Counting down the top ten begins here which means that we are officially counting down to the Alfie Boe Michael Ball Together tour which starts in ten weeks! Lots to look forward to in the run up, including the chance for your very own concert review to appear here but first, here is the song you voted in at number ten:
Forever Young, from Alfie’s 2013 album, Trust, appeared in the top ten for the first time in 2015 at number nine and is the first of four songs from that album in the 2016 top ten. Penned by Bob Dylan for his son in the 1960’s, the opening lines of
May God bless and keep you always, may your wishes all come true
reflect perfectly the dreams we have as parents for our children. To me, these lines also make the song a fitting one for a remembrance concert; Alfie has performed this at National Memorial concerts in both the USA and UK, although with slightly different arrangements.
In last year’s best ever song count down, I included the original version and vowed never again as I really find it hard to listen to Bob Dylan’s voice. However, this year I found Dylan singing Forever Young with Bruce Springsteen, another Alfie favourite, so here they are:
Obviously there are people out there who prefer the original but compared to Alfie, I mean, come on! No contest, for this blogger at least.
Alfie and Michael go on tour in November, click here for tickets and you can pre-order the signed album here:
Welcome to the nominations for the third annual Alfie Boe Best Ever (recorded) song poll – I know it doesn’t seem too long since we chose our favourite live song but we need something to keep us going over the summer, don’t we?
The current list of songs nominated in past years can be found on Spotify by clicking here – if your favourite song isn’t listed, please let me know and we’ll add to the list. All you need to do is fill in the form*:
The only restriction is that it needs to be a song recorded by Alfie.
Nominations will close mid August ready for voting to begin shortly after and the top ten will be counted down from the end of August…which will be ten weeks until the start of the Ball and Boe tour!
The first winner was, to no one’s surprise, Bring Him Home but the second winner was from Alfie’s most recent album, Serenata, Addio Sogni do Gloria. Bring Him Home didn’t even make the top three! Will it make it back to the top this year? It’s over to you – here’s last year’s top ten to help you think:
If you haven’t yet ordered Alfie’s forthcoming album with Michael Ball, it’s available here:
Summer is here and in the world of Alfie Boe and Michael Ball, that means that the Together tour is moving ever closer. I’ve come to the conclusion that life as a fan of anything means wishing your life away but I suspect that we wouldn’t have it any other way – the anticipation is as much a part of it as the event itself.
Back to the tour and those lovely people at Vector and Decca are looking for ideas on merchandise for the tour – and they asked us! Other than programmes, t shirts, albums, what do you, the fans, want to see on sale later this year?
Pop your answers in the form below* and hopefully we’ll see the items on sale in November / December.
In the meantime, signed copies of Together are available for pre-order here:
the summer of 2012 when the June weather in particular seemed to be just as wet as it’s been this year in the UK!
As Alfie continues to recover (thank you so much for all your messages to him, they have been passed on to Vector) I thought it would fun to look back on past performances, so at intervals over the summer, new posts will pop up reminding us of some of the fab times we’ve had over the years. Thankfully Alfie doesn’t mind fans taking videos, he even mentions the existence of said videos in some interviews, so thank you to everyone who has shared their videos with us:
Four years ago, I was only just discovering Alfie (along with loads of others, through Michael Ball) – what a lot has happened since then!
What’s your favourite video from this playlist? I’d love to hear, along with any favourite Alfie moments you have from 2012 so please leave a comment. My favourites are the Proms in the Park videos as that was my first live Alfie concert and the first concert I attended with lovely Linda W.
If you haven’t yet ordered your Ball and Boe Together album it’s available here:
In the countdown to Scarborough, we’ve been voting to find out fans Favourite Alfie Boe Live Song and this seems an even more perfect time to be doing this now we know about the Together Tour. This is the second time we’ve run this poll and I’m sure there’ll be a third time – we’ll hopefully have some duets with Michael Ball in the running next year.
The top five last time around was:
Don’t Stop Me Now
Rank Strangers
You Are My Hearts Delight
Buona Sera
Jacobs Ladder / Barcelona
Will they all feature in the same order this time? Over the next few weeks we’ll be revealing all, starting now with numbers 9 and 10.
In at number 10, we have a new entry, the James Bond Medley from Strictly in 2011.
Alfie also sang this on his Bring Him Home Tour that year and appears on the Alfie: Live DVD in which he quips “it’s not the same without the dancers, is it?” I think Alfie’s voice is tailor made for the traditional Bond themes although perhaps it’s sacrilege to think of anyone other than Dame Shirley Bassey singing Diamonds are Forever or Goldfinger.
Number 9 is also a new entry to the top ten but like the Bond Medley, is not a new song. Indeed, both are songs that haven’t been part of Alfie’s repertoire for a while now so it’s good to see fans have long memories. O Sole Mio / Now or Never, however, may be popular not just to the song but the memory of that wonderful summer four years ago when everyone was looking at London for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics:
O Sole Mio is a song that goes a long way back for Alfie and he has performed it many times over the years although only for a period of twelve months or so in conjunction with Now or Never. Now or Never, of course, is a version of O Sole Mio, first recorded by Elvis and went on to be his second best selling single. The song went on to feature (albeit in a completely different arrangement) on Alfie’s Storyteller album.
Numbers 7 and 8 in the countdown will be revealed next Monday!
Alfie: Live DVD and Storyteller album are available here:
Alfie Boe and Michael Ball: Together Tour information can be found here.
