It has finally happened. Charice is now part of a Glee soundtrack album. Included in the Glee The Music, Season Two, Volume 6 CD is her original song As Long As You’re There. This is the performance which brought the singers of McKinley High to their knees in the Nationals competition held in New York. It was an excellent choice and truly the song of a winner.
Charice is in fine form and I am glad that instead of having the covers of her earlier Glee outings, remember Listen and All By Myself, in one of the CDs, she got to record this original. If I am not mistaken, this birit showstopper was composed expressly for Charice by album producer Adam Anders for this episode where all the contestants were required to perform new songs.
The Glee kids also did original songs. These were Pretending and Light Up The World, also composed by Anders. Of course, it would have been so easy for the scriptwriters to give them the trophy. But losing made for better drama for the McKinley singers in the show. It was also made doubly touching by the fact that the defeat happened in New York, the place where they all dreamed of one day performing and making it big.
Speaking of New York and Broadway, and of the most touching, emotion-filled performance of Glee’s Season Two, I say that Charice has met up with a worthy rival here. This is Chris Colfer with his superb rendition of As If We Never Said Goodbye from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Sunset Boulevard. This is a big diva song and I can just imagine how some divas out there and some queens too, felt while hating Colfer minute by the minute as they listened to the song. What on earth did this kid do to be able to record a song that most of them only lipsynch to?
The version is not really perfect. I have heard better ones. But what an actor this Colfer is, you can really feel every note. He has really been very consistent in his work on the series. That is why he has a Golden Globe. He is also quite a favorite with the fans. In fact, The Warblers spin-off came about to give Colfer his own subplot in Glee. And I have to admit that his songs are among the most memorable like A House Is Not A Home and Blackbird.
The Season Two collection is an assorted mix. Aside from the original compositions, there are current hits like Lady Gaga’s Born This Way by Amber Riley, Jenna Ushkowitz and Colfer, and Adele’s Rolling In The Deep by Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele.
There are rock classics, mostly by Fleetwood Mac, which explains songs by band members Stevie Nicks with Dreams by Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Morrison; Lindsey Buckingham’s Go Your Own Way by Lea Michele; and Christine McVie’s Songbird by Naya Rivera and Don’t Stop done by Chord Overstreet, Dianna Agron and Cory Monteith.
There are also other soundtrack tunes, Anthony Newley’s Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Monteith, Ushkowitz, Colfer and Kevin McHale; and Bella Note from The Lady and the Tramp by Overstreet, Mark Salling and McHale.
I read somewhere that the cast of Glee will all be graduating from McKinley High next year. Creator Ryan Murphy does not want them to be still passing themselves off as teen-agers after supposedly four years in high school. This means a new story, a new batch of actors and new versions of the old songs, but with Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch to anchor the series.
Will the new cast come from the spin-off series, the Glee Project? Maybe not. The kids there seem to be doing okay as it is. Besides, it would be more exciting to discover new talents for the show. It will also be great to find out what will happen to the careers of Lea, Cory, Dianna, all of them, and most of all Chris when this Glee is over.
The only downside here is that Charice might also have to go. I just hope the writers decide that since her character Sunshine came late into the series, she can be in a lower year and can therefore stay in her recurring role with the new cast.