'American Idol': It's disco week
Uh, for some reason WBFF is showing King of Queens instead of American Idol. That's kind of weird, no?
Thankfully, I'm in Howard County, so five minutes in, I flip over to the D.C. affiliate just in time to see host Ryan Seacrest introduce the first performer. Yikes!
So!
Lil Rounds is first, with "I'm Every Woman." She is wearing a unitard, but she's rocking it as well as one can! I thought she did a pretty good job with such a big song. Judge Randy Jackson doesn't dig it, though. He doesn't think it showed off what kind of artist she can be. Kara DioGuardi says she doesn't think it was worth the wait for her to sing Chaka Khan. Paula Abdul says yesterday Lil was on total vocal rest and applauds her for recovering so well. Simon Cowell says Lil looks so sad, and then she starts talking. It's Simon's turn! He says he thinks it's her last week because she was too copycat and the arrangement was a mess. It seems to me like they are being extra-hard on her tonight. I thought that was better than she's been in a few weeks.
I switch back over to WBFF; it's all better now. Whew!
Kris Allen says he was worried about disco week, but he thinks it worked out OK. He's doing "She Works Hard for the Money." He takes it all acoustic -- he's on guitar, there are two guys playing drums, and another guy on bass. It's a whole new song, but it's good. I wasn't sure what he was going to do with disco week, but he made it work. Kara says he took a real risk, but it paid off big time. She says it sounded like it could be on a record now. Paula says it had a classy Santana vibe, going on that while a lot of women shop in the men's department, not many men can pull of shopping in the women's department, but, "It was a perfect fit." Heh. Simon says it was a polar opposite from the first performance -- "It was original, it was well thought-out, it was not karaoke." Randy says he knows who he is and he just proved he's ready for the big time.
Danny Gokey is next with Earth, Wind and Fire's "September." His voice sounds pretty good, as usual, but it's such a standard approach after Kris' that I kind of feel bad for him. He mixes it up a little toward the end, though. Randy says he worried about the song choice, but he still turned it into something that really worked for him. Kara was worried, too, but he's an incredible vocalist and always on pitch. Paula says he always takes his range a step further than she thinks he can and he showed off his agility. She adds that he has one of the sexiest voices ever. Simon can't fault the vocals, but says he didn't get any "star power" from the performance, which he thought was a little awkward and clumsy.
Allison Iraheta is going to sing "Hot Stuff," but she turns it into a rock ballad. Also, she appears to be wearing a latex outfit. She sounds good vocally, but it's a little weird. Randy says he didn't love the "overindulgent" arrangement, "You're one of the best singers in the competition." Kara agrees about the arrangement, but the performance and song choice were right on. Paula says, "The word compromise is not even in your musical vocabulary." In other words, she liked the arrangement. Simon says she would always be an underdog on disco night, but, "That was a brilliant performance."
Adam Lambert tells Ryan he's doing "If I Can't Have You," and of course, there will be tweakage. He does it as a ballad, and he's brought out the suit and pompadour again, looking slick. Paula cries, as she tends to. Randy says he is showing his range, and that he is "ready right now." Kara just says he is brilliant and inspiring. Paula says he took a disco song and didn't make it cliche (in a lot more words than that). Simon thought for sure he was going to do Donna Summer, but he was original and unexpected and memorable. Not to mention, he says, the vocals "were immaculate." He credits Michael Orleans for helping with the arrangement.
Matt Giraud, who got saved last week, decides to go literal with the choice of "Stayin' Alive." He's dressed like Justin Timberlake circa 2003, and he does a soulful twist on the song. It's actually his best performance in weeks (the last note excluded). Randy says he didn't love the song choice or arrangement, but Matt showed that he can sing. Kara says he "brought disco back," and she was glad to see him move and his performance was solid. Paula says he picks songs like she bowls, and this was a strike. She says he saved his own life, and he's staying. Wow, really? Two people are leaving, and she has predicted that just about everyone is staying. Simon says it came across as a bit desperate, and he didn't hear any originality.
Anoop Desai sings "Dim All the Lights." Why did all the boys stop shaving? So, his voice sounds great (except the last note, eep), but the lyrics are a little repetitive, and it doesn't really show him off that much. Randy says again that he didn't like the arrangement, but his voice sounded awesome. "Nice, baby, nice." Kara liked the choice and the beat and thought it sounded like it could be on the radio. She adds that he's hitting his stride. Paula says he looks fantastic, and that his vocals were great. She adds that he should smile more: "You've got beautiful teeth." Simon: "That was mediocre at best. I prayed that the tempo was going to come in; it did. ... Genuinely, that was your worst performance by a mile."
Call me crazy or boring or whatever, but I expect a bottom three like last week: Lil, Matt and Anoop.
What do you think? Who did you like? Hate? Agree with? Disagree with?
Comments
I agree with you 100% that the bottom three will be Matt, Lil and Anoop with Lil being a definate elimination. Best of the night, in my opinion, Adam and Chris with Allison a close third.
Posted by: Melody | April 21, 2009 10:26 PM
Adam Lambert is the WINNER !!!
He is Steve Perry Jr. Please tell Adam to do some Journey for us, Open Arms ? or Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin ? Adam is awesome !!!!!!!!
The Blankenship
North Carolina
Posted by: Emily Blankenship | April 21, 2009 10:52 PM
LIL: I totally agree with Simon - I still don't have a feel for who she is because she always does such literal takes on songs
KRIS: didn't really give him a second thought, but I'm starting to after that performance
DANNY: he has an amazing voice, I'm almost positive that he can pull off any arrangement he is given
ALLISON: sorry, but the rocker chick act is getting kinda old for me. I'd like to see her try something else at least once so we can see if she can hit any other notes (no pun intended!)
