Ukulele Video of the Year 2012: Vote

42 Comments

1. Livia February 13th, 2013 8:24 pm
   

   Vote for WOTE (harhar..)! :)
   Oh and why did you chose this videos? I mean… there’s a ukulele in the “Red Hands” video too just as an example! Serious question!! :D

2. Alistair C February 13th, 2013 8:48 pm
   

   WOTE have an unfair advantage. They live somewhere sunny and they have Eric Cantona playing keyboard!

3. Woodshed February 13th, 2013 9:42 pm
   

   Livia: That’s the one that got the most nominations. Not my favourite of theirs either but the people have spoken.

   Alistair C: And Laura Marling has the advantage of being Laura Marling!

4. leroy February 13th, 2013 9:50 pm
   

   Great list of finalists

5. banter February 13th, 2013 10:00 pm
   

   @Woodshed Exactly, WOTE did much better performance.

6. Woodshed February 13th, 2013 10:14 pm
   

   leroy: Completely agree. I’m having a really hard time deciding who to vote for.

   banter: Such are the vagaries of the nomination system.

7. Johnny Foodstamp February 13th, 2013 10:40 pm
   

   I voted for John Bianchi!!!

8. Wilfried Welti February 13th, 2013 10:46 pm
   

   Here in Germany the WOTE video can’t be watched (at least not without special measures). The rough translation of what is displayed:
   “Unfortunately this video, which contains music by SME, not available in Germany, because the GEMA didn’t grant publishing rights”.
   Not the fault of anybody here, just wanted to point it out.
   Apart from that, nice to see that the ukulele still is becoming more and more popular… difficult to decide who to vote for!

9. Johnny February 13th, 2013 10:48 pm
   

   This is by far the cutest ukulele video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kX1uaflYyY

10. Ron Hale February 13th, 2013 11:03 pm
    

    “Little Boxes” is much better.

    jaaaaaaa: The people may have spoken but this is a travesty. The actual song is only 1:40 of the video. From that point till the end at 4:23 it’s just her hamming it up for the fans, talking about herself, shilling for her album, and pushing her tour. “Poop and fart” add the final classy touch so typical of her. “Stay Awake” was her best of the year.

11. andy February 13th, 2013 11:50 pm
    

    Tough choice – all good. Since it’s ‘UKE’-hunt probably have to go with John Bianchi. Not just because it’s the most politically incorrect song out of the bunch, but because his singing and playing are great. LM’s video is completely mesmerising. SM+JM+EHP are equally gorgeous, and the vocals are brilliant, but I guess that’s not what we’re being asked to vote on…. JB. Final Answer. No wait…

12. Jeff February 14th, 2013 12:38 am
    

    Sophie and the wonderful singing of Emily and Jocelyn created incredible harmonies! Impossible to beat. They’re amazing!

13. Tobias February 14th, 2013 8:59 am
    

    I too voted for John Bianchi. The style of playing is very suitable for ukulele, and anything alluding to Eddie Cantor gains favour for my notice. I do have to agree with some of the other comments about the final choices. John, Laura, and Sophie were all great contenders, but the others lacked, well I have to say it, they lacked ukulele. I think that’s why I picked John in the end, his was just him and a banjolele with a great song. He just snuck in over Sophie, Emily, and Jocelyn – only due to the more complicated right hand work. Laura’s work was good, but too ‘new’ for my ‘old’ ears – mind you I loved the tone of the tenor.

14. Lesley F February 14th, 2013 9:58 am
    

    John Bianchi. Head and shoulders above the rest – he found an old and now obscure song, took the risk with the absence of political correctness, played it with great skill, split-strokes and all on the banjolele, which suit the song so well, and sang it beautifully with an old-time style and panache all his own – what’s more, it’s an amateur video, not polished and tweaked like Sophie Madeleine’s, much as I love that song and the way the girls did it.

    John Bianchi deserves to win this. My vote.

15. Alifa D February 14th, 2013 11:25 am
    

    I vote Walk Off The Earth! They deserves to win :)

16. Woodshed February 14th, 2013 11:52 am
    

    Johnny: Thanks for voting!

    Wilfried: From what I understand, GEMA has pretty much ruined YouTube in Germany.

    Ron: Some people are obviously into that sort of thing.

    andy: I can’t make my mind up either.

    Tobias: Well I like to hear the ukulele with other instruments. Particularly tubas.

    Lesley: He is a great player.

    Alifa: Thanks for your vote!

17. Sandra February 14th, 2013 12:29 pm
    

    Tough choice and agree JB shows off the uke best of all but I’m going with the performance that captured my attention the most, although enjoyed them all. My vote goes to Laura but KCC a close second. Good fun, thanks!

18. Livia February 14th, 2013 2:27 pm
    

    Thanks didn’t saw the nominate post. :)
    (next year I’ll nominate this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqg_rb59WYE&pxtry=1 anorexic uke!)

