American Idol Update- Season Four

Writing to you from the judges table, Coke products strategically placed: Cathy in Purple, Deb in Red, Tim in Blue

Week Five: Billboard Number Ones

Anyway, after reading the last two episodes you put up tonight, I have a few comments before I go any further.

1)  I can't believe how much you guys (especially Deb) are agreeing with me this season.  I am usually totally the opposite of you guys.

We’re can’t believe it either.

We are closer than we have been before. Kinda creepy!

2)  No offense Tim, but I really disagree with your comments about Carrie singing too much country.  As we all know, this song was originally Pop Idol, which means it was intended for a pop star.  But in recent seasons we've had crooners, r & b singers, and now this season rockers.  So why not country?  She should get the same chance as everyone else.  I agree, I don't like country either and it makes it difficult for me to judge her when she sings songs I don't know, but I think it's interesting that she's doing something different every week.  Besides, she's fitting it into the themes, so why not.

No offense taken, you can disagree all you'd like, it's all a matter of opinion. I was against it when we had John Stevens and it was a Disco theme and they let him slide by giving him a lounge-y disco song to sing. As far as the Rock and R & B singers, to me, that's an off-shoot of pop- you still find these genres on the pop charts. When they get too R & B (nikko), I've called them on it. To me, Country, especially the way Carrie does it, is its own separate genre. AND they have a show for that called Nashville Star, which I make sure not to watch every week. She is fitting it into the themes, and I think because of John Stevens, they may be keeping the themes looser on purpose (note that they've been decades or number ones- I expect will have more decades, movie songs, etc.). I still think she's in the wrong competition.

3)  FYI, I was listening to the radio this morning and they were saying that Justin Guarini's first album only sold like 4,000 copies.  OUCH!  I've never heard of that before.  Creston is twice that size!  Ryan Starr's album only sold like 800!!!  I had more people than that in my high school!  That's just embarrassing.

Hey, they sold more records than any of us have.

I bet Ryan Starr could do well in porn though. 

I think even I would have to look away from THAT. Well, maybe not.

4)  Before I saw this episode, I saw Jennifer Hudson from last season on CNN or something putting her 2 cents in about the redo problem.  According to her it's like a racial thing.  Whatever.  Anyway, after this episode her faves were Vonzell, Scott, and Nikko.  Interesting!

How is it a racial thing I wonder?  That is interesting.

Dumb and far-fetched if you ask me. Did a black person get voted off because of the number screw-up? How many black people voted off since the finals began? There's a lot of racism out there, but so far, AI looks pretty good at avoiding it this year...

Ok, and onto the show...

Theme: Billboard #1's

Great theme in my opinion.  I don't remember them doing this theme before in recent seasons, but I like how it really opens them up to do anything they like.

Hmmm, opens them up to anything they like...say, what if they like COUNTRY? :)

Anthony (I knew you were waiting for me) - BORING!!! OK, kind of bland.  Don’t like the jacket and jeans look, didn’t suit him.  Light and poppy but not in a good way.

I think he looks better, and this is the best I've seen him sing. Still not my thing, but I thing this was a decent song choice for him.

Carrie (Alone) - Good song choice, bad hair.  Ouch!  I like the idea of her doing rock.  I will say though, that the background vocals were atrocious.  Also, I think she could've moved a little more, but she sounded good. Crazy look!  She sang it very well though.  I think she’s capable of a lot but she doesn’t seem to be hitting her mark yet.

Bad hair, best I've seen her thus far. She can really belt it out when she wants to. The song is cheesy, but so is Carrie...

Scott (Against all odds) - Interesting.  I could never karaoke to this song because who knew that it was called against all odds.  I'd have never found it.  (in fact, it's only been a week since I wrote that in my notes, and now I'm typing it and I already don't remember what song that was.  Pathetic)  As for the performance, it was great as usual with a weak start as usual.  I love him though.  ha ha, I had to rewind to see what the striptease joke was about .  Ouch, greasy glasses?  How funny was that comment?!?!?!

Normally I like him, but this is my least favorite of his performances.  His voice is not strong enough and that disappoints me.  I now can’t really see him being the American Idol which really sucks b/c I liked him a lot.  Great passion though.  Poop, I wish I could remember the greasy glasses comment.

A lot of emotion, which was nice. I think it was a strong performance for him.

BTW, Cathy- Jessica sang this week one- you called it "Take A Look At Me Now" and I called you out on it...guess it didn't register :)

Bo (Time in a bottle) - Cool song choice!  Wow, VERY impressive performance.  Oh, I wasn't a fan of his ending.  Randy is very wrong.  He didn't show off his range, but he really did show off his voice, and I never would've known he had that voice otherwise. Very sweet, was very successful in taking it down a notch.  Sounded great, very honest and sensitive.  Is it my favorite?  Well, no, but that’s because he’s so good at the rocker thing.  But it is good that he showed he has range.

