American Idol Recap-Week 7
Seacrest in. Tonight our dear Ryan is nattily attired in a conservative outfit of jeans, a blue/green button down shirt and a greyish blazer. He looks so, so normal. Well that's no fun.
Tonight's theme is (drumroll) songs from the year 2000 on. They call these "themes"? Remember back when contestants had to master big band one week and the musical stylings of Burt Bacharach the next? The kids these days have it so easy.
Carrie is up first and before the Idol wannabes sing, we're going to be treated to a look at their hometown lives. Carrie's a farm girl through and true. She claims she even sang to the cows! I believe that. I sing to my animals too. Of course, when I do they run away in horror, but whatever. My cowriter, James, will be pleased to see that Carrie's mom still looks fantastic. So James, I bet Carrie will be beautiful even after you've been married for 20 years.
Carrie is singing "God Fearing Women" by Martina McBride. She's got the good Jennifer-on Days straight hair tonight and is kicking a little ass on this country tune. She still struggles on the low notes, but her stage presence has improved tremendously. She's actually connecting to the audience for once.
Randy: she sounds pitchy
Paula: didn't like the song choice--in other words, she doesn't like country
Simon: doesn't get country music, but the fans will love her
Kris: the song was okay, but she looked like she was having fun, so I liked it.
Clay Aiken is in the house. All over America, pre-teen girls squeal.
Next up is Bo. Bo is from Alabama and his girlfriend (and yes, thousands of girls are crestfallen at those words) looks almost exactly like him. It's kind of freaky. His dad is one of those men who look like Kenny Rogers and finally, his bandmates remind me of the two guys in the Dodge Hemi commercials.
Bo is singing "I Don't Wanna Be" and wearing sunglasses (at night!) and the ugliest poncho I've ever seen. He's concentrating more on looking cool and interacting with the crowd than he is on the singing. Hmmm, but, on the other hand, he is dirty and that's always a good thing. The crowd goes absolutely crazy when he finishes. I think we might see some panties on the stage soon.
Randy: American Idol has a true rock star
Paula: what Randy said
Simon: Bo's got his groove back, but he hates the sunglasses
Kris: Simon's right, the sunglasses are terrible, although the poncho's worse. Hmmm, maybe his girlfriend is helping him pick out his clothes with the ulterior motive of making him look less attractive to other women. I'm convinced that golfer Phil Mickelson's wife has successfully used this technique for years (the pants??).
Vonzell, "the Vonz", is from Florida where she worked as a mail carrier. Awww, that's so sweet. If you watched Project Runway, then you're probably thinking about how cute Vonzell would have looked in Austin's darling postal outfit. I know I am.
Uh oh. Vonzell is singing a ballad, "I Turn To You" by Christina Aguilera. This is a HUGE tactical error. We like upbeat, fun Vonzell, not torch singer Vonzell. And not just that, she's also having problems hitting the notes. It was a rough performance.
Randy: gets points for degree of difficulty
Paula: she turned on the magic, she was "bone chilling"
Simon: has a horrible feeling it wasn't as good as Randy & Paula thought
Kris: As usual, the British man speaketh the truth
Federov lives outside of Philly but is originally from the Ukraine. I hadn't heard that. Why is he keeping that colorful bit of information secret? His dad lovingly says that Federov "isn't just a dreamer, he's a dreammaker".
Anthony is ever-so-earnestly singing some Celine Dion song. I think this is "I Surrender", which I only know because Kelly Clarkson sang it in season one. Federov is doing a great job of singing this so powerfully, but I'm thinking of Kelly's version, which she sang as though the pain of the emotion was going to overwhelm her. In my book at least, you don't want to be compared to Kelly.
Randy: loved the high notes, but very tepid praise
Paula: oh dear, Paula and I are thinking alike as she mentions Kelly's performance too. she thinks this was one of his best performances
Simon: hated it, but thinks Federov is brave and that his fans will like him. he nailed it.
Kris: Simon's right again. I suspect there are more than a few old bettys in Federov's fan club and I also suspect they loved the Celine.
Now it's time for Constantly-Dirty. Life back in New York is just Greeky for our dear Constantine. Aw, he was so cute in his high school graduation picture. What happened?
Constantine is doing his best Jim Morrison imitation while singing "This is How You Remind Me" by Nickelback. He's doing the bleating thing again this week. He's working the charisma, because that's all he's got tonight. He sounds absolutely terrible, I actually wonder if he's sick or something. Ugh, I can't wait for this to be over.
