The worst top 12 ever!
Wow, what a travesty. It's unbelievable that they could come up with such a poor top 24 to begin with, and then tonight get rid of four of the better singers in that top 24 before we even got to the final 12. I know some will accuse me of exaggeration, but I really do think tonight was the worst American Idol elimination show ever. And now we undoubtedly have one of the worst top 12's ever.
Here's why. The most notorious, unfortunate eliminations in Idol history were still only one person wrongly getting eliminated. And in most cases, they had already been on the show for a long time and were going a week or two early. Sure, Tamyra shouldn't have been eliminated that first year in the final four, but she still might have lost out to Justin Guarini the next week before we got to the finals (not saying that was right, but it wouldn't have shocked anyone.) A lot of people think Chris Daughtry went home too early, but let's be honest--some people had started to tire of his similar-sounding performances every week, and lots of people like Taylor Hicks and Elliot Yamin.
But tonight we had FOUR people all getting eliminated before they even got to show their stuff in the final 12--and all of them were clearly better than other people who made the final 12. Let's start with the women, because that was the most upsetting. We lost Lilly Scott, who while I did remark the other day might have been a little bit of a one-trick pony. But even if I'm right, it's a really good trick. She's got a cool-sounding voice, and she sings in tune and picks interesting songs--three more things she's got going for her than half of the top 12. She clearly earned a spot in the top 12--she didn't even have a bad performance in the semifinals.
Then we have Katelyn Epperly. Not only was she very cute, but she could sing. Her first two performances were quite good--even if Simon didn't like the first one--and she showed versatility, doing a Beatles sort-of-rocker and then a slow Coldplay song at the piano. Sure, her Carole King tune wasn't that great, but it's not like it was out of key--even though the judges savaged her for no apparent reason. It was competently but unexcitingly performed, which is more than you could say for many of the other women. Unfortunately, if she had just stood without a keyboard and belted it out like she did tonight, she might have survived.
And who do we have making it in ahead of them? Take your pick. There's Katie Wheeler, who actually has a nice voice but was way out of tune this week on "Breakaway" and isn't particularly original--although I'm willing to give her a break because the judges have so messed with her head she has no idea what's going on and people felt sorry for her. Then we have Lacey Brown, who was terrible for two weeks, had a decent performance this week and still has no chance of winning the competition because her thin voice may be pleasant but is nothing special. And then there's Paige Miles, who Simon, even tonight, was talking about her potential but has done absolutely nothing to make us see any of that potential. She's had three mediocre to bad performances in a row. How does someone make the top 12 on American Idol not giving one good performance? She did nothing to earn a spot at all. I'm speechless.
As for the guys, Todrick Hall has his problems, but at least he was interesting. Alex Lambert was kind of uncomfortable to watch because of his stage fright, but he had a really good voice. In a stronger year, I could understand either of them not making the finals. But look who made it in front of them. Tim Urban--who gave one of the worst semifinals performances in recent memory in week one, barely improved in week two and then gave a decent but way overpraised performance last night? You're going to regret that hug, Ellen, when we're still listening to Tim Urban churn out crappy performances in April. Aaron Kelly? Really? After all the talk of artistry, the judges overpraise some teenager who just sings pop country songs, and not even that well, and he somehow gets through to the top 12? Wow.
So we're left with a lackluster top 12 that starts with five singers that are already cannon fodder--unless, of course, we get more wacky voting results. I have no idea what America is thinking, and whether the completely wacky judges remarks have anything to do with it, but I'm not excited to slog through the next 11 weeks of this. A quick theory, though: Could this be some kind of reaction to the increasing emphasis by Idol on singers using instruments and rearranging songs? Everyone eliminated tonight either played their own instrument at some point during the competition or, like Todrick, totally revamped songs. Meanwhile, Aaron, Tim, Paige, Katie and Lacey didn't play instruments and sang their songs straight, no rearrangements. Hmmm? Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Here's why. The most notorious, unfortunate eliminations in Idol history were still only one person wrongly getting eliminated. And in most cases, they had already been on the show for a long time and were going a week or two early. Sure, Tamyra shouldn't have been eliminated that first year in the final four, but she still might have lost out to Justin Guarini the next week before we got to the finals (not saying that was right, but it wouldn't have shocked anyone.) A lot of people think Chris Daughtry went home too early, but let's be honest--some people had started to tire of his similar-sounding performances every week, and lots of people like Taylor Hicks and Elliot Yamin.
