I am shocked that even I, with my bad ear, could tell who was lousy and all the judges agreed.
Simon said Anoop has massive likability.
But if he doesn’t go through, I will stop watching.
My comments on the performances, roughly in order of descending preference:
Alexis Grace: She’s great, but the song choice was not the best for her. Overall, though, one of the best of the night
Danny Gokey: Good job tonight, though not the greatest song choice.
Tatiana: She started out amazingly well. I was surprised. By the end, she lost it a bit (vocally), so overall, I wouldn’t say she was the best of the night, like some are saying, but one of the top five.
Anoop Desai: Great guy, but he didn’t sing that well tonight (or maybe the song just wasn’t for him)
Ann Marie: She can sing, but she was a bit “shouty” for my taste.
Jackie Tohn: I don’t think she did bad at all. Her outfit was ridiculous, but she gave a good performance.
Stephen Fowler: I don’t think he did that bad either. Not superstar, but not as bad as everyone’s comments imply.
Ricky Braddy: Good singing ability, but not interesting. No star quality. Maybe he can improve that aspect, maybe not. Also, boring song choice.
I won’t even comment on the rest. They were horrible.
When will Idol contestants figure out that doing any song immortalized by Whitney, Aretha and other legendary voices only shows how “small” their voice is?
Out of curiosity, how serious are you about that statement?
If going further in this competition destroyed her life (not that it necessarily would), that would be OK as long as we get a couple of nights’ entertainment?
Pretty sad
I’m pretty sure that you did not mean this literally, but on the off off chance that you did: If Tatiana does indeed cut up Paula’s face with a nail file, you would actually find that hysterically funny?
Even as a joke it’s weird.
“If Stephen Fowler goes berserk and cuts off Kara’s hand with a meat cleaver, that’s terrible for Kara, but hysterically funny for me”.
Yeah, very funny.
/hijack
If Paula and Kara go crazy and start undressing each other, would you care who was singing?
Hmm…
Wow. There were a lot of really horrible performances, but I think the transgendered “Every Little Thing” was the absolute worst. First, you don’t do The Police unless and until you’ve proven you have the chops. Second, you don’t enunciate every. single. word. so. perfectly. The song needs to be sung a little more slurry and growly. She reminded me of that SNL skit with the middle-aged couple singers, Will Ferrel played the keyboard player, and the woman would try to sing hip songs but did them like an unhip middle-aged woman. Third, switching “she/her” for “he/him” just didn’t work at all. I think that was the worst Idol performance I’ve ever seen in any season.
Country anthem dude was forgettable from the first line.
Stevie is so much better than that- that was high school talent show quality, at best.
Man, Tatiana’s put some junk in the trunk since Hollywood. And toned down the crazy. She’ll probably make it through, but only because there was so much stink in the room. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
I am so disappointed in Anoop. He is way better than what we saw. Hopefully he either squeaks by or gets picked up in the wild card.
And I’m being petty, but there is something about Alexis Grace that I don’t like.
My favorites were Anoop and Danny Deadwife, neither of them thrilled me as much as in previous weeks. Other singers were meh to me.
What bugged me through the night was that the judges kept trying to “package” the contestants. They seemed to want each contestant to fit into some preconceived idea of look and sound. While this might be good advice for future marketing efforts, it doesn’t really help the contestant stand out from the crowd. It really cuts down on the chance of finding an original star.
Ug, I know! And when a contestant dared stray from what the judges decided they were like– ‘You’re wearing a cute dress one day, and all black the next? You’re having a personality crisis!’
Last night was a complete crapfest. I couldn’t help but think (hope?) something was off with the music feed or something. I may not be able to stand another night of Ryan and Kara clones (honestly, how many thin brunette girls did they get?).
Time for the annual reminder: if you’re posting real-time comments on the contestants, do everyone a favor and throw in the contestant’s name. Thank you.
I absolutely hate the new format, of only keeping 3 out of 12. If we have 8 mediocre performances and 4 trainwrecks, what are we supposed to do? And what if the next group of 12 is all awesome? Do we trust the producers to have seeded each group with similar talent? Haw.
Jackie: lots of personality. Showed no vocal ability at all. And I didn’t think she “owned the stage”; she looked like a parody of someone who owned the stage. Unnatural spastic dance movements do not make a compelling performance.
Can’t remember the name (and I’m not going to bother…we’ll never see her again) but the girl who sang “Natural Woman” ran into some nonsense feedback from the new judge about her song choice – that she should’ve sang something “younger…” something “more pop”…and she interrupted by saying “something not as good?”. Which made the new judge get all pissy. You go, girl.
Tatiana started crying during her videotaped interview segment. :rolleyes:
I don’t like the way the audience boos Simon when he starts saying anything even slightly critical - all three of the other judges seem to mostly be there for contestant dick-sucking; Simon for all his faults is often the only one telling people things they need to hear. Shut your audience pieholes!
I think they just don’t realize it. Most people - the ones who are really going for it and not just out for 15 minutes of William Hung-style fame - who even audition for “Idol” think they’re amazing singers, and making it through to the voting rounds only validates that. I don’t think they’ve got any real clue that they just don’t have the chops for the songs they’re choosing.
To go for “I’ve Never Loved a Man…” is one thing. Ballsy, but not just absurd. But when you go out on that stage thinking you’re going to do any justice to “Natural Woman”…that’s insane. I mean, Aretha OWNS that song in a way that few singers have ever owned a song (of course, Aretha owns a few songs like this). Ask 100 random people to name an Aretha Franklin song, “Natural Woman” probably comes in a strong second to “Respect.” Why on Earth would anyone ever choose that song? The only thing the audience can possibly think after hearing it is, “Not Aretha,” because, well, NO ONE is Aretha.
Other than that, the biggest problem I observed last night is the same thing I see whenever I watch Idol. While some of these singers are reasonably good, 90% of them seem to have no idea how to not just sing a song, but feel it. One of the reasons that the performance of “Every Little Thing [He] Does” was so terrible is that the girl gave no impression of ever having been in love or having the slightest clue of what the emotion behind the lyrics might be. I think that’s why the judges reacted the way they did with the dude who sang the Mariah Carey song, which was good but not brilliant. He did manage to put some feeling into it, where nearly everybody else might as well have been droning through “99 Bottles of Beer.”
My understanding is that the producers instruct the audience to boo “negative” comments. I’ve read from people who’ve been to “So You Think You Can Dance” tapings that that’s the way it works there, so I assume “Idol” rolls the same way.
Along the same lines, Simon kept trashing the musical arrangements. Do the singers have anything to say about that? Was he getting in digs at the musical director/producer?
While I don’t disagree with you in principal, “Natural Woman” can be said to be “owned” by Carole King as much as Aretha, given that she actually co-wrote the song, as well as recorded it on her #1 ranking and Grammy Award-winning album, Tapestry.
Yeah, that was kinda weird. Airing some dirty linen in public.
But the point is not who co-wrote it or who else recorded a version of it. The point is, Aretha owns the song in the same way that Judy Garland owned “Over the Rainbow.” You can’t hear anyone else sing it without comparing that singer to Aretha.
Sadly enough, when I hear it I think of a shampoo commercial.
Matter of opinion. I can’t hear that song and not hear and compare to Carole King’s version of it.
Does Gordon Lightfoot own “Me and Bobby McGee”?
Just churning the waters, mind you.
(It was written by Kris Kristofferson but first recorded by Gordo. Janis made Bobby a boy and never looked back.)