Wild is the Wind is a beautiful song, and Nina Simone is a tremendous musician and performer but... IMO, Nina Simone's version just is not suited for figure skating and especially not Kaori's style... Kaori flies across the ice, why give her a slow burn, moody, contemplative blues piece? She could be skating to anything in that first half... and a jarring transition to Feelin Good.
I know we usually say "use the original" so preparing for some tomatoes here but... I actually think David Bowie's cover of Wild Is The Wind would be much, much better to skate to. Just maybe not for Kaori... Hubbell & Donohue would've done an amazing job, I can imagine Chock & Bates knocking it out of the park with the right cut and choreo... maybe Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen, Shoma Uno, Kevin Aymoz, or even Amber Glenn). For Kaori, I'd love to see something like symphonic metal or a orchestral film score that emphasizes her power and speed instead of fighting against it. I also
loved last year's Janet Jackson SP (and kinda hated the Sia FS so honestly, I was braced for worse when I heard Marie-France was choreographing for Kaori again... speaking of unpopular opinions
) so it's not that I don't think Kaori is artistic or that she shouldn't be pushing herself as a performer, just... this is so out of her wheelhouse in a bad way, and I'm not sure I can think of any currently competing skater who could make this program work as it is now.
Well, apparently that wasn't known or specifically identified as such initially. The artist is listed as 'Nina Simone' in the program notes.