But tonight we had FOUR people all getting eliminated before they even got to show their stuff in the final 12--and all of them were clearly better than other people who made the final 12. Let's start with the women, because that was the most upsetting. We lost Lilly Scott, who while I did remark the other day might have been a little bit of a one-trick pony. But even if I'm right, it's a really good trick. She's got a cool-sounding voice, and she sings in tune and picks interesting songs--three more things she's got going for her than half of the top 12. She clearly earned a spot in the top 12--she didn't even have a bad performance in the semifinals.
Then we have Katelyn Epperly. Not only was she very cute, but she could sing. Her first two performances were quite good--even if Simon didn't like the first one--and she showed versatility, doing a Beatles sort-of-rocker and then a slow Coldplay song at the piano. Sure, her Carole King tune wasn't that great, but it's not like it was out of key--even though the judges savaged her for no apparent reason. It was competently but unexcitingly performed, which is more than you could say for many of the other women. Unfortunately, if she had just stood without a keyboard and belted it out like she did tonight, she might have survived.
And who do we have making it in ahead of them? Take your pick. There's Katie Wheeler, who actually has a nice voice but was way out of tune this week on "Breakaway" and isn't particularly original--although I'm willing to give her a break because the judges have so messed with her head she has no idea what's going on and people felt sorry for her. Then we have Lacey Brown, who was terrible for two weeks, had a decent performance this week and still has no chance of winning the competition because her thin voice may be pleasant but is nothing special. And then there's Paige Miles, who Simon, even tonight, was talking about her potential but has done absolutely nothing to make us see any of that potential. She's had three mediocre to bad performances in a row. How does someone make the top 12 on American Idol not giving one good performance? She did nothing to earn a spot at all. I'm speechless.
As for the guys, Todrick Hall has his problems, but at least he was interesting. Alex Lambert was kind of uncomfortable to watch because of his stage fright, but he had a really good voice. In a stronger year, I could understand either of them not making the finals. But look who made it in front of them. Tim Urban--who gave one of the worst semifinals performances in recent memory in week one, barely improved in week two and then gave a decent but way overpraised performance last night? You're going to regret that hug, Ellen, when we're still listening to Tim Urban churn out crappy performances in April. Aaron Kelly? Really? After all the talk of artistry, the judges overpraise some teenager who just sings pop country songs, and not even that well, and he somehow gets through to the top 12? Wow.
So we're left with a lackluster top 12 that starts with five singers that are already cannon fodder--unless, of course, we get more wacky voting results. I have no idea what America is thinking, and whether the completely wacky judges remarks have anything to do with it, but I'm not excited to slog through the next 11 weeks of this. A quick theory, though: Could this be some kind of reaction to the increasing emphasis by Idol on singers using instruments and rearranging songs? Everyone eliminated tonight either played their own instrument at some point during the competition or, like Todrick, totally revamped songs. Meanwhile, Aaron, Tim, Paige, Katie and Lacey didn't play instruments and sang their songs straight, no rearrangements. Hmmm? Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Labels: American Idol
posted by Eric Fingerhut at 11:10 PM
1 Comments:
I completely agree. I'm really not looking forward to the rest of the season. I guess that I hope Casey wins the whole thing, and I enjoy Crystal, Andrew, and Siobhan. But Katelyn was my favorite and Lily was certainly worthy of the top 12.
Anyone think that it's silly that we need to have 6 males and 6 females? Why can't it just be the twelve best?
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