Three contestants left - Josh Krajcik, Chris Rene, and Melanie Amaro. They each performed a duet and a song last night; for my money, Josh was the clear winner for singing something that I would actually listen to (a very nice version of “At Last,” with lovely guitar and him nailing a very difficult song). Chris Rene posed, sang somewhat badly, then posed some more. Melanie Amaro sang “Listen” by Beyoncé - I’m a Beyoncé fan, and I have never heard that song, so props for not going the obvious route, I guess. Melanie belted it out - it was a very good performance of a very boring power ballad, with tons of melisma.
Josh should win it for being the best musician left; Chris might win it for being the best performer left, and Melanie might win it for being a completely predictable, un-challenging young girl singer.
I was pretty sure Chris Rene was going to win - lots of people liked his lack of ability to actually sing, and praised him for not doing drugs for a whole eight months; I thought he wasted 14 1/2 minutes of his 15 minutes of fame.
Biggest problem with this show overall was the way, way overproduced production numbers. Every song had $350,000 of lights, smoke, 400 member back up choirs, pyrotechnical effects, tap dancing monkeys, Cirque du Soleil acrobats dropping from the ceiling, unicorns, rainbows, costumes designed by bitter drag queens and choreography by by a spastic meth addict. Super Bowl half time shows look demure in comparison.
Plus, the five minutes of actual singing in a two hour long show. That leaves, let’s see, 100 minutes of commercials and 15 minutes of judges flapping their gums to say things that contribute absolutely nothing to the world.
I predict that Chris Rene will have a huge career: doing his own material he was far and away the most interesting and creative of the three. Amaro is BORING as hell, the way perfect singers usually are. I like Josh, but he’s pretty predictable in his groove. Chris really has something to bring, and he will be bringing it.