I thought that the first album was alright. I heard it on the radio a year before it "took off because of the Grammy wins". I heard it on one of the two stations that broke her on commercial radio.
Fair. I gave the album (new) as a gift to my mom for birthday I believe.
I never put the album on. If the music industry were raising up other talented singers, she may have just been a blip. In the absence of such singers, she "went to the top".
The material on her followup album did nothing for me.
Perhaps it was the "packaging" that the industry tried to do to make her more like other "big singers" today.
Can this kind of music be played in a large venue? I don't know. I know that my parents saw Frank Sinatra where the Houston Rockets used to play. Must have been a horrible atmosphere and bad accoustics.
I know that some great rock and roll bands would have a hard time projecting the energy that they have on the stage to a large crowd (especially when they are dwarfed by a large stage).
On the radio, all bands are equal though (no theatrics are necessary).