Florence Foster Jenkins - Queen of the Night by Mozart

[MichaelHansenFUN]

READ WIKIPEDIA

Florence Foster Jenkins (born Narcissa Florence Foster, July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was an American amateur operatic soprano who was known, and ridiculed, for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability.Mrs. Elva Miller Miller's success, like that of Florence Foster Jenkins and Wing, was due to the perceived amateurishness of her singing. ANNA RUSSLE -i dont think Florence Foster Jenkins is that bad. Portsmouth Sinfonia.

[MichaelHansenFUN]

slightly off pitch gotta remember her

[dmxmotion2010]

and the funny thing was that she thought she was amazing and was doing the world a favour by singing :)

[TheFROSTER420]

This might in fact be the best way to get people to look at you funny. Just blast some Florence Foster Jenkins (FFJ)!

[Waking2Dreams]

Did you know that after a minor car accident, Ms. Jenkins was able to sing 2 1/2 pitches higher? What a "gift."

[flashlass]

My poor dogs are startled!

[BeatleyBabe]

Imagine how she could have sounded if autotune existed back in her day...

[Useless2112]

What a beautiful voice. She died before her time. :'(

[Killerprinczz]

Terribly funny!! :)

[Dualz101]

This one is much better than cotton buds XD.wahahaha!

aw aw aw (like a puppy)

[ccmscheerleader1]

she needs some editing she was famous for being terrible

[ultamatefrogmaster]

I mis-read the title thinking that this was supposed to be Katherine Jenkin's. You can imagine my shock!

[parodycreator25]

If Florence Foster Jenkins would be alive today, she would use auto-tune and become the next Callas or Sutherland. LOL At she was honest, she didn't alter her voice to sell more albums like artists today.

[247Northwest]

She sounds like a small dog barking a vaguely musical fashion!!

[Odinsravner]

rebecca blacks ancestor

[sweenfan]

2:44 parece que tiene hipo xD

[LordMagros]

OMG hahahaha this is horrible!

[ReiddityReidReid]

So glad Diana Damrau is in the suggestions so I can cleanse my ears.

[ReiddityReidReid]

..............

[Kelennis]

I'm literally in tears from laughing so hard.

[TheMrMilla]

Why, God, why?? xD

[HigherEnlightment]

No, I threw them away because they rotted.

[alvyron]

sácate las cuerdas vocales y libra al mundo de tu horrenda voz !

[MelySakuraDiva]

:S

[tuochoks]

goes well with belgian beer

[cello3355]

@tuochoks

Even better with Russian Vodka!!

[SydBarker]

I love her. XD

[0x777]

What are you complaining about? Just like the average contemporary singer before autotuning. :)

[Shamsithaca]

She is in tune, squeeky kitty kat but in tune.

[ModernZeuhl]

Dirtier than masturbating while watching a roadkill slideshow. (Oh, this isn't a dubstep video ? Terribly sorry.)

[hilz4prez]

The part that starts at 2:28 is actually not that bad.

[ModernZeuhl]

@hilz4prez Y U NO HAVE EARS ?

[jmccracken1963]

You know, I think that she's been reincarnated - as the lead singer of Florence and the Machine.

[PurpleBritishPanda]

@jmccracken1963 Florence Welch is a great singer. You are probably to used to auto-tuned shit to(as Patti LuPone said) "oh-ppreciate" her talent.

[reginaDeviant]

Her impersonation of a strangled cat is absolutely extraordinary.

[murmanivanov]

что это такое??????????

[jewelmarkess]

@murmanivanov Богатая женщина которая очень любила оперу, но у неё не было ни слуха, ни голоса, ни чувства ритма. В конце жизни она сняла Карнеги Холл. Концерт был распродан; публика засовывала в рот платочки чтобы не расхохотаться, а она думала что их так трогает её пение. Она была уверена в своём таланте и обьясняла критику завистью. Но... она также помогала молодым музыкантам, и все сборы с концертов жертвовала организациям помощи музыкантам.

[AGuyInAHat]

I feel like my ears have been raped by Pile Drivers, then dumped into a vat of acid and raped again.

[mollybeth91]

@AGuyInAHat AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! omg I feel the exact same way....please kill me now lol

[InvaderJem]

How did this even get recorded?

[ComeToTheFeastOfWar]

@InvaderJem

She was really rich...

[jewelmarkess]

@InvaderJem She was rich and she paid for recordings. The most curious thing was that she would often ask her friends to listen to her recordings and those of then-famous opera singers and give the ballots and asks them to vote. Most of her friends would pick her because well, they were her friends and they wanted to be nice and... she was rich. One time one woman picked Galli-Curci, and Florence said - "how could you be so mistaken my tones are so much fuller than that".

