2016 – A Year In Review

With the closing of 2016, I have decided to post a recap of some of the major highlights that Jackie Evancho has accomplished this past year, as well as to reflect on some things that are significant from my own personal experience as a fan of Jackie.

Music Videos:

Jackie Evancho fans were treated to a mix of three music videos containing new songs featuring Jackie.  The first video was released on January 29th and consisted of a cover song of Sam Smith’s “Writings On The Wall” that was from the James Bond movie “Spectre.”  This music video carried a theme of opposing secret agents, starring Jackie and her older sister Juliet.

A couple of months later on March 25th, Jackie would release another music video containing a cover song of Skylar Grey’s “Coming Home, Pt. II.”  This video focussed on a profound theme of a critically wounded veteran returning from deployment to his wife who calls for him from his bedside to “come home” and awaken from his injury.

The third music video (and also my personal favorite) released on April 22nd contains an original new song created for Jackie called “Apocalypse.”  The video contains a heart-tugging theme of a romance break-up.  The emotion of this song and video is very strong and has caused me to shed a tear on occasion when listening to it.  That emotional tug is one of the trademarks of many of Jackie’s songs.

Performances:

Of course Jackie had a fair share of concerts and performances from this past year.  Here is the interactive concert map that shows most of Jackie’s public performances for 2016.

One of the most notable performances of 2016 was when Jackie returned for the second time to the US Capitol to sing for the PBS Capitol Fourth Concert on Independence Day.  Jackie sang God Bless America to a very receptive crowd that weathered a rainy day to experience the event.

Although Jackie has performed several concerts this past year, the Cleveland concert on October 8th was very special for me because I was able to attend it.  You can click here to read about my experience at this concert.

It is worth mentioning that Jackie introduced some new songs at some of her concerts including a cover of Cold Play’s “Fix You” as well as a new original song titled “Think About Me.”  Both songs will likely be on her new CD titled “Two Hearts”, which is expected to be released early in 2017.

Other Notable Events:

A live performance of a new song called “The Haunting” was debuted when Jackie performed for an event at Joe’s Pub on November 13th.  It was revealed to attendees that Jackie wrote this song.  It is more of pop/rock song, which goes in a different direction than the typical Classical Crossover sound that Jackie is normally known for.  Note that the video below is at the sound-check, because the video quality at the performance had some technical issues.  A studio recording of this song hasn’t been released, but will potentially be available early next year (2017).

Jackie released a new Christmas CD this year called “Someday At Christmas.”  This CD contains some songs from previous CDs, in addition to the new title song “Someday at Christmas.”  There is a very nice variety of christmas solo songs on the CD and some duets where Jackie sings with Placido Domingo, Peter Hollens, and Il Volo.  The CD had one bit of controversy tied to it.  The original recording of the song “Hallelujah” was mixed incorrectly on the CD where the producer shifted the original pitch too high.  Jackie sent out a tweet about the issue.  As a result, Sony Music admitted the mistake and provided an option for fans to get a replacement CD upon request with the correctly mastered track.

A surprise for Jackie fans came with a second duet of “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” with Peter Hollens.  This song could be found on Peter’s Christmas CD titled  “A Hollens Family Christmas.”

Jackie would return as a guest performer on the America’s Got Talent Christmas special where she would sing “Someday at Christmas” to a very enthusiastic audience. The performance was wonderful!

Although this next event doesn’t occur until 2017, I thought it was worth noting that Jackie made the announcement that she will be singing the National Anthem at the January 20th, 2017 Presidential Inauguration.  There has been some controversy with Jackie’s announcement.  Some people have been critical of Jackie for the decision to perform for Donald Trump.  I believe that this criticism has been unfair and has been unjustly politicising Jackie.  This appearance isn’t about politics as much as it is about Jackie performing for America and the office of the presidency.  Jackie has made this very clear in a publicized interview.   Undoubtedly this announcement has generated some buzz.  Jackie’s CD sales have nearly quadrupled since the announcement, so people are taking notice.

Epilogue:

Jackie has taken her fans on an interesting journey this past year with some Q&As on social media, opportunities to purchase signed copies of her Someday At Christmas CD, interactions on social media, and of course her amazing singing voice.  There have been some changes that have occurred this past year in which Jackie fans have had to adjust.  A popular Jackie fan discussion forum, that was managed by Jackie’s parents, is no longer available.  I believe it was an unfortunate loss, but I understand that it was likely becoming a burden for Jackie’s parents.  The forum was a valuable place to get the occasional insight into Jackie’s career from people who were the closest to Jackie.  However with the close of the forum, fans have transitioned into other outlets to stay in-touch and continue to discuss Jackie’s career (now sadly without input from Jackie’s mother Lisa).  There are several other Jackie fan sites, social media outlets, and other various forms of communication for fans; so life goes on.  You can find many of these sites on the links page of this blog.

With the close of 2016, I am excited to see where Jackie takes her fans in 2017.  I am sure that Jackie will be doing many special things and continuing to mesmerize us with her amazing voice.