A new direction..

I was introduced to Kane Alexander's voice through Josh Groban's message board. As I went to check out his web site I thought he'd sound something like Josh, and I scanned through the tracklist to find that a lot of the songs were in Italian, some translations of English pop songs. (something that's become popular among classical crossover artists - Vittorio Grigolo recorded operatic versions of Keane's "Bedshaped" and even Daniel Bedingfield's "If you're not the one", and Il Divo included a Spanish version of Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my heart" on their album.)
Nella Fantasia was also included; it seems EVERY new classical singer records that song.

Then I hit the play button on the media player.

This is no classical crossover singer per se. I've heard classically trained tenors sing pop songs, or people with classically sounding voices sing pop songs, but I've never heard pop singers, whose mother tongue is English, sing Italian pop songs. Is Italian just very in now? So much so that producers find artists who have nothing like a classical voice, dig up some Italian pop songs, make them sing with a vibrato and pretend it's the real thing?

His web site claims the album is a "mesmerising collection of classical, pop, jazz and Latin music that is both unique and truly epic." So they're not labeling his album as classical or classical crossover. Further down on his biography page he states that "I'm a classically trained singer - I don't claim to be an opera singer!" I would never mistake him for one, I just can't help but think that if he should do pop anyway, why does it have to be in Italian - does he have any particular reason? Therefore I'm tempted to think that his team wants to market him as a classically trained, Italian looking, mysterious, romantic hunk. As I went through his photo gallery to find a photo to post I had to give up - in all the pictures Kane was posing ridiculously and trying very hard to be sexy.

I will say to Mr Alexander's defence though that for a pop voice he doesn't do that bad. It has a pleasant vibrato and would sound good in a musical theatre production. A little similar to the voice of Swedish Peter Jöback. Let's just hope Kane Alexander doesn't adopt Peter's songs on his next album.