So we're down to one?

As far as my Jew-counting project on American Idol goes, last week was a week John Galliano would have loved. Of the four possible Jews left on American Idol, all but one were eliminated--and the one's that left is the one whose suspected Jewish heritage I'm most unsure about.

First of all, Rachel Zevita, she of the Hamsa necklace in the auditions, was eliminated after singing a very strange version of Fiona Apple's "Criminal" (like Randy Jackson, I didn't figure out what the song was until it was nearly over.) I did love when she threw off the cape, though, think she had a cool voice and was kind of interesting--but I can't blame America for not voting her through because her actual performance wasn't very good.

Brett Loewenstern, who seemed pretty Jewish, also didn't make it to the second round after singing "Light My Fire" and flipping his hair a lot. I think he probably would have been entertaining as a finalist and wasn't bad--but he had no chance of winning the whole thing, so it wasn't that big a deal.

Finally, there was Robbie Rosen, who actually had an article in the New York Post about him entitled something like "Could He Be the First Jewish American Idol?" The answer is no, not only because he isn't one of the 13 finalists, but also, as my former coworker Anne wrote, "Robbie Rosen was never going to win American Idol." Why? Because his voice wasn't that great and, as far as I'm concerned, he sang too slow. After a mediocre version of "Angel" on Tuesday night, he did get picked as one of the wild card performers, and listening to him sing "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," it sounded like every word was the hardest word for him--because it took him so long to get through the song with all his vocal runs, etc. It became annoying. But I'm sure he's a nice young man.

So all we've got left is Casey Abrams, who has to be considered a favorite with his spellbinding rendition of "I Put A Spell On You." I have no actual evidence, though, that he's Jewish, other than his Jewish-like name of Abrams and his Seth Rogen-like look. Funny story, though--I noticed my blog got a couple hundred hits after the Idol shows last week (and that's way more than usual.) Why? Because lots of people were googling stuff like "Casey Abrams Jewish" and Tim Halperin Jewish" and arriving at my posts from the last couple weeks. (As we discussed last week, the answer to the Tim Halperin question is no.

So what do I think of Idol as we go into the final round? Some random thoughts: I think two of the wild card picks were complete wastes--both Ashthon and Stefano did nothing to distinguish themselves from the dozens of similarly mediocre singers that have been eliminated in the round of 24 over the past five years. Naima, though, is at least compelling and has a good voice. I barely remember the guys other than Casey and Jacob Lusk, which doesn't bode very well. Haley Reinhart is the most (unintentionally) funny contestant they may have ever had on the show with her overwrought, trying-too-hard vocals. Pia Toscano had a nice performance, but Randy proclaiming it one of the best performances ever on Idol makes me wonder whether his Simon Cowell-like judging this year may be short-lived. And Karen Rodriguez singing in Spanish--sorry, I don't like it. Can Robbie Rosen sing "Jerusalem of Gold" in Hebrew on the show? If Fox wants to start a show called Bilingual Idol, that's great, and she can sing it on there (and I might even watch it). But I don't really want to see that on this show.

Please leave comments if you disagree. And enjoy the first week of the finals!

Jews on Idol update

So last week I mused that there might be as many as seven Jewish singers in the American Idol Top 50. Now that we're down to the Top 24, with the discovery of some further information and some eliminations, there may be as many as four still around. Let's run them down.

First of all, we'll never know if Casey Schuber or Brittany Mazur are Jewish, because they've been eliminated. I guess Casey was canned in Vegas, because we never saw her, although we did see Brittany briefly in a chair being told she didn't make it.

We can also eliminate Tim Halperin from the list. While he did an impressive duet on "Something" with the lovely Julie Zorrilla and made the final 24, I googled him and found he was a member of a singing group called "The Tribe." With a name like that, could it have been a Jewish a capella group? No, it was a church group in the Midwest, and thus, I think we can safely say Tim Halperin is a member of "The Tribe" but not a Member of the Tribe.

