“I mean, there’s a lot of layers.” Wé Ani (before her American Idol performance of “Ain’t No Way” @0.38)
Imagine a ten-screen movie multiplex, each showing an Anthony Hopkins film. In one, he’s Nixon; in another, Hannibal Lecter; in a third, Zorro; fourth, Odin; fifth, C. S. Lewis; sixth, Pablo Picasso; seventh, John Quincy Adams; eighth, Alfred Hitchcock; ninth, Pope Benedict XVI; and on the tenth screen, Richard the Lionheart. Hopkins is their only commonality; each can make one forget the others (at least for a few hours). He’s all of these characters . . . and none of them.
Wé Ani is her performances’ only common thread: each “theater” in her audiovisual multiplex shows off a distinctive vocal texture into which no other intrudes and which often sets up an expectation that is (pleasantly) disappointed. Each performance also displays a unique dramatic persona.
Perhaps the better metaphor (although it’s by now a cliché) is: a palette of many colors.
If you compare several bars from each of, say, seven (randomly chosen) tracks, then unless you already know who’s singing, you may reasonably doubt that the singer on the first track is the one on the second (or any other). And that’s because of the vocal color she chooses for any song she interprets.
Every great singer has variability in range and textural quality but Frank Sinatra always sounds like Frank; Ella Fitzgerald, Ella; Stevie Wonder, Stevie. That’s what their fans expect. Not so with Wé, however: you may expect Aretha but get Nina; Etta but hear Whitney; and so forth.
For those interested in testing this I adduce 30 videos (sorted by genre alphabetically, which for testing purposes is random).
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- Alternative Pop (Alanis Morrisette’s “Uninvited”)
- Alternative R&B (“Marvin’s Room”)
- Candy Pop (Good Burger 2 soundtrack)
- Classical Art Song (“Ave Maria” duet with Alicia Keys)
- Electro-Pop (Miley Cyrus’s “Edge of Midnight”)
- Emotional Ballad (Demi Lovato’s “Anyone”)
- Folk-Pop Power Ballad (“Shallow”)
- Folk-Rock (Wé’s original “Good For?”)
- Gospel-Pop (“Take Me to Church”)
- Hard Rock Power Ballad (Aerosmith’s “Dream On”)
- Headbanger Rock (Etta James’s “Something’s Gotta Hold On Me”)
- Jazz Cabaret (duet)
- Jazz (“God Bless the Child”)
- Jazz/Show Tune (“Feeling Good” made famous by Nina Simone)
- Movie Theme (Adele’s “Skyfall”)
- Musical Drama (“This Is Me”)
- Musical Theater (Streisand’s “Don’t Rain on My Parade”)
- Neo-Soul (Amy Winehouse’s “Stronger Than Me”)
- Pop Ballad (Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life,” performed before Tony Bennett)
- Pop (duet, Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” performed before him)
- Pop/R&B (Alessia Cara’s “7 Days”)
- R&B Ballad (Stephanie Mills’s “Home”)
- R&B (Mary J. Bliges’s “No More Drama”)
- R&B/Soul (duet with song’s originator, arguably outperforming her)
- Rap (rebutting the charge that she fakes her speaking pitch)
- Retro-Pop (Lulu’s “To Sir With Love”)
- Sertanejo [Brazilian country music] (Marília Mendonça’s “Ciumeira”)
- Soul (Aretha’s “Ain’t No Way”)
- Soul (Whitney’s “I Have Nothing”)
- Synth-Pop (“Scars to Your Beautiful”)
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Enjoy a foretaste of “Hardwood,” her latest single to be released later this month, which gives off a James Brown vibe, in this clip of her dancing to the track at home.
What the preceding paragraphs may not have conveyed is how much I love her music, how much I deeply enjoy all of it, even when she covers songs I was never crazy about (but she made me hear for the first time). Every verse she serenades (or belts) and dramatizes moves me.
But I am no musicologist, vocologist, or voice pedagogue, just a fan. My amateur musings are open to correction, which I welcome. Any insights you may have into this multitalented musical multiplex will be gratefully received and, if you wish, published.
The above is a bunch of words, words, words. They mean nothing if you haven’t listened to her. You haven’t yet? What are you waiting for?
Relevant posts
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- “Happy Birthday, Wé Ani, My Musical Tonic and Oasis,” January 23, 2024.
- “Retrospects and Prospects,” December 31, 2023.