Randomramblings

Apart from hearing bits and pieces of her songs on the radio and TV, I wasn't familiar with Neisha's work prior to hearing her yesterday night. Now I can safely say that she has one of the best (and best trained, too I guess) pairs of vocal chords this side of the Alps. Her vocal performance was quite flawless, self-assured and dazzling. She performed a couple of her own songs and also a fair share of other's work. Her mastery of piano is undoubted and she truly seemed to enjoy performing.

However, I was most dissatisfied with almost everything that was not music. My belief is that when you perform on a country fair, you need not bother much. But when you have a concert in Cankarjev dom, then you need some more time for preparation. As already mentioned it was not her singing or piano-playing that bothered me, it was her performance. After having witnessed Zoran Predin's masterful performing in February I am not going to be satisfied with less. Especially when the woman in question confesses that she "has no gift for giving speeches". Honey, we can help you, but you need to think about that in advance. Once you're already on the stage very little can be done.

She could have someone to write her speeches, or jokes or the connecting sentences, which introduce the next song. Or she could think about what she's going to say on her own and give herself the time to come up with some neat ideas. If the ideas are too few, then she needs not comment after every song. These are things you need to prepare in advance if you want them to go flawlessly. Now, I understand that very few people can go on stage without any preparation and then give wonderful, thoughtful, insightful, funny, witty or whatever other decent speeches; the others simply have to prepare themselves that the occasion will demand speech-giving and that you should know what you want to say to your audience. This is called feeling the obligation towards your audience to give a thoroughly good performance.

What also bothered me is that she didn't know how to introduce the next song so she entangled herself in some very circular sentences that had little meaning and once she said something so ill-adapted to the occasion that even she realized how very little sense she was making and instead of moving on, she literally lifted a part of the fabric of her dress and covered her face with it. Now, lovey, you're 24, so behave like it, especially in front of about 500 listeners. Instead of making up for her lack of skill for speech making she made it worse. I did not expect anything so immature on a concert of an adult person. Additionally Neisha didn't realize that she cannot talk while the audience is clapping, because you can't hear her properly. So she might have made more sense at such times but you can hardly expect me to understand her when the full Linhart's hall is clapping enthusiastically.

And what's with the English? To be sure she sang some of the songs in English, but that's not yet a cause for her to say "here we go" before starting EVERY song and repeating "that's it" at the end of the concert. Sweetie, this is not a teenager parade. While the majority of your listeners might be younger, you cannot behave like slang is the most appropriate way for addressing your audience. Speaking in Slovenian and then saying you hope they won't feel "bad" about it is NOT the way to approach public speech-making, even if the speech consists of three sentences. In public performances you avoid slang at all costs and you speak in Slovenian (since we know you can). To top it all she added a full-English sentence somewhere in the middle (something with "thought" like I thought not or I thought so) but because I do not carry a notebook with me, I forgot what it was.

So, there DEFINITELY is plenty of space for Neisha to improve her performance (although having slightly more substance in her lyrics couldn't hurt; repeating the chorus ad nauseam isn't really advisable). Since she has mastered the musical part, now she seriously needs to work on the other segment of what constitutes a good performance. Just because she realizes she "has no talent for giving speeches" that is not an excuse for her to make the impression that this is her first time on the stage. I understand she must have been at least a little nervous before the concert, but that can't be an excuse. She's a performer now and show must go on flawlessly whether she's nervous or not.

In conclusion I'd like to say that Neisha has potential, but if she keeps clinging to this half-arsed approach, then she will remain a one-hit star.