So we may have as many as four left. There's Casey Abrams (no actual evidence he's Jewish, but he's named Abrams and looks like Seth Rogen), Rachel Zevita (has the look and was wearing Hamsa jewelry during her initial audition), Brett Loewenstern (seems like a good bet) and Robbie Rosen (is there really any doubt?)

How many will make the final 12 or 13 or whatever they're going to do this year? I guess we'll find out Thursday--and we'll also find out this week whether Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler can truly handle the judging table and are able to give solid critiques to singers' faces--or if they'll crumble like Ellen last year. Should be fun.

Looking for Jews on American Idol

The other night during American Idol, my favorite Jewish Idol pundit, Daniel Feinberg at hitfix.com, tweeted "Based only on names, this is an MoT-heavy "American Idol" Top 100. I'm intrigued..." I had sort of noticed the same thing, and now that we're down to the Top 50 and can actually see all the names of who's left on the American Idol website, there may be at least seven MOTs in the running.

Now of course, Idol does have a history of Jewish singers doing well. There's Elliott Yamin finishing third in year five, Adam Lambert (who no one knew was Jewish until a video turned up of him singing a song in Hebrew and his mother turned up on screen and looked, well, very Jewish) as the runner-up in season eight, and I believe Anthony Federov, who finished fourth in year four, was Jewish, but no one really cared or noticed at the time. And of course, Paula Abdul is Jewish. But this many in the competition at one time (even if all of them could be gone by this time next week?) Got to be unprecedented.

Let's break them down, in alphabetical order, judging either by name or other things I've noticed (bearing in mind that we're really guessing on some of these, and that this post likely ends up linked on a neo-Nazi site to tell people who to root against):

Brett Loewenstern of Boca Raton, FL: This is the guy who was featured in the audition round as getting picked on a lot. He's got a nice voice, although I'm not sure it's good enough to get him anywhere near the top 5 or anything. Would say he's likely to make the top 20 (apparently that's the next cutdown number) just because of all the screen time he's recived.

Brittany Mazur of Tucson, AZ: I have no recollection of hearing her perform at any point in the show so far, but she's kind of pretty. That's all I got.

Casey Abrams of Idylwild, CA: This is the Seth Rogen-looking guy who started scat singing and stuff at the Austin audition, and then did a really wild and really good performance of Georgia on My Mind with a "stand-up bass." The audience and judges could tire of his quirkiness quickly, but I think he's genuinely good and will be a top contender.

Casey Schuber of Toms River, NJ: No idea who this person is, but Schuber sounds like it could be a Jewish name.

Rachel Zevita of New York, NY: She wore a Hamsa necklace on her initial audition, so I'm putting her in the MOT group. I don't remember her being all that good on that initial audition (she was the one that Jennifer Lopez somehow remembered having auditioned a couple years ago), but she's made it this far.

Robbie Rosen of Merrick, NY: I think if we can depend on anything, we can count on the fact that a guy named Robbie Rosen from Merrick, Long Island is Jewish. I don't think we can count on him winning, though. Personally, every time I see him sing on the show, he sounds like he has a good voice, but not quite that good--and just seems a little annoying and too dramatic. Then again, I thought Adam Lambert was too dramatic and kind of annoying in his first performance of the semifinals--and I did a 180 on that a week later. So who knows?

Tim Halperin of Fort Worth, TX: Once again, a Jewish sounding last name, but I know nothing about him.

I promise to follow up on this after the Vegas round. And if anyone is wondering about my opinion of the show with the new judging panel, the jury is still out. Last year, everyone raved about Ellen in the Hollywood round and then we got to the live shows and she was hugging bad singers and refusing to critique people. But I think J.Lo is a little better than expected (she does seem willing to be critical sometimes, even if she is taking on the Paula role of cheerleader) and Steven Tyler is entertaining. As for the show, the audition shows were way too formulaic, but this week's Hollywood round shows, especially the group show on Wednesday night, were pretty entertaining. Randy's comment that they've never had more talent on the show before is ridiculous, but I can still see the makings of a decent season.