[BLKDIVA1908]

We had this album in our music library in college. I almost forgot how bad this was.....ALMOST!!!!!

[glegola]

"Boska" :-)

[42justa]

moja łapka w górze...:))

[glit11]

Przeciez ona Falszuje! ludzie haben sie nicht gehoert?!

i wyje!

[2010wieliczka]

@glit11 Tu chyba jest jakieś drugie dno, tajne przesłanie, którego my nie rozumiemy :) Może ona to śpiewa jak miała 4 lata? Albo śpiewała na łożu śmierci?

[glit11]

@2010wieliczka zgadza sie. dno jest.i nie tylko drugie, ale jakies 10000 sieczne :) mozna to puszczac komus znienawidzonemu. na (jego) lozu smierci :)

[2010wieliczka]

@glit11 Wiesz, mnie każdy drobiazg, każde niedociągnięcie w wykonawstwie Mozarta drażni, każdy zgubiony ozdobnik, każde przebrzmienie, kiks, niepotrzebne uniesienie głosu nie mówiąc o fałszach. A pani Florence mnie jednak urzekła :) 1000 x lepsza od Gracjana R, myślę, że trzeba być jednak artystą, by aż tak zarżnąć Mozarta.

[glit11]

@2010wieliczka no coz. skoro pozwala ci to nabrac dystansu do zjawiska jakim byla (i zyje do dzis) pani jenkins, to szanuje twoje nastawienie. niestety taka poblazliwosc owocuje dodami, mandarynami itp. badziewiem. Pozdrawiam :)

[2010wieliczka]

@glit11 No wiesz, Doda mogłaby się uczyć :) Takiej skali i interpretacji ito na pewno nie ma :) Jestem przekonany, że Mozart, który lubiał imprezować na pewno by się nie obraził. Pozdrawiam serdecznie :)

[MrProdakszyn]

łapa w górę jeśli uważasz, że Janda śpiewa lepiej niż Madame Jerkins

[TheKacper88]

Cudowne i wspaniałe! Jak widać Mandaryna nie była wcale pierwsza... :P Fajnie, że ta pani realizowała swoje marzenia. A spektakl z Krystyną Jandą- cudo!!!

[timflavio81]

BOSKA :)

[Adamello001]

Nailed it!

[MrOrinow]

absofuckinlutely awesome freak - even more up to date than ever before }-)

[TheDagamara]

łapka do góry, jeżeli przywiodła cię tu "Boska" :)

[eveoe]

@TheDagamara oczywiście :D

[Hiobai]

Creo que he muerto... y estoy en el mismísimo infierno...

[Inkubzz]

LLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRROO­OOOOOOYYYYY!!!!! JJJJJJEEEENKINS!

[scruby]

omg, laughing so hard . . . tears. omfg. tears, for real.

[bearboych]

Congratulations for the pianist !

[ExcessiveSpareTime]

I can't stop fucking laughing...

[mattduncan6]

fabulous ;)

[celebrei]

Rebecca Black's great grandmother

[jujuflolie]

C'est la castafiore,non?

[mahlerlvr01]

She was quite a character. After a fairly significant accident in a taxicab, she was quoted as saying that now she could sing, "a higher F than ever before."

[CopelandMeister]

The original Rebecca Black.

[donkwich]

Needs auto-tune badly, send help

[OfShadowandSubstance]

My sister said of this: "God. It sounds like someone's killing a small dog."

[detroitmunny]

Did you know this woman performed at Carnegie Hall?

[lomax343]

@detroitmunny Not only performed there but sold it out.

[tossJ]

@detroitmunny aye aye, but only thanks to one of David Bowie's interviews (Sydney, 2004, iirc).

[jewelmarkess]

@detroitmunny Yes, and during the performance of Clavelitos where she threw flowers into the audience, one famous actress became hysterical and had to be carried out.

[AGuyInAHat]

@detroitmunny IN FRONT OF ENRICO CARUSO NO DOUBT!

[jewelmarkess]

@AGuyInAHat I actually read that Caruso looked at her with affection. Composers Cole Porter and Gian Carlo Menotti were among her fans. There are some fascinating articles about her on the web, too bad one can no longer find the interview with Cosme Mc Moon.

[Slamazzar]

@jewelmarkess

What are you saying? You have a link to that interview on a wikipedia article about Mrs Jenkins. Just try an early copy of the site on wayback machine.

[jewelmarkess]

@Slamazzar Have you tried clicking on this link lately? Nowadays it leads to "Information Education Technology". It seems like the copy was on the ucdavis website, and they changed the server. How do you get to old copy of the site? At any rate, I read it before, it's just that others may like to read it as it's pretty interesting.

