It's the official opening night on Idol and tonight the Idols chose to sing songs from their personal idols. Here's what happened when the Idols took to the stage.
Lauren lead off the night's festivities and chose "Any Man of Mine" by Country Diva, Shania Twain. If memory serves correctly, the last Idol to sing this song was Mandisa from a few seasons ago...and we all know how that ended (with her elimination). If the judges comments are any indication, Lauren may well be packing her bags and on her way back to Georgia.
So we're off to a rough start and it's up to the musical genius of Casey to get us back on the rails. Casey took inspiration from and chose to channel the original Mad Dog, Joe Cocker, and sing "With a Little Help from my Friends". The song started a little pedestrian with Casey seated on the Idol staircase at the back of the stage, but as the song began to build, Casey was joined on stage by a few friends (a dozen or so) which propelled him to what was arguably the biggest performance of the night...does it matter if there have only been two performers? The judges enjoyed it and gave him mad props for a job well done...Steven called him a "rainbow of talent" and a "plethora of passion"...upon hearing such comments, Randy called time out to consult a dictionary.
With Season 10 officially underway, Ashton took the stage to do her best Diana Ross impression complete with the floor-length, form-fitting silver dress and matching hoop earrings. Of all the great Diana Ross songs, Ashton selected "When You Tell Me that You Love Me"...not exactly the most well-known song from the D-Ross catalogue. The judges felt it was a safe selection and equally safe performance. I didn't think there was anything special, but she should be safe come tomorrow night's elimination show.
The quirky one with the 1,000 watt smile, Paul, was up next and said his Idol is Ryan Adams (with an "R") and the type of artist he wants to become. For his performance, Paul picked "Come Pick Me Up"...a song I don't believe I have heard before and if I have, I'm sure it didn't sound like Paul sang it (for the record, J-Lo hadn't heard of the song either). The judges were fans of the performance and gave Paul some good feedback...and implored the voters to "get it". While giving out the number to vote for Paul, he and Ryan (Seacrest) had a bit of fun dancing around the stage like Paul--if you haven't seen his moves, I'm sure you can find them on YouTube...they're like none other.
Pia selected "All By Myself" by her idol, Celine Dion...never mind that it's an Eric Carmen song (oops! did I just show my age?!). No matter, Pia has it all and made quick work of the audience, the judges, and no doubt the voters. My only question: what was the cape looking thing hanging off the back of her tight, silver lame mini dress? When it came time for the judges to chip in, J-Lo had tears in her eyes and was rendered speechless, Randy gave her huge props, and Steven wished her "Happy International Woman Day". Pia's in for the long haul.
Following Pia was the resident Rocker, James, who told us that his idol is Paul McCartney...the guy who played with a little quartet called the Beatles (you may have heard of them). James chose Paul's "Maybe I'm Amazed". During the early part of the song I was pretty sure that we were listening to the second coming of former Idol finalist, Adam Lambert. As he started to hit his stride it would have been easy to get all Rock Star on us, but instead James went balladeer and showed great restraint. The judges gave him great praise and the audience punctuated their every word with hoots, hollers, and cheers.
So how will Hailey do when she covers the LeAnn Rimes classic "Blue"? Dressed in a dark blue dress and earrings down to here, Hailey yodeled and hulaed her way through the song to the delight of fans in the Kodak theatre. As he was providing his critique, Steven dropped in a little know fact about this song--it was originally written for Patsy Cline, but she never recorded it...who knew. For the most part the judges liked Hailey's performance, but when it came to Randy, he channeled his inner Simon and said he was a bit bored and found it a bit sleepy..straight out of the Book of Cowell.
Jacob, the Idol with the Golden Voice of God, surprised me by saying his musical idol is R. Kelly--I just hope he doesn't idolize R's extracurricular activities. For his song, Jacob went with the only R. Kelly song that I know, "I Believe I Can Fly" and with clouds superimposed on the screen behind him, Jacob was joined on stage by the same "friends" that helped Casey--the only difference were the blue robes they wore which added to the Gospel sound. The judges essentially refused to provide critiques and instead opted to praise him and tell him how great he was...until Randy who chose a new way to say he was a bit pitchy (dawg!). But it doesn't matter what the judges say, Jacob is a star!
Taking on the King of Pop is this Season's teen phenom, Thia, who sang "Smile"...a Charlie Chaplin classic that has been covered by a number of other singers before Michael recorded it, but it's still a great song and Thia has a great voice. About halfway through the song, Thia and the band got a little jiggy with it and picked up the tempo which lead to some awkward bouncing by Thia as she sang. The judges were torn on the performance preferring the first part of the song vs. the latter half.
Stefano, one of the three wild cards (along with Ashton and Naima), chose to sing "Lately" by Stevie Wonder. When I heard he was going to do a Stevie song, I didn't hold out much hope because Stefano doesn't have the strongest voice in the pack...but I have to give it up to him because when he hit the chorus, he had the crowd going and the judges just ate it up.
Karen said her idol was Selena, the Tejano singer from Lake Jackson, TX who was played by J-Lo in the movie version of her tragically short life. Karen chose to pay homage to Selena by singing "I Could Fall in Love". The judges didn't feel it tonight from one of the stronger singers in the Finals. Randy pulled the "sleepy" comment from earlier in the show.
With that sub par performance out of the way, it was time for the lone Country crooner, Scotty. Scotty went with Garth Brooks' "The River". Scotty started out OK, but when the music and background singers kicked in, his normally powerful deep voice got drowned out...fortunately he was able to restore order and get his mojo back on and finish strong. The judges provided very positive feedback, Randy said he could put the song out today and J-Lo said she finally saw a performer in the Country Boy (my words).
Putting the proverbial cherry on top of a Idol sundae was Naima who sang Rhianna's "Umbrella". When the song started, Naima showed off some of her breakin' moves and half-way through the song she go all African Dance on the crowd...as the song was wrapping, she laid a final set of dance moves on the viewers. The judges loved the performance in spite of some obvious pitch problems...except for Randy who said pitch is important, but loved the Reggae portion of the song (the part when she made her African steps).
So night one of the Idol Finals are in the bag and it's up to the voters to determine who is going to make it to next week and which Idol is going to come in unlucky number 13 for Season 10.
As usual, I have my bottom three which will be Lauren (wrong song), Paul (not sure the voters will "get" him), and Stefano (the judges put him in the finals--not the voters). And going home will be Lauren...
Don't forget to tune in tomorrow to see who was saved by your votes and whose Idol run is cut prematurely. Until then, I will continue watching TV so you don't have to...
Charlie
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