No thread yet?
I’m on TiVo delay so I’ve only just heard the first round of songs.
Terrible song choices by the judges. Blake did a serviceable job with “Roxanne,” but as Simon said, you’d better bring your own style, or forget it… it’s karaoke Sting.
The arrangement for “Wishing On A Star” sucked ass so badly. Jordin has the pipes for it, I have no idea why they fucked up the arrangement.
Melinda… Zzzz…
Will wait for others to chime in on the next round…
Thanks for starting the thread! I was wondering where everyone was.
Simon chose a great song for Jordin. Too bad the arrangement was fairly lame. She has such a nice voice.
Blake and Sir Mix-A-Lot so made my evening. What a riot. And of course, Blake knew we wanted to see him shake that healthy butt.
Sorry, but Melinda has bored me to tears so far. She could win me back with her final song if she chooses something really different and fun. Given her history, I’m not counting on it. If it’s the same-old diva tune, well then I want to see a Blake/Jordin final.
My cable and internet went out. I got to see Melinda to Nutbush City Limits. Going by the replays only, Blake is gone. But that tiny snippet of Baby Got Back may boost him.
Awwww, he did Maroon 5 and I missed it? Darn!
I find tonight’s results amost impossible to call. Melinda was flawless, but Blake may have more youth appeal. Jordin is lovely and talented- but I don’t know whether I’d buy her album.
The only Idol album I ever bought was Chris Daughtry’s.
What is Simon smoking? He keeps dissing Jordin. My theories;
Maroon 5 was a very good choice for Blake. That’s his niche.
I would have chosen these songs for the final three:
Blake: “Fake Plastic Trees.” It would have to be a much less sophisticated version than Thom Yorke’s but it would be a nice change of pace.
Jordin: “Love Me,” by Tracie Spencer. Another young R&B singer, and the song would have fit her well.
Melinda: I actually liked her doing “Nutbush City Limits.” Maybe I would have her do Led Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love.”
Ok just finished watching them do their first songs.
Jordin 1: Bad hair. Bad dress (nightgown?).This song isn’t doing it for me…It’s getting a little better as it goes, but it’s still kinda eh.
Blake 1: I like the song, but he’s not doing anything with it. It’s like hearing any cover band at any event ever held doing a passable job singing a classic song. He had a few bad notes in there, too. Ok the knee slidy thing at the end was waaay too stilted/rehearsed/planned and just looked awkward, like he was thinking “one, two, three…NOW I do my fancy knee slide!”
Melinda 1: Her hair looks great tonight, and the dress is flattering. Is this the most boring song ever written, though? It’s in the running.
I loved the whole show. I think Blake may go tomorrow night, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if any of them won. They all had generally good songs.
I liked Melinda’s two performances, but didn’t like the last one, the personal choice.
Blake was funny and entertaining, and had good song choices. I laughed when I saw him dancing to Sir- Mix-A-Lot.
Jordin was lovely, and I loved her dresses! She’s my favorite, but like I said, in contrast with other years, I won’t be disappointed if she doesn’t win. Something tells me she has the voice to work in other arenas, not just American Idol.
BTW, where’s Biggirl? I’m in her town!
You’re in NYC? Where abouts?
Washington Heights, but I work at the Bronx Zoo.
Top to bottom performances:
[ol][li]Jordin - I Who Have Nothing (Even better this time around)[/li][li]Blake - This Love (Fits his style perfectly)[/li][li]Blake - When I Get You Alone (Another one that matches up very well with him)[/li][li]Melinda - Nutbush City Limits (If she ever puts out an album of Tina covers, I’m there)[/li][li]Melinda - I’m A Woman (Shocker – Melinda showcases background singers!)[/li][li]Melinda - I Believe In You And Me (Pretty good job, but still, the Whitney Rule and all…)[/li][li]Jordin - She Works Hard For The Money (Passable)[/li][li]Jordin - Wish Upon A Star (Meh)[/li][li]Blake - Roxanne (Can’t say I cared for that at all)[/li][/ol]
That said, I really hope it’s Melinda that gets booted. If she goes on to win it all, I’ll have no complaints. I just think a Blake/Jordin finale would be more fun. They both have the charisma and showmanship that Melinda sorely lacks.
