The top 11 American Idol contestants performed tonight, and boy was it a trainwreck. It was Billboard No.1 Hits this week and some of the worst, overused, boring, cheesy songs were picked. From "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to "Against All Odds", what were these people thinking??
The show started off with the usual judge's chatter, with Randy reminding us that this week is very important because whoever leaves won't get to be on the tour. That sounds more like a prize to me, the tour is going to be a pitchy mess of cliche, cheese, and horror, I would be dreading it. Anyway, after that information we were introduced to contestants and then showed video of some music chart guru, Fred Bronson, explaining a little about the theme this week. Next we got to see the contestants waiting for their surprise mentor, I bet more than a few had to suppress a laugh when they saw Miley walk into the room. Miley mumbled her way through something, I wasn't really listening. Now we get to the performances, first up was Lee Dewyze.
Lee Dewyze – “The Letter” by the Boxtops
Lee seemed like he tried to change it up tonight, he at least had some stage presence, but it was a little weird for me though. He was still rocking, but I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it and I have never heard of the song before. I still like the rocker tone and vibe to his voice, really reminds me of a 90's rock band lead singer. I agreed with Simon when he said "I’m really surprised you chose that song, that was you doing something quite corny. that doesn’t define you as a contemporary recording artist."
Paige Miles – “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins
Paige, Paige, Paige! This was worse than her "Smile" cover I think. I really liked parts of her performance last week, but this week was just awful, everything was off. Randy said, “Yo WOW. Really honestly? That was honestly terrible. There was nothing about it that was great.” I think she will probably go home tomorrow since I'm sure Tim won't, even though he definitely deserves to.
Tim Urban – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen
Tim covering Queen should be like against Idol Law or something, it was completely a Karaoke-level performance. The only interesting part was when he did a little slide on stage, but that is really no redeeming quality, at least he is kind of pretty? Ellen said "It was corny, it was pushed too hard…I didn’t get it.”
Aaron Kelly – “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith
Aaron was up next with another overexposed Idol song. He apparently has laryngitis and tonsillitis this week, so he might sound bad. His performance was alright, he seems to be getting more confident, the vocals were a little week but I guess that can be blamed on the sickness. I think it's cute that my little 9 year old sister LOVES Aaron, I'm sure a lot of kids do, Ryan hit the nail on the head when he jokingly said “If you want to vote for David Archleta here”.
Crystal Bowersox – “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin
Mamasox was next! She surprisingly let Miley sign her guitar, which I thought was nice of her(nice of Crystal not Miley). I feel Crystal is truly the best in this competition, I don't see how anyone could argue otherwise, especially judging on tonight. I got goosebumps during her performance tonight, during the last half of the song, she is just so authentic and professional and in tune! She could change it up a bit though, stop standing behind the mic stand and a guitar every week, which she probably will not do next week since she said she has some "big plans for next week".
Michael Lynche – “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge
Mike did a good job tonight, albeit an old-fashioned job. He really has some pretty and soft vocals, he used his falsetto well tonight. I think he is a cool guy who can sing well and does cheesy performances, but he never really excites me or has me wanting more. I agreed with Kara when she said “Technically it was really good, it was a bit boring and loungy at times, indulgent, too many riffs."
Andrew Garcia – “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye
Andrew has just totally crashed and burned since Hollywood week. Week after week he is just mediocre and terrible and sometimes creepy. Simon was 100% correct when he said “Maybe we just overrated that moment at that time.”(Referring to "Straight Up") “The arrangement was horrific, you sucked the soul out of that song. You made yourself really really corny."
Katie Stevens – “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie
Katie did a young, new song this week...and she still sucked. It wasn't her worst week, I guess better than last week, but I don't know, she is just really pitchy and boring, I'm positive she will make the tour though.
Casey James – “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis
Casey picked an unexpected and odd song choice, the song from
Back to the Future. He sounded good though and he is probably the best guitar player this year. I liked this performance, didn't love it, but overall it was entertaining. Simon said, “That song was old fashioned, he didn’t make it current, it was like listening to an 80’s cover band." I don't think it was old fashioned but the 80's cover band comment made sense, either way I think Casey sounds current and could be on the radio.
Didi Benami – “You’re No Good” by Linda Ronstadt
Didi took a risk tonight, she changed the arrangement of the song, she was trying to be all sexy and slinky on stage. I thought it was a nice performance, some pitch problems, but not bad. The judge's didn't seem to like it, Ellen said, “I don’t get the song choices tonight. I do love your voice, I didn’t get that.” And Kara said “It felt like you were playing a character, it didn’t feel like it was you, it left me confused.”
Siobhan Magnus – “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder
Siobhan, rocking the Sanjaya faux-hawk, was as entertaining as usual. She has powerful vocals and a unique yet soulful voice. She did her usual end-song yell/screech/Adam Lambert mating call, it wasn't as good as last week, but I admit I was looking forward to hearing it. Simon said "Those big notes are indulgent. I didn’t like it tonight.” Maybe he's right, I still like them though.
Well that's a wrap for the recap! What did you think of this week? I felt it was pretty average and boring and just bad. I think many of the contestants in the top 11 don't deserve to be there. Anyway, leave comments, I'll post a recap of the results tomorrow night!
