I got the impression the Polish judge didn’t know who Jose Feliciano was. At any rate, Will Young did well. I like the way he just kind of laughed the dope of a judge’s insults off and said “thank you”.
The fellow from Norway was excellent. His looks weren’t so bad either. He’s no less pop idol-y looking than Rueben or Clay were. I’ll be happy if he or Will Young win. If not them, then I guess either Kelly or the Canadian should get it.
I think Simon Cowell must be the producer or own the rights to World Idol or something, because when he was raggin’ on that Polish freak didn’t he say something to the effect of “why did I even hire you?”
Is anyone gonna vote for Billy Idol? Or is he a previous winner?
Was anyone else besides me amused at Simon’s comment to a contestent something to the effect of “if the Polish judge likes you, that ought to tell you something”
The guy from Norway ought to win
I’m also leaning towards the Norwegian guy, although I refuse to give any money to Simon and company by actually voting. Will Young was his usual cute self; his recent output has been much better than his Pop idol-generated stuff (including Light My Fire), so my reaction to his performance was “Eh”. Liked the Australian guy too; he and Will are much of a muchness.
The German and Polish performers picked completely inappropriate songs for their voices and styles; the background clips of the Polish girl showed she had a fabulous voice, but she nevertheless managed to beat “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” to a bloody pulp. Horrible.
The inclusion of the Middle Eastern woman and the rock dude singing Kurt Cobain was slightly surreal, but at least added a breath of fresh air to the proceedings. It was obvious no one wanted to incur a fatwa by saying anything negative about the Arabic song.
And Ant and Dec are indeed too cute for words. It amuses me that they apparently only have one personality between them, as they tend to win TV and entertainment awards as a single unit. Note they also always stand with Ant on the [viewers’] left and Dec on the right, so they’re always “Ant ‘n’ Dec” in that order.
I also found it surreal that the guy from Belgium use the word “homeys” in a sentence.
Will Young’s backround clips promised a great voice, but when he performed, it was too much like Goat Girl (Carmen Rassmusen ?) from the most recent American Idol.
Cute indeed. I’ve been seeing too much LotR (Two Towers DVD extras, FotK commentary track and RotK at the cinema – all in one week!) as of late because they instantly reminded me of that other cute twosome: Merry 'n Pippin!
Pity those of us in the US get Ryan Seacrest because I much prefer Ant 'n Dec.
That Norwegian guy (Kurt?) was amazing! I was a huge fan from the second I heard his voice. He deserves to win - and it would be a real shame if looks kept him down.
I loved the Belgium guy (Peter?). He did a great job, and I loved his choice of song. I found it bizarre that the judges did not comment on his performence, but instead attacked him for being a sell-out. WTF? He was great, and the principals of the hard rock/grunge world in general have absolutely nothing to do with anything.
I was really impressed by the Canadian guy (Ryan?)… his voice just seems to flow out, it’s incredible. He was really good.
Germany, Poland and England sucked ass. All three did a poor job and their song choices were unfortunate. I can’t believe that Will from England got so much good feedback on such a half-assed effort.
Guy from Australia… well, he was never my favourite. To me, he sounds like just like a lot of other singers, and I’ve never been a fan of his version of What A Wonderful World. I wish him well because he seems like a genuinely nice person, but his style of music isn’t the sort I would listen to.
Kelly Clarkson did not deserve the praise that was heaped on her. Pete Waterman hit the nail on the head when he said she did too much trilling - like Mariah Carey and a bunch of other female singers with great voices, she sacrifices the song in order to show off her vocal range and control. Yeah, she does it well, but I’d rather hear the song without the trilling and carrying on. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Simon Cowell is a jerk. A biased, arrogant jerk. He slammed all the contestants that he hadn’t personally dealt with in the past, and then he praised Kelly and Will to the roof. He got up the Canadian and Polish judges for daring to have an opinion that was different to his own, and most of his “constructive criticism” had zilch to do with the performances of the artists, focusing on insulting their appearance and style.
JMHO, of course! 
The whole thing would have been much better if Simon had lost it and started beating on the Polish judge…but then maybe I’m just tired of all this Idol business.
However, I did think it was neat of that one girl to sing in her own language. It was quite special I thought.
After all, it was called WORLD IDOL. I hoped more would sing in their own languages.
