Once a week we gather in front of our TVs and watch as a diminishing number of Idol wannabes sing songs from eras gone by in the hopes that you will like them enough to spend time dialing toll-free numbers and casting your votes for them to get to the next week and another step closer to Idol immortality. Tonight is such a night. The remaining seven Idol wannabes are going to update their song selections as they have the opportunity to select songs from this century!
And in another twist, before the Idols had a chance to perform for you, Ryan brought out the six eliminated Idols to sing Pink's "So What"...and as has been the case all season, the group sing was a big hit! Randy said he missed the non-Idols and Steven went so far as to say that "America is probably re-thinking their voting".
The first Idol to try to justify his presence on the show was Scotty who opted to sing "Swingin'" by LeAnn Rimes. To help spice it up a bit the Idol producers added a little flash to the stage in the form of a brass quartet of trumpets, a trombone, and a tenor sax along with a couple of background singers. I tell you all of this because the song was AWFUL! He may be a good country singer, but I am SO BORED with him! Can we please have a double elimination--Scotty and Stefano? One can wish, right. And right on cue, the judges offered very little critique although J-Lo tried to pick on his song selection which was echoed by Randy. Someone needs to tell these judges that it is their job to deliver the hard news--where's Simon when you need him?!
Trying to get the ship back on course, James the Rocker broke out "Uprising" by Muse--a song I don't believe I have ever heard....which could spell trouble for him if the voters aren't familiar with the song. But to take my mind off of the fact that I don't know the song, James added his own flare by entering the arena with a small drum corps and dressed like a majorette complete with mic stand that he used to direct traffic and as a weapon to assault the crowd with a ROCKIN' GOOD TIME! Now that's what I call a performance! Didn't know the song, but probably enjoyed it more than if I did. Again the judges did little judging, but in this case I'm not sure they could offer him any advice beyond encouraging him to continue down the path of superstardom!
Now that we are back on track, what would Hailey do to keep the good times rollin'? For starters, she chose to sing "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele...I guess that's answered my question. Dressed in a red dress with white polka dots and seated on the catwalk behind the judges table, Hailey started strong and by the time she hit the chorus had her signature growl in full purr. The performance wasn't in James' category, but I thought she sounded good and definitely has a voice to sing these jazzy-pop songs. Randy agreed with me on her song selection and the type of song she should record post-Idol. The rest of the judge's comments were pretty pedestrian--they should return the paycheck!
With a couple of strong performances in the can, it's time for Jacob to join the party. Jacob decided to honor one of the great R&B singers of all time, Luther Vandross--whose birthday it happens to be today...I'm sure he is celebrating in Rock n' Roll heaven with all of the other great artists who left our mortal earth too soon. The song Jacob chose is sure to bring the emotion out of our resident Gospel/R&B Idol--"Dance With My Father". As Jacob started, his voice caught on the first lyric and it was obvious he was going to fight his emotions for the remainder of the song. What started out shaky, ended with power and feeling. Luther was one of my favorites and I thought Jacob did him right. The judges gave so-so feedback; Randy tried to get critical by telling Jacob to throw caution to the wind and just "go for it!" BTW: Jacob said there was something wrong with the track in his ear piece, not emotion that caused him to stumble in the beginning. Interesting!
Up next, Casey who chose the Maroon 5 hit, "Harder to Breathe". Casey accompanied himself on the electric guitar and also was joined on stage by a bass and guitar player as well as some back up singers. As the song was winding down, Casey made the short walk down to the judge's table, stopped a few inches short of J-Lo, whispered the final lyrics to the song, and then planted a kiss on People's "Most Beautiful Woman". As expected, the judges offered little beyond a recap of what just happened....isn't that MY job?! The most exciting thing about the judges was Steven getting bleeped a number of times...and we didn't even get the benefit of hearing what he said, so what's the point.
Stefano decided to channel his inner Ne Yo and sang "Closer". As he made his way around the stage singing to all the adoring ladies (no doubt causing some jealous feelings to arise from J-Lo), Stefano added a few dance moves to his rep
No comments:
Post a Comment