Alex, fantastic!!! Your post is a perfect example of the reason that these discussions can be so interesting. You are a very thoughtful music listener and I always appreciate your perspective. You wrote:
**** First, let me just point out that English is not my native language, so I could have somewhat different perspective in general toward vocalists.
Also, their (singers) cultural heritage might be viewed diferent, from our very different points of perception ( geographically and culturally) ****
This is why I say fantastic. I think I can remember almost word for word a comment that I wrote and was going to include in my last post, but deleted it because I thought if might be misconstrued or misinterpreted:
***** Having said all that, I would add that as wonderful a notion as is “Music is the universal language”, I think it is true only up to a point. I think that a listener’s ethnic and cultural background plays into all this and influences the reaction to certain aspects of a performer’s musical personality. ****
Engish is not my native language either, but my native language and cultural background are closer to that of Bennett. I find all this fascinating. Thanks for your further thoughts.