Before I give you a run down of how I thought each contestant did last night/this morning, I need to blow off some steam about the show running over and some probable causes that could be fixed. First off... squeezing 8 contestants into an hour. Take away 16 minutes for commercials and you are left with 44 minutes... that's 5 1/2 minutes per contestant. The judges usually talk for forever and then there is a pre-performance package... OF COURSE THEY WERE GOING TO RUN OVER. Fox, you should have alloted last night's show 90 minutes... the contestants already barely get to sing on the show (90 seconds... maybe 2 minutes tops)... let's give them ample time. I would be for each kid singing an entire song, but alas... no time!
I assistant directed a TV show when I was an undergraduate... sure, our late night variety show was no American Idol, but live TV is live TV... I was responsible for making sure our show didn't run over our alloted time. Surely there is someone on Idol who is supposed to make sure they don't run over their given time as well. Maybe if someone kept the judges comments to a limited amount of time (and encouraged them to give most of their critiques toward the contestant instead of among each other)... I know it's easy to spout on forever about a given performance, but the reason I tune into Idol is to watch the contestants sing. I'm the consumer here... I'm the one who has Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Taylor Hicks and David Cook CDs. I'm the one who is going to have Matt Giarud, Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey CDs within the next year... it'd be awesome if I got to see them perform when I watch Idol. ALL of them...
Which brings me to last night's telecast/my youtube adventure this morning...
Danny Gokey - Stand By Me - I was not over the moon with the arrangement of this song, but I am all for Mr. Gokey. He always delivers a strong vocal and puts his own emotions into whatever he's singing... and that is very likable in an artist.
Kris Allen - All She Wants to Do is Dance - That's funny, because I didn't feel like dancing during his performance at all... He kind of sucked the fun out of that song and I thought it was awkward that he was playing his guitar among all those people. It didn't work last week during Matt Giraud's song and it didn't work for Kris either.
Lil Rounds - What's Love Got to Do With It - Jimminy Christmas, get your own identity already. I'm still trying to figure out why the judges keep telling her she's an amazing singer... she's a good singer, but she has consistently hit some bum notes every week has given us nothing but 100% karaoke performances since the Top 13. She needs to get rid of the wigs, figure out who she is and just give it to us already. She completely deserves to be in the Bottom 3 this week, and I hope America puts her there. Give her one more week, but then just let her go already.
Anoop Desai - True Colors - I love when Anoop gives us a tender ballad... kinda makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I like that he went more the Cyndi Lauper route rather than Phil Collins, but still had the Anoop stamp on it. I like it when he does up-tempo stuff too, but he's so much stronger on his ballads. That probably frustrates him. Maybe he can figure out how to make up-tempo songs awesome too :)
Scott MaIntyre - The Search is Over - I didn't recognize the song until he hit the chorus and I realized that it was a song I knew/liked a lot... but he kinda butchered it. He should have used an accoustic guitar, but even that wouldn't have saved this performance. Part way through the song, I couldn't watch anymore, so like last week, I chose that moment to bring my dishes into the kitchen. I almost dropped them when I heard Scott unsuccessfully reach for some crazy high note that he shouldn't have gone for. I like Scott, but I still don't think there is any more room for him to continue on in the competition. There are just too many more talented people than he left and it would be unfair if someone like Kris or Anoop left before him, you know?
Allison Iraheta - I Can't Make You Love Me - This girl can sing! I loved her song choice and thought she nailed it with her vocal maturity. Randy is right - she does remind us all of Kelly Clarkson. Same bubbly attitude, same huge voice... they even look a bit alike. Allison can sing her face off and I like that she's not all uppity about it. Very strong vocals and another solid performance from Allison!
Matt Giraud - Part Time Lover - Good for him for not using his piano and actually looking like he was having a really great time. I thought he seemed a little out of breath in places, but even that didn't take away from his more-soulful-than-even-Stevie rendition of one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs. Sure, he looked a lot like Justin Timberlake in that hat, but that swagger was 100% Matt Giraud. I'm glad he has proved to Idol watchers that he is super talented with or without a piano... though I do enjoy his piano playing :)
Adam Lambert - Mad World - Haunting and very, very vulnerable. Everyone knows this as the song from "Donnie Darko" (and even Adam's wardrobe reminded me of the hooded sweatshirt Donnie wears over his skeleton shirt), but Adam seemed to make it personal and I really dug the simplicity of it all - him sitting in that chair bathed in creepy blue light. It was a great performance, even though it was pitchy in several spots. Was it deserving of Simon's standing ovation? Perhaps. Hopefully next week I'll get to see his performance on my TV instead of on youtube...
Lil Rounds, Scott and Kris are my predictions for the Bottom 3 this week. Lil or Scott should go home... Kris has another couple weeks in him, but his performance this week was just a bit boring and not as strong as a few of the others.
Happy Idoling!
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