Plus and also WTF is Lisa doing in the bottom three while Kevin McCutebutton sat safe? What is wrong with America?
Like Simon said, they just have different preferences. This is not a singing competition, it’s absolutely a popularity contest.
Just a reminder that at this point, the competition isn’t to see who’s the best. It’s to see who’s not the worst. To paraphrase an old election slogan, rock bottom plus one. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to do something bland, safe, and likable, because it takes less effort than going all out for a win that means nothing. When the hopeless cases have taken the walk (usually when it’s down to 5 or 4, although it might be a little sooner this time), THEN you crank it up and sing your heart out. Go to the whip too soon, and you leave yourself physically and emotionally drained just when you have to bring it. Damn, seems like there’s someone who gets fragged like this every contest.
And Liberal, I’m sorry, but there are no handicaps here. If it’s between her and the cannon fodder, and they give the same effort, the cannon fodder loses. The voters do symapthize with the underdog, but not to a humungous extent, and they’re not picking one over someone as good as Paris.
Rock bottom plus one. Everything else is just window dressing.
Tough break for Melissa. Seems to me that she just plain messed up. Go through the discography, find something you can do, and get it right; that’s all there is to it. She a really nice kid; there’ll be better days for her.
Ace can officially start sweating; his head’s on the block and he looks to be completely out of options. I give him two more weeks at the most.
Anyone care to answer my question about high heels? And are they actually required? That sounds seriously unfair (although that’s nothing unusual for this show).
Oh, yeah, my scores above are as revised after watching the performance again the next day. Weirdly, Mandisa & Melissa sounded better (except for Mandisa’s intro, which was bad bad bad) & Kellie sounded worse by comparison, after hearing everyone else.
Night of, I gave Mandisa a 5 & Kellie a 6.
Well, they made Ace stand up there a long time. Good. If he has potential, he may learn to live up to it. If, as I think, he’s just a crappy singer, they may as well start to acknowledge that now. Commence the scolding.
Paula: “You have to vote for every single person, whether they’re #1 or #12.” :rolleyes: Yeah, we needed new judges this year.
I hope Rock Star is good this summer.
Anyone else notice how, when Stevie was singing, all the contestants were rockin’ out, some even mouthing the words…except Melissa, who just glumly sat there?
The first one out is always a given, and even they know it. I actually like Melissa. I like her sultry voice, I like her goofy personality, and I totally felt for her when she was giggling and babbling out of sheer nervousness last night. As such, I’m glad she was cut loose, because this was simply not for her. Incidentally, I wonder how Ayla feels right now? Vindicated, or even more bitter?
And next week, it’ll be Kevin. The bottom three configuration will scare Ace’s fans into voting for him and create a backlash against Kevin. Please let that backlash be swift and painless. Can’t say what will happen to Lisa, but for Boss’s sake, I hope she at least makes it past next week, because he reallllly wants to see her on the tour.
I’ve a bad feeling that Kevin will be this season’s Hobbit Boy, with a perverted fan base determined to see how long they can prolong our agony. I predict he lasts another three weeks.
I’ve finally remembered who Kevin reminds me of; he’s like a character actor in an old WWII movie. “The Kid”, the naive youngster in the platoon that the other guys like to tease, who surprises them with a poignant foxhole rendition of “O Danny Boy”, after “Sarge” takes a bullet from a sniper.
Kevin is a bit funny looking, but I don’t find his singing especially agonous to listen to. He also seems like a pretty centered kid, to take the kind of crap he’s taken with as much dignity as he has.
Incidentally, I don’t think his comment to Simon was sassy. I think Kevin was just saying, honestly, that he doesn’t expect Simon to give him good feeback.
What I have seen and heard from previous seasons (on shows like “Access Hollywood,” “The Insider,” etc., so it’s not necessarily reliable), at this point the contestants get to work with a stylist, but by and large they dress themselves (insofar as they get a wardrobe stipend and get to choose their own outfits). I don’t think heels are required, per se, but they’re certainly de rigueur in a way, since the girls are trying to look like professionals – although what kind of professional is sometimes suspect. Or, in other words: if they wear uncomfortable shoes, they’ve got nobody to blame but themselves.
I thought that even Stevie sounded bad last night. It confirmed for me that the sound mixing is pretty lousy.
Maybe the judges should have said what they think:
Randy: You know I love you, dawg, but when you’re Stevie Wonder you have to be, like, really GOOD, dawg, and that was just a’ight for me.
Paula: I love you. I love everything about you. You’re just so wonderful. [continues blithering until Simon cuts her off]
Simon: You sounded very OLD, and that’s not good. Terrible song choice. You can do better.
LOL!
As his performance went on, I was trying mentally to rank him as if he’d been one of the AI contestants … and he didn’t make Top 4, IMHO. In all truth, if that song came on my radio, I’d have been switching to another station after about 30 seconds.
Ryan the next night:
Randy said it was just a’ight. Paula said it was wonderful. Simon said you can do better. America voted. Stevie, you’re … Hey! Did you try to peek at the card!?
I think last night confirmed that Lisa, for all her professionalism and composure during performances, is still only 16. She looked totally petrified. She may be able to handle performing but the elimination nights might push her over the edge.
I think she suffered from the “she’s good so other people will vote for her” syndrome. Unless she totally bombs next week she should be spared from the bottom three, because more people should vote for her to save her next time.
snort
I’m still loving Covais. Whatever. He’s ENTERTAINING.
Melissa deserved to go just for forgetting the lyrics. At this point in the game, you just don’t do it.
Yeah, but she didn’t sound as bad as Ace.
Because I am, apparently, either a big loser or completely obsessed, I ended up watching some of last week’s elimination show on tape last night. I just wanted to see Will one more time (sniff). And weirdly enough, it made me regain some appreciation for Ace. I know! What?
He is obviously outgunned in the singing department - though at times he can pull it out and do a good job. Remember the first show after Hollywood? He rocked! But what is really going for him is his intense likeability. He’s always the first one with a hug for whoever makes it, and another when they don’t. When Will was voted out, he practically climbed on Ace for comfort and stayed there. Maybe I’m projecting, but he seems to be - even more than Kevin - the AI mascot-slash-morale builder. And he and Chris make very very very very pretty hetero life-mates (except I suspect that Ace is not-so hetero, but whatever…)
Ace simply doesn’t have the singing chops to make it very far in AI, but I feel I’m not the only one who will miss him when he’s gone. He needs to get on a soap opera or MTV or something - he’s too magnetic to just fade away.
I’m not at all against giving Ace the congeniality award.
Yes! And let him stay and hang out for the rest of the season! Just not sing.
It’s now posted on the official site that “songs of the 50’s” are next week’s theme. Barry Manilow is a guest… he just released a CD of 50’s songs.
Let the speculation begin. Boy, we have some perfect setups here…
Obviously, Taylor should/will/must do something by Ray Charles (How about “Night Time is the Right Time”?)
Chris “Rock and Roll Music”
Mandisa “Let the Good Times Roll”
Katherine “Fever”
Kevin “Don’t Be Cruel”
Kellie “The Great Pretender” (ha ha!)
Whoever is going to get kicked off: “Que Sera, Sera”
Ace “My Song” (because it’s by Johnny Ace)
Help me out here…