BTW, anyone notice who one of the backup singers is?
Last night’s episode was largely a disappointment except for the girl who sang ‘Steamroller Blues’. I thought she was excellent.
Dexter sang a boilerplate country song about as well as you’d hear in any country bar in America. Nothing American Idol worthy about that performance, and totally forgettable.
Kristin turned in possibly the worst performance of the night. She looked awkward and frightened on stage, and she sang mostly out of tune. Ugh.
CJ’s Darius Rucker song was just okay. Kind of lifeless. It shouldn’t be that hard to outsing Darius Rucker, but he didn’t manage it. He’ll probably skate through, though.
I thought MK and Malaya’s performances were almost cringeworthy. And I’ve been a fan of both of them.
Majesty Rose was awesome. She lit up the stage.
Jena’s version of “The Scientist” just wasn’t right. Too bombastic or something. Her singing was okay, but stylistically it was a mess.
Ben Briley picked a great song with “Folsom Prison Blues”, and he performed the hell out of it, but the performance annoyed me because he took a song that was meant to be an angry swipe at the system and the reality of prison life, and turned it into a party song. Still one of the best performances of the night.
Alex Preston and Jessica Muese were okay. They did their thing, much like before. Nothing surprising or particularly great, but good enough to see them through, I’d think.
Emily Pirez was fine.
Caleb’s got a great voice, and it’s great to see real rock on the show.
Best performers of the night: Ben, Majesty, Caleb
In danger of going home: Kristin, Dexter, Malaya
My guess is that MK skates through on the power of her story, and because the judges inexplicably fawned on her performance. Malaya gets through on likeability and her past performances, And Dexter survives because Idol viewers seem to like country.
So, I’d guess that Kristin goes home. Dexter might go if he and Ben split the country vote, because between the two of them Ben is much better.
And why oh why is Randy Jackson still there? He comments before the performances were banal and obvious. I wonder if he had a contract for another year and they couldn’t get rid of him, so they found a ‘filler’ role for him. Or maybe they thought they had to keep him around for continuity with the past or something. But he certainly doesn’t bring anything this show needs.
Oh, and for those who don’t want to guess, the new idol backup singer is Alison Iraheta, from season 8. I really liked her and hoped she have a solo career, but at least she’s working in music on a big stage.
Malaya is going to be short-lived. She has no poise whatsoever. She fidgeted non-stop, picked at herself like a chimp grooming, clapped like you would expect someone with a moderate level of retardation to do, and did not cease with lip smacking, lip twisting and other inappropriate and exaggerated facial gestures and expressions for someone with a camera on them. Watching her for 30 seconds on camera reminds me of watching a bored toddler in a restaurant. It got annoying and old very quickly.