Jordin 2: It started out great, but is she getting a little out of breath in the middle? It’s the first one tonight that I would listen to on purpose a second time.
Blake 2: This suits his style better, I think. I like this performance a lot better than his first one.
Melinda 2: I have to admit to a bias here, as I loathe this song and always have (also something about the word “nutbush” makes me think of like… I dunno, some kind of pubic hair dingleberries or something). It’s at least got more to it than her usual blandfests though, so I actually like this better than a lot of her performances.
I’m on the other side of the city-- Brooklyn and out on Long Island. You work at the Bronx Zoo? How cool is that!
Oh, um, American Idol. . . it’s nice.
Really, any one of the three could win or get booted and I couldn’t complain. Which makes the whole show just a tad boring.
Not too boring. Man, I’m upset I missed Blake doing Maroon 5. And I’m sure glad I got to see Jordin do I Who Have Nothing and Melinda do Nutbush City Limits. It’s entertaining but not dramatic without a villain.
Jordin 3: I LOVED this when she did it the first time (I downloaded the mp3) so I’m excited to hear her do it again. She’s nailing the hell out of it, too. I literally got goosebumps. Like looked down at my arms and there they were. Wow. That was amazing. Simon is on crack.
Blake 3: Hmm. This seems kind of random. I’m not familiar with the song but the vocals, the background vocals, and the instruments seem to have only passing relation to each other so the whole thing sounds just kind of disjointed and odd? He seems to be doing it ok, I guess, but I don’t know what it’s “supposed” to sound like so I feel like I can’t really put much behind my opinion. I agree with Simon though, he really does perform like he loves what he’s doing.
Melinda 3: It seemed stiff and too choreographed for me. She looked awkward rather than natural. Sounded fine, but the performance did nothing for me.
I still have to wait a while to see it. Hmmmm…A mixed bag tonight?
He did a nice job with it. He’s the one I would predict I would hear on my radio, just like last year I predicted I would hear Chris. (I don’t really like Chris’s songs, but they are definitely on the stations I listen to.)
This entire episode really has me wondering who the show’s target demographic is. I’ve read that young folks tend to buy records in much greater quantities than older folks. Also, the successful idol have ended up in youth market
So why are the judges and producers selecting incredibly old songs for the contestants? Isn’t there a sassy black singer somewhere who’s a bit younger than Tina Tuner for pities sake? Perhaps they could find someone more like Missy Eliot or Pink. Or frikkin Whitney Houston? Sting?
Other than the Maroon 5 song - was anything less than 15 years old?
It makes me wonder if Blake won’t do well because he’s the only singer who is fresh and could actually sing the songs he’s performed on the show for something other than entertainment night at the old age home. That’s hard to judge because all the other singers sing old stuff all the time. Anyhow - I’m rooting for him. I can’t think of many things that are tougher than to make yourself sound fresh and new on American Idol given its iron clad format - but Blake has managed to do it.
Blake’s going home. It was one thing when there was still chaff like Chris and Phil to compare him to, but when you’ve got him up against the seasoned professional and the gifted rookie, it’s just too easy to see he’s just another white boy trying too hard to get you to think he’s cool.
Melinda and Jordin know how to really perform, how to really sell a song, and they have the chops to back up their bravado. Blake knows how to doll up a performance to try and hide his no-better-than-average singing, and it just didn’t cut it this week.
Blake did well on his second song in particular, but he just doesn’t have what it takes to do any better.
It’s going to be a very, very close call next week between M. and J.
Blake makes it very hard to decide. He’s not as good a singer, per se, as Jordin, but he’s got the life experience. His performances are more… convincing. At least to me. I think I’d like to see a Melinda-Blake finale.