One More Time

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I watched One for the first time on TV last night, and I must say that I think I'm starting to love it. It's actually rising towards the top of my list and I know I'm far from alone in feeling this way so I started picking apart and analysing my initial reaction to it.

From One's opening, we were expecting a certain type of interpretation from Adam. We heard the pure ravishing beauty of those first few honeyed notes and we were completely spellbound. We wanted more and looked forward to the song continuing in the manner it started so we could get more of this wonderful drug, not only because it was breathtaking, but because we'd been a little starved of slow emotional numbers in the last couple of weeks.

Adam has surprised us many times with his performances and his interpretation of songs, so much so that paradoxically it was getting unsurprising. With Adam never settling for predictable, he managed to challenge and astonish us with a drastic change mid-performance that we were least expecting. I think the issue we had was the shock factor - which sent some scuttling towards wanting the safety of the song's opening - because it was so far from what we were expecting. Less than a minute until the end of the song wasn't enough time to get over that shock. With a little more time we might have been better placed to process and understand it within the limits of the song and left less bewildered. Is it fair to feel disappointed just because he didn't do what we expected, even if he did something better and put a glittering cherry on top? Ironically, the unpredictability was something I'd wanted, but when he hit me with it, I wasn't particularly receptive because I was completely unprepared.

If we look at the latest performances in the context of the competition, intentional or not, they were relatively 'safe', on the Adam scale. Maybe it was in preparation for a real treat when it comes to the final. I expect that in the same way when WLL came round we'd been yearning for a RoF type performance for some time, the little taster of a tender number in One has us completely ravenous for one in the final, and maybe it will taste so much sweeter for it.

I think One improves on subsequent viewings because I neither expect nor want the song to continue softly-softly. It no longer jars but works brilliantly and I think Adam provides a better representation of the lyrics to give us that huge and impassioned crescendo, than the more mournful and resigned original. I strongly felt the intensity and emotion first time round but I'm now able to really appreciate the full impact of this gem of a moving performance. Here it is again for your viewing pleasure: