American Idol 3/9/04: Wild Card Round

<spoiler>Tiara and Eric are already out… and Penboy is bloody awful!</spoiler>

Ack! foiled by vBL again!

Lisa was simply ROBBED again! So was Tiara. How can someone like Leah make it and not these two? Well, at least most of my favorites have gotten through!

Wow…I’ve grown to dislike Leah. Oh well, it happens.

Jon–Whoa! Looked a little dorky, but he’s improved a ton! Very entertaining. Thank god he has a strong fanbase! I have little doubt that he’ll make the finals.

Elizabeth–Certainly not awful, but generally weak and forgettable. Simon’s right. She doesn’t have “it”. Tiara and Lisa would have wiped the floor with her.

Katie–My mother said it perfectly, “No.” Don’t these people realize that Whitney Houston is generally the kiss of death? Ewww…weak. Just weak. Again, Lisa and Tiara would have wiped the floor with her.

George Hufflepuff–You know, he’s like a male KLo. Starts out breathy, low and weak, but ends generally strong. Overall a pretty good performance. He’s in MY top four, that’s for sure! His fanbase should be big enough for him to get through.

Suzy–Ohh…she looked beautiful. Bad arrangement of music. Blegh, but she overcame that nicely. While I wasn’t entirely blown away, I think she was the best female there, well, other than Jennifer H.

Matthew M.-- Improved from when he last performed, but still weak. HAWT though, so that might get him through, but considering the other performers with bigger fanbases, it’s very doubtful.

Leah–Nice hair, but what was she thinking with the outfit? GAHHHHH!! Oh how dare you butcher a song Trenyce nailed! A great song too! GAHHHH! Oh NOOO!! You are NOT Trenyce! I’ll give her the fact that she was better than the last time, but she belongs in the bottom 4. I’m with Simon.

Jennifer Hudson–OHHH!! So beautiful! :smiley: Best of the night by FAR! She had BETTER get through or THERE WILL BE DEATH!!!

Top 4:

  1. Jennifer(she’ll be getting most of my votes, that’s for damned sure!)
  2. George Hufflepuff
  3. Jon Peter Lewis
  4. Suzy

Awwwww, c’mon, I loved his goofy little dancing thing. The judges kept telling him his voice and pitch were great but he was too cardboard, fella realized he lacked soul so went OTT goofy instead of trying for cool and failing at it. Yay him! How could you watch that and not be entertained?

I liked Leah better tonight than ever before, which surprised me. I was all ready to hiss at her in general for the perceived uppity attitude but she charmed me.

Katie was gawdawful flat, and I was amazed that Simon didn’t crucify her for it. I loved her in round one, but she needs to go back to dancing after tonight.

George Huff made me want to tithe, he and Jennifer could have a gospel-off. Great voices, both of them, but popstars?

I’d like to see Matthew stay in it, not only to bring another guy to the finals but because if he can just find a way to let go, he’ll be awesome.

Predictions- Suzy, Jon Peter, either George or Jennifer but not both, and Leah.

I think you’ve got the top four here, but I think Suzy was the best of the bunch! Jennifer looks like she’s going to explode. Jon Peter and George are personality boys. I really wanted to root for Matt Metzger, especially after his comment about not having enough confidence, but he just doesn’t have the chops. He’d be a fine male model, however! :cool:

I thought it was kind of cruel to call these kids back for the wild card round just to tell them they were cut…but I like cruel, heh.

Let’ get to the performance:

Penboy: I liked him. The dancing was goofy but in a good way, and he stayed in key. That’s pretty good for this lot.

Elizabeth: Meh

Katie: Meh

George: Started the song off key (again) but did well after that. George is a little spotty in his performances but there’s a great baritone in there somewhere is he gets a little coaching.

Suzie: Not bad. Not spectacular.

Matthew: What Matthew is missng is power. Simon is right that he’s got most everything else-- nice tone to his voice, stays in key, good looks, stage presence. He’s just missing power. His performances are dynamically flat. There’s no oomph in his choruses. He can’t blow the doors off a song when he needs to.

Leah: Horrible. I don’t know what the hell rany and Paula were listening to. She was off key for the whole first half of the song and she had so little power that she was getting drowned out by the music. I thought she gave the worst performance of the night.

Jennifer: I think she’s got the best voice in the competition and that she’s going to go pretty far in this thing. Jennifer is a perfect example of someone who can blow the doors off when she wants to.

My top four:
-Jennifer
-George
-Penboy
-Suzie

Remember folks, each of the three judges get a vote, so America only gets to vote on 1 guy.

While I really didn’t like someone like Leah, I think Paula will end up voting for her. Jennifer is easily in (and they may give it to America to put her in… I think America gets their top choice… like Clay last year… and then the judges pick). So I’m guessing:

Jennifer (America)
George (Randy)
Suzy (Simon)
Leah or Matthew (Paula)

Jennifer sounded splendid, but looked a little silly… her outfit and make up didn’t flatter her. I only mention this because America may not vote her in based on that. However, I thought she was great.

I so don’t get what Paula sees in Leah. To me, she doesn’t have a feel for the song. She doesn’t sing like she cares what the words mean or where the strength of the melody is. To hit the last note on a bar where we want a strong (i.e., straight) finish and melisma all over the place kills a song. And a good song, too, so she loses extra points for messin’ up an Al Green song.

