Typed realtime as I watched it, so no forgetting the little details this week for me:
Diana: Not nearly as good as they made her out to be in judging. She “made it her own” at the expense of hitting the right notes sometimes. It was schmaltz meets pop diva. And though the dress brought out a hint of belly underneath, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like that she’s not starving herself as part of the competition.
George: Beautiful. I actually did get chills during “What a Wonderful World,” because he sang it with a simple beauty. God forbid a singer doesn’t ruin everything with melisma, runs, and trills all over the place to be “original.” The two male judges were too cruel. There’s something greatly enjoyable about playing it straight sometimes.
Latoya: The hair works, definitely has a bit of a retro lean. And the first song was strong, and definitely a unique rendition. Second song: pure vanity, but maybe rightly deserved. Granted, I really never like “Don’t Rain On My Parade.” Too bad she doesn’t have any other gear than LOUD.
Jasmine: Pants and chains? The only way that appearance can work with this week’s theme is in a karaoke bar. I like the girl, but both songs this week were utterly mediocre. Simon’s “pleasant” was about right, maybe even too kind. This may be it for her.
Fantasia: There’s not a large enough catalog to choose from? What the hell is up with a really crappy reinterpretation of Queen? It worked originally, and it worked as country, but this is just too far from the source. And I really think her ego has officially eclipsed her voice. Not that the judges encourage the ego with their comments or anything.
“This is the type of music you were meant to sing” tally: Diana, Latoya.
Who I think will go: Jasmine.
Who I think should go? Fantasia. I like her less every week, but especially when she wants Queen to be Big Band.
Ah…big band night. Yes, John (and, of course, Jennifer) should have been here. Just that I wish Big Band happened sooner. Anyway:
Diana–Looked beautiful and sounded great, but once again, I can’t be compelled to route for her beyond “well, I liked her”. That’s about it.
George–Hasn’t he been second like 321882957295 times before? Sheesh. That said, I thought he was very good. This was certainly one of his better performances. I didn’t want him to stop.
Latoya–Wow!! Fantastic! Yea, this is her genre! Looked beautiful too.
Jasmine–While this is one of her better performances, the bar has been raised so high that she just can’t reach it. She’s hasn’t in weeks and certainly won’t should she end up remaining in the competition. Just blah.
Fantasia–First performance: Good, but disappointing. I honestly expected better. Second Performance: Flawless, absolutely flawless.
Diana: The first song sounded very country to me. I don’t like country. Her voice was good but the performance was boring as hell. Horrid chatter between songs. The second song brought out the pageant queen/Mouseketeer aspect. Can’t stand her.
George: Terrible ending to song one but I still really liked it. Horrid chatter between songs. Did a great job with “What a Wonderful World” although it was rough in spots. His voice is still unpolished but I thought he did a really good job.
LaToya: Great voice, professional, polished. I was getting bored and then she kicked it into gear–wow! Horrid chatter between songs. Song two: she kicked ass.
Jasmine: Yuck. She sounded like a child and it was a terrible arrangement. Did she give any thought to her outfit at all? Apparently not. Horrid chatter between songs. I hope she gets the boot because she’s not very good.
Fantasia: Terrible stage presence, ok performance. She leaves me cold. Horrid chatter between songs although she was marginally more relaxed than the others. I thought the second song really sucked–a crappy song and a crappy performance. The band was great and she didn’t take advantage of it.
My rankings:
LaToya
George
Fantasia
Diana
Jasmine
As much as I don’t like her, Fantasia should be in the final two, with LaToya.
Diana - Pretty good, I have her third on my slate (overall). I was on the phone during this performance and the judging so hearing it again would be ideal.
George - He seems like a very nice man. The word “eh” comes to mind. Something wasn’t right, I have him marked fourth.
LaToya - Those of you who’ve been paying attention to my posts know she’s my favourite, I’m flat out in love with the girl. THe first performance is good, the second was my favourite performance of any American Idol. She is far and away my favourite to win.
Jasmine - I am not her biggest fan, I didn’t like this performance and I haven’t liked many of her other ones. It’s her turn to leave. She seems very nice though.
Fantasia - i’ve consistantly disliked her perfances mostly because she sounds like Macy Gray. In the first song she hit all her notes but she wasn’t paying attention to her levels, still pretty good though, I enjoyed it. The second performance I can’t fairly judge because I passionately dislike that song. I’d say overall, she deserves second place (even though I don’t like her voice).
This week’s bottom three:
Jasmine - she’ll be voted off
George - she’ll be bottom two
Fantasia - she’ll be bottom three but safe.
I’m a George fan (although I think LaToya will win) – there’s just something about his personality that I really enjoy. And his voice. That said, his version of What A Wonderful World tonight was about as good as you can find – and hearing as many versions of it around here as I do, that’s saying a lot. Of course, George probably heard it performed about ten million more times than me, having lived in New Orleans a lot longer than I have, so he could have mailed that performance in. But he didn’t, to his credit.
LaToya is really talented, and probably more well-rounded and experienced than the rest of the group. I’m not sure she’s the most unique, but she’s the steadiest and smoothest and I think has the best ultimate chance to win.
Diana is still just too darned young. She also doesn’t have a clue how to sing a ballad because all her singing experience has been belting out up-tempo songs at beauty pageants. It shows. I think she could learn to do ballads, but she sure isn’t there yet.
