Nina Setner @ Windows On the World (WOW) 05/12/21

There is such a special feeling this time of year while preparing for the birth of Jesus Christ and the celebration of Christmas. Sparkle, shine, and pageantry are everywhere, and the venue I had the pleasure of visiting today was decked out beautifully in its Christmas holiday dress. Windows On the World had a gorgeous display of Christmas trees covered in white snow, elves in sleds, elegant wreaths and my favorite were the sparkling white animated deer with the brightest cardinals flying around them. Owners, Wallace Locke and Joyful Finesmith, did an outstanding job making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside just admiring the atmosphere. I must give a special shout-out to Mahpiya, their hostess. She was very friendly and welcoming to everyone, and she also answered whatever questions I had so sweetly.

WOW is a beautiful ballroom requiring formal attire, and I was impressed that WOW will give you a tux or gown as a gift. Also impressive to me, WOW is located on the top of a building, but on the ground floor is a memorial dedicated to our heroes of 911 with a powerful inspirational message “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” Oh, so true!

On this beautiful Sunday morning Nina Setner (nina.brandenburg) was singing at WOW. I have been wanting to blog Nina for a while, but for one reason or another, our paths could not cross at the same moment until today. I’m feeling lucky that I did finally get to Nina’s set today because she announced she will be taking a few weeks off to take care of some medical issues. In local chat, her fans expressed how much they will miss her, and actually, so will I.

Nina Setner is a veteran singer on SL and has quite an array of genres on her song list. She began her set with creating the mood for Christmas by singing “Sleigh Ride” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, sung by so many artists that it would take pages to name them all.

Nina has that classically trained voice which makes it appropriate for the formal type of venue in which she was singing. As most of you know, my heart belongs to country, but my alter ego loves loves loves Broadway musical theater, and Nina was able to ignite and satisfy my passion. Browsing through her song list, I found a song sung by one of my favorites, Barbara Streisand, “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from Funny Girl. Little did Nina realize, she had me using the spoon in my coffee as a microphone and singing at the top of my lungs, “Nobody, no nobody is gonna rain on my parade!!” Good thing no one is home, because they definitely would be calling the medics hearing my out of tune singing voice! LOL!!

I was very much in “musical theatre hog heaven” when Nina sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables and “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita. Her capability of reaching those extremely high notes gave chills running through my body and brought tears to my eyes. Oh, what I’d give to hear an hour of just musical theater songs sung by Nina.

Continuing her set, Nina sang “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Ella Fitzerald, “Breakin Up is Hard to Do” by Neil Sedaka, and “Last Christmas” by Mariah Carey. Singing “If I only had a Brain” from the Wizard of Oz”, Nina vocalized that song with a slow creative rendition that made it sound so soulful and so much better than I remember it from the Wizard. Adele would have been proud of Nina as she sang her song, “Easy On Me” with all the extended high notes. Such talent is amazing to me!

Nina ended her set with Bing Crosby’s, “Count Your Blessings”. This tune was written by Irving Berlin back in 1954. Many of us here, including myself, have experienced numerous nights of insomnia. Berlin had a doctor visit one day in which he did a lot of “belly aching and self-pity” complaining of his insomnia. His Dr. looked at him and said – “Did you ever try counting your blessings?” Hence this song was created, “When I’m worried and I can’t sleep. I count my blessings instead of sheep.” None of us escape this world without some type of sadness or anxiety in our lives. Some people have more, some have less, but we all have troubles. Even at Christmas, when everything is supposed to be ideal and we want our Hallmark Norman Rockwell type of experiences, life can be rough. My own father died at this time of year, and that is a hard pill to swallow for a 15-year-old. But at the same time, the remembrances of him still bring me joy and smiles to my face. And, I also have soooo many blessings that God has bestowed upon me. So, tonight if I can’t sleep, I will count all my blessings and not those sheep going over that fence thanks to Nina reminding me.

Thank you, Nina, for an inspirational and fun filled hour of music. My prayers will be with you while you take care of your medical issues, and I look forward to your return so I can pester you with more musical theater requests. Loved your show and you! Huggsssss and Merry Christmas!