Fingerhut out!

I can't believe how stupid this NY Times article about American Idol is

What program is Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times watching every Tuesday night at 8 on Fox? Because after reading her rave today about Ellen DeGeneres as an American Idol judge, it doesn't seem like she's actually watching American Idol. Either that, or she never watched it before last month. As an out-of-work journalist, reading such a silly piece in the gold standard of newspapers, the New York times, makes me fear for the future of my profession. And I hate when someone who is supposed to be watching television for a living doesn't seem to know anything about it.

Stanley has a history of factual errors in her TV criticism, but the problem in this article isn't facts. And yes, Stanley has every right to hold whatever opinion she chooses and, as long as she's employed by the Times, write about it. But her opinion that Ellen DeGeneres is somehow now the star of the show and has elevated it is so crazy and different from the opinions of any avid watcher of the show that I barely know how to respond. I just can't believe anyone would actually hold such an opinion unless they were a family member of Ellen or the president of her fan club.

Here's the money section of Stanley's piece:

She has little experience in the music business, but midway through her first season Ms. DeGeneres has all but hijacked the show, playing second fiddle to no one, not even the overbearing Mr. Cowell. She has elevated the tone with her own style of mischievous good spirits and well-honed, down-to-earth charm. She couldn’t be friendlier or more congenial, but she doesn’t quite blend with the other judges; at times, her facial expressions betray a quizzical distance from the show’s cheesier moments. It makes her all the easier for viewers to identify with, but she also makes the other judges look all the more like show business hacks.

There is a power shift playing out onstage. Ms. DeGeneres sometimes looks like the keen, dedicated new teacher who wins over students but is treated with polite suspicion by burned-out veterans in the faculty lounge.

She certainly tries harder. The alpha judge, Mr. Cowell, is a showy enunciator, but the words he utters with British bite are quite banal (“pointless” and “silly” and “useless” ). The other judges pay almost no attention to syntax or cliché — contestants are repeatedly told they “nailed it” or “hit it out of the park.” Randy Jackson, in particular, never tires of telling contestants, or as he constantly calls them, “dawg,” that they are “pitchy” or that they are “the bomb.”

Ms. DeGeneres keeps reaching for fresh, incongruous metaphors. She compared one singer’s uneven performance to the two panels of “a hospital gown” and a standout performance by another contestant as “Snooki’s pouf” (a reference to the bouffant hairdo of a cast member of “The Jersey Shore”).

I will agree with one thing Stanley says here. Ellen doesn't blend with the other judges--because she has no music industry experience. And that's a big reason why she's such a bad judge. Sure, she's occasionally said something funny or made a good critique, but most of the time her criticism consists of something like "I didn't like the song choice, but you were great." Or "It wasn't the best I've seen you, but I love you and you're great." Or possibly the low point for an American Idol judge, when she praised Paige Miles' outfit and then said something like "I'll let Kara handle the music critique." Actually, no, the low point was when she hugged Tim Urban for a mediocre performance.

She's hijacked the show? Really? Does she really think any singer on the show, or family member of a singer on the show, would rather--if given a choice--rather have a positive critique from Ellen than from Simon? Of course not. Does any viewer of the show look more forward, or give more respect to criticism from Ellen than Simon? Other than Alessandra Stanley, I doubt it. As for Ellen's use of "fresh, incongrous metaphors," Simon has used plenty of those over the years. There was the time he described someone's performance as a "beautiful dress with a slight tear in it." Or when he talks about someone sounded like the performance by a 10 year old at a family brunch. Some of them don't even make any sense, but they're incongrous and often fresh.

I've probably written too much about this already. But anyone who thinks adding Ellen--and continuing with four judges--is somehow a good thing for American Idol isn't much of a fan of American Idol. Adding someone with no professional knowledge of music, combined with the departure of Simon from the show after this season, is the death knell for the show. I just can't believe there's no one editing the arts section in the New York Times who watches the show and didn't say to Stanley, "Really, you sure about this? I watch the show and I think this article is insane."

