So here comes another version of Answers, vocal by Chinese singer Laure Shang

Bad song? No...bad you.

I rather enjoyed this version. And, yes, having a Chinese singer perform this is most likely a marketing ploy to target Chinese audiences, or the Chinese government insisted (which I wouldn't put it past them).

As someone earlier had mentioned, her version does seem more operatic and singing opera is much different than singing rock, metal, pop, rap, etc. Madonna had to learn how to sing like an opera singer when she did the movie Evita. Though not opera, Queen Latifah enjoyed learning to sing how they do for Broadway musicals when she did the movie Chicago.

Ehhh... it's ok, but way too much vibrato and the engrish got distracting at parts. Really can't beat Susan Calloway's powerful voice and enunciation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR6Zaefwo94

I agree on the vibrato, but overall I still like it. At least I enjoyed it more than Calloway's second performing on that song, which for some reason felt too rushed. It's the one from Distant World the Celebration, I think. The chinese singer did capture the essence of the song, and brought it into great performance.

This is Calloway's 2nd performing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUpjXvc0XD4

What @Gaddes posted, which I think came from Calloway's first orchestra performing, still the best from all.

Vibrato city, minus that and she would of nailed it.
Did good otherwise, sure as hell better than what I could sing...which
is nothing!

O_O; People are overrating.
Shang Wenjie's version of the song isn't bad at all. I mean she's no Faye Wong but she has a good voice.
I've also taken the liberty of looking some other songs that Shang Wenjie performed and what I've found out was the following.
Firstly, she seems fairly comfortable performing in English. Secondly, her voice is usually deeper than what we hear when she performs Answers.
I've also noticed that when she sang in Chinese there was far less vibrato.

Speaking of vibrato, Shang Wenjie's cover of Answers has quite a bit of vibrato and you can hear her accent but that doesn't mean that she "butchered" the song.

That being said, Answers was performed live by both singers. Both singers had some "problems" that would otherwise be edited or fixed during a recording session.
While there are differences between the two performances, I think both singers did the song justice.

Personally, I prefer Susan Calloway's version. It is the one I happened to hear first and I really like her vocal strength.
Also, I would have liked to hear a Mandarin version of Answers~ but I do realize that translating the song would be incredibly difficult.

The vibrato just killed it for me. I had to listen to the original to get this bad attempt out of my brain.

Susan Calloway nailed it and sorry, but there's not many who could top it.

The reason they rerecorded it with a Chinese singer is to probably better connect it to the target audience. Call it 'publicity' if you will. Square wants XIV to succeed over there, especially after all the time they spent gutting it to make it past Chinese censors. Let them do what they need to, I want XIV to succeed every bit as much as Yoshida and Square.

Append: As for the vibrato... blame traditional Chinese singing. They do alot of it in their songs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Massterchef

Saw similar criticisms on the reddit thread, people that have little to no experience singing let alone performing infront of a camera judging someone that did a great job on a cover.

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I don't think someone's opinion/criticism should be discredited just because they're not a pro in that field. I doubt there are many movie critics that are also movie producers, for example, or game critics that are also game devs. Does that mean we should ignore all of them?

That said, I don't like this version as much as Susan Calloway's version, but I rarely like live versions of any song.

Thats not Chinese she singing in english.