19. Gormsby February 14th, 2013 11:03 pm
    

    Can’t believe Mike Love’s ‘No Regrets’ didn’t make the final list! Definitely my favourite this year. I guess that serves me right for not putting in my nominations (or seconding Woodshed’s)…

20. Woodshed February 15th, 2013 12:03 am
    

    Sandra: That’s the criteria I’ve used too. And came to a slightly different conclusion. But only slightly!

    Livia: I look forward to next year!

    Gormsby: Yes, it’s entirely your fault! One more nomination and he would have been in.

21. KT February 15th, 2013 1:18 am
    

    wow i love walk off the earth but there are definitely better songs than that one. If we’re basing this off of the most impressive playing then i’d say laura buuuut everyones so good D:

22. Woodshed February 15th, 2013 9:30 am
    

    KT: We’re not basing it off the most impressive playing necessarily. At least I’m not.

23. Matthews February 15th, 2013 10:52 am
    

    Who cant watch videos, use a proxy .-.

24. Daniel Breton February 15th, 2013 12:54 pm
    

    Hooray for the Banjo Ukulele! Vote for Bianchi!

25. Julia February 15th, 2013 12:54 pm
    

    The decision between Laura Marling and Keston Kobblers Club was really difficult. But I´m afraid the ukulele Laura plays in that video is my dream ukulele so that decides it for me.
    And though Sophie Madelines cover is really nice and would deserve it to win, it always makes me a bit sad when the Artists share the link because if just one of them does it, its unfair, and if all of them do it, it´s unfair as well, because if LM would do that with her 150.000 Facebook fans, the smaller ones wouldn´t have any chance at all.

26. Woodshed February 16th, 2013 8:39 am
    

    Daniel: It is good to have a banjo uke in there.

    Julia: Yeah, it does skew things a bit. But they have lots of fans for a reason. And so long as the people they send have a look at the lesser-known videos I’m happy.

27. seamus4string February 16th, 2013 9:31 pm
    

    WOTE needs more votes….C’MON PEOPLE!!!!

28. Kempo February 17th, 2013 9:47 pm
    

    WOTE are just too… ‘clean’ for me. And they look like the kind of people that are probably good at everything, so I’m not voting for them!!!

    For me, it’s between Sophie Madeleine and KCC (the plugging and self promotion put me off Julia Nunes),but I went for KCC in the end because they wrote the song themselves.

29. Ben Mealer February 18th, 2013 4:43 am
    

    John’s the best!

30. Woodshed February 18th, 2013 10:52 am
    

    Kempo: Snap! I went with KCC in the end. Close thing with John Bianchi though.

31. Kelli Rae February 19th, 2013 9:38 pm
    

    Love that Laura Marling, but I’m a sucker for traveling tunes.
    To Mr. Bianchi: Birds of a feather, as they say… ;)

32. seamus4string February 22nd, 2013 4:28 am
    

    Kempo, they all play like 4 instruments a piece, it’s fantastic. I must ask, as a musician, what’s wrong with being clean?

33. Woodshed February 23rd, 2013 11:19 am
    

    Kelli: Glad you enjoyed them!

    seamus: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being clean. But I do like music with a bit of grit and grime on it.

34. Kempo February 23rd, 2013 12:34 pm
    

    Seamus: I just realised my comment was directly after yours, it wasn’t meant as a direct contradiction or anything, I was going to give my rundown of all the nominations but I quickly discounted the importance of most of my opinion.

    Anyway, I went back to the WOTE video, and sure it’s a good pop song but for me there’s a human element that gets lost when everything is so perfect and major key, and I just can’t relate, I suppose this is what I meant by too clean.

    Maybe it’s a geographical thing. On a grey winter afternoon in Scotland, KCC is like a warm log fire, WOTE is like being given shorts and tshirts and ordered outside and being told to have fun.

    Ask me again in 3 months time.

35. Woodshed February 25th, 2013 1:42 pm
    

    Thanks for voting, everyone. Polls have closed and the results are in the post.

36. John Bianchi February 25th, 2013 3:47 pm
    

    Woodshed –

    Thanks VERY much for running the contest! It felt great to be included with musicians I admire, I think the best women won (I’ve subscribed to Sophie M. for a couple of years and I think Pearl and The Beard is a GREAT, passionate act, so it was lovely to see them together), and I couldn’t be happier with the great support I got from friends and strangers.

    Thanks for all that you do! :)

37. leroy February 25th, 2013 6:34 pm
    

    Thanks John B for your Humble email. You are great.

38. seamus4string February 25th, 2013 10:45 pm
    

    No issues Kempo, just asking. I know all about the gray winter days living in Central Maine, we’ve got 2 feet of snow on the ground right now

39. Woodshed February 26th, 2013 7:47 am
    

    John: I agree with leroy!

40. Liz December 27th, 2013 8:08 pm
    

    Voting for John Bianchi- Well done!

41. Liz December 27th, 2013 8:09 pm
    

    oops its over Ha

42. Woodshed December 27th, 2013 8:50 pm
    

    Liz: Nevermind. A new vote coming in the new year.