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Idol Blogging
Thursday, April 10th, 2008It was a pretty awful week, as contestants were asked to sing something “inspirational or uplifting.” That meant lots of trite, moronic songs about rainbows, waterfalls, dreams, and “standing up.” The only performance I liked was Michael Johns performance of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” but the judges seemed to hate it. They also didn’t like Brooke White’s rendition of James Taylors’ “You’ve Got a Friend,” but I thought it was the second best song of the night. David Archuletta sang some sappy Robbie Williams song and was pretty boring. I think I’ve figured out why Carly Smithson isn’t doing well in the voting, other than her awful wardrobe and the fact that her tats probably aren’t doing her any favors in Idol land: She seems angry. She never looks like she’s having fun on stage. She rarely smiles. That’s killing her.
Kristy Lee Cooke found another country song to get her through yet another week. She’s actually improving, though that isn’t saying much. And Syesha Mercado really needs to have someone new pick her songs for her. The girl needs to be singing soul–real, 60s and 70s soul. That fluffy, tedious Fantasia song did nothing for her. Her voice was drowned out by her backup singers, and the judges all seemed to say, “fairly good, but meh, you’re no Fantasia.”
Jason Castro did a ukulele version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” which was a little chintzy, but likable enough, particularly in light of the other performances.
All in all, a pretty crappy week. If they hold to last year’s formula, they won’t send anyone home this week, and instead send two home next week. If I had to predict, I’d say Carly Smithson and Brooke White are in trouble. Which is too bad, because they’re both very good.
Smithson reminds me of Grace Slick. And I like the anger. Sometimes anger is inspirational.
I just can’t feel the love for Michael Johns. I don’t know what it is about him but I almost always feel like he is doing more shouting than singing. I really liked his bluesy stuff and I think that is where he excels.
I was surprised to hear Randy say on Larry King the other night that he would sign Kristy Lee Cooke but would not sign Jason Castro.
I guess it is all about marketing.
Did anyone sing “The Rainbow Connection”?
Randy’s comment only solidifies what I have been saying all along — the judges don’t know shit about what they’re doing. Jason Castro is consistently moving product on i-tunes. From Hallelujah to Somewhere Over the Rainbow this week, he is the only one that sings and moves an old song into the i-tunes charts. The idea that Kristy Lee Cook would sell more albums is laughable. She may have the country bloc voting for her while the show is running, but that’s only because they have no one else. When she is compared with other country stars, she will never sell. The producers and judges fell ass-backwards into the popularity of this show and still don’t get what the American public wants.
The last few weeks of AI have not been satisfying - this season has definitley peaked with the first week of the Beatles songs.
Bronwyn:
“Did anyone sing ‘The Rainbow Connection’?”
Yes. The lover, the dreamers and me.
(ducks tomatoes)
Well I suppose it’s good no one sang it. No one could hope to beat Kermit.
And no one should try.
Anybody else think David Cook’s song selection was sort of a FU move? It’s inspirational song week, and he picks a song by his favorite band that half the AI audience has probably never heard of? I think between his brother being sick and knowing he can score a record deal on his own at this point he’s not gonna be too upset to get the boot in the next couple of weeks.
They’re actually kicking someone off tonight… they stretched Idol to three nights this week so they wouldn’t have to boot someone on Idol Gives Back night.
The 2 people next week trick wouldn’t have worked as well this year since it wouldn’t have been a surprise.
I watched tonight and apparently they decided to re-enact a “Songs of Worship” mail-order commercial. Much worse than the “‘Songs of 70s” or “FM Lite Rock” ones.