I looked but I didn’t see an AI thread for for this week.
I guess we’re all pretty disgusted with last week.
So, what did you think ?
I didn’t get a chance to see the whole thing, but from what I saw Fantasia was best, and I’m not even a fan of hers.
I saw it. I wasn’t particularly impressed by any of them. I also disliked most of the music that they sang. The judges are also starting to get on my nerves.
Maybe people have just lost interest in the show because nobody left is interesting.
I got home just in time to see Diana Degarmo, and I thought she did terrific - what holding power on her last note!
They showed snippets of all three at the end, and I re-affirmed my impression of Fantasia - an interesting voice, but one that gets annoying with too much exposure.
My record remains unbroken. I tried several times to vote for both Fantasia and Diana, and never got anything other than a busy signal. Fantasia is the one that I thought legitimately earned the vote — she far outclasses either of the other contestants in talent, even though she’s not my style. This wasn’t a great week for Diana, but she still easily outshone Jasmine this week, and has had far better performances than her over the series.
I saw a story last night saying that autodialers are ruining the voting. Although the AI people say that they recognize autodialing votes, and can exclude them from the count, they still jam up the phone lines, and prevent legitimate votes from getting through. The theory is that some gambling powers-that-be are doing this to stack the deck. The AI folks need to do some serious thoughts on the technology behind their voting if they want AI to have a future.
I watched the whole thing. Sigh.
Jasmine - sucked on each of her songs. She’ll probably end up in the final two.
Fantasia - rocked the house on each of her songs. She could get bounced.
Diana - Not great on her first two sings, but nailed the last one. She could get bounced, too.
I just don’t want to guess who’s going to win this thing. And I really don’t care. I think whoever wins is going to be problematic for the folks who have to make her a star. Jasmine needs to learn to sing. Fantasia is a really polarizing person. And Diana is inconsistent and rather matronly looking for a 16-year-old. Aside from that, she doesn’t show me much personality-wise.
I don’t like Fantasia on a personal level. I don’t like the way she talks, the way she dresses, the way she keeps whoring herself to the audience for applause. I don’t like the gangsta posing of her family; they think they’re at an NBA basketball game. I don’t like her whoring her kid out for sympathy votes. If America bounces her, it’s because they don’t like her either, and there’s no reason that isn’t legitimate. People like to like the people they like.
I had an experience this past weekend which gave me some perspective on the relative talents (or lack thereof) of the final 12 of this year’s AI.
I went to see the national touring company production of Fame here in Milwaukee. I know that Simon in particular tends to disparage singers who sound like they belong on Broadway, but I have to say that the talent exhibited by the cast was impressive. It made me realize how weak the AI talent really is.
On a related AI note (if you’re interested), a local newspaper columnist wrote about his ideas for “fixing” AI.
Yep, I’m still watching…sigh. After I put in all this time, I might as well see how it turns out.
My daughter could not get through for Fantasia last night. I attempted to get through for Diana once or twice, and couldn’t do it. I’m with Genghis Bob, that last note of Diana’s knocked me out!
Some of them were good suggestions. The ‘veto’ plan though would be tough, because it could potentially extend the show by 3 more weeks. It already is too long as it is. Unless they cut the final round to the Elite 8 instead of the Terrible 12. Then it would work. Otherwise… a potential 15 shows? Uck.
The rest of it sounds good (but you really could do the last suggestion, unless you dumped Ryan).
“The Greatest Love of All”?! Oh, Clive Davis. I might have thrown some pity votes Fantasia’s way just for having to sing that dreadful song.
I’m not a prude by any means, but it rubbed me all kinds of wrong to hear Jasmine sing the words “making love” twice last night.
Okay, I lied, I will post again! But I did not watch it. I took a couple peeks over to try to determine the line-up because I decided I would vote anyway after seeing something that ticked me off early in the week.
The thing that ticked me off was an interview with Randy Jackson. When asked about LaToya being booted he said something to the effect that “I’ve always felt that Fantasia was the one who could win it all”. Then why did he say the week before LaToya got booted that she was the best and most likely to win? Either he was lying then or he’s lying now, but either way he’s a liar. So, of course this made me dislike Fantacy even more.
I saw Fantasia start to sing The Greatest Love of All and I had to quickly turn it off. I almost expected to hear her sing “I believe the children are our future, I’M A SINGLE MOMMY AND I LOVE MY BABY SHE’S MY WHOLE LIFE!” I simply cannot stand her anymore.
So did she dedicate any of her songs to LaToya and sing “I love you LaToya!” and fake cry some more?
In addition, “All By Myself” should, forthwith, be sung only as parody from now on.
[QUOTE=Judith PriethtI’m not a prude by any means, but it rubbed me all kinds of wrong to hear Jasmine sing the words “making love” twice last night.[/QUOTE]
It icked me out too, JP.
What, y’all think she’s still a virgin? 
Maybe, maybe not…but a song extolling the pleasures of stolen moments by The Other Woman – kinda icky from a teenager.
I have to admit that Fantasia was probably the best last night, although I still seriously dislike her. But I especially dislike the fauning adulation from the judges. They rip Diana and Jasmine for giving cloned performances, but give Fantasia a free pass when she does a note-for-note Whitney rendition of that gag-inducing Greatest Love of All song. They’ve picked their winner, and are trying to ram her down our throat.
(Greatest Love: the first verse sounds like one of those icky self-esteem-enhancing Music for Minors songs they make elementary school kids sing. Then it rolls into a Me Me Me finale: learning to love yourself is NOT the greatest love of all. Get over yourself, already.)
Watch the tapes… Jasmine was recently de-flowered by SOMEONE. Ha ha. Get it? De-flowered?
Good interview with the hanging judge: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/arts/television/19IDOL.html?ex=1085979596&ei=1&en=6c59a4ec1c5cb3b6
Not to mention that the song’s “narrator” is a “mistress” singing to her married (with children) lover, singing about how she’s willing to keep doing him on the side, even though she knows his family needs him there with them. Not really role model Idol material, is it? I’m surprised they even let her sing that song at all.
Fantasia is able, when necessary, to be a little more subdued and not always resort to belting the belty notes (which I was impressed by in “Greatest Love of All”), where Diana doesn’t have quite the restraint. This edges Diana out by a hair when compared to Fantasia technically. The problem is, everything else about Fantasia bugs the crap out of me.
STOP coming out on stage and screaming, “C’mon everybody! Get on your feet for this one!”
STOP turning your back on your audience when you dance around the stage.
STOP leaving the stage and running down into the audience. That’s not where you belong and we can’t see you down there.
STOP "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"ing the end of every damn song you sing!
I just simply cannot stand her performances even if she’s technically a good singer (although I’m not a fan of her sound, I admit that she is good at what she does – I just don’t enjoy it).
Jasmine was actually better last night than she’s been in weeks – better than the judges actually gave her credit for. But again, terrible song choices and simply not good enough.
Diana also had some questionable song choices, but she’s got the stage presence to draw you in and the pipes to keep you awed. She may not have the subtlety down yet, but she’s young and she’ll get there with age and experience. She’s my choice to win this, so I voted for her as often as I could get through last night.
But frankly, as long as Jasmine’s the one who leaves tonight, it really doesn’t matter which of the other two wins, since they’ll both get contracts and have careers anyway. Last year’s 1st runner up is doing considerably better than the winner, so by this point, it’s really all a wash anyway.
GREAT interview. I recommend everyone read it. I’ve always loved Simon and this just shows why. He won’t pull punches, he’ll tell you what he thinks.
I love this from the Cowell interview:
It doesn’t get any more honest than that. 