Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Funny thing. So I wasn't really planning on joining the karaoke competition at Fanime this year, but I kind of signed up on a whim and ended up getting in! Ahahaha...

For those of you who've known me for a while, I've competed in a few Anime Expo karaoke contests. Almost all the times I've competed I've walked off the stage feeling pretty good about how I sang, but I've never made it past the first stage. I will admit, first of all, that I know my stage presence is pretty non-existent and that has probably damaged my score. However, not to toot my own horn or anything, I think I do a pretty decent job singing. I'd done a lot of thinking about why I've never advanced past the first round, and other than the fact that a lot of other contestants were just clearly better, the only thing I can think of is that my song choices have been too obscure to get the audience and judges very excited. This is the one thing that I really want to improve (I'll work on the stage presence thing too, of course), but I'm not really sure where to start.

For reference, songs I've competed with before:

"Issho ni Utao" (Let's Sing Together) - Hisakaya Aya (Keroberos image song from Card Captor Sakura)
"Mr. Doriimu wo Sagase" (Hunt for Mr. Dream) - Hashimoto Ushio (Bulma image song from Dragonball)

There are at least two more that I've used but it was a long time ago and I don't really remember what they were. I'm pretty sure they were also image songs though.


Anyway, I've been going through songs trying to pick two for the contest (there are two rounds) that I feel I can do a decent enough job with that would be at least well-known enough for some of the audience to be familiar with. I don't want to sing anything overly popular because that's somewhat frowned upon (seriously, who in their right mind wants to hear 20 renditions of "Cruel Angel's Thesis" even though it is a good song??), but I need to strike a balance between that and the obscure songs that I was silly to pick in the past.

I don't expect at all to win the contest, especially considering that the competition is pretty fierce with several past winners in the sign-up roster. I just want to get past the first round and have the satisfaction of being able to perform both of my songs.

Here are songs I am considering, but I am EXTREMELY open to suggestions as I am not really up to date with current anime music.

"10 Years After" - Yonekura Chihiro (Gundam 08th MS Team End Theme)
"Tabi no Tochuu" - Kiyoura Natsumi (Spice and Wolf Opening Theme)
"Kindan no Panse" - Ishitsuka Saori (Silent Mobius Opening Theme)
"Yakusoku wa Iranai" - Sakamoto Maaya (Escaflowne Opening Theme)
"Tenshi no Yubikiri" - Fukuda Mai (Kare Kano/His and Her Circumstances Opening Theme)
"Garnet" - Oku Hanako (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Ending Theme)
"Kawaranai Mono" - Oku Hanako (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Insert Song)

So, anyone with the willingness and/or expertise to help me: do you have an opinion about these songs? Are they good? Bad? Some are kind of old-ish so I'm not sure how they'd go over. They're all OP/EDs because they're the most likely to be recognized...Also, any suggestions of good songs that are similar to these? They must be from an anime (preferred), video game, or j-pop and I need to choose two songs total. I'm generally comfortable with an Alto to Mezzo-soprano range (if this doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry about it), but I am open to trying awesome male-vocal songs if they are close to my range or I can go up an octave.

Finally, I need to be able to practice these songs quite a bit before Fanime (which is May 28-31) so the sooner you can respond, the better!

I am counting on you, friends!! Please help if you can! heart