Top 7 Live Blogging!
American Idol is on again today! Starting in just seconds, can’t wait! So, Rod Stewart, tonight, eh? Ahead-call is that this’ll be hard on Elliott, will show Paris as an over-rated karaoke’er and will finally, please god, kill Ace.
KILL ACE!
This Is American Idol
Alrighty, Ryan shaved this week. Go Ryan! Big cheers from the girls. Big wave at the TV from me, and we’re ready to go!
7 left. The more we see, the less impressed I am with folk like Paris and Kellie. Sadly. I was a huge early fan. These days, only Chris and Katharine get me going, which is odd… Since I hated Katharine early on.
So Rod Stewart. Good stuff. I like a lot of Rod’s music, and I’ve heard him speak and he’s quite cool. It’s really great to see him back composing again as well. Seems like he had a lot of fun with the Idols as well. Like he’s having fun with the process, and really reinvigorating them. Maybe we’ll see a turnaround, fresh commitment, fresh voice and fresh vibe from the group? They all have potential, huge amounts of it, they’ve just been languishing through this long process, instead of getting better and better.
Chris Daughtry
He’s singing What A Wonderful World. Awesome. It’ll be nice to hear him really vocalizing again, as he did a few weeks ago in his ballad a few weeks ago.
His voice is alright tonight. Outfit’s a bit funny, heh. He’s changing the pacing of the lyrical elements enough to mix it up. Not sure he’s really making it totally “his”, but the vocals are on. Hopefully going into the chorus he can dial it up a little, otherwise this song’ll be pretty flat with only 90 seconds to do it in…
The bridge is “nice”. “Nice” might be as good as it gets tonight for Chris with this song, as the arrangement isn’t allowing for any real standout moments (emotional, loud, pausing, whatever). Going into the last “what a wonderful world” was nice, and his ending run was also quite nice.
Overall, nice. He nailed the song as much as anyone could, in my opinion.
The judges: Randy “for everyone who thought there was only one side to Chris, you slayed them”. Paula says he’s proven to Simon that Chris is in it to win it. Let’s see if Simon agrees ;-) Haha, Simon “I have to take a certain amount of credit for this”. “Great performance”.
Post thoughts: Solid song. I don’t think he nailed any big moments, but maybe he didn’t need to tonight. In fact, maybe not having those was a nice change. Great way to open the show.
Break Thoughts
Going into this, I thought it’d be Rod Stewart songs. However, since it’s “great american songs”, I think there’s some great room for some amazing songs here. I think if Elliott chooses a great song he’ll do well. Ditto Taylor. Paris might even do alright, and Kellie should stay afloat this week. The competition’s getting tight though!
Paris Bennett
Paris is dressed in a business suit… and sounding like a 14 year old. Her and Rod are really… Wow, they’re connecting really well. He brings out the soul in the girl, which is great. We’ve been missing it since her audition. The great voice and riff of her has been lost in the last 10 weeks or so.
On to the performance.
Wow, she looks like a school teacher, eh? The performance is alright. I’m not seeing the life and bounce from the pre-performance tape though… Is she just not able to zazz loose on stage? The performance is really quite good… It just isn’t … Well, it’s not enough to quite make me smile. A smirk, a tilt of the head…
But the vocals really are quite good! Maybe I’m wanting something she can’t give. Taken all on its own, though, this performance is fantastic. Vocals are on. Everything’s on. And, at the end, some FUN zazz! Great job Paris! No karaoke tonight. Just bang on. It left me wanting the old Paris, but taken on its own, this was fabtastic.
Judges: Randy: “I think this was your greatest night ever”. Paula: “You’re 17, tonight’s performance reminds me of how we fell in love with you in your audition.” Simon: “It was stylish, it was cool, you bewilder me… you talk like Minnie Mouse and yet you sing in this very grown up way”.
Post thoughts: The thing is, her strength is this fantastic, zooing, zahha, zazzy style that she just rocks at… And there was only 2 seconds of it. If the whole song had had bits of that, I would have fell off my chair smiling and flying along with her.