The Stones and Idol--not a good combo

So unless I get some loud, emotional outcry from my readers, I've decided to stop regularly blogging American Idol. When I started doing Idol, the Internet was still growing and there wasn't that much Idol commentary out there. Now, there are about 8,000 people blogging Idol and I'm not sure I'm offering anything that unique. But I did have a couple thoughts about last night's show.

First of all, while the show wasn't terrible last night, it was mostly mediocre. Part of the reason is that many of the singers this year aren't very good. But the other reason, I think, is that while it sounds really cool to have the Rolling Stones as a theme, it's not really a good selection. Why? Because Mick Jagger has such a unique style as a singer and performer, anyone who tries to duplicate it is going to fail. In addition, many of the Stones songs, vocally, work because of how Mick sells them. In this group, the only singers that had enough talent to really be up to singing and selling a Stones song were Siobhan and Crystal.

Most troubing part of the night was, of course, seeing that many of the people who advanced last week over better singers didn't do much to show that their advancement was well deserved. Lacey Brown? Really, she's Idol season 1 or 2 talent with that thin voice and general boringness to her performance (Is boringness a word?) Katie Wheeler has been done wrong by the judges, and wasn't awful, but off key early in the song and just kind of meh. To her credit, Paige at least did show some vocal talent tonight--more than she has shown for the three previous weeks--but it was hardly something anyone is downloading to their IPod today. And Tim Urban? I reacted with the same confusion that the judges did (and Simon was pretty much correct on just about everybody last night, although Kara had a point on Gimme Shelter.) How do you sing a song about having a woman under your thumb in a breezy, what-me-worry reggae-type arrangement. It really was strange--and didn't show that Tim could sing since he sung-spoke most of the song.

Finally, I hope those of you who would be interested in this saw that in one of the family photos Didi showed there was a lit menorah in the background.

Who's going home? Bottom three will hopefully be Lacey, Tim and Katie and I think Lacey will go. But after last week, who knows?

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?

Suffering through one last night of the guys

I wasn't looking forward to hearing this lackluster crop of guys tonight, but I have to say with some of the dead weight cleared out already, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Still, it does seem like the judges are grading the guys on a curve--as long as you can sing in tune, they don't seem to generally care if you're making the song your own or showing any originality. At least Simon did at one point acknowledge that the judges are confusing the singers as much as helping them. But, of course, the highlight tonight is seeing Kara cry. That made my night--although, let's face it, it still wasn't as funny as watching Paula cry. Oh, Kara, you can never live up to the mark Paula left...

Lee Dewyze ("Fireflies") -- I don't particularly care for this song and find it annoying, which means I actually like Lee's version better than the original because he gave it a little more of a rock feel and sang it with his typical raspiness. I enjoyed it, and hope he makes it to the top 12.

Alex Lambert ("Trouble")-- It's good to see Alex looking more comfortable, and he does have a really nice sounding voice and sounded very good tonight. But still, isn't he just singing, granted in tune, the song and not showing "what kind of artist he's going to be" or "showing artistry"? And yet Kara is talking about how he could win the whole thing? Really? What am I missing? Hey, I don't have a huge problem with someone who comes out and just sings very well--although I appreciate and enjoy it more when someone is putting their own spin on it--but if the judges are going to obsess over it for some people, why does it not go for others?

Tim Urban ("Hallelujah") -- That was mostly in tune, and certainly the best Tim has sung this season. But sit down Ellen. It wasn't that good. The idea that, according to Kara, he's now a contender, is ridiculous. He hasn't really done anything to earn his way into the final 12 except not suck three weeks in a row. Such low standards.

