Time to get passionate

It was many years ago when And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going from the musical Dreamgirls made it to my list of songs I refuse to listen to again. This happened after I heard it performed in one talent show after another by contestants ranging in ages from nine to 30. All of them tried to outdo the original version by Jennifer Holiday and the results were mostly disastrous.

I think of the style as Motown opera which was used for the first time in Dreamgirls by writer and lyricist Tom Eyen and composer Henry Krieger and is best used in musical theater. Rock music had already invaded the musical stage with Tommy, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, so these guys thought, why not use soul this time?

Dreamgirls was roughly based on the rise to fame of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. and his stellar female group The Supremes, considered the biggest selling female trio in pop music history. Led by Diana Ross, the girls had hits like Where Did Our Love Go and I Hear a Symphony. The Detroit-based label was so successful it is said to have kept American pop music alive in the wake of the British Invasion led by The Beatles but also created new inroads for black artists.

But then there are only a few singers who can do soul well and every time I hear a bad rendition of the showstopping And I Am Telling You I was unable to avoid, I blame Dreamgirls and the first Effie White, Jennifer Holiday for starting this awful trend. Unfortunately, it still enjoys a huge following in the Philippines and truth to tell, we have become a country where a lot of people now associate singing prowess with the ability to scream in tune.

I regret to inform you now that we should brace ourselves for the experience of hearing And I Am Telling You in all of those talent shows we have going on TV. This is thanks to the arrival of Dreamgirls, the motion picture which of course comes with a soundtrack album that contains And I Am Telling You by a new Jennifer. This one is surnamed Hudson and we first met her as an American Idol finalist three years ago. Fantasia Barino won the competition. Hudson, a tall girl on the heavy side, was one of those booted out.

Now Hudson may not have Fantasia’s mouth or butt but she does share a lot of similarities with Effie White of Dreamgirls, not just in the way it is imagined Effie should look but because Effie was also booted out of the lead spot and replaced by the pretty Deena played in the movie by the also lovely Beyoncé Knowles. Deena is the acknowledged leading lady of Dreamgirls but Effie has the most dramatic songs in the musical and Hudson gets to do them all.

Aside from And I Am Telling You, there are I Am Changing, One Night Only and a new song written for the movie Love You I Do. Hudson is simply outstanding in all of them. OK I admit, I have been listening to And I Am Telling You again because Hudson sounds fantastic. Take note though that it is always with the hope that aspiring divas out there will take the time to listen to this album and learn how to do this song right.

Aside from those arias, the Dreamgirls soundtrack also has wonderfully arranged ensemble numbers like Family, Move, One Night Only and Hard to Say Goodbye performed by Beyoncé, Jennifer, Anika Noni Rose, Sharon Leal and others in the cast. There are also chart worthy solo spots by the other leads. Jamie Foxx of the Ray soundtrack and the Grammy nominated Unpredictable sings When I First You while Beyoncé has Listen.

Passionate performances fill the album and even superstar Beyoncé who has already established her own style gets into the Motown mold. The best of them all though comes from Eddie Murphy. The famous comic returns to singing with Dreamgirls and he is simply astounding. Murphy pulls out all the stops as James "Thunder" Early, an amalgam of R ’n B stars from the past like Little Richard, James Brown and Rick James. He whips listeners to a frenzy with the girls in Take Your Way to the Top, Stepping to the Bad Side and Cadillac Car, does a soulful Patience and I Meant You No Harm and then hip hops to steal the show with Jimmy’s Rap.

If it also means getting to hear Murphy, then I will not mind listening to And I Am Telling You again.