I think America picks George. Paula will pick Leah. Simon will pick Suzy. Randy will pick… hmm… well, he better pick Jennifer because she deserves to be in this thing. I’ll miss the show, so somebody needs to post a recap.

I want to predict that Paul won’t pick Leah, because I can see her doing that and Leah getting all weepy, but I can’t think who else could be the fourth, unless that can pick from the four that didn’t sing. Can they do that?

I doubt it… only the 8 on stage last night.

I agree. Nothing like rubbing salt in the old wounds. And then. . . they had to sit there stage-side for the whole rest of the show! That’s even worse.

I don’t understand why they chose to leave out at all. They picked at least three of the BEST singers in the bunch.

Anyway:

Jon Peter Lewis: Nice attitude, but he didn’t sound like someone who you would actually pay to sing. If he had a great voice he could overcome his looks. His voice would have trouble winning a local karaoke contest. I like him, but he’s not a pro singer.

Elizabeth: Just another Blonde With A Flip Haircut. Why she was asked back I cannot imagine. Competent singer, nothing interesting or special. Picked a horrible song.

Katie: Blonde With A Flip Haircut, Part II. A bit better than Elizabeth but not so you’d notice. Boring. Will get picked because they need more cheerleader looks in the Top 12.

George: Better voice than the first four, although he started out weak. Better stage presence. A reasonable performance for this level, deserves to move on.

Suzy Valuca: Solid performance. Nothing amazing, but very good.

Matthew: Atrocious. One of the worst post-audition performances in the history of American Idol, maybe THE worst. Why he was selected over Marque Lynche baffles me.

Leah: Terrible, just like she was in her group. She can’t sing, really, at all; can’t carry a tune, keeps fading out, has a weird mumbly accent, looks like a SpEd, has no pacing. Hitting one out of ten notes isn’t singing. An absolute joke. Why the judges like her, I cannot explain.

Jennifer: Good singing; her stage presence is dreadful. It wasn’t just the ugly outfit; she looks like she’s experiencing some sort of horrifying tropical intestinal distress, and every thirty seconds her eyes bulge out in surprise, as if someone in the front row suddenly yanked out their schlong. Her voice is terrific and you can always work on image, so I’d pick her.

I can’t see that four people here deserve to be on the show.

Who will they pick? Remember, Simon picked the completely talent-free Carmen Rasmussen last year; for all his I-tell-the-truth frankness, he has a tin ear and doesn’t understand anything that doesn’t look like Last Month’s 17-Year-Old British Pop Star. He really doesn’t have much of an eye for talent, so I predict he’ll fool us all and pick Katie.

Paula will pick Leah, for what reason I cannot explain.

Randy will fool us all and pick Jennifer, but he might fool me and pick Suzy.

The audience will vote for George; if Jennifer isn’t picked by Randy, she’ll get screwed.

Did anyone watch this episode?

liked George
LOVED the last girl (Jennifer)
Leah – eh
Katie & Elizabeth – can’t tell them from one another (and Jessica Simpson looks a hell of a lot better)
Matthew – a prince from Disney!!! VERY good looking. Said very nice thing about how not performance of the song is important but conveying the song. Will get lots of votes from girls.
Suzy - that’s my fave song, nice outfit, nice singing.
Jon – was fun to watch him “develop” a “personality” (totally weird and wrong).

From the looks of things I’d say
Elizabeth
Matthew
Suzy
George

In that order.

EEK.
I meant:

From the looks of things I’d say
Jennifer
Matthew
Suzy
George

(It’s just that I’m in such awe of both names, I confuse them sometimes)

This show makes me hate music.

But not Jennifer. Jennifer was ok. Everybody else just makes me wince…listen to all the good songs they’re ruthlessly killing.

I ended up not watching the whole episode, after they took just as long to cut 4 people without letting them sing as it would have taken to just let them sing.

That’s just stupid.

The problem is, they only have the eight numbers for people to call. Also, the last two people wouldn’t be able to hold up 11 or 12 fingers while Ryan is announcing the number.

What Simon said about Matt, that Paula didn’t understand, was “tick all the boxes”: Britspeak for “check off all the boxes”. Or did he explain that later on in the program and I missed it?

If there’s another series of this, there should be a sign, or several signs, at the auditions, proclaiming “NO WHITNEY”. Like the “NO STAIRWAY” sign in the guitar shop in “Wayne’s World”.

This is not exactly a singing contest. The American Idol must be well rounded and possess “it” according to Simon. I agree and was delighted to see Jon Peter perform something more entertaining than the usual. He was the most fun and deserves a place in the top 12 just for his awesome dancing :slight_smile: .

Simon never explained what tick all the boxes meant, but I think lots of us figured it out after a moment. I also think there’s still lots of people going “Huh?”

My criteria for a singer is, would I like to see them perform again? (Not, can they win AI). Based on that, I want to see Jon Peter and Jennifer.

But the final group will be a group of 12. I don’t think it’s any big deal to add four more call lines. They’ve got to have them in place for the start of the real competition anyway. I think all 12 should have sung last night.

And tonight’s show is an hour!!! Holy cow! What are they going to do to fill an hour???