Andrew Garcia ("Genie in a Bottle")-- So the judges kept whining that everything Andrew did wasn't as good as his "Straight Up" in the Hollywood round--so he looked for a dance pop song from a female artist and chose Christina Aguilera and "Genie in a Bottle." (Ironically, it was also the first hit single for both women.) Was it the right choice to sing and rejigger into an acoustic version? Probably not. "Genie in a Bottle" has a more complicated melody and lyrically it doesn't work ("Straight up now tell me are you going to love me forever" is a lot more effective in a stripped down, acoustic version than "I'm a genie in a bottle, rub me the right way" which just sounds silly.) Having said that, it was still kind of interesting and the singing wasn't bad, even if it didn't quite work. As for Ryan's question about whether he regrets performing "Straight Up" in Hollywood, it actually isn't a bad question--since the judges have made it an albatross around his neck.

Casey James ("You'll Think of Me") -- This was OK, and I can barely remember it an hour after watching it. Casey is looking like a one trick pony--it's not a bad trick, but how long can it seem fresh, considering there's nothing particularly unique or special about him excecpt that he turns on Kara.

Aaron Kelly ("I'm Already There") -- Now we have Aaron, who does seem to know what kind of artist he is (pop country crooner), but doesn't do anything special or show any artistry and still generally gets praised. I didn't think the vocal was that good (flat in parts), and I was just kind of bored. As for Simon slapping down Kara about her complaint that he didn't have kids and therefore couldn't sing the song--thank you, Simon.

Todrick Hall ("Somebody to Love")-- Now that was really good--he took a great song, made it his own by giving it an R&B/gospel spin but didn't render it unrecognizable, and sang it well. Not sure what Simon's problem was--he said it was too Broadway, but at least it was more entertaining that most of the men have been all season. I hope he stays, just so we can see what he can do.

Mike Lynche ("This Woman's Work")--I said last week that Mike appeared to be better than the Michael Sarver/Matt Rogers hole I had put him in, and he proved that even more tonight. Really good performance. And it made Kara cry, for some reason. Get a hold of yourself, Kara. You're on national television, you're married but blatantly hitting on Simon every night and you're tearing up after songs. At least it's entertaining.

So who goes home? I hope it's Tim Urban and Aaron Kelly. And you know what? I think it will be those two as well, although I wouldn't be shocked if it was anyone other than Big Mike.

It's not about "who you are as an artist," it's about singing well

Tonight's American Idol left us with a pretty clear division between the five singers that should no question be part of the final 12, and the three singers who will, hopefully, be the ones fighting it out for that sixth spot. Tonight's show also was a demonstration of how the producers have apparently gotten their act together enough to fit eight songs into one hour--a pleasant change from last year's messes. Let's get to the rundown:

Katie Stevens ("Break Away")--Oh, Katie, if you've been watching this show since you were 8 years old, you should know that it's never a good idea to sing another Idol winner's song on the show. You can never measure up. And Katie didn't--wasn't even close. Then again, after that fiasco last week, when Randy told her to sing a song by someone under 20, and then Kara told her to sing a song about being confused, who can blame her for actually being confused. She's going backward each time, partially thanks to the craziness at the judges' table. As for her not knowing who she is as an artist--maybe she doesn't. But you know what, Kara and Ellen? That's wasn't the reason she wasn't good tonight. Nor was it that she didn't "connect" with the song. Whatever happened to the truth, that Katie wasn't good tonight simply because she didn't sing the song well?

Siobhan Magnus ("House of the Rising Sun")-- I thought this was quite good--some notes occasionally were off, but it was generally well sung and sort of original with the a capella part at the beginning. Was a good point that Kara brought up, though? Why aren't they giving Siobhan a hard time for doing different stuff each week and not knowing what "kind of artist" she is? Actually, I can answer that. She's pretty good, so it really doesn't matter--because people enjoy her performances. As I said, "not knowing who you are as an artist" has somehow become a synonym for "you didn't sing well." And it's annoying me.

Lacey Brown ("The Story")--That's certainly the best Lacey has been, but it's not like she's that good or has any kind of chance of winning the competition--so I have a hard time caring.

Katelyn Epperly ("I Feel the Earth Move")--Katelyn has become one of my favorites over the first couple weeks, so I kind of agreed with Simon on her performance tonight. It was well sung and performed, and yet it wasn't particularly special and thus I was kind of disappointed. But it should be enough to advance--she was certainly better than a number of others tonight.

