Judith Hill’s elimination from NBC’s “The Voice” became all the more stunning last night as she wowed fans with her first headlining show in St. Louis at the Lumiere Theatre.
Before becoming a frontrunner on the popular singing competition, Hill had made a name for herself in the industry as a backup singer for Michael Jackson. And she kicked the show off with an intimate tribute to the King of Pop with a scaled down rendition of “I’ll Be There” that also managed to weave a bit of Mariah Carey’s top-selling cover of the Motown classic.
But aside from another selection from the catalogue of her former boss and a Nina Simone cover she sang on “The Voice” Hill stuck to her original music for most of the duration of her hour-long set.
“A Beautiful Life” served as the beginning and the end of her original music for the evening and she managed to infuse funk, rock and soul in an audaciously eclectic mix of songs from her soon to be released debut album.
In the scheme of popular music, Hill’s contralto is unmatched. The trick will be developing a signature sound that showcases her breathtaking lower register in a way that connects commercially. As it stands, her original material – “My People” in particular – is masterfully arranged and musically solid, but the lyrical content could use some refreshing so that it can connect to the masses.
But at her core Hill is as much a musician as she is a song stylist – and both were illustrated in her St. Louis performance.
She’s a natural. And while her falsetto and higher register weren’t necessarily pitch perfect last night (especially when measured against her lower range), she can sing circles around most of the artists in pop, R&B, rock and even jazz. Hill proved it to be true by dipping her sound in all of the aforementioned genres at some point during her set.
And her rendition of the Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” later in the set affirmed her stunning capacity to not only do justice to a classic, but make it her own.
Although far from a sold-out show, to Hill’s credit the audience was as diverse as the styles and material she presented on stage.
Hill refreshingly took risks and liberties with respect to the musical boxes that often burden artists when they are on the upward climb of establishing themselves as an artist.
Her decision to do so was one of the reasons the audience got wind early on in the show that they were bearing witness to a rising star. Nearly all of them made sure to encourage her accordingly – and rightfully so.
