Whew! Advent Caroling Madness has such a groundswell of support now! I can’t even fit all the nominations in the bracket anymore. 23 versions of “O Come All Ye Faithful” were nominated, and I had to whittle that down to 16. I cut out my own nomination, the version by Take 6. It pained me, but I cut the hilarious Goat Version, nominated by Robin Mohr (don’t miss it!).
Similar to always including conference champions in the REAL March Madness, I made sure that every person who nominated got at least one nomination in the bracket. That meant I had to accept no more than two nominations from any one person, so David Sherwood and Bethany Bylsma felt the sting from that. They can feel free to tell you I chose the wrong ones and post links and yell. 🙂
I think we need the most time for this first round, because you have to listen to 16 versions. So voting will be open until Sunday night at 7 pm PST. Then we’ll have to hurry for the rest of the voting to get them all in before Christmas.
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David Sherwood nominated (and Gary Brown approved) this version from several of the ensembles at BYU, and they get the 1 seed.
Carol Sherwood nominated Susan Boyle, but she said she nominated it more for the cute kids than the music. It gets the low 16 seed, because I focus on the music. 🙂
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Bethany Bylsma nominated Mariah Carey, who [insert sarcasm] really holds back and gives a subdued vocal performance [end sarcasm]. She would have been higher than an 8 seed, but got a little hurt by Handel’s Messiah in the middle (although I’m sure it’s really sweet she let her mom in the studio.).
Becky Ankeny gave us Carly Simon’s version, sliding into the number 9 slot. That may be the highest I’ve seeded 70’s folk!!
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Here we have two very different kinds of classics! 5 seed Andrea Bocelli, with flawless classically trained pipes, nominated by Twila Tschan.
He faces 90’s down home classic favorite Steven Curtis Chapman, the 12 seed nominated by Erin Heasley Knoch.
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Davida Ankeny Brown gives us the 4 seed, Luther Vandross. Smooth as butter.
13 seed Jackie Evancho is only 12 years old! Twelve. Years. Old. Mary Schrock nominated this amazingly talented girl with a voice far beyond her years.
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Elaine and Aubrey Koskela nominated one that gets a lot of play time at our house each Christmas, 6 seed Toby Mac.
And it’s a good thing that Elizabeth Curtis Gemeroy is taking a break from Facebook or she would be quite angry that I seeded her beloved Amy Grant as only an 11 seed. But hey! She’s in! You all can vote her through if you want.
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How do you not give a good seed to Nat King Cole? His 3 seed is deserving, and he’s another nomination from Davida Ankeny Brown.
Brian Groves offers 14 seed Perry Como as competition…with a bit of Latin as well.
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Contrasting styles at play here, as the classic St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir comes in as the 7 seed, a David Sherwood nomination.
Robin Mohr asked me to give it a chance, and I did. Even though it’s country, I gave Alan Jackson a very respectable 10 seed.
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Bethany Bylsma undersold this one, also nominated by Daniel Tidwell. She nominated Tasha Cobbs (2 seed), saying she isn’t very well known but calling it “lovely”. Tasha has stolen my heart on first listen.
Jennifer Jansen Perez loves kids singing well, and nominates Praise Baby who slides into the 15 seed.
So there we go! Start your listening, start your voting, start your complaining about seeding! Recruit people to vote for your favorites, because you know Bethany will shamelessly promote. Sunday at 7 pm PST is the deadline!