Didi Benami ("Rhiannon") -- Finally, my other favorite Didi picks up her guitar and does a really good performance--it sounded good, she put her own slight new spin on the song and it should be enough to get her into the finals.

Paige Miles ("Smile") -- We keep hearing about how great Paige's voice is, and yet after three weeks we've seen no indication from her singing that her voice is in any way special. That leads me to believe either she doesn't have that great a voice or she's the worst picker of songs in American Idol history. Probably a combination of both. She's done absolutely nothing to deserve a spot in the final 12.

Crystal Bowersox ("Give Me One Reason") -- Not a big fan of this Tracy Chapman song, but Crystal did enough to change it up and give it a little more bluesy tone that I liked the song and really liked her performance. She's gotta be the favorite as we enter the finals.

Lilly Scott ("I Fall to Pieces") -- This was good and I like Lilly's voice, but I agree with Simon that it didn't have a "wow factor." And I kind of think that might be Lilly's probablem a few weeks from now--she kind of does the same thing every week and could get sort of monotonous. But we'll see.

So I'll predict that Paige is definitely going home and that Lacey will also go home, although it could be Katie and it wouldn't matter. If it is anyone other than those three, I will be very disappointed. Fingerhut out.

Some Idol thoughts

I was busy last night and this morning doing a freelance assignment and watching the Duke-Maryland game, so I didn't have time to do a full-blown Idol wrapup, but here are a few observations on last night before tonight's eliminations.

Crystal Bowersox was terrific, and right now looks like the frontrunner -- of an admittedly very weak field. Was amused that Simon used the term "misunderestimated." Just another of George W. Bush's legacies to America.

The judges, specifically Randy and Ellen, said Haeley Vaughn didn't "connect" with the song. I'm not sure what this means and wonder why they can't actually say what her problem was: "Haeley, you sung mostly off-key and out-of-tune." It's harsher, but it's the truth. But she dresses cool and makes those things for her hair and smiles a lot, so she'll probably get the teen girl vote and make it through.

Lacey Brown wasn't as terrible as last week, but she's just no good. Oh, and Ellen, you keep referring to how you're glad the singers are following the "notes" they get. Ellen, they're not getting notes. That's a TV term. They're getting critiques, or advice, from the judges. Although I hope the Idol producers are giving you notes telling you not to use the term "notes" anymore.

Katie Stevens is cute and has a powerful voice, but isn't particularly original. A few years ago, that would have made her a judges' favorite, but now it earns their scorn. So after singing an older song like "Feeling Good" last week, she picked what she thought was a younger song this week in "Put the Records On." Now, that song is sung by a younger singer, and it's newer, but it is sort of an older-sounding song. But why exactly does Katie have to sing a younger song anyway? Just because she's young, she has to sing a younger song? (Idol trivia: Ayla Brown, new Mass. Senator Scott Brown's daughter, was told the same thing, picked a Natasha Bedingfield song that didn't really showcase her voice and got voted out on the last night of the seminfinals a few years back.)

First Randy says, who do you like that's under 20? Really, Randy? She's got to sing a song performed by a teenager? She can't do a song by someone of drinking age because that would be too old? Then Kara chimes in with, "You should do a song about something you're feeling--like you're confused, so sing a song about that." What? This is seconds after Kara got done telling Katie that the song she picked this week didn't allow her enough space to "do your thing" as far as putting a new spin on it--which is probably correct and what she should actually be looking at, how the song sounds with her voice, not what it is about. Contradictory advice within less than a minute--Kara, you've set a record?

