The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Tuesday April 17 2007

Nessun (not nessum as we said below) dorma is the aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot that achieved pop fame after being used as the BBC's theme for the 1990 World Cup. This has now been corrected.

World domination just isn't enough for some people. Not content with occupying the No 1 slot on the classical album chart for a full year and annexing the opening ceremony of any major UK sporting event, Russell Watson now hits us with That's Life, an album of "crossover" pop songs.

An unattractive proposition is rendered even grislier by the fact that tonight's set list is a lesson in the bleedin' obvious. It is difficult to envisage a gap in the market for yet more mellow, pseudo-swing covers of Born Free, Strangers in the Night and Fly Me to the Moon.

What is the point of this, exactly? Even backed by a full orchestra and children's choir, Watson has the soul of a mannequin. Where Robbie Williams at least lent a subversive twinkle to his Rat Pack karaoke, hearing Watson croon Sinatra's Witchcraft is simply excruciating.

Watson survived a brain tumour last year, and there's no doubt he can sing: his tremulous tenor on pop-opera perennials Volare and Feniculi shows his sobriquet "The Voice" is no mere marketing hype. Yet a duet of For All the Girls I've Loved Before with 1980s soul star Alexander O'Neal is truly, truly horrible.

A teeth-grindingly obvious closing sequence of Nessun Dorma and the epic guff of Westlife's You Raise Me Up demonstrate that Russell Watson can be the king of Classic FM for as long as he chooses. How dreary, though, is the head that wears the crown.