Kaho Shimada

Has anyone heard of her? I'm just listening to her voice on a Le Miz recording. Her voice is hard to get used to.
If you're wondering, she played Eponine

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Updated On: 9/5/06 at 05:48 PM

Yes, I only bought the song, Eponine's Errand cause I hadnt heard it before, I perfer Lea Salonga. It sounds a little bit like Kaho uses Vibrato to much, but her voice is unique so thats good.

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I really don't like her on the CSR. She almost makes me not want to listen to it, unfortunately.

Oh, me too. Her accent is beyond irritating.

I like her. Not my favorite but I do enjoy her voice very much.


I believe she learned English solely in order to play Eponine on this recording. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Lizzie?

yeah... i think it says in the liner notes that she learned english just for the CD... and that they had to say the words out loud so that she can follow along... but you get the gist... even though i've heard better.. i think she sounds good for someone who never spoke a word of english in her life at that point... her On My Own is pretty weak and Little Fall Of Rain is horrible... but her "dialogue" sequences are beautiful...

"It sounds a little bit like Kaho uses Vibrato to much"

WHAT? I didn't know Kaho used vibrato at all!

By the way, I love her!

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Updated On: 9/5/06 at 10:53 PM

Tracy Shayne? Wasn't she married to Hugh Panaro?

Indeed she was.

I actually heard that she didn't learn the English language but rather just learned to sing Eponine's songs. I defer to Lizzie of course, though.

It's true. :) She has learned English since, I think, but like nearly everyone who worked in Germany under Stella, learned the language phonetically.

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(someone correct me if I am wrong about the language)

Why wouldn't she be singing in Japanese? (If not English?) It's not like Japanese is hard to recognize.

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I admit Kaho did take a little time for me to get used to, but I have come to like her and put her up there with Lea Salonga as my favorite Eponine on recording. Her "On My Own" is very emotional, and I like how she seems to take a breath before she hits the high note on "pretending."(I think she has the best "pretending"). On CSR, her scenes with Marius(Michael Ball) are done really well, I can't tell they have not met. The only place where I can tell that Kaho and Michael have not met, on the CSR, is "A Little Fall of Rain" where their voices do not blend well.

Kaho's performance on the CSR led me to buy the Japanese Red Cast and I think she is even better on that recording.

It took a while for me to get used to Kaho Shimada's rendition of On My Own too, but I realized that it was probably my favorite. To me, the other ones sounded too phoney in singing it while Shimada (though has her own problems) seems to sing the song straight rather than use it as a vehicle to show off her voice. I also don't like Lea's version of On My Own because she breezes by it so quickly. It's like she doesn't give us time to let the song sink in when she finishes.

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