Conchita Wurst’s ‘Waters Run Deep’ at Tulln is almost perfection (video)

Conchita Wurst’s ‘Waters Run Deep‘ at Tulln is almost perfection

I am the person who, the first comment out of my mouth after I bumped into Tom Neuwirth on a street in Vienna late last year was how much I hated his hairy chest. My second or third comment was how I wasn’t a particular fan of Conchita Wurst‘s first ever self-written song ‘Blue Bloom‘.

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That the boy even walked with me for another 10 minutes is a miracle. But he did.

That the hairy chest, although still not my favorite thing ever about Conchita Wurst, has now grown on me is just the way it goes.

That her self-penned song Blue Bloomdoes have a version that I have been in love with since the minute I saw her perform it live is the way her music goes. It evolves with every performance.

And her self-written music in particular, as she molds and changes it depending on her mood and on where she thinks the song should ultimately end up.

One of my favorite things Conchita Wurst is doing right now, though, is the way she is transforming another self-written song — ‘Waters Run Deep’.

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One of the best songs she has sung, in my humble opinion, because in this one the emotion in the song fits her emotions and her capacity for high drama to perfection. And that translates to a superb performance on stage. Every time she sings it.

The first time I heard Conchita sing ‘Waters Run Deep‘ was during her March concert with the Bruckner Orchestra at Brucknerhaus in Linz.

At the time I remember thinking she sounded nervous as she introduced the song. After the concert, when I watched her performance on video, I was sure of it. Especially when you see the adorable look on her face as she finishes. (see video)

Of course, as almost always happens with Conchita, though, her performance was beautiful.

Since then, ‘Waters Run Deep’ has shown up at most live concerts she has done. I have noticed how much richer and more mature the song and her performance are becoming with every new time she sings it.

Conchita Wurst sings ‘Waters Run Deep‘ at Tulln concert

Conchita singing ‘Waters Run Deep‘ during her Tulln concert last night, however, is on a whole different level. And no, I didn’t attend the concert as life is just getting in the way for me over the last month,

But a video that surfaced on the RusUnstoppables YouTube channel this morning showed me all I needed to know.

Because Conchita’s Tulln performance of ‘Waters Run Deep‘ is one of those ‘perfect storm’ moments.

A fine mist behind her from last night’s miserable rainy weather giving the whole setting an air of drama, and a wind that sways her coat and moves her hair around in an equally dramatic fashion.

A superb backing band that provides even more of a solidity and a richness to the music.

And Conchita herself.

A singer that absolutely inhabits this song with every gesture and every facial expression, and with a voice she has worked on so much over the last couple of years she now has a superb range.

All of this works so well together that she is almost perfection here.

From the hand slowly sliding up the microphone mid-way through the song as the band’s musical break begins and she steps back away from the mic, to the face that looks down to the ground lost in thought as her body sways slowly back and then gracefully moves forward to meet the wind as it caresses her hair.

The grand gestures — the upflung arm, the body bowing down in extreme emotion as she clings to the microphone stand and reaches for those high notes towards the end, and that agonized face as she and her stunning voice express the intense emotions of that song.

Related: The 100 best things Conchita Wurst has done since 2014

The only thing that doesn’t belong in this almost perfection? A small and picky thing, but still a thing nevertheless that threw me out of being completely enraptured and back to a more solid earth.

That falsetto at 4.09, which breaks the dramatic mood of the song and makes it more drag queen than the raw, intensely powerful emotion of a song it was up until that point.

Still, it is just one tiny part of one incarnation of this stunning song. A song that was, after all, almost perfect here.

Besides, next time Conchita sings ‘Waters Run Deep‘, I’m sure it will be different again, although likely even better. Because perfection is what this incredible singer is always trying to reach.

Watch Conchita’s performance of ‘Waters Run Deep’ at Tulln an der Donau last night in the video below. And damn my at-the-moment overly complicated life, as I would have liked to have experienced that superb performance live.

About Michelle Topham

I'm a Brit-American journalist, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I'm also obsessed with music, anime, manga, and K-dramas. Help!

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