting starts – so don’t miss out!

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Merry Christmas 2018!

Almost the end of another year and as Alfie will be appearing on Christmas Carols with ITV tonight at 11.45pm, let’s look back on Christmas Eve 2017:

This is a wonderful arrangement of a wonderful carol and as we know, was your favourite Alfie Boe Christmas song.

This year has been another amazing journey on the musical train that Alfie takes us on – we never quite know where we’ll end up but every minute is fabulous.  Alfie achieved another top ten album position with As Time Goes By and I’m thrilled to say that I have one signed copy to give away as a competition prize! To win, just answer the question (make sure you’re subscribed):

Who duetted with Alfie on As Time Goes By?

Winner will be drawn after New Year – good luck!

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Your Favourite Alfie Boe Christmas Song is…

O Holy Night came out on top, wiping the floor with the other songs, taking 49% of the vote.  The songs in second and third place were I Saw Three Ships and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, with 10% and 9% respectively. Alfie has recorded O Holy Night, with the Boston Pops, on an album called Sleigh Ride (thanks to Claire Smith for the video):

The lyrics of the O Holy Night were written by Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure in 1847, having been asked by the parish priest to write a poem for Christmas. He obliged and wrote the beautiful words of the hymn.  Needing music, he approached his friend Adolphe Charles Adams who then composed the melody. The carol was translated into English by John Sullivan Dwight.

Don’t forget that Alfie will present Christmas Carols on ITV, Christmas Eve at 11.45pm again this year – hopefully we’ll have another song to choose from in 2019!

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Vote for Your Favourite Alfie Boe Christmas Song!

Not long now until Christmas and those of you with As Time Goes By to open on Christmas Day, you’re going to love it – no idea how you’ve restrained yourself from listening though!

In the meantime, let’s make the most of the Christmas spirit by voting for our favourite Alfie Boe Christmas song – you know how much we love a poll!  These are the songs that Alfie has either recorded or sung live somewhere – unfortunately, there aren’t as many as we might like:

The poll has now closed.

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Alfie Boe Best Ever Song 2018: The Top!

We’ve made it! The top place in the fifth annual Alfie Boe Best Ever Song poll is shortly to be revealed, but before we do that, let’s run down the top ten so far:

10 – A Living Prayer

9 – Rank Strangers

8 – You’re The Voice

7 – Keep Me In Your Heart

6 – A Thousand Years

5 – The Prayer

4 – Love Reign O’er Me

3 – Bring Him Home

2 – First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

And so, the song voted in at number ten is:

Anthem, recorded for Alfie’s 2016 album with Michael Ball, Together, is this year’s top song, the last of four songs from Together and Together Again.  Last year, Anthem was a new entry to the chart, ending up at number six.

Anthem is one of the most famous songs (although for me, I have more of an affection for the Elaine Paige / Barbara Dickson song I Know Him So Well) from the Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus musical, Chess, which opened in London in 1986 before closing three years later.  A subsequent Broadway production was much less successful.  Prior to either show, a concept album was released, from which Paige and Dickson’s recording derives as Dickson was unable to open in the London production.

Thanks for all your votes – always interesting to see what comes up trumps – and as Alfie has now announced his 2019 tour, it’ll soon be time to vote for our favourite live song again!

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Alfie Boe Best Ever Song 2018: Number Two

Just one week until we unveil the top spot in the fifth Alfie Best Best Ever Song poll and in at number two is a song that was once part of Alfie’s live set on a regular basis but has since made way for his more recent material.  The song has only once entered the top ten, at number five in 2016 and is First Time Ever I Saw Your Face:

The song was written by folk singer songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger before they were married although the song only became world famous when Roberta Flack’s version was used in the Clint Eastwood film, Play Misty For Me.

In a recent interview, Seeger retold the story of how the song came into being:

I told him [Euan MacColl] that I was doing a radio show and they wanted a love song and they would prefer a new one…He said, “how about this” and sang The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

In the years since, there have been many, many cover versions, (all of them hated, at least those recorded before 1989, apparently by MacColl) but my favourite is George Michael’s version. Somewhat controversially, I once made an admission that I prefer George’s version to Alfie! It’s still the case I’m afraid, especially now that George is no longer with us.

