Jeffrey Li’s latest single release “Anniversary” will likely experience the same success as his previous winners “You Raise Me Up” and “Little Big Shots”. The very fact\ that a debuting performer can, based off an audition for the popular NBC television program America’s Got Talent, so soon parlay national exposure into over 100 million YouTube views is impressive enough, but accomplishing such a feat before you turn sixteen is mind-boggling. The teenage Jeffrey Li already harbors transformational vocal relents so it is rather wild considering where he can go from here. There’s no apparent limit to what this Toronto born vocalist can do.
It takes little apparent effort from Li to master the song’s emotional pathos. This is a song that, on its surface, seems more suited for a performer boasting more life experience, but Li overcomes those limitations. He stamps his presence on the lyric with an authoritative yet sensitive vocal honoring the song’s emotional charge without lapsing into melodramatic histrionics. It is easy to admire his clearly keen ear. Li doesn’t attempt to dominate the musical proceedings afoot here but, instead, sings in lockstep with the arrangement with the aim of complementing and enhancing the overall presentation. This is an intuitive talent, not something you can readily teach. The emotional peaks his voice scales effortlessly match the song’s intensity.
I felt a pleasant jolt of surprise when the track opened with acoustic guitar. It didn’t sound perfunctory from the first note like it so often does when used in a pop setting and the fluid melodicism couldn’t be ignored. It strikes a near perfect partnership with Li’s voice before the full song opens. It is a fantastic synthesis of traditional sounds and luminous synthesizer lines weaving together in pop symphonic grandeur. The song expresses considerable emotion, this is true, but Li and his collaborators frame these emotions in dramatic, even near-cinematic, fashion.
It’s a manageable length as well. I doubt few if any listeners will hear this for the first time and feel cheated somehow. I can only imagine Li is learning more and more about his talents and how he wants to showcase them with each new release because you hear it in every line of his performance. It’s confidence of the highest order. Avoiding the understandable self-consciousness capable of creeping in on a young vocalist is yet another of Li’s remarkable gifts.
It isn’t often you encounter young performers with the potential to produce popular commercial music with enduring value. Li can provide an entertaining listening experience with the best singers today, without question, but he has the clear ability to interpret complex human emotions into wrenching vocal performances.
He has the good sense, as well, to surround himself with creative partners skilled enough to help him realize his dreams and ambitions. These are important ingredients in the recipe for lasting and influential music careers. Jeffrey Li’s “Anniversary” is one of the best pop singles I’ve heard in some time. It sounds like a song where the artist and his team knew exactly what they were going for when they went in to record the track and nailed it with a minimum of fuss.
Samuel Pratt