A very promising, up & coming American singer/songwriter (Eli Mattson)

Member Name: GentleGenius

Product:	Eli Mattson
Date:	20/02/09 (626 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful voice, great stage presence, performs cover versions better than the originals

Disadvantages: None so far

ELI MATTSON

About three months ago, I fancied hunting through YouTube to see if I could find a video clip of Mark Cohn singing "Walking In Memphis". This is one of my favourite songs of all time, and as I'd never seen the man himself perform it, I wanted to catch up with the rest of the world - albeit nearly 20 years late!

I logged onto YouTube and typed "Walking In Memphis" into the search bar, and the first item on the results list was a clip from the programme "America's Got Talent" - the "still" image showed a very attractive-looking young man called Eli Mattson, standing by a piano. Curious, I clicked "play".

The first minute or so of the clip showed Eli Mattson behind the scenes, talking with Jerry Springer, explaining how difficult the last few years had been for him on his travels down the road to a fame that still eluded him. In this little pre-audition chat with Jerry Springer, Eli came across as a rather intense, yet gentle-natured, charming and almost humble young man. There was something about his manner which made me want to continue watching. Jerry Springer then spoke to Eli's aunt who, with her husband, was accompanying Eli at his first America's Got Talent audition. She expressed that it's very rare for a singer to move her, but Eli did in fact move her. She then went on to say how deeply she felt Eli deserved a big musical break in his life.

The scene then changed, and I watched as Eli, dressed in casual jacket, trousers and wearing a flat cap on his head, walked somewhat shyly onto the stage and took his place in front of a small piano. The panel consisted of Sharon Osbourne, Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff.....to me it was pretty obvious that Sharon was immediately enchanted with Eli's appearance - and I can understand why. Sharon and I are of the same generation, and I feel certain she was seeing something in Eli that was almost like an image from the past, hurled into the present.....a certain charismatic aura which quite a few rock/pop performers from the days of our youth positively oozed. There is no name for that particular aura, but in my mind I silently agreed with Sharon's facial expressions - the aura was shining in barrel-loads from this guy Eli.

Eli stood shyly, half-smiling and appearing a little nervous in front of the judges and audience. David Hasselhoff asked Eli what he would be singing.....the answer was "Walking In Memphis"; Hasselhoff instructed Eli to "Knock us out man!" - and Eli began, quietly playing the intro to the song on his piano, then with a soul, depth, charm and a passion that held no bounds, launched into his own special rendition of this classic song.

The judges were mesmerised (so was I!!) ......the audience went wild. Throughout Eli's performance, close-ups of his face were shown - those gorgeous blue eyes and his engaging, charming, boyish smile. Eli smashed out the song in a rather deep, mind-blowingly soulful voice, and I had to admit that his rendition of "Walking In Memphis" excels by far over Marc Cohn's original - and, for me to say that, it must be something more special than words describe, as I nine times out of ten, loathe cover versions (for instance, I find Cher's cover of "Walking In Memphis" bland and uninspiring). There exists a tiny sprinkling of cover versions which are as or almost as good as the originals, but they are thin on the ground - Eli Mattson has created a "first" though, by majestically surpassing an already brilliant original. It was very obvious from Eli's facial expressions that he was concentrating deeply on his performance, and enjoying it at the same time, throwing himself into the song with all of his mind, body, spirit and soul.

As Eli closed the song down, the audience gave him a roaring standing ovation, to the point where David Hasselhoff had to hush them...so the judges could give their verdict. It was a resounding YES from Piers, Sharon and David. Overwhelmed, humbled and thankful, Eli left the stage giving the peace sign to the judges and audience. Backstage, he was the recipient of joyful hugs from his aunt and uncle, then during a brief chat with Jerry Springer on how he felt about his victory, Eli was elated, gratefully surprised by the whole experience and the effect he'd had on the audience and judges.

I was so impressed with Eli's performance - bear in mind I came across it almost by accident on YouTube - that I pasted the link into a blank email and forwarded it to virtually my whole email address book. Many of the people I sent the link to watched the clip on YouTube, and emailed me back saying things like "Wow!"

I couldn't leave it at that - I just had to (on YouTube) watch all the other performances by Eli Mattson as he worked his way through the various stages of "America's Got Talent", right up to the final. During little interviews on these video clips, Eli speaks of his main musical influence being Elton John - who he enshrines - but he also has been strongly influenced by Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Dave Matthews Band and a few more. During Eli's first "America's Got Talent", David Hasselhoff likened Eli to a young Billy Joel, which seemed to please him a lot. The other video clips available on YouTube taken from "America's Got Talent" show Eli singing a variation of songs, one of them being Phil Collins' "Against All Odds", which he really does tremendous justice to. He also belted out a stunning version of Elton John's "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word". For a couple of those "along the ladder" performances, Eli dressed in a suit and removed his cap - but I (and maybe Sharon Osbourne did too?) personally preferred his casual look; he just didn't seem himself bare-headed and in a smart suit.

