Uh oh.

I'm getting seriously twitchy about Vanessa Amorosi.

There are some voices that are pure, smooth, bell-like, have a great range etc...

Well, I'm not making any observations about the first three, but range? My GOD!

2000 Olympics rings in my ears, this 19 year old as was performing to an audience of billions and she carried it off just perfectly. Perfectly.

The song of choice, Heroes, could not have been better and I couldn't think of any other artist who could even have performed that song, let alone done it with such emphasis and heart as did Vanessa.

I remember back in the early 80s not thinking anything at all of Madonna. She was, to me anyway, just a slaggy popstar who sang trashy pop songs that I didn't especially like. Then, listening to the radio on my way home one afternoon, I heard the song "Live to Tell" and my mind was blown. That woman has been an idol of mine ever since. I haven't gone ga-ga about all her songs, but even JS Bach did stuff I don't like. But I still respected the woman.

I didn't pay a great deal of attention to the Olympic Games opening ceremony in 2000 either. I did arc up when they announced an obscure artist was going to sing - because I wanted to see who the obscure artist was. (Nicki whatsernamie floating above the arena was just way too creepy for me and I don't like her strangled canary voice either) I was hoping it wasn't going to be her.

Then came the trumpet fanfare, the arena went quiet and this song of enormous pathos filled that space and charged it. The echo, the atmosphere and the aura of anticipation as the subtle beat behind the flow of the lyrics generated the sort of electricity it is impossible to ignore.

Then at the climax, the beat takes over and the lyrics sound out like a clarion call to the essence of humanity. Heroes live forever. And don't they?

What a way to open the biggest competition Earth has to offer. Mindblowing.

And that final burst of Heroes Live Forever - how long is that last note? How many beats? I can only just hold my breath for that long and she's belting out that note like her lungs were about to explode out of her chest and there's not a hint of fade in it.

Just incredible.

And to think, she was just 19. If what she did 7 years ago isn't deserving of admiration and respect, nothing ever was or will be.