Phantom Singer All Stars: Rebirth of Jame Bond theme song

Round 7. Four secret agents in tuxedos 

My stories about the TV show Phantom Singer All Stars are not finished yet. This overdue post is about a song that was reborn by La Poem. 

In Round 7, the mission was basically "You choose what you can do best." For this mission, La Poem picked a song known as James Bond theme song of the 007 movie Spectre. Sam Smith sang this song, which was so successful that it won Best Original Song Award at the 88th Academy Awards and at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.

Image from Wikipedia

Okay, without further ado let me reveal that the song is "Writing's on the Wall." 

As the title indicates, the song portrays a man in love struggling in anticipation of great but last danger looming over him. 

Here are the original lyrics of the song.

[verse 1]

I've been here before

But always hit the floor

I've spent a lifetime runnin'

And I always get away

But with you I'm feeling something

That makes me want to stay

I'm prepared for this

I never shoot to miss

But I feel like a storm is coming

If I'm gonna make it through the day

Then there's no more use in runnin'

This is something I gotta face

[pre-chorus]

If I risk it all

Could you break my fall?

[chorus]

How do I live? How do I breathe?

When you're not here I'm suffocating

I wanna feel love run through my blood

Tell me is this where I give it all up?

For you I have to risk it all

Cause the writing's on the wall

[verse 2]

A million shards of glass

That haunt me from my past

As the stars begin to gather

And the light begins to fade

When all hope begins to shatter

Know that I won't be afraid

[pre-chorus]

If I risk it all

Could you break my fall?

[chorus]

How do I live? How do I breathe?

When you're not here I'm suffocating

I wanna feel love, run through my blood

Tell me is this where I give it all up?

For you I have to risk it all

Cause the writing's on the wall

[bridge]

The writing's on the wall

[chorus]

How do I live? How do I breathe?

when you're not here I'm suffocating

I wanna feel love, run through my blood

Tell me is this where I give it all up?

How do I live? How do I breathe?

When you're not here I'm suffocating

I wanna feel love run through my blood

Tell me is this where I give it all up?

For you I have to risk it all

Cause the writing's on the wall

I think that Sam Smith's unique voice delivers the emotional struggle of a man effectively, highlighting his vulnerable sentiment. La Poem's operatic harmonies (👈 click the link to watch the performance) add more to this; they depict equally well a man who is determined to take the risk for love.  

Image from Phantom Singer All Stars instagram

When La Poem was asked why they chose this song, they said that they wanted to end the TV show by showing what they were made of. At that time, Phantom Singer All Stars was left with one last episode where the 36 singers were regrouped again with new members of quartets, meaning that Round 7 was the last time for the members of La Poem to sing together as a team in this show. As La Poem members were all trained in classical vocal music--thus known as Vocal Avengers, their harmonies sounded particularly majestic on this performance. 

No matter how grand the song sounded, I also felt the inner struggle of a vulnerable man at Chaehoon’s frail utterance "How do I live? How do I breathe? When you're not here I'm suffocating." With the song played again and again, I later figured that Sunghoon's soft vocal support was of good service to convey Bond's frailty depicted in these lines. 

To me, La Poem's version of Writing's on the Wall successfully delivers both the sentiment of a vulnerable man in love seeing the writing on the wall and that of a man determined to take the risk for love.

When the song was just announced, Sam Smith disclosed his difficulty in singing the song on a talk show, saying that "It is horrible to sing. Horrible" and further that "It's just so high. I have to grab my balls; it's awful." 

Image from Phantom Singer All Stars instagram

I wasn't aware of how hard the song was to sing when just watching La Poem's performance. After I learned about it, I appreciated once again the efforts that La Poem put into their performance, not to mention their superb artistic talent. 

The members came out in tuxedos, looking super handsome. Kihun later said that he liked this outfit most out of all All-Stars costumes he put on. 

* Some YouTube videos are open only to domestic viewers. To watch La Poem's performance of this song, click here.