American Idol / March 25 Review
Table of contents for 2/American Idol
Ramiele Malubay sang Hearts Alone. She was a little pitchy but did show an amazing amount of power for such a tiny person. And she is sick too. Not an inspiring performance and it may land her in the bottom three.
Jason Castro sang Fragile and looks more comfortable now that his guitar has returned. The accappella went smoothly. He’s cute but uninspiring for the past several weeks as Simon noted.
Syesha Mercado saing If I Were Your Woman and went beyond past performances with a mature, controlled and yet emotional performance. One of the best performances of the night and hopefully she will get a break tomorrow night.
Chikezie Eze sang If Only For One Night. It was a pretty good arrangement and his voice sounds really good. However it may not keep him out of the bottom three as some of the excitement from several weeks ago has gone away.
Brooke White sang Every Breath You Take and stumbled on the start. The arrangement was dull and she may end up in the bottom three tomorrow.
Michael Johns sang We Will Rock You /We Are The Champions and once again did a good job with a Freddy Mercury song. The back up singers didn’t do him any favors as they were off key. But he feels these songs and sounds great.
Carly Smithson sang Total Eclipse of the Heart. Great start and ending but was screaming a bit in the middle. She improved this week and left the passivity behind so she should stick around for another week. She just needs a great arrangement and a passionate attitude. And she needs to take notes when David Cook sings.
David Archuleta sang Make A Noise. We are not familiar with this tune and are not sure if we got the title right. He seems to choose songs with a message but maybe should just find a great arrangement. Not his best performance. He is being passed by several contestants as he seems to be coasting on his initial popularity.
Kristy Lee Cook sang God Bless the USA and turned in her best performance. Maybe she has tapped into the patriotic feelings out there. If so it was a very clever move as Simon noted. Credit goes to this young woman for remaining positive and working hard even though she is in the bottom three every week. She looks great and may be following the Kelly Pickler path to success as a country artist.
David Cook blew us away with his rendition of Billie Jean. He is very original and established himself as the person to beat in the competition. He has lost the cocky attitude and when he sings he is no longer looking down his nose at the audience. But the main thing is that he is an amazing talent and tonight turned in one of the best performances ever on AI.
Many of the contestants need to find good or even great arrangements at this point to stay in the competition. And they are always being urged to get out of their comfort zones. What many of them don’t seem to realize is that you can be in your comfort zone through part of the song and then make an effort to stretch yourself towards the end. Build the song to reveal something as you reach the end. Too many performances this week had a predictability about them. Everybody here can sing but none come close to David Cook as he slowly stretches a song to its outer limits in a satisfying way.
We take back what we said about no one in this class having the ability of Clarkson, Underwood or Sparks. David Cook may surpass them all. We really didn’t like him the first few weeks and his progress to date is amazing. Hopefully he will forget about the guitar and concentrate on movement and imaginative interpretation in the weeks to come. On his present course he can possibly take AI to places it has not been before when he is actually given time to sing an entire song.
We look forward to that with great interest.
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2 responses so far
My votes go to David Cook and Michael Johns. I have liked David Cook from the start and he continues to blow me away every week with his stage presence and his willingness to take risks. Michael Johns is not as consistently great, but I like him anyway. I think Ramiele is going home.
And I cannot even believe that I am taking the time to write a comment about American Idol. I never even watched it until last year!
It is pretty compelling television. We are waiting for a superstar to be born on this show. I can’t believe how much of my traffic is related to AI posts! A lot! But I will take it. Thanks for commenting in any case.