Haley: slap the melisma out of her and she might be good.
Thia: Almost, but no. No.
Lauren II: same as the first Lauren.
So, the winner is male this year?
Pia: Whatev.
Goodnight, y’all. Maybe I just need some sleep.
Pia is so beautiful, and so talented. She’s my female choice.
Time shifting again.
Ta-Tynisa. I feel like with a name like Ta-Tynisa, she should have bigger boobs. She’s off-key and screamy the whole way, and what the hell is she wearing? Not a fan.
Naima has a very good voice but is a little too theatrical for this song. Beautiful dress. Glory note into the lower register sounded really neat and unexpected. She’s been a favorite of mine since auditions. She didn’t disappoint.
I like Kendra’s voice as well, but some of the notes she hit in this song were a little too high and got squeaky. She also lost the pitch somewhere in the middle of the song. I liked the beginning better than the end. She has a very pretty smile and is one of the nicer-looking women in the competition.
Rachel is also a favorite–I liked her from her first audition back in Season 6. I think she would have been better off sticking to the melody on this song, though, rather than essentially rewriting it. I think that mistake sends her home.
Karen looks good with straightened hair. She’s pandering to J-Lo. Amazing dress. Don’t think she has the chops to take on this song, but her voice is still pretty good. One of the best of the night so far, but that’s not saying much–the only one I’ve really liked so far was Naima.
Lauren Turner is awesome. She apparently gave Randy a minor seizure. I think she’s my favorite of the night. High energy, good performance, great voice. If she were as nice to look at as some of the others, she’d have a shot to win this whole thing.
Ashthon needs to go if only because of the superfluous H. I liked her in Hollywood but not now. There’s no subtlety to her voice at all, and when she tries to have it, you just can’t hear her at all. And she’s sucking up to J-Lo. Meh.
Julie looks like a pageant girl. She also sings like a pageant girl. NEXT!
Haley is better than I’ve seen her. Maybe it’s that I know what song she’s singing ahead of time, so I can understand it even though she’s got a terminal case of mushmouth. I like her growly parts. Glory note was a bit shrieky.
My irrational hatred this year is targeted at Thia Megia. Is her mic on? She’s getting serious pimp lighting. Her lower register is so soft that I can’t hear it. Why did she pick this song? This isn’t Broadway Idol. Aaaaaand she’s pimped to holy hell. I raise my middle finger in their general direction.
I also dislike Lauren Alaina. She kinda reminds me of Alicia Silverstone when she first came on the scene, looks-wise, maybe combined with a little Kelly Clarkson. This isn’t bad, though. Whoever the two relatives of hers are that they showed in the audience look JUST like her.
Pia is by far the most gorgeous woman in the competition. She’s petting the mic stand. She should have stuck with the first glory note and not gone for more, because the first one was perfection but the rest was overkill.
Naima needs to wear a different kind of skirt if she’s gonna do the squat dance, lol. Other than that she was stunning. Other faves were Lauren and Pia.
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I find it really annoying that the audience boos anytime one of the judges (ok, Randy) criticizes someone. It’s pretty clear that Jlo and Steven aren’t going to be critical, so I’m glad Randy is there to take on that role.
I am so disappointed in Steven and Jennifer. They are being way too easy on some of the singers.
I’m tired of hearing Randy tout Fantasia’s rendition of “Summertime” as the be-all end-all performance of that song. She was mighty good, but I don’t think it was as gob-smackingly superlative as Randy makes it out to be. I was rather taken with Naima’s swingy arrangement, and I think she did a fine job of it. Maybe Fantasia was better, but she’s not in this year’s contest, is she, Randy? Give it a rest.
Ta-Tynisa Wilson - Bad. 99% off pitch and 1% nice powerful singing. 2/10
Naima Adedapo - Holy shit - we have a contestant. 9/10
Kendra Chantelle - Two words - bo-ring. Nothing too bad about it, but I lost interest mid-song. 3/10
Rachel Zevita - That could have blown the doors off, if she could have delivered the goods. She didn’t. 3/10
Karen Rodriguez - That was…perfectly nice. Should J-Lo be charging her with copyright violation? 
5/10
Lauren Turner - I liked that. Good singing, good performance. 7/10
Julie Gorilla - Too nasal. Off pitch. 3/10
Haley Reinhart - Pitch problems again. I hate that squeaky thing girls are doing with their voices these days when they squeak when they start a phrase (Rachel from “Glee” is the worst offender for this). Kind of boring. 4/10
Thia Megia - Another holy shit! That girl CAN sing! We have another contestant! 9/10
Lauren Alaina - Hmm, she’s really suffering in comparison with the pure, beautiful singing we just heard from Thia. 7/10
Pia Toscano - That was also really, really good. Nice song choice, and she nailed it. 9/10
Ashthon Jones - Not even in the same league as the top three ladies with the big, beautiful voices. 4/10
I’m a little late to the party, per usual, so I only saw a few performances. Don’t want to get too involved when half of them won’t be around next week anyway. So I’m just going to say a couple things that needed to be said.
One, ditching Simon Cowell was all good, no bad.
