Aaradhna is a great vocalist. I have watched her through the years and recognized this, but often the material just hasn't done it for me. My old gripe (ok so this is only one amateur's opinion) is that so much of what is put out in NZ is too derivative, genre-blended and/or formulaic to really make it outside these shores. And that's what I would like to see New Zealand artists do. Create sustainable careers outside of New Zealand, being based here much of the time. And one doesn't necessarily need to sell out to do so. Aaradhna's previous material has been competent, enjoyable and it clearly has a market within New Zealand, and maybe a little wider in the Asia Pacific. But the point of this blog is to highlight and reward those acts that might have some international leverage. And that demands differentiation. I haven't historically found enough of that in Aaradhna's material, both musical and visual. There have been several exceptions, one being "I Love You Too" which is a beautiful song, albeit quite conventional. Interestingly, that song I think is closest to "Wake Up" in terms of the correct direction so far. The reason I am posting "Wake Up" is I think this song, and this direction, has potential for Aaradhna offshore, and I don't just mean Australia, which is also a bit of a dead-end. Ok, there is clearly a bit of the retro, "Winehouse" genre in here, which is getting a little long in the tooth, but the genre will probably continue to sell for some time as it has broad demographic crossover potential. The thing is, where Aaradhna has lined herself up next to this genre, it has tended to work. And this works. All round. I love it. I can also imagine huge potential commercial usage so there will probably be a pay-day in there somewhere. As usual, Special Problems have delivered a superb video which just seems so appropriate to the material. The whole thing sparkles. They should continue to work together. I hope this does very well for Aaradhna as it deserves to, and I look forward to hearing about her offshore exploits as a result.
Aaradhna - Wake Up - (Official Music Video)
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