Didi Benami was very disappointing. She needs her guitar and someone advising her on what to sing. I'm worried about her making it to next week. She wasn't as bad as the judges said, but her problem is she's got a really good but kind of quirky voice, and yet, as Randy said, she the past two weeks has picked songs that emphasize the quirkiness in her voice at the expense of other, more appealing aspects. If you listen to her sing "Terrified," for instance, the voice sounds much better, but last night, there was an oddness to the voice that wasn't always appealing. As for her confusion about Simon saying she was self-indulgent, here's the deal. Simon was probably being a little unfair, but he's using it in the sense that you're picking a song or doing a performance that seems more designed to please you than to please the audience. The best example of this is when Chris Daughtry picked some really obscure, not very good Queen song on Queen night instead of a better, more well-known song simply because it was in the style of all the other songs he'd sung up to that point on the show.

Michelle Delamor is pretty and has a nice voice--she reminds me of a more talented Syesha Mercado. She'll probably stick around for a while but probably isn't really a contender for the title. Thought her spin on a Creed song was weird--not bad at all, just strange.

Lilly Scott sang a great Sam Cooke song and sang it well, but the way the judges reacted you would have thought Sam Cooke had come back to life. Best of the night by far? Really, Ellen? Bowersox left your memory that quickly?

Katelyn Epperly, who I thought didn't even belong in the top 24 two weeks ago, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. She's cute, she seems to have a fun personality judging from the taped packages and has a nice voice. I wasn't head over heels over her performance last night--I agreed it was a little too slow--but I liked the piano and the singing was pretty good. Having said that, Simon--it wasn't a million times better than last week because she was quite good last week.

Paige Miles allegedly has the best voice of the women, but we haven't seen any evidence of that. And, Paige, if you're going to sing a song by a former Idol on the show, you have to make it really good--and that just wasn't.

Siobhan Magnus was good, but not great--there was a lot of focus on that one note, which was good, but who really cares? You got to hit all the notes. I still liked her, though, and she does have a lot of talent, even if she seems drunk most of the time.

I think Paige will go home and hopefully we'll say goodbye to Lacey Brown.

It's going to be a long, painful season of Idol

First, a couple words on last week's eliminations. Yes, Janell and Ashley are very attractive women, but I can't really take much issue with either their eliminations or either of the guys who went--none of them sang particularly well last week. Still puzzled why Janell said afterwards that she planned to bring her guitar and sing next week--why not go with your strength the first week? As for Tyler Grady criticizing the judges, I actually sympathize with him. We saw them tell him, "Oh, Tyler, we love your 70s Jim Morrison vibe, keep doing that" and then he did that and they complain that he needs to break out of that box. Still, he wasn't that good.

Anyway, my quick reaction from tonight was that I was disappointed we didn't get to see the girls--since they're better--and while the guys were better tonight, it's still going to be a long year.

Michael Lynche ("This Is A Man's World") -- Wow, didn't see that coming. When he said he was doing James Brown, I thought, "Oh, this isn't going to end up well" but I was wrong. I mistakenly compared this guy to Michael Sarver and Matt Rogers last week, as the big, friendly guy who was a decent singer and everyone liked but had no chance of winning. Not saying Michael is necessarily a contender yet, but he showed much more soul -- and much more in the way of vocal chops -- than i think most of the viewers suspected he had. Oh, and Ellen, you may have liked his song choice last week, but no one else did.

John Park ("Gravity")-- Well, the vocals were better than last week, but I began to doze off about 25 seconds in. Just didn't do much for me. And Ellen with her "I think you have it in you" crap--she's now Paula but without a music background. Not a good combination. I didn't like Kara's joining the panel last year, but at least she had something to say with her "artistry" stuff. It was annoying and often off-base or unfair, but at least it was something. All Ellen is giving us is dumb platitudes when she feels bad for the singers.

Casey James ("I Don't Want to Be") -- No TV since he was seven years old! I don't even want to imagine that... (I'm reminded of course of the Simpson episode in which Homer punishes Bart by not allowing him to go to the Itchy and Scratchy movie but says, "You can watch TV." Bart responds, "TV sucks" and Homer, upset, says, "I know you're upset, so I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." Anyway, a lot of people may have done this song on Idol, but I don't remember any of them being particularly memorable (I remember Elliot was OK, but he had much better performances.) And Casey, I thought, was fine, but also unmemorable. I like the fact, though, that Casey has a somewhat limited voice, but seems to pick songs that fit that voice pretty well (I'm not as concerned about the "grit" as Kara and Simon). He's looking pretty good for the final 12.