[HigherEnlightment]

Upon hearing this, all the potatoes in my cellar rotted, and my black cat ran away for a week - and when it did come back eventually, its fur was all grey. Roses in my garden all mutated to a previously unseen dark brown colour which only attracts dung beetles. Also, chickens on the nearby farm stopped laying eggs, and a calf with no ears was born on that day.

Beware.

[LOLNOKOSSA]

@HigherEnlightment You keep potatoes in your cellar?

[aritape]

Descoberta a cura da surdez!!!

[ypperlig89]

Meh. I can't do better.

[khl1975]

She still sings better than Justin Bieber :))))

[illfurter]

j'adore le courage de pouvoir oser ça!!! On n'a jamais fait mieux dans le kitsch!

[ariadneprincesa1]

@illfurter WHAT?

[WonZii]

SUCKS!

D:

[snappycatchy]

This is what I imagine Barbara Bush sounds like in the shower.

[snappycatchy]

Susan Boyle she ain't.

[jewelmarkess]

@snappycatchy In all fairness and all due respect, Susan Boyle could not go near this aria (and has good sense never to try). Diana Damrau on the other hand she really isn't.

[katrinaowen03]

THUMBS UP IF YOUR HERE BECAUSE YOU'RE DOING 'THE DIVA' AS YOUR VCE DRAMA SOLO ;)

[TheTubePortal]

My cat was not very happy with this song. The poor lady sounds like a barking puppy dog. I still can't believe that she thought anybody who told her that she couldn't sing was nothing but a hater. She doesn't even get the words right which are supposed to be German but this seems to be a mix of English and gibberish.

[totematika]

i find this really difficult to masturbate to...

[madsketcher]

Before there was Wing, there was Florence Foster Jenkins.

[madsketcher]

LOL.

[recpeace3]

my music professor had the class listen to this...I was in tears...that was about 25 years ago...still hillarious

[jonnavdpas]

The good old "Book Of Heroic Failures" brought me here! =D

[CateValois]

There was a... Uhm maybe was a chiccken. No... A hen! A hen in some disney's cartoon that sings just like her!

[quizmaster85]

@CateValois You might be thinking of the Disney short "Orphan's Benefit", and yes, I can see the similarities there :)

[cowdust51]

I suppose that every century has its own Rebecca Black....

[LVeikko]

@cowdust51 How can you compare the two? Flo is delightfully bad, whereas Rebecca is just, well, bad.

[Buttababy]

*hiccup* ah ha ha ha ha *coughs* ha ha ha ha ha *wipes tears*

[xSnowWhiteRosex]

As horrible as her singing is, I have to admire her for her attitude and the fact that she never gave up singing no matter how much she was laughed at.

[newusercommenter]

@xSnowWhiteRosex So... being arrogant to the point that she wouldn't accept her inability to sing, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is actually an admirable trait to you? Sure, it's great to succeed despite opposition, but to be so self-centered that you don't know your own faults isn't exactly a good thing. There's a fine line between confidence and stupidity.

[jewelmarkess]

@newusercommenter Not as much arrogant as deluded. She lived in her own fantasy world, she honestly believed she could sing and she liked the sound of her own voice even on the recordings.

[flammesombres]

never fails to cheer me up :)

[juandacharroninja]

Stil better than Rebeca Black, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

[philipmarie1854]

@juandacharroninja Nah, I think Lady Gaga is actually good. Rebecca Black on the other hand is good at all and neither is Bieber who I have to admit actually has soem talent if only he would express himself more. However, this is far worse than all of them.

[equivariance]

send this to Guantanamo Bay! This will make them talk, right away. Worst excuse for singing I've ever heard.

[grandorgue128]

I always thought Cosmae McMoon was a made-up name, but he really was her accompanist...

[ChickenTofu]

@grandorgue128 You know it's a stage name right? So it IS a made up name.

[shirtlifter007]

@ChickenTofu Much controversy about this - but a quick search came up with this info - "But the nail in the coffin for me: the obituaries. New York Times: August 25, 1980–McMoon, Cosme–born Mapimi, Mexico, concert pianist in NYC aged 79 years. Survived by a brother, a nephew, two nieces. A small notice on B7"

[MinaVermin]

Let's just say that it takes a hell lot of courage to record this and call it "The Glory of Human Voice''...

[omhyr21]

This is on the iTunes store. WHY?!!!!!

[0629sugawara]

下手くそ。

[lleisllonson]

I used to think anybody could sing... but...

[daviddowns81]

@lleisllonson anybody can sing, just not very well...

[funniestdumbest]

i know she sounds horrible, but this is the original

[karlwinkler66]

Wow. Just wow.

[LeonNerfSwordMaster]

Rebecca Black pre-auto tune.

[chezniki]

@MrSulake - Autotune mightve helped this one!

[TrappedInABikini]

real music

[bgatley1]

Don't insult Rebecca Black that way. "Friday" should have got airplay.