ADAM: where does he come up with this stuff?!? and he looked delicious :)
MATT: i will preface this by saying that i am a fan...i though his performance last week was amazing, the song fit him SO well, and the judges hated it. I about died when he almost got eliminated and almost had a coronary when they saved him! Then he pulled out another great song and clearly tried not to oversing it but still show his range...I loved it :)
ANOOP: he seems like a sweetheart, but I'm just kinda bored with him. Nothing extraordinary, he's just good.
Posted by: ray | April 21, 2009 10:54 PM
i thought that lil, allison, & adam were the best tonight. i heard what the judges said about lil & i don't agree with them. i think she has the best 'pure' voice of the whole group but, her song selection has been a little disappointing & yet, you can still feel the power of her voice. if she was having problems as paula said, she did a fantastic job tonight. ever since an article popped up about the judges already knowing the final four, their judgement has been deliberately off base. when the judges didn't save alexis, i knew something was wrong. this show should be done without any judging from the judges & left entirely up to america.
Posted by: pat smith | April 21, 2009 10:56 PM
I'm for voting Matt off. All disco sucks, but the disco that sucks the most is Bee Gees disco. Of all the horrible disco music Matt could have picked, he picked the most horrible.
In this regard, Adam and Kris get props for improving their disco selections by not singing them as disco music. (Which, if I haven't mentioned it yet, sucks.)
By the way, Paula could dance to the phone book...
SKK: If he was going for song choice having a literal meaning, he might have had better luck with "I Will Survive."
Posted by: Bucky | April 21, 2009 11:13 PM
Thankyou for providing such a great review. I agree that the bottom three should stay the same from last week. I am extremely over lil rounds at this point. I feel she should go home NOW!!!. Her attitude needs to be fixed, and shes is letting america see her sklip, fall, and well fail.
Posted by: Jennifer Lacayo | April 21, 2009 11:44 PM
can we just fast forward to the final four of allison, kris, gokey and adam? it'd be a lot less painful. im pulling for allison... but kris won me over tonight
Posted by: lore | April 22, 2009 12:12 AM
I think the 2 people who are going home tomorrow night is Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai. Sorry. Lil Rounds is really a good singer but she is always picking the wrong songs. Anoop-well. I'm going to be honest. There are other better singers than him. But not to be mistaken he is a really good balladeer. Matt Giraud still has another week ahead of him. Although he might be in the bottom 3 again. SADLY! I like him.
Posted by: Unknown | April 22, 2009 12:25 AM
"Call me crazy or boring or whatever, but I expect a bottom three like last week: Lil, Matt and Anoop." You are not really going out on much of a limb there considering they were the three worst performers last night.
On another note, I think the producers or directors or FOX finally figured out something last night by the time Danny performed that I have been saying for weeks. The shows don't run long because there are four judges. The shows run long because Kara and Paula always sat there and waited to start their critique until the audience stopped applauding. Kara waited way too long after Kris' performance last night, and after Danny sang (for the rest of the night) Randy started all of the critiquing. He could care less how loud the crowd is. Fox should have figured that out during the top 12. I did!
Posted by: Scooter | April 22, 2009 7:49 AM
Lil and Anoop need to go home. Period. As for the 3rd person in the bottom 3, I don’t know, I think it could either be Danny or Matt. I love them both, but they were a little weak, but someone has to be the 3rd person.
I thought Kris did extremely well last night. I LOVED his performance, and I agree, he's sneaking up on everyone each week.
Allison is so amazing, loved her last nigh, but she needs a better stylist. Whoever is dressing her needs to go. And, I hate to admit this, even though I am not a huge Adam fan, I thought he did really well last night. It was nice to see he can actually SING when he really wants to instead of screaming or shrieking as usual.
I thought Danny did OK, not spectacular, but good none-the-less.
Matt also was another who, I thought, just did OK. It was entertaining, but no WOW factor for me.
I didn't even recognize Anoops song, AT ALL, and he's another in need of a new stylist.... they need to stay away from 'The Pink'.
And as for Lil.... oh my, so sad. I used to love to dance to that song back in the 70's. It was an anthem for so many women, but boy oh boy, she killed that song for me.
For someone, like myself, who lived thru the 70’s and Disco when it first came out, overall I thought last night was pretty good…(except for Lil and Anoop)
Can’t wait for the results show tonight. It will be great to see some of Disco’s originals, KC from the Sunshine band, Thelma Huston and Freda Payne!!!
Posted by: Nina | April 22, 2009 9:18 AM
I'm not a fan of Adam Lambert, though I get why people like him. However, the judges make it so much worse with the constant over-praise. I laughed out loud when they called ALLISON overindulgent. Yet Adam, the king of overindulgence, has yet to be called on it. The lack of fair judging is staggering. Of course, this is American Idol, after all! I guess I prefer a little more subtlety, like Kris.
Great job with the blogging, Sarah!
Posted by: EA | April 22, 2009 9:39 AM
ADAM AND ALLISON SHOULD BE THE LAST TWO STANDING, BECAUSE THEY ARE THE BEST AND THE BEST LOOKING ON STAGE THEY ARE FACES YOU WANT FORGET, AND VOICES THAT YOU WOULD LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER. THEY COULD SING ANYTHING.
Posted by: DEAN FARMER | April 22, 2009 10:31 PM
Adam FTW!!!! And Allison runner-up!
Posted by: critique | April 22, 2009 10:51 PM