I saw about 10 minutes of this while idly zapping around channels. I thought the Polish girl was cute and had bags of youthful energy and sparkle. She won’t win, but she lit up the screen for a while and gave the show some life and voltage. I got the impression that if we could just plug her into the national grid we’d solve the energy crisis. I’ve seen Kelly a few times during trips to the US - hell of a voice and she can really sing, but she’s very much a product of her generation with all the over-trilling and ‘decoration’. I’m glad I missed Will Young. I’ve nothing against him, and good luck to him and his success, but how he ever won anything I’ve simply no idea.
The two presenters, Ant and Dec, are the golden boys of telly presenting here in the UK, and have worked their way up the showbiz ladder very successfully. They have their critics, but I think they deserve all their success and they are very good at presenting live, spontaneous unscripted TV - ask any producer and they’ll tell you that presenters who can do this well and safely are like gold dust.
The funny thing is the Australian media is blaming Ian “Dicko” Dickson (most think “Dicko” is a shortened version of his surname, it is actually short for dickhead) for improving the chances of the Norwegian contestant. Apparently his reference to him having “the face of a hobbit” has made him the overwhelming internet favourite ahead of Aussie Guy Sebastian.
Yeah. Doesn’t he know that being an arrogant jerk is just the kind of thing to get people talking about the programme? And friction makes for more interesting TV than everyone being nice to each other? Why, this TV format could have been really popular and gone world-wide if it wasn’t for his behaviour!
He’s an idiot. An incredible wealthy idiot earning millions. It really must keep him awake at nights, sleeping in his millionaire mansion on piles of money.
Yeah, since every country had a token jerk judge, why didn’t they have all of them for the international event. I may have watched then.
He wasn’t my favorite because he looked like a hobbit. He was my favorite because he has a helluva voice. Anyone who thinks that people are voting for him because of Dicko’s comments, obviously didn’t hear him sing. It sounds to me like the media would rather make a scapegoat out of Dicko than admit that the the Australian guy, Guy, didn’t sing as well Kurt (aka Hobbit Boy) that night.
I liked the Australian guy’s personality and voice, but not his excessive noodling around the song. I’m just not a fan of that style.
I liked the South African guy’s looks – he has that pop idol bland prettiness – but he conveyed the personality of a dead fish.
I enjoyed the Canadian guy’s singing a lot; great voice, good song choice.
Loved the Arab woman’s singing – like Simon said, I have no idea if it was any good or not, but she was singing music that’s popular in a large chunk of the world and I thought she had style and great dignity. I was just sorry we didn’t have someone from India doing some Bollywood-style number, too; the whole world doesn’t hang on Western pop music.
I thought Will Young was adorable; loved the Feliciano version of Light My Fire he did – I’m old enough to remember the original, and recognized it immediately – but I don’t think it was a strong enough song to show if he has talent or not. What type of songs has he been releasing?
My definite favorite was the young man from Norway. I even stooped so low as to actually vote for him, in a momentary fit of madness. He has a great voice, however, and fabulous control. Way too good for such a crappy competition.
But man, that Polish judge was a freak!
I’ve actually liked some of his recent releases (although not enough to buy them). As befitting his voice, he tends to stick to “lite” pop with a jazzy feel. I’d classify it as “easy listening” if it weren’t for the fact that pretty much everything classified as pop these days is essentially easy listening.
Peter (was that his name?) was just upsetting. All he did was a Kurt Cobain impression. Not a bad one, but nothing at all impressive. Why doesn’t he just form a Nirvana cover band? Oh, wait. He doesn’t play guitar (or anything) as far as I know. And he has no presence. If he wants to make rock music, that’s great. But the entire point of Nirvana was that they started something completely new- the grunge movement. Whichever judge said that Peter doing an impersonation of Kurt would be Kurt’s worst nightmare was right. It’s been almost 10 years since he killed himself and Peter showed no respect. He could have at least made the song his own.
Canadian guy: Ryan Malcolm.
And I’m totally hot for him.
He’d be great as the lead in TRASH!, the fantastic musical CuriousCanuck and I are writing. 
I’m sorry, I must have used the words “idiot” and “not commercially viable” in a font that only you can see. How foolish of me, when it was my intention to question how useful his feedback was to the performers and not how entertaining he was to the audience. :rolleyes: