So, I have a confession to make.
I really like Glee. Like to the point that I’m not sure if it’s an ironic love anymore.
I get it. The show is cringey and really weird at points (I’m looking at you “What Does the Fox Say?” with puppets), but the music is pretty consistently stellar.
That’s mostly because of the stellar cast of singers, including Amber Riley who may just be the best out of them all and who, let’s be honest, was probably too good for a cringey teen dramedy.
Still, Amber Riley is an absolute delight with her powerful and soulful voice. She could easily sing the phonebook.
In this performance on the BBC show That’s My Jam, Riley is given a random song to sing, “Waterfalls” by TLC, and then a random genre was chosen by the band. Obviously, the band chose country-western, which is the name non-country music fans always give to just a normal country song.
Of course, the hilarious part of the whole thing is the show is on the BBC, so it’s British. And the band makes a quip that Riley is from Compton, meaning country is obviously the perfect fit.
I’ll admit that my hopes weren’t that high. Like, I love Riley’s voice, but her joke at the beginning of the song about hoping we enjoy “this little ditty” made me cringe a bit.
But, I was pretty impressed with her performance.
“Waterfalls” actually makes for an awesome country song because it’s a story song about some intense and real subjects, not unlike songs by Reba, Dolly, or Loretta.
Amber Riley has one of those undeniably fantastic voices like Kelly Clarkson that’s makes your jaw drop and some jealousy bubble up in your stomach.
One downside though was the thick accent she put on for the entire song. It wasn’t really needed because the music made the song country, and the accent made it feel a bit cheesy.
I could just be thinking about this way too hard because this was featured on a random celebrity game show, but hey, overthinking things is a specialty of mine.
Still, Riley sounds incredible, and now, I want a full-length country version of “Waterfalls” by a country artist.
