3 comments on “So, who is better, Anita Lerche or Janice Miller?”

  2. Ann, I think you might be a bit overcritical of their imperfections because you are a gori, too. :) Actually, having read a bit about Janice MIller and being aware of her for some time, I find her story kind of touching, even if her musical renditions are not the greatest. From what I can tell, she is as plain American as one can be, but for some reason she fell for Indian music, particularly Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindi songs, and she pursued an unlikely career of singing classic songs in those languages, even though she never actually learned the languages. (Certainly, I can relate to all of this in a way, can’t you? As would, I think, a handful of other bloggers out there.)

    I discovered Anita Lerche just recently, because her videos were lumped with the Janice Miller ones (of course), and for some reason, I recently got the urge to go to Janice MIller’s stuff and see what she was up to these days. (I blogged about her a while back.) I think that Anita has more ability as a singer and performer, but I suspect she is also much more of a pro than Janice Miller, and I read that she knows a lot of languages outside of Punjabi, too, with a number of them likely being from places other than India. I actually find her renditions somewhat enjoyable – not all that bad – but in a way, I think there is something more touching and authentic about Janice Miller.

    I think, maybe, I should have put all this text in the post, itself, but as usual, I waited for someone to say a word before launching into everything that was on my mind. :)

    By the way, I also appreciated these two women’s performances for the humor, whether intended or not. There are other people from America and Europe who’ve launched into careers of sorts singing Punjabi, Urdu, or Hindi songs (and we all know that there are plenty of non-Indian Indian dancers too). There is one couple I am thinking of who have impressed me, “white” Americans who went to India and/or Pakistan and became Sufi musicians, who are very good. I might post some of their work sometime soon, but I think they belong in a different category…

  3. Richard, As always you are kind and generous. I am rather more austere – even though I do watch a lot of Bollywood ‘schlock’. That’s the point – to know the difference. Yes the different categories. And as Midwestern (and in the case of Spam, Hawaiian) friends tell me – there is a great fondness for Spam and Velveeta. Just not to my taste. Gori? (fair/white?). Yes, there are I think great opera singers who don’t know the languages … but they know their craft.

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