Amy Petty says no to televised talent competitions
- Why I Won’t Be Auditioning for The Voice (Or Any Other Televised Talent Competition)
An article with Amy Petty
Tonight,
I’m standing in a stranger’s living room, singing at a house concert.
I’m far from home and I don’t know anyone here but you’ve given me your
time, your ear and your heart for two hours and by the end of the night,
we know each other. We are fulfilled and changed by the experiences of
the evening and life is good. We are moved, unexpectedly.
You
approached me with tears in your eyes. I was standing near the tissue
box so I had the honor of handing one to you. You told me what that one
song meant to you, how it spoke exactly of an experience you’d had and
that it meant the world to hear someone else felt the same way.
After
a few moments of each of us trying to find the words, you said, “And
you should audition for the The Voice!” I smiled and laughed a bit and
said thank you. “I mean it,” you said, “you’re good enough! You could
win! You could be famous! Someday, you’ll make it and we’ll say we
knew you when.”
I’ve come to realize that this is a huge
compliment, maybe the biggest compliment that you could possibly offer.
You have just placed me in the company of some of the best singers you
know of. You believe in me. You want me to have success and you want
others to experience what you’ve experienced here tonight. I’m
flattered and humbled and grateful.
For many people, watching
one of the myriad singing competitions on TV is a huge deal, like a
cross between a soap opera and football, exciting and dramatic and
entertaining, an epic battle with a winner declared at the end. And you
can be directly involved in the outcome. After all, it’s up to you to
vote your favorite into the next round. And seriously, there is some
pretty incredible talent on those shows, especially The Voice. So I’m
flattered that you consider me talented enough to vocally rumble in the
ring on your favorite TV show.
But I’m absolutely not going to do that. Here’s why:
1) I’m not interested in ‘winning’ at singing.
I
sing for a living so in all honesty, I ALREADY win at singing. How
strange it would be to have a celebrity judge (who probably knows less
about singing than I do) listen to me for 30 seconds and decide if I’m
‘good enough’. I AM good enough to sing for a living because I’m doing
it right now.
I sing for people, on purpose, at concerts and
festivals and weddings and churches and bars. I studied music in
college and have a degree in classical voice. I’m a singer/songwriter
and I’m signed to a small and awesome record label. I sing for a living
and I sing for people and I sing for myself. I totally win.
2) I’m not really interested in being famous.
Now
don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to being well known or to my songs
being heard by the masses or to making enough money to buy my mom a
decent washer and dryer. But I have never been interested in achieving
fame. Fame usually has nothing to do with the music and it almost
certainly has nothing to do with talent.
It’s hard to judge
the success of a musician without using fame as a measuring stick. But
it can be pretty simple. Am I singing? Check. Are people hearing it?
Check. Is everyone happy/moved/inspired/dancing/thinking at the end?
Check. Do I want to do it again tomorrow night? Check. That, my
friend, is success.
3) I don’t want to compete with other singers.
There
are plenty of people out there taking advantage of musicians. They
want us to perform for free. They want us to give them the rights to
our music. They want us to ‘pay to play’. They want $2000 for
introducing us to the guy who might use a song in a TV show. We have
enough obstacles out there. We don’t need to be stumbling over each
other, too.
One of the greatest joys in my life has been
meeting and performing and collaborating with other singers and
musicians around the country. They are my tribe. I love them and I
want them to survive and thrive and make more of their amazing music. I
want to share the stage with them. I want to high five the guy who is
trying out a new song, even if he knows his performance wasn’t perfect.
I want to be blown away by that girl with the amazing voice and not
worry that she might be better than me. I want all of us to try new
things, play new instruments and write new songs without wondering if
the audience is going to vote us off.
I have had the pleasure
of finding my tribe, some ships that have passed in the night and some
who are docked in the same harbor. There are hundreds of us. Thousands
of us. And life is better when we’re for each other, not against.
4) I want to help write a new definition of success for musicians.
I
will admit, it’s pretty awesome to flip on the TV and see someone you
know singing their hearts out for the world to see. I’ve had friends
audition for almost every major singing competition, some making it to
the finals, others not making it through the first round. And just
because that’s not the path for me doesn’t mean that’s not the path for
them, so I support them whole-heartedly.
But on many
occasions, I’ve seen them give up when they get home. They didn’t win
the singing competition so they decide to go to bar-tending school.
Looks like they won’t skyrocket to fame, so they change their course all
together. Some of the best singers I’ve ever heard are deflated
because they lost out to a juggling dog. All the eggs, one basket.
It
takes time and hard work to achieve whatever it is that you consider
success but you won’t regret it. My life is full of music because I
made choices along the way to ensure that it is. I could have given up
when I wasn’t a famous singer by the time I was 21 years old. Oh, the
things I would have missed. Even if fame is the ultimate goal…take the
road less traveled and enjoy the ride.
As my friend and executive
producer Lauren Markow always says: “Even a bad day making music is
better than a good day doing anything else”. Right. On.
5) Because tonight was PERFECT.
Who says that the best music in the world is made in front of a huge audience?
It’s
not. It’s made in small rooms. It’s made by people you’ve never heard
of. It’s made when a musician is alone, writing a song, practicing,
trying something new. It’s made when a french horn and it’s player
become one entity. It’s made when your choir is rehearsing a week
before the scheduled performance and everyone just clicks. It’s made at
the Saturday matinee performance when the lead soprano finally
understands and fully becomes her character. It’s made when I am
singing one of my songs and I look up to see you, crying, nodding,
completely present and I realize that I don’t even know what this song
is about anymore.
So no, I’m not going to be auditioning for
The Voice. Because I would much rather be standing right here, singing
in a stranger’s living room, seeing your face as I sing, handing you a
tissue as you tell me how my songs moved you. I am part of your
experience and you are part of mine. I am fulfilled and I am changed
and I am moved that you are moved. And this is what I want my life to
be. Welcome to the tribe.
I will forever treasure the compliment.
Amy Petty
Amy Petty has released three albums:
Mystery Keeps You 2008
House Of Doors 2010
Sycamore Tree 2011
Find out more about Amy and her work here: http://www.amypetty.com/
This her text was originally published on Amy Petty's blog.
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