Break Thoughts
If the first two performances are anything to judge by (and normally they are… the idols this year seem to be all tired and off, or all totally on), this is going to be a very, very good night. Maybe it’s thanks to being free of Bucky or maybe it was Rod’s life and fun influence or maybe it was just not doing too much promo stuff. Either way, both of the first peformances have been very, very good. They both made me think of the reasons I loved both performers at the start.
If Taylor can do similar, I’ll be very, very, very happy.
Taylor Hicks
Haha, Taylor was parodied on another show. Wonder which one… Rod and Taylor totally dig into each other, lol. Good times. They’re having a huge amount of fun. Rod: “Simon says this isn’t a dance competition, it’s a singing competition. I disagree, you have to do whatever you do to sell the song.”
To the performance.
Taylor’s looking calm, cool, collected. Stylish in an old-school Taylor gray suit. Good vocal tone. You can tell he’s well rested. He’s not styling the song up much at this point, but he’s digging in well with the band. Let’s hope he can either dial it up or free it up going from the bridge into the chorus.
Either way, the performance is, once again very high quality. Okay, I get Taylor tonight: he wants to do the song nice and straight and then have some fun with it. In his ending fun section he’s really just going for it which is GREAT to see! He’s totally digging in with the band (especially the kickass drummer).
AWESOME from Taylor tonight. Absolutely nothing I’d change, looking back on it. Let’s see if the judges agree. What was in the damn juice tonight for the performers?!
Judges: Randy: “What a difference a different music makes!” “I’m just blown away that you guys are all in your element!” “That was hot!” Paula: “You are finally in that zone to go the distance, the ending was superb, and the best take on this song.” Simon: “It started and I thought ‘okay, lame cabaret’ and then… Magic!”
Post performance: Totally agree with Simon. As you can tell reading, I wasn’t totally impressed, though I got what he was doing. But when he turned it on, he really, really turned it on!
Break Thoughts
Alright, Kellie and Ace in particular will really need to turn it up tonight, as their past performances haven’t shown the kind of quality we’ve seen tonight. I’ve never been a fan of Elliott, but this is his kind of music so he might do pretty well. The first 3 performances though? All 9s and 10s from me (well, except for Paris’s outfit).
Elliott Yamin
He’s singing It Had to Be You. He grew up on this music. It’s what he likes to listen to. Rod says Elliott got a great set of sound pipes.
To the performance. A comfortable Elliott in a great blazer with jeans. Very cool. He’s totally jiving in the song, great moves, great backup vocals that are nailing his style, great vocals. I’m impressed. It’s a touch karaoke when you close your eyes (or try and live blog), but when you watch him, you can’t help but smile. Dunno, it’s a really, really sweet performance. Let’s hope he can end it well, otherwise “sweet” is as good as it’ll get.
Bridge to last chorus… Mediocre, a few off notes. His ending run is nice. I wouldnt’ give this a 9, but it’s a solid 8. For Elliott it’s one of his best (to me).
Judges: Randy: “Very good song choice, what a difference a couple of weeks makes.” Simon: “Elliott, it was a good vocal. I thought the performance lacked a degree of personality, so therefore I am slightly concerned for you.”
Post performance thoughts: Well, this is the weakest performance of the night to me. It was still good, and it would have been one of the best in previous nights, but the first 3 all had a spark that was missing from Elliott.
Kellie Pickler
Rod likes Kelliee. No surprise, given what she’s wearing. And apparently she’s blonde with Rod, eh? “I have to get down the words and the lyrics.” “You took a load off my chest” says Kellie, and Rod blushes. How funny.
… Speaking of her chest, is it like half the size tonight that it was during her segment with Rod.
Rod asked her to push back the hook a bit. Great idea. That she didn’t do.
Vocals are okay tonight. Pitchy. But alright. Ooooh, one really bad note on a long hold. She doesn’t seem very comfortable. She’s not moving at all. I’m not sure she knows what to do when she has to stand with a mic in front of her.
Okay, she’s really pitchy. Owwww… I hurt… My poor ears… She’s pretty tonight, and it would be the right song for her. But her vocals and pitch needed serious, serious, freaking crazy work. Kellie in the bottom 3? Could very well happen, unless Ace saves her.