Cowell, especially near the end, was every egomaniac I’ve ever heard or read about. George Steinbrenner, Bob Knight, Dennis Rodman, Donald Trump, Gene Simmons, Kanye West. He could suck the air out of a room with a force that Charlie Sheen could only dream of.
He added nothing. He was never informative. He was never entertaining. All he ever did was deliver smug, condescending slams full of his favorite buzzwords. Indulgent this, karaoke that.
And he was all but worshipped for it.
Who do we have now? Steven Tyler, a man who actually knows a few things about singing and entertaining a crowd, and who isn’t afraid to be harsh but knows that you have to back it up. Who got past the completely-full-of-himself phase of his life and is now focused on doing his job. And Jennifer Lopez, who’s savvier than Cowell and Abdul put together and isn’t obsessed with protecting her reputation.
Any way you slice it, this is a huge net gain.
And two…a Judas Priest. Heavy metal. On American Idol.
Let me repeat that. Heavy frickin’ metal on American goddam Idol.
I have no idea why the producers permitted this, and frankly, I don’t care. This is absolutely HUGE. Buster Douglas taking Mike Tyson to the 10th huge. Angel Cabrera neck and neck with Tiger Woods in a major huge. Danica Patrick seconds from winning her first race ever huge.
The show that’s been the very incarnation of quadruple-vanilla harmless pop fluff has just opened the door to the Tasmanian Devil.
For that reason alone, I hope James Durbin makes it to the next round. I want variety in this show, dammit, and this may be our greatest chance. If he sticks around, if he makes some noise, if he, lord willing, outlast an early favorite, that proves the viability of powerful, angry, forceful, macho, butt-kicking music in AI. If that happened, this show would be totally worth it for the first time ever.
And in all honestly, I think he has a good chance of sticking around for a while. The boy banders and crooners will be fighting for the same votes, while Durbin has the Guitar Hero demographic all to himself. He knows he can’t afford to slow down for a minute and will be balls-out every week. He’ll be impossible to ignore, impossible to forget. He won’t win, of course, but he’ll make a lot of us wish he could.
I actually like Thia more than most of the others. I also like the song she chose. I just didn’t think she found all the notes. (Figured I’d elaborate a little now that I’m typing on an actual keyboard).
Naima is really the only girl I’d care to see again.
I think it was on the blog I linked - a comment about Pia being maybe too polished. That would be my only real criticism of her - don’t go after perfection and forget to put some personality in the songs.
Trying to guess who will make it.
Boys: I would say that Casey, Jacob, and James are for sure. I think Paul has a really strong chance.
So who do the other two spots go to? I think Scotty, Jovany, Stefano, Brett, and Tim all have a chance at it. Whether it’s because they are decent, cute, or semi-interesting. Jordan and Clint gone for sure. I’m blanking on who the other guy even was!
Definitely think that I’d like to see what Scotty does in genres. Definitely don’t like Brett. Just can’t decide who I think will get that last spot. Jovany and Stefano are about on par with each other, and Tim just didn’t stand out to me. Judging from the talk I hear around school (I teach high school), here are my guesses for the top 6 guys:
Casey, Jacob, Paul, James, Scotty, and Stefano. Who knows though!
Girls: Pia, Thia, and Naima for sure! Then what?
I liked Lauren Alaina and Karen. That’s five. I think Julie, Rachel, Ta-Tynisa deserve to go.
Ashthon, Lauren Turner, Kendra, and Haley are all decent in different ways.
My guess for top 6 is Pia, Thia, Naima, Lauren A., Karen, and Ashthon, with a possible switch of Karen for Lauren T.
I just have to say this somewhere: “Nuts of Wonder” McCreery reminds me so so much of George W. Bush that I am predisposed to hating him for just that reason. I couldn’t even watch him sing because I was just too annoyed. That’s gonna bug my ass all season now.
I’m sure that Jacob Lusk is a good singer but he feels too overwroght to me and I want to run away from him fast.
(BTW, David Cook was picked to sing the goodbye song “Don’t you forget about me” which debuts tonight. Go Cook!)
Ta-Ti was way off-key.
Naima, karen, Laurens I and II, Thia, and Pia were great. The Thia and The Pia have my votes most strongly.
Kendra was dull, Rachel was just plain odd, Ashthon was okay, Haley was horrible, and I don’t remember much about Julie, so I guess I didn’t care for her.
Ok…here’s my pick for top 10… And I think the way i pick just comes down to, “I want to see more from this person”.
1.Jacob
2.Casey
3.Brett
4.Robbie -otherwise known as Aladdin at my house
5.James
1.Naima
2.Julie - she was TERRIBLE last night…but I have LOVED everything else she has dont so I hope she gets a second chance
3.Karen
4.Lauren T
5.Ashton
Those that in my opinion better be gone:
Clint
Jordan (although i read he was forced to do that song)
Jovany (he’s gross and I cant look at him )
Rachel (she thinks she’s sexy for cryin out loud)
Ta-Tynisa
Brett is the gayest gay that ever gayed.
Casey stays! -releases breath of relief-