It’s rare that I find another artist’s version better than Alfie’s version but with this song, George’s phrasing edges it for me.  Certainly, it’s the best track on George’s album Songs from the Last Century.  Interestingly, in a long ago radio interview, Alfie picked George Michael as having a great voice and could have been even better if he’d gone down the route of vocal training.

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Alfie Boe’s Best Ever Song 2018: Number Four

On the homeward stretch of the 2018 countdown of the fans favourite Alfie Boe recorded song and we find a song at number four that topped the chart in 2016, fell to number three last year and is now at number four:

I’ve used this video more times that I can remember (the song has featured heavily in the Six Sensational Songs series) but the first version of Love Reign O’er Me remains spine tinglingly wonderful.  The whole Classic Quadrophenia album is amazing but this is definitely the best, showcasing Alfie’s vocal talents like very few other songs in his recent repertoire, either recorded or live.  Anyone who experiences (you don’t see or hear Alfie sing this live, you experience it) Alfie singing this live can never get enough of it again.  It’s simply spellbinding.

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Alfie Boe’s Best Ever Song 2018: Number Five

We’ve reached the half way stage of the poll to find the best Alfie Boe recorded song 2018!  The song at number five is a new entry to the chart, having only been released in 2017.  The third song to feature Alfie with Michael Ball and taken from Together Again, the song is The Prayer:

Happily, this song was voted in at number five in this year’s Alfie Boe Best Live Song poll!

The song was written by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager, with Alberto Testa and Tony Renis for the 1998 film Quest for Camelot and was originally two solo tracks; English for Celine Dion and Italian for Andrea Bocelli. The song was then released as a duet by Dion and Bocelli and that is the version that is most well known.

Composer Foster had said that is is “a song that I just never get tired of playing, I never get tired of hearing it, and I never get tired of people telling me that they enjoy it. And it seems to mean a lot—it means a lot of different things to a lot of people. So it’s a powerful piece of music. I think it came through me, and I think Carole’s lyric is beautiful. And it’s very meaningful to me that when all is said and done, there is a piece of music like that, that will undoubtedly outlive me. It was a moment—that song was a moment for sure.”

The Prayer was was one of my standout songs of Together Again – it’s beautiful and is a treat for those who love to hear Alfie sing in Italian. Both Alfie and Michael excel here and it seems to be a fitting song for the troubled times we currently live in.

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Alfie Boe’s Best Ever Song 2018: Number Seven

Number seven in the 2018 quest to find the fans favourite Alfie Boe recorded song is my favourite…Keep Me In Your Heart:

Now a staple of Alfie’s live set (so far!) in a different form, I love this video as I can see so many lovely friends in it!

Keep Me In Your Heart is from Alfie’s 2013 album, Trust (one of my favourites).  Judging my the results of this poll (only once has the song dropped out of the top ten since it’s introduction in 2014) everyone else feels the same…I worry for the safety of everyone’s buttons!

The song was written by US musician and songwriter, Warren Zevon in response to receiving a terminal diagnosis of asbestos related cancer and was the last song to be recorded for 2003’s The Wind, Zevon’s final album. Zevon survived the album release by only a few weeks although he did manage to see it achieve a top 20 chart position, his highest position since his critically acclaimed earlier album, Excitable BoyClick here to read more about Zevon’s music.

Trust is available here:

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Alfie Boe’s Best Ever Song 2018: Number Eight

Three weeks into our countdown to find the fans favourite Alfie Boe song 2019 and we arrive at the first new entry to the top ten:

The first song from 2017’s Together Again, this is the roaring cover of John Farnham’s iconic eighties anthem, You’re The Voice.  This video from the 02 features students from Mountview theatre school and makes the song even more powerful.

Written by Andy Qunta, Keith Reid, Maggie Ryder and Chris Thompson as a protest song, it was a massive hit for Farnham in 1986 – I remember this being everywhere at the time.

Together Again is available here:

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