American Idol: Top 8 Performance Night
I'm sad to report that I find myself fading out of American Idol. I don't know if it's just that I've watched for so long now and the sheen is wearing off or if it's the contestants this year, but I'm just not nearly as invested as I once was. Keep in mind that I do believe that there is a high volume of excellent singers this year, but there's only one that is consistently wowing me and it's that one and that one only that I find myself eagerly looking forward to each week. And his name is Adam Lambert.
Kara Dioguardi keeps using the word "artist" and she's exactly right. An artist is not only talented, but knows exactly who he or she is. An artist can take a song would seem to be an odd choice and make it completely his or her own. An artist, no matter the props or the costumes or the make-up, makes his or her audience realize that the song doesn't matter in the slightest because what you see is what you get. An artist shocks and surprises and entrances and consistently defies expectations. An artist keeps his or her audience on their toes all while remaining completely true to his or her self. And Adam is the only performer who fits this description to a tee.
And with that out of the way, on to the (lackluster) show...
1) Danny Gokey, "Stand by Me": While I hated the arrangement -- cheesy, hokey, too jazzy -- Danny's vocals were solid as usual. Although, I think that this choice was a cop-out given that it's the original Ben E. King version that everyone knows and loves and seeing as Danny was born in 1980, he had a plethora of great music from which to choose. Still, a good performance.
2) Kris Allen, "All She Wants to Do is Dance": A fun song. A fun performance. So why was I bored? Kris has done really well in the past few weeks, and I think on the whole, this performance was wickedly sub-par. Meh.
3) Lil Rounds, "What's Love Got to Do With It": Wow, what is going on with Lil? She was such a high point and hopeful in the early rounds and suddenly, she can't do anything right. Tina Turner was an obvious choice for Lil, but it was too obvious. Lil seems to be doing her damnedest to be a larger-than-life diva (Tina, Celine Dion) when she's much more of a flavorful and cool diva (Mary J. Blige). Problem is... she doesn't know that. It's becoming glaring obvious, despite Lil's clear vocal prowess, that she has no idea who she is as an artist. And if she doesn't know who she is, then how is her audience supposed to know? I'm so disappointed with Lil, and that saddens me.
4) Anoop Desai, "True Colors": Color (heh) me surprised. Anoop went with a gender-bending turn that seems to be oh-so-popular this year... and it worked. Totally. Original, current, beautiful vocals, great falsetto, and for a song so well known and so iconic, Anoop made it his own. A very, very good showcase. And his plea of forgiveness for his past week's smug attitude was both endearing and unnecessary. Nicely done.
5) Scott MacIntyre, "The Search is Over": Um, okay. I'll give Scott a little leeway because he clearly knows where he stands in this competition and not only is he fine with that, he's funny about it. But... vocally, he strained and he strained, and his guitar? A total distraction. Scott is not a rockstar -- not even remotely -- so why even make the attempt? And not only was the electric guitar wrong for the song, but he barely even played it. Yeah, he's done.
6) Allison Iraheta, "I Can't Make You Love Me": Kimberley Locke (Season 2) is, was, and will always be my favorite Idol contestant and this song was her signature moment. While Allison was vocally sound and her tone fit the song perfectly, I was disappointed. She gave the performance a tender edge (which worked to make it her own), but story of the song is anything but tender. It's pleading and heart-breaking and soul-wrenching, and when Kim did the song, she played every moment of that. Allison did not, and a lot was lost in translation. She does deserve to stick around, however, seeing as she's really the only girl left worth investment.
7) Matt Giraud, "Part-Time Lover": Damn, did that go horribly wrong or what? I cannot fathom the gushing of the judges. While Matt's opening was excellent with some great notes and riffs, the song ultimately fell apart. Matt tried to do way too much and a Stevie Wonder classic like this should simply be sung. Matt went overboard and he suffered for it.
8) Adam Lambert, "Mad World": Many people missed this performance with the show running long and that's a great disservice to the audience. All of what I said about Adam at the beginning of this post was represented with this performance. A haunting song. A haunting performance (stillness, singular stark lighting). Haunting vocals. Adam knows exactly who he is and he proved it unequivocally with a perfect -- perfect! -- song choice. Adam is a star, and he knows it. As he should.
*The Journey Continues: Adam, hands down. Danny and Anoop are pretty much good to go as well... even though they are miles behind Adam.
*Pack Your Bags: Lil, Scott, and Matt should be very, very worried. I'd say that Kris should be too, but "the pretty" will be his saving grace. I'm inclined to say that the plane ticket goes to... Scott. Though his self-awareness was surprising and funny, his time is up.
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