The Diva

27.4.10 -- "The Place I'll Return to Someday"

Now if anyone didn't know what talent was before, well here's a clear example:

That girl is pure awesomeness. She has a bit of choir experience and plays a plathora of musical instruments but other than that I believe she's picked up all her amazing skills completely on her own *hails katethegreat19*.

If anyone's paid any attention to one of my few recent posts (scroll down) on dubs, you might remember the 14-girl-choir I mentioned, 'Stella Voci'. Well? Do you? Hmph, well if you do and actually looked their members up after being mesmorized by 'Scarborough Fair', you'd realize that Kate's the leader of that very outstanding bunch of amateur-vocalists. Why amateur? Because they have miraculously missed the notice of professionals for a recording contract -- seriously, there are some AMAZING people on Youtube!!!

But anyways, Final Fantasy Fans might recognize the melody of the song she's singing in that embed video; Final Fantasy 9 fans in particular (as if the accompanying scenes from the game weren't clue enough).

On a side note, FF9 is still possibly my favorite of the FF series thus far in terms of characters. Sure many people weren't all too cool with their somewhat cartoon-ish appearances but I think those people really just have to not judge something based on appearance alone. Fact is, it goes much deeper than that. Not only was the story interesting and touching from beginning to end, FF9 had some of the most memorable characters of the entire franchise in my opinion. Zidane was possibly the most alive lead character I've encountered through my plays of the various game titles. Then there are characters like Vivi and Dagger (heh, haven't figured out where the 'Dagger' in my username came from yet?) who's stories are almost as moving as Zidane's themselves -- I could so play through this game again when I get home in June.

FF9 is probably the first game of the franchise (again in my opinion) that appears to have a really happy ending; no weird-funky-creepy-confusing stuff like in FF7 and FF8. They really gave us gamers the closure we needed for this game, though that's probably the reason why it's sort of slipped into the background now in comparison with the former two games of the series. Heck I personally even think it has the best soundtrack out of the entire franchise of games thus far (yes that includes the PS2 and presently-only PS3 FFs). Maybe not to the liking of everyone out there but it's just classic beauty to me. Of course, if you're listening to Kate's singing right now you'd so agree with me on this. Lyrics are epic-beautiful too:

"Look into the sky

Can you see the moon across the ocean
Coming close to me
I can hear the melody

Cry into the void
Let my voice become the hand that reaches
Out to you and leads
To my long lost memory

Carry me home

I lost my way on roads ever weaving
Home
Where darkness fades and hearts are ever believing
Carry me home
I close my eyes and cling to you ever dreaming
Find me
Oh don't forget the child for whom you are grieving

Voice that calls from there
And the footsteps of its fallen angels
Now becomes the beat
Of my heart so incomplete

Every night I bathe
In the blue that washes over me
And brings me to my knees
In this longing I believe

Carry me home
I lost my way on roads ever weaving
Home
Where darkness fades and hearts are ever believing
Carry me home
I close my eyes and cling to you ever dreaming
Find me
Oh don't forget the child for whom you are grieving"

Those who've played should be able to grasp what the song's talking about and who's POV it likely is -- actually, it's pretty darn clear.

Originally an instrumental-only composition of the infamous Nobou Uematsu (I will so marry whoever brings me to see 'Distant Worlds' at least once in my freaking life!!), Kate's self-written lyrics seemed to really capture (yes I'll just tell you) Zidane's feelings regarding the search for his home, the other world Terra. I really REALLY love this rendition. The girl is practically the epitome of talented! Let it be known she played all the instruments in this and sang all the harmonies herself~

Meh, I should just turn my blog into a dubbing central for my personal use. I'll probably shift things over to a new Wordpress something when I find the time later on. Till then! ^^

~O~

CREDITS:
Music composed by: Nobuo Uematsu
sung and arranged by: katethegreat19
lyrics written and copyrighted 2008 by:
Kate Covington / katethegreat19
clips from Final Fantasy IX, owned by: Squaresoft/SquareEnix

The rest is still unwritten...