Alex Lambert ("Everybody Knows")-- Love the sound/tone of his voice, and he looked more comfortable than last week with the guitar (although still not particularly confident). Not sure it deserved the cartwheels it got from the judges--there was nothing particularly unique about it, was there? I thought that was the key this year. Or was that only last week with the girls?

Todrick Hall ("What's Love Got to Do With It?") -- A great song, but Todrick didn't sing it great. It wasn't terrible, but I do agree with Randy, that Todrick changes everything too much--but it's understandable why he's confused, because Randy and Kara are constantly saying how important it is to show artistry and interpret a song or whatever. So don't worry, Todrick, if you're around next week, you'll come out, sing a song straight and they'll complain that you didn't change it up at all.

Jermaine Sellers ("What's Going On?") -- Also a great song, and I was thinking "the kind of performance you'd see in a hotel lounge" before Simon threw out the "cabaret performance" line we haven't heard in a while (and personally, I've missed it--although I think I like "performance I'd heard on a cruise ship" better.) I thought he did OK in the chorus, but otherwise was just too much for me. As for Jemaine's remarks at the end, was he saying that he's a God-fearing person and therefore he thinks God will get him through to the next round, or that he fears God more than Simon, or what? Anyone who could explain would be much appreciated.

Andrew Garcia (A James Morrison song I don't remember the name of) -- Wasn't anything to remember, but didn't think it was the disaster that the judges did. Last week, they told him he shouldn't have taken the song he did and reworked it, so this week he chose to not rework a song and sing it straight and got knocked for it. Oh, well. And, really, it's not totally fair for them to judge every performance with the "Straight Up" performance as the baseline that he has to equal or else he's failed. But I have a feeling that's what we're going to be seeing for a while.

Ryan Kelly ("My Girl") -- Did Ellen call the song "My Girl" forgettable? Whatever. Why is she on this show again? Anyway, this guy's got a good voice, but I'm not sure I need a country-tinged version of "My Girl." Most interesting thing: Simon telling him he needs to show the kind of artist he's going to be, and Kara disagreeing, even though she said that about three different women last week. Actually, I think he did show what kind of artist he's going to be: An lite-country artist. Not really my thing, but it's something.

Tim Urban ("I Can Take You Higher" or something like that) -- Tim was much better than last week. I still don't think it's good enough to warrant a place in the final 12, but this was OK, not an embarassment like last week. Actually, most of these guys don't deserve a place in the final 12, but I suppose six will get one.

Lee Dewyze ("Lips of an Anglel")-- This was fine vocally, but I wasn't impressed with the song choice--boring and lacking in a strong melody. He seems like a poor man's Chris Daughtry--nothing wrong with that, but if he's really far and away the best of the guys as Simon says, it's going to be a long season.

I'm going to say Jermaine Sellers and John Park are going home, but if it was Todrick or Tim Urban or a couple other guys, it wouldn't really matter.

The Worst Top 24 Ever!

Every year around this time, my sister says -- in the past often in an email, this year as a post on Facebook -- that this season of Idol has the most talented top 24 ever, or the best final 12 ever. And every year, because it's the way I am, I respond with something like, "I think that remains to be seen--let's see them sing first." This year, I wrote something similar in response to Amy's post, and then said, "I think there are some talented women, but not so sure about the guys." Well, the women were a little disappointing last night, but at least there was some talent there, some people you could at least sort of envision winning American Idol. But tonight -- wow. Even after sounding caution about the guys, that was worse that I ever imagined. I'm not even sure I want to waste my time blogging about that horror show. Each singer, for a while, seemed worse than the previous one.

So while Ellen still sucked as a judge tonight (really, Ellen, not everyone is "great"), and there's still no reason to have four judges, there are much bigger problems with this show right now -- a lack of talent. