The battle for love, or finding out what love is, has been fought and a winner is being declared. Two amazing female artists, Tina Arena and Wynonna Judd, put out some awesome vocals to earn their place in the winner’s circle, singing one of the all-time great love songs by Foreigner, “I Want to Know What Love Is”.
It was a pretty decent battle actually. Most voters really like the song. Some folks knew right away who they were going to choose and others wavered a bit, trying to decide which one to pick for the win. That’s how it was for me too. I thought both versions were incredible, all the way around: powerful vocals, musical quality, background vocals & harmonies, the emotional delivery…these two had it all and both came together to bring us two fantastic covers of this incredible song.
I listened to both versions several times and thought to myself how I could easily have each of them playing on a continuous loop and really never get tired of hearing them because every time I listened to each song, I found something new to appreciate. It was a tough call for me to make but in the end I chose Wynonna Judd’s version.
A tally of the votes shows Wynonna Judd as the clear winner, capturing 7 of the 11 votes. But Tina Arena had quite a respectable showing with 4 votes overall. Speaking on the toss-up I had in determining my vote, the final tally could’ve easily been Wynonna with 6 and Tina with 5. So there you go.
The prize is awarded to WYNONNA JUDD as the winner in this battle for Foreigner’s love song “I Want to Know What Love Is”.
In searching for covers of this song, I found one that I almost used in this battle but I felt pretty strongly that had I chosen to use this version, it might not have been a close race. Considering how popular this artist is, it might’ve been a blowout. You’ll have to tell me. So I’ll close now with yet another fantastic version of “I Want to Know What Love Is by one of the biggest-selling artists in music history: Mariah Carey.
Give a listen to her version and let me know what you think. Would you have voted for Mariah over either or both of the others? Or would your vote have stayed the same?
As always, thanks for participating in my battle. See you next month, on March 15, for my next battle!
Angels Bark 
Hi, Michele!
Your ears matched mine this time and so did the ears of most other voters. However, if you had added Mariah Carey’s version to the mix, it certainly would have muddied the water and, I believe, would have changed the outcome of the battle as well. I never heard Mariah’s cover before. It is powerful, magnificent. Foreigner’s Mick Jones said of her version (quoting Wiki article): “I think she’s actually retained the integrity of the song. You know, the arrangement is very similar to the original. They haven’t tampered with the song too much. She’s captured a certain emotional thing, a feeling.” Great as it is, Mariah’s 2009 single was not an enormous hit in the U.S. It reached #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart but stopped at #60 on the Hot 100. In Brazil, Mariah’s remake spent a record 27 weeks at #1, mainly because it was used frequently in a popular telenovela. Mariah redeemed herself big time by braving the frigid temperature in a low cut evening gown on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. I was equally impressed, in fact blown away, by Mariah’s sensational rendering of the Foreigner classic “I Want To Know What Love Is.”
Thank you very much, dear friend Michele!
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YAY! Another winning vote for me 🙂 So glad that the ‘Judd with the Juggs’ won!
~Mary
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Good Battle, MICHELE. Any time there’s just a 3-vote differential between winning and losing, THAT is definitely competitive. Especially when you consider that in any given Battle, there are always a couple voters who have a hard time deciding and could really go either way depending upon their mood.
I listened to Mariah’s rendition as you requested, and I can say that my vote for Wynonna Judd would not have changed. I have never been a Mariah Carey fan. She definitely had some pipes, but everything she did sounded like an affectation to me — artificially over-emoting. I never really believe what she’s singing. For the most part, I always felt the same way about Whitney Houston.
Both of them needed to tone it down sometimes, find the subtlety and nuance in a song and let the old “Less Is More” maxim work for ’em.
Michele, I’ll have a new Battle up again on March 1st. I hope you can stop by with your $0.02.
~ D-FensDogG
STMcC Presents ‘Battle Of The Bands’
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On no, Tina lost. Listened to Mariah’s version and whilst good i didn’t like the musical arrangement as much and her voice is a bit too breathy for me.
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Even against Mariah I would have still gone for Wynonna. For the same reason I voted for her the last time. But Mariah does a great job with the song–I especially like the piano.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
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This was a great battle but I’m glad Winona won. Mariah is better tha I thought until near the end when she decides to scream things out and do her C which is weak compared to Julie Andrews or even Ivan Rebroff.
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Michele,
First, let me apologize for missing your battle. I do remember coming over to see if you had one up and when I didn’t see it I assume you were participating, then life being busy as it so often is failed to get back over. Matter of fact, I don’t recall getting an email notification. Oh well…your showdown was a tight one. I’m not sure how I would’ve gone in this round. Thanks for sharing the results. Have a good weekend, my friend!
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I can’t believe I forgot to stop back and check the results. I’m not happy Tina didn’t win, but hey I got to listen to two great versions of a song I love. And now I get a third great version. Personally, I’m not sure if I had chosen this version over my initial pick. I think I probably would have still gone for the lesser know artist.
Great battle!!!
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