Jasmine is just…yawn. She brings nothing to the music. (Although to give her credit, she was at least in better tune tonight – it’s hard not to be with all that brass in your ear!) A pretty girl, does absolutely nothing for me.
Fantasia has the most unique voice and style, but she sure can get grating. We had to turn the TV down tonight because the edge in her voice was getting edgier and makes her seem louder than everyone else. I think she’s probably got the most raw talent, and will have a great career in gospel or R&B, but I just don’t see her winning this one.
Well, this one might have finally decided it for me. I was actually inspired to vote, believe it or not…
Diana - At first, I thought “not bad… not great but not bad”, then everyone else sang and I then I changed my though to “ick.”
George - I used to really like George, but I agree that he’s grown about as much as he will. I would be surprised if he “brings it” ever again…
LaToya - Wow. I mean- wow. She finally came to life tonight and did a really good job. Exceptional. Wow.
Jasmine - Please go home now. Please.
Fantasia - In the past, I really didn’t like her, but tonight she placed a strong second. She took chances and made the songs her own. She’s no Freddie Mercury, but she wasn’t trying to be, either.
Simon is absolutely correct - LaToya and Fantasia are in a completely different class.
The judges had it half right…LaToya is in a class by herself. Fantasia is no better than middle of the pack. And she has the single most grating voice of anyone in the competition.
George: Can’t stand his personality or expressions. Think he’s been terrible for the past several weeks, but he was pretty good tonight. Got unfairly criticized for “What a Wonderful World.” If he had done what Randy asked, he would have killed it. Randy Jackson is an idiot.
LaToya is just great. She’s got the look, the voice, everything. 10.
Diana annoys me, and I thought she had the worst performance tonight. That said, she’s been good for the past several weeks.
Jasmine has the best sound in her voice. I like listening to her. But she’s young, and it shows. Benefits from the fact that she is gorgeous, but will be hurt by the outfit this week. No jeans. That said, if I had to choose whose performance to listen to again, Jasmine’s would be my second choice after only LaToya.
Fantasia: She would be a great singer if she didn’t have a terrible tone to her voice. Simon had it right when he said she sounds like a cartoon character. It’s too bad…it’s probably the thing she can control the least. But, this is singing, and it’s all about the voice, and no matter well you can control your voice or get into a song and express emotion it just doens’t matter if your voice sounds like shit. And hers does.
My rankings for the night (overall in parentheses):
LaToya (1)
(mile of space)
George (5)
Jasmine (2)
(half mile)
Fantasia (3)
Diana (4)
LaToya is the most experienced (and oldest) performer, and it shows. But she’s boring, and if she didn’t have American Idol fame, she’d never sell more than a few hundred CD’s to people who showed up to hear her sing at the Best Western Cassava Room on Wednesday nights. Fantasia is so overhyped it’s sickening. She sucked tonight. The first song was a total ground ball double play, not a home run, and the judges said nothing. The second was a hit or miss song that she missed. Please stop the lies… if these are the best two singers in the competition, you blew it on the round up. Scooter Girl could smoke either of these chicks.
I think it was the best night so far. All but two of the idols did a pretty good job. I was concerned about the possible introduction of out-of-place vibratos, but that seldom happened except noticably once with George. His and Jasmine’s were the weakest, I thought. I’d like to see either one of them go now. George to do a remake of Candy Man, and Jasmine to just go.
If Paula and Simon had a kid, it would be Randy Jackson. He is perfectly formed with half of Simon’s jearkassishness and Paula’s incomprehensible inanity.
My assumption is that the reveal of the bottom tonight will happen thusly: Ryan will split them up into a group of 2 and a group of 3 in a thoroughly ambiguous way. He will then say something that bolsters the idea that the group of 2 are the safe ones since we always have a bottom 3, but then pull the rug out and announce that they are only having a bottom 2 with just 5 people left.
Of course, this prediction looks a lot less risky if this is how they have done it in previous seasons. Having not watched before this one, I am coming from a lack of history.
I couldn’t agree more. I find her whoring out her kid for votes to be extremely disgusting.
Not to mention I hate her voice and her attitude makes me want to vomit in my shoe…
Please make her go away, pretty please.
First: let me reiterate what someone else said above…there aren’t enough great songs from the Big Band Era, that we have to drag in Queen and Streisand? Shoot, they could’ve filled a couple of hours with just Gershwin & Porter.
George has been stinkin’ up the joint lately – but from the first notes (“Heaven…”) of Cheek to Cheek I was blown away. I think he’s been in the wrong genre all this time; he should be doing jazz. He even sounds like Joe Williams.
From the Very Special episode Monday night, I realized that Fantasia is all Attitude, no Personality. So annoying. I can’t believe that she tried to tell America that being a single mom at 16 can have a positive impact on your life (even though it might be true…)
Not a great week, but pretty good.
.
Diana – She may not win the whole thing, and she may not have a big singing/recording career, but she’s going to have some kind of show biz career --"Good Morning Somewhere,” a show in “E.” Loves to be on stage. Kind of a Kathy Lee Gifford. I know, but a lot of people like that.
George – Oh those facial expressions are getting to me. He’s back to the third or fourth member of the Temptations. I like the guy, but …
LaToya – My favorite since it started. Good again.