[kingsonone]

Absolutely Amazing .... The glory of the human voice ! Not sure about that but I've listened a few times and it's actually quite good ... very funny yes but she is very good at what she does.

I can imagine going to see her live, how VERY entertaining it would be, otherworldly, like some just wrote ... from a different dimension

Thanks to the BBC indeed.

: D

[racefan32]

STFU

[MrSulake]

ok, try to autotune this.

[ileavecommentshere]

thumbs up if the bbc article brought you here

[lavenderU]

it makes my ears bleed

[aaa82yt]

still entertaining

[WaistHighView]

Wow I have never heard anything as beautiful in all my life! Truly amazing! /sarcasm

[olly111192]

At one point she seemed to be talking out of tune...

[OWRBtheo]

She's in tune, just in a different dimension.

[OohTube]

The Shakira of the early 20th century!

[claireann2009]

WOW SHE IS JUST AMAZING! HOW COULD ANYONE BE AS GOOD AS THAT! -.-

[5542tom]

Ouch...

[follytowers]

I have just been out and strangled the neighbours cat, and YES this woman sounds worse!

[LisssRose]

Ahahaha

[anaeresis]

104 people are tone deaf

[maureenOWW]

It sounds like a dog. Being flayed alive. On fire. In boiling oil. With rabies.

[bushki]

oooo good god......i wonder if she enjoyed a party on friday....friday aswell

[NatMatKen]

Happy birthday Florence

[razaz03]

Sh e is to soprano, as im to grammarr.

[ipants65]

Miles better than Cheryl Cole though, anyday :)

[mono5509]

She was just fortunate that Simon Cowell wasn't around to dash her dream of fame. The recording was really quite painful to listen to, I'm sure it would cause a baby to cry.

[Liolar43]

...Hey, it's her birthday today!

[Woodville34]

Sounds like a cat being strangled



[honestkev1000]

Sings like a bird. Unfortunately, a vulture.

[InappropriateSurname]

All I imagine when listening to this is someone trying to kill sparrows with a piano.

[i0npath]

That was so bad I think it gave me cancer.

[billyzbhoy]

As crap as Florence was at singing she's still better than most X-Factor winners!

[PoisonInc]

Singing like this led to the invention of auto-tune.

Fuck you, Florence Foster Jenkins.

[SrtaRave1]

she is so bad that became good! an example that anyone can do anything, if really wish for.

[kodatastical]

Gotta have my bowl gotta have cereal

[QuietRae]

I like to think she knew exactly how bad she was, and was just trolling everybody. And then she went backstage after every performance and laughed her ass off.

[klaviertjie]

on her album the first few songs are horrible, but later on, I think as the years advanced, she is actually impressively good!!!

[pudsey4000]

ouch.

[Andrearoxs]

oh damn ..

[espp1973]

First, I was like this =S , then I was =D!. My God, My Goddes and all the Divinities under Heaven, Eath, Wind and Fire (Let's groove toniiight) This epically awful!!. =P.

[achan1058]

Auto tune please.

[musicallytalented2]

does she know she sounds like that?

[cyprel]

@musicallytalented2 Nope. She has been convinced her whole life that she had one of the greatest voices of her time. So at least she died happy =D

[hutarinihakotoba]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­haha

[Torsti2003z]

great! I was numerating the 3 songs that can stop me anytime anywhere, first 2 being animals rising sun and eagles california, I was a t loss finding the 3rd but I think it is here!

[PKLilicoco]

嚇人又驚悚的歌聲......

[1isaacmusic]

Check out the video " Parrot singing opera (official video) ", the parrot does an uncanny rendition of her solo in this song.

[ecl411]

I learned about FFJ 7 years ago, and she literally changed my life. I'm a trained classical soprano, and I used to take it so seriously. After being introduced to FFJ, first I laughed my ass off, and then I learned not to approach all classical music with so much damn gravity. It's really not the point.

[BMSiren]

Finally! Something actually "decent" to listen to. I'm so sick of modern music.. I mean all they do is repeat themselves 1000 times over and over again. know what i'm saying dog? This is genious. It's never the same! Ever second is a new, unexpected result. Thank you Florence Foster for making this beautiful music.

[SpunkyMonkey1001]

Can she hear herself?

[ForbiddianSC]

It's FRIDAY, FRIDAY, gotta get down on Friday!

[kippensoepislekker]

@ForbiddianSC That song sucks!

[Platinu]

Why didn't someone realize that there was a cat caught in the piano during this? Cruel... You can hear the poor thing's plaintive cries during the entire piano solo. :(

[rcguy69]

pre-Monty Python

[dinak93]

i have to play her for my year 12 solo :| and i want to become a singer so this is going to be insulting for me :|

[akg2016]

this is just amazing1

this is mildly entertaining