Not bad, I think he made this song his own, brought something new to it. His La Las were a little off. A nice performance that shows he has range, but it was a little off.

Nikko (Incomplete) - I've never even heard that song before.  Good performance though. This song seems a little obscure to me, was it really a #1?  Great vocals and performance though.  What a great voice!  But needs to do something a little more from the heart.

Yeah, really- this was a Number 1? May be a bit too "urban" for AI (Cathy- this was in my original notes) He's good, but not the best.

Vonzelle (Best of my love) - Much better look this week and she's really moving much more naturally.  As for the performance, it was great in spite of the crappy song. Her best so far.  She looked and sounded great.  She was confident and had a lot of fun with it too.  Some people are slipping, but she’s doing better and better each week.

Cathy, you are trying to get me riled up! I LOVE this song! It's awsom- you, apparently, are not any longer. O.K>, you're still awsom, but you're wrong about this. I really liked this, I like the black lady singers this year.

Constantine (I think I love you) - I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SONG!!!!  Much better performance.  I really liked it, but you could tell he was trying to be a "rocker" again.  Try being yourself for a change rather than fitting into either a "rocker" or "nonrocker" mold. Did I call it or what?  See last week’s write-up where I said he sounds like David Cassidy.  Whateva!  Anyway, it was a bad idea to do David Cassidy because he sounds too much like him, thus sounding very karaoke.  This song sounded like David Cassidy and Neil Diamond had a baby.  Stoopid way he was holding the microphone underhanded and stroking his hair.  Ugh – cheesy.  I didn’t like it.

TOTALLY right on the David Cassidy thing- it was like David Cassidy karaoke with a forced rock thing- he may be gone soon...

Nadia (Time after time) - Why?  Why a mohawk?  I liked the performance, but I know she can do so much better.  Cute outfit and movements though.  Well, I guess the hair fits since it's a cindy lauper song, but still a major mistake given the nothing special performance. Can’t say I love the mohawk but it was the only thing I found interesting about the performance.  It was boring and she added nothing to the song.  Cyndi Lauper sang it from the heart, Nadia didn’t.  And what is the deal that she sang it for Mario???  I wonder what that’s all about.

What up with the hair? It was a crazy, sped-up, new-wavey version. I still thing she did a really good job in spite of the weird hair and odd arrangement.

Mikalah (Love will lead you back) - I love this song!  Very very back singing though!  So so so so pitchy. Back singing?  I don’t know what that is.  Anyway I thought it was good, but not engaging.  Hmmm, maybe not even that good.

Crap song, rough start, overall it was cheesy. She seemed off. Yuck.

Anwar (Ain't nobody) - Very weak start.  Very weak performance.  His eyes looked very unfocused like he had something else on his mind.  His worst so far. Needed to loosen up a bit more.  He seemed a little stiff to me.  At some points the vocals were a little weak, not his best but still good.  A bit of a mistake b/c he’s nowhere near as good as Chaka Khan who makes it look effortless.  I love love love this song, and was so excited to hear he was going to sing it, but it was a little bit of a disappointment for me.

This was an interesting choice for him- he needed to get funkier (he's always singing pretty songs) and he did. Nice job.

Jessica (Total eclipse of the heart) - Great song choice for her.  I hate what they did to it.  Honestly, I think she screwed up the words in the middle.  The song was so completely screwed up. What a cool song choice!  She can really sing.  It sure seemed to me that she got the words wrong though, I think b/c of the wacky song arrangement.  I really don’t think it was correct that she repeated the same 2 lines in a row.  But she recovered well.  Very good overall.  I think Jessica has a really great performance in her though.  I predict that sometime in the next few weeks she’ll pick the right song and really hit her mark and blow everyone away.  I hope I’m right.

Good song choice, but she did have the wrong words. Not much else to say about this performance.

Fave 3: Scott, Bo, Jessica

My top 3 are Bo, Jessica, and Vonzell (good for her for getting better each week!)

My fave 3 are Vonzelle, Bo and (I think I'm the only one in America thing this) Nadia

Bottom 3:  Mikalah, Anthony, Nadia with Anthony going home.

The bottom 3 are Constantine, Mikalah, and Anthony.  I think Mikalah will be the one eliminated (and I won’t miss her!)

Bottom 3- same as Deb- Constantine, Anthony and Mikalah, with Mikalah going home.

Hey, I was right- and so was Debbie (again!)

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