I spent this morning watching and writing about Conchita Wurst’s performance at ‘Sabat Czarownic‘ in Poland last night, as that performance and that girl just about knocked me to the floor. But, while everything about it was spectacular up to and including the second at the end where she bit her lip, shyly smiled and said “Thank you so much”, one part blew me so far away I’ll never think of her in the same way again.
Conchita Wurst absolutely slaying ‘River Deep, Mountain High‘.
Because, although she’s sung that song before, including during her week-long show at the Crazy Horse in Paris, she’s never sung that song so well, or as if it actually belonged to her.
But last night, ‘River Deep, Mountain High‘ just became a signature Conchita Wurst song. One she now sings as well as its original vocalist, Tina Turner, but in a slightly more elegant way, and with a hell of a lot of ‘cool’ thrown in.
Because just watch her performance in the video below. Her vocals are not only close to perfect (and if you’re not sure exactly how spectacular she is, minimize the tab the video is playing in so you can’t see her, and just listen to her sing), but her stage presence is absolutely beyond belief.
In fact, it’s one of only a handful of times I’ve ever seen Conchita Wurst looking like she’s full of joy, completely relaxed, without a care in the world, and slaying the song she’s singing.
And as for her movements, which up until a few months ago were always slightly wooden (and she knows that, as she’s said herself “I don’t move that well”), she’s figured out the difference between how men and women move. Women are more relaxed in the hips than men normally are. So when we move, our bodies flow more than men’s do.
In her performances, Conchita has always had a tendency to stiffen in her hips when she moves, so her movement comes off as awkward and stilted. Last night, though, with ‘River Deep, Mountain High‘, she showed she’s developed a way to make that style of movement work for her. And she’s adapted her act from the Crazy Horse for that particular song to do it.
No, her hips didn’t flow last night, and I doubt they ever will, as her body and her energy are simply not built that way. But what they do now do is move in such a quirky, cool and awkwardly cute way, she is the most fabulous thing to watch up on a stage and, when she moves, she just makes you go “Awwwwwww”.
But what got even more interesting about Conchita Wurst’s performance of ‘River Deep, Mountain High‘ was her performance of ‘You Are Unstoppable‘ after it.
Because it was obvious she’d had to move too fast from one song into the next, and when she started to sing ‘YAU‘ , in the first verse, she was struggling — side swiping some notes and missing others completely. But watch what she does when she gets to those last couple of lines right before the first chorus. Lines with notes she so spectacularly misses, half of it could not be more off key.
Unflustered, she uses those flat notes to springboard her into the first chorus in such a way she’s right back where she should be. On key, with her normal energy. and flying on through the rest of the song.
And that is just one of the many ways Conchita Wurst shows her true skill and professionalism. She has the ability to jumpstart a song mid-way through and give it a glorious finish. Even if that little lip bite right at the end was the giveaway she knew how close she came to letting it almost get away from her.
So watch Conchita Wurst singing ‘River Deep, Mountain High‘ at ‘Sabat Czarownic‘ in the video below. It’s glorious. Every day I think it’s just not possible to love her more. And then I get…this.
More: And for comments on the rest of her amazing performance ‘Conchita Wurst at ‘Sabat Czarownic’ in Poland – A Spectacular Performance’