Talk:Jubilant Sykes

A news item involving Jubilant Sykes was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 16 December 2025.

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Did you know nomination

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Sykes in 2013

• ... that the baritone Jubilant Sykes (pictured), active in spirituals, gospel and funk, recorded the role of the Celebrant in Leonard Bernstein's Mass, nominated for a Grammy Award? Source: [1]
  • ALT1: ... that the performance of Jubilant Sykes (pictured) as the Celebrant in Leonard Bernstein's Mass was compared to the first recording of the work as more dramatic and more interesting? Source: [2]
  • Reviewed: Arlington Forest, Virginia
  • Comment: Ideas to capture his enormous versatility welcome.

5x expanded by Gerda Arendt (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 2165 past nominations.

Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:49, 16 December 2025 (UTC).[reply]

• I shall review this. Storye book (talk) 08:18, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: ALT0 is fine. ALT1 needs to be rephrased to make it more direct and punchy.

• ALT0 and ALT1 hooks fully cited inline in article.
• When ALT1 is rephrased, replaced or removed, this nom will be satisfactory. Storye book (talk) 08:53, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the review. I am happy with ALT0 and would help with rephrasing ALT1. You could do it, - as long as it is the same content with the same sources, no different reviewer is needed. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:29, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

ALT1a: ... that Jubilant Sykes (pictured) was considered more dramatic and interesting as the Celebrant in Leonard Bernstein's Mass than Alan Titus in a previous recording? Storye book (talk) 11:24, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the offer! I think we might rather compare to Bernstein than the (at least to me) unknown baritone:

ALT1b: ... that Jubilant Sykes (pictured) was considered more dramatic and interesting as the Celebrant in Mass than Alan Titus in the first recording conducted by composer Leonard Bernstein?

ALT1c: ... that Jubilant Sykes (pictured) was considered more dramatic and interesting as the Celebrant in Mass than the baritone in the first recording conducted by composer Leonard Bernstein? (171 characters) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:12, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

if we need it short:

ALT1d: ... that Jubilant Sykes (pictured) was considered more dramatic and interesting as the Celebrant in Mass than the baritone in the recording conducted by Leonard Bernstein?

ALT1e: ... that a reviewer found Jubilant Sykes (pictured) more dramatic and interesting as the Celebrant in Mass than the baritone in the recording conducted by Leonard Bernstein?

It crossed my mind to hold this to appear in February, Black History Month. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:21, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I shall note your time request. The above ALTs 1b to 1e are all within character count limit, and the content is true fact. However Sykes is being compared to another singer (Titus), not Bernstein the conductor, so the hook-intention doesn't work for me. We could truthfully say that the reviewer described Sykes' performance as dramatic and interesting, so that we could leave Titus and Bernstein out of the comparison bit. Also, if we remove the comparison bit, then "dramatic and interesting" stands alone, and gives a stronger impression that way. How about:

ALT1f: ... that Jubilant Sykes (pictured) was described as dramatic and interesting as the Celebrant in Leonard Bernstein's Mass? Storye book (talk) 21:51, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We can do that. It's a surprise if you expect Mass to be boring sacred music ;) - (I had forgotten that Jackie Kennedy commissioned it for the opening of the Kennedy Center.) - Having said that, I think for the Black History Month, ALT0 might be the better choice. For the purpose, he should be pictured, and then actually it doesn't matter much what we say in words. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:15, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That Mass is boring? I certainly didn't say that. In my choral days, I sang in loads of masses - Palestrina was one of my favourites. And Oswald, who at the same time as writing masses was writing humorous rude songs - so you could be deeply moved, then in the next piece laughing your head off. Are you confusing me with, ahem, another reviewer? Storye book (talk) 10:03, 19 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

with image, and a preference for ALT0. There is a time preference here: February, Black History Month. Storye book (talk) 10:03, 19 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]