Judges: Kellie admits to butchering it. Totally agree. Randy: “I don’t know if this was the right choice, and it was definitely pitchy in spots.” Paula: “You gotta give it up for the fashion.” (I thought this was a singing competition) “You started off very vulnerable, but got ahead of the music at the end.” Simon: “It was a boring song, it felt like you didn’t choose it. Wasn’t great.”
Post performance: Ryan asks if she rehearsed it. Wow. She’s quite hurt, she knows she bombed. And she did, there’s no doubt about it. Who knows what happened. Sometimes even the best (not that she is) have bad nights.
Break Thoughts
Well, the last two performances were weaker. In previous weeks they wouldn’t have necessarily been bottom 3, but Kellie’s was definitely deserving. Elliott’s was actually pretty decent, but pretty decent won’t cut it tonight.
Ace Young
Looking at the segment, he seems to do alright. Rod really, really thought it was a “brilliant” performance. We’ll see if Ace hits it tonight, on stage, where it matters.
Performance. Well, his outfit is odd, hair pulled back makes him look like … a pool shark.
Performance! Vocals are alright. Too nasally. But his pitch is on enough. He’s not digging in enough. When the vocals stop, they need to totally stop. Somebody needs to teach him staccato on a bass or something so he can nail this song better next time.
He goes falsetto, and this is the only time I have ever liked it. It wasn’t over done, it was just right.
Overall it was alright. Good for Ace. Really good for Ace.
Judges: Randy: “I liked it at the start, but you had a little bit of a problem in the bridge, but you worked it out.” Paula: “This is a magical night, you’ll look back and watch this and say ‘wow I did great’” Simon: “It wasn’t bad. Y’know, it was a bit lazily in the middle of the song, but I thought it was a … charming performance.”
Post thoughts: I think the middle affected me more than it had to, but the ending was really quite good, looking back. Beginning was slow, middle was weak, end was worth the wait.
Break Thoughts
Looking back, I’d have to put Kellie at the bottom so far, followed by Elliott. I don’t think anyone else deserves it tonight, which is surprising considering how much I normally hate Ace. He wasn’t amazing tonight, but I believe in judging on each performance, and Ace deserves to stay tonight. As long as Katharine can choose a great song (she isn’t always easy to do this) and can deliver (she usually can), this is a genre she can totally nail.
Katharine McPhee
Her first song choice was, to me… Not great. Let’s hope she changes it, or finds a better groove. She decided to sing Someone to Watch Over Me. Much better choice. She needs room to let her voice fly, and this song (and genre) will allow it.
She isn’t flattering in an all black Paris-like, school teacher business suit. But boy, those vocals… I love her vocals more and more each time she comes out. This time, she’s learning to play more with the camera, and she’s having a lot of fun playing with the vocals and playing off the keys.
The camera guys need to be fired, but she’s doing well. Really, really well. Hopefully the last half of the song can carry this from “really well” to “holy freaking wow”, because she has that potential.
Nothing to criticize tonight from Katharine. She delivered it really straight, and that’s totally fine. She obviously set out to do something, and she did it. She totally nailed her intent, even if I was hoping for more “soaring” vocals out of her.
Judges: Randy: “This is your element. You love these kinds of songs. You put some nice runs at the end, it was excellent.” Paula: “I feel like I’m falling in love with the essence of who you are. It was so you.” Simon: “I really think, Katharine, you made the others look like good amateurs.”
Post thoughts: Outside of the competition, this would have been an amazing performance. I think I was just thinking something different, and my expectation ruined it for me. She rocked, and my scores (in spite of my expectations), will reflect this.
The Wrapup
Chris Daughtry: Really great.
Paris Bennett: Even better. The old Paris wasn’t all back, but the reminder sure was a sweet, sweet fragrance.
Taylor: W000000T! Welcome back Taylor!!!
Elliott: I didn’t love it, but it was a high quality performance, that totally naild the genre, even if it wasn’t my thing.
Kellie: Weakest tonight. She bombed and she knows it.
Ace: Pretty darned good.
Katharine: Like a pro
Really, my bottom three are Kellie, Elliott and Ace. However only Kellie made any real mistakes. She deserves to go home. Everyone else was at least Idol quality, if not on par (or better) than many professionals.
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POSTED IN: Live Blogging, Thinking Idol
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