Eli managed to sail through to the grand final of "America's Got Talent" which apparently was on 17 October 2008, and at the end (I also watched this on YouTube), it was an incredibly tense time. Eli was running neck & neck with Neal Boyd, an opera singer, who equally had won the hearts of the American public. The audience and judges looked on, bated breath, together with Eli and Neal, for the overall winner of "America's Got Talent 2008" to be announced......there was a sharp intake of breath, as Neal Boyd was declared the winner, by a mere 0.5%. I carefully watched Eli's reaction, searching for signs of resent or disappointment, but I saw none. He seemed genuinely pleased for his rival, Neal, and the two men embraced; Sharon Osbourne's face was one of disappointment bordering on anger that Eli had been pipped at the post. It has been rumoured that before the results of the voting were announced, Eli had even said he wanted Neal to win above himself.

Since viewing all of those videos over the space of a couple of evenings late last year, there have been quite a few more clips of Eli Mattson added to YouTube, as despite losing "America's Got Talent" by a hair's breadth, he seems now to be pursuing a so far successful music career, giving live performances which are complete sell-outs. There is a little clip of Eli and Neal duetting together - I have to say that despite Neal having a wonderful singing voice, it's my opinion that Eli outshines him not just in this particular duet, but overall. My favourite clips are a batch I found on YouTube where is Eli performs live in an Irish pub somewhere in the USA (I'm sorry - I'm not sure where it is exactly, but it's called "Claddaghs" and it states on the videos that the performance took place on 13th December 2008).

So, who is Eli Mattson?

There is a plethora of websites on the internet (tracked down via Google) where you can listen to Eli's music and download mp3 files of the songs he performed on "America's Got Talent", but there is very little information available on the man himself. I find that quite frustrating, as I'd like to know a lot more about this humble, charming and exceedingly good-looking young man with soulful, sparkly blue eyes....the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen! He does have a section on MySpace, but it gives very little information away about his origins, roots etc., and seems to be more of a site set up on which people can send Eli messages.

The most information I have been able at the moment to gather, is that Eli was born on 4th November 1981 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. It seems that he has been playing piano since a very young child, and as he grew older, he began to write his own songs. After leaving music college, he toured quite extensively, but with little or no commercial success, then after spending a while living in Chicago, moved to a small town in Wisconsin. It is reported on a couple of websites that after his victory (despite coming 2nd, it was still a victory) on "America's Got Talent", he performed a couple of sell-out concerts in his home town at the end of October.

Apparently Eli has been signed up by Sony, and he is due to begin recording an album early this year.

Unfortunately that is all the information which I feel to be reliable I have currently been able to locate on Eli Mattson. I tend not to use Wikipedia for my reference sources unless I can help it, as I have found it to be very unreliable and misleading in a lot of areas. The information above has been taken in bits and pieces from several different random websites which also may be unreliable, but I have no way of proving that one way or the other at this point - I have gone entirely by instinct.

I have read through a chunk of messages people have left for Eli on his MySpace site, plus all the very positive comments on YouTube, praising his "America's Got Talent" performances - and everybody seems to idolise him, together with a strong body of people feeling that he, not Neal, should have won the 2008 final of "America's Got Talent".

Eli as a whole has come across to me as being a complete breath of fresh air, in a music business which not entirely, but largely has become very stale and soulless over the past couple of decades. He is a great pianist, has a wonderful voice, deep soul, great presentation, star quality and stage presence. I truly hope he goes far and becomes a household name, worldwide. The thing which charms me most of all about Eli, is his natural air, and that incredible aura of not self-depreciation, but a slightly humble modesty he has; not to mention the cheeky grin and sexy blue eyes (he can be my toy boy any time!). I can't wait to see what he delivers when his recording with Sony is released, and I'd love to hear some of his own songs.

If you want to experience what Eli so far has to offer, why not visit YouTube, type Eli Mattson into the search window, and see for yourself? If you choose to view Eli's initial appearance on America's Got Talent where he performed Walking In Memphis, as well as revelling in this young man's beautiful good looks and his stunning performance, just watch the expressions on the faces of the judges.

Rock on Eli.....and thanks everyone for reading!

Summary: Check this guy out - he's amazing!