Cover Me Canada: Ali Milner douched by “expert” judges

The Pussycat Dolls.

That’s one of music industry exec Ron Fair’s “success stories.” Anyway, the Cover Me Canada judge told the prodigiously talented local singer Ali Milner that she “skated over” her version of Jann Arden’s “Insensitive” in the second episode of CBC’s reality show on Sunday night. “I think you can do better,” was his thin-lipped conclusion, while Fair’s colleague Deborah Cox also piled on Milner’s bouncy reworking of the song, complaining that she “missed the sentiment.”

Cox also couldn’t say Milner’s name right, but we’ll let that go. The band’s Jackie Wilson inspired take on the Arden weeper was easily one of the two or three best performances of the night. If the point of Cover Me Canada is to tastefully infuse a song with the artist’s personality, then Milner was the evening’s champ. If the point is to fake it through a phony-ass and constipated version of “American Woman”, then I guess Whosarmy was the winner (“That was so hot!” shrieked Cox, Fair described them as “bangin’,” ugh).

Talking to the Straight from Toronto on Monday, Milner admitted that the comments of the judges gave her pause. “Ron Fair said my performance was kind of, ‘Meh.’ And at the time I was like, ‘That’s so not true’,” she said. “But then I watched it back and thought I could have gone a little farther with it.”

Well, maybe. But it doesn’t mean the performance wasn’t on point. As for Cox, Milner explained that they didn’t want to follow last week’s version of “Complicated” with another emotionally hefty tune. “I think versatility is really important,” Milner said. “‘Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher’ was our inspiration.” At the very least, Milner’s producer for “Insensitive”, Hawksley Workman, was “super stoked on it,” and apparently didn’t intervene much in the band’s arrangement.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s GO7 was the first act to get booted from the show.