Randy: the girls love him, but Randy thought it was "high on performing and low on vocals"
Paula: didn't like the song, but liked the performance. in other words, she thinks he's hot (ooh, but is he hotter than Corey?). she says it doesn't matter if he gets the notes wrong.
Simon: now that Constantine is on Idol, this kind of rock song makes him nothing more than a poser.
Kris: more sucky than sucky
Now it's time for the punkass. Punkass Scott grew up in the "hood" of Shaker Heights. Scott's parents claim they thought he'd be a priest. Oh god, how creepy is that? Scott thinks that if we went to Cleveland we'd see thousands of "hims" walking around. Remind me again not to go to Cleveland, please.
Scott is singing a song I have never heard before. It's some lame ass ballad. He's also missing all the high notes. And folks, that's all he has. He's so weak in his lower register. He's a one-trick pony and tonight that trick has deserted him.
Randy: his weakest performance in weeks. heh, for a second I thought Randy said it was "bitchy" rather than "pitchy"
Paula: didn't like it, but is too nice to say so
Simon: bye
Kris: WOO!!! I loved it. I'm so mean ;-)
My bottom three: Constantine, Vonzell, Scott
My predicted bottom three: Vonzell, Scott & Federov
The boot: Scott. At last. Praise the lord!
Posted by at April 26, 2005 08:00 PM
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Comments
| # April 26th, 2005 9:58 PM kris |
| For the record, I think that Erika Jo on Nashville Star really is much better than Carrie. |
| # April 26th, 2005 11:43 PM james |
| -carrie was ok, i have to admit, she's gotten really boring lately. and by lately i mean "for the last 4 weeks." she has the fan base, so i guess she can get away with it. best part: simon saying "i dont understand country music, i'm english."
wow, looks like we're being treated to sober and subdued paula. -bo - i disagree with the judges, i dont think this was a good song choice. sure, bo sang it at his usual level, which is really good. but it didn't "rock out" like his early performances. ah, i miss the old carre. i miss the old bo. i miss drunk paula. -the vonz - i regularly skip over these power ballad performaces. because of that, i think i've seen vonzell perform only once before. this isnt going to be my second time. skip! -federov - look out john tesh. skip. - constantine's mother is named constance? huh. wow, this sucks. _I_ could sing it better than that. now that's saying something. heh, he messed up the words and sang over his background singers. this has to be the worst performance of the night. -scott - ballad. skip bottom 3: constantine, scott, federov. voted out: constantine. much to kris' chagrin, scott hangs on another week. this week sucked. good think the nashville star finale is on tonight so can watch some real talent perform. i miss drunk paula. |
| # April 27th, 2005 7:32 AM jagorham |
| My two (Confederate) cents worth:
An interesting choice - New Millennium tunes. Let's remove the rap tunes in the Billboard Top 40 since then, and we probably only have 20 singable tunes. I noticed they have longer singing time now that there are fewer contestants (2 minutes instead of 90 seconds), which opens up the potential songlist. Carrie seems to be the one performer who hasn't improved as the weeks have progressed. She started out one of the better singers, but either the other singers have improved with practice and coaching (re: she's untrainable), or she's not working as hard. In either view, one of the concerns I had with her from the get-go was that she couldn't cross genres. Other than the Heart tune "Alone," all her songs have been country tunes, or countrified versions (e.g., the Rondstadtized version of "When Will I Be Loved.") And Simon was right about being British and country music. Isn't Slim Whitman their idea of a country icon?!? Federov, on the other hand, has been improving week to week, and this week really showed that. I still don't think he's the one to go all the way, but he definitely showing he can get better with the work. Scott was singing a Luther Vandross tune. Or, rather, he was TRYING to sing a Luther song. It stank. It trans-sucked. If I had a rotten tomato, I would have thrown it at the screen. I hope he goes home this week (but then, I've hoped this for weeks....) |
| # April 27th, 2005 12:19 PM BaldEagle |
| Wow. That was bad. Really bad. Everyone was off key except for Bo.
Amazing that Carrie didn't hit a home run since she was in her element. I don't think Scott was as bad as the judges did. For the first time, Constantine was INCREDIBLY bad. Is it too much to hope it will dent his popularity? Probably. |
| # April 27th, 2005 10:13 PM SiCo |
| Corey Clark is starting to look more and more believable to me.
If American Idol is that hard up to keep emotions high by keeping Scott on board than no wonder they're being investigated. I agree with another comment I read somewhere...I think no one should vote next week - what would Simon, Paula, and Randy do if there were no one to send home? We all know Scott will be safe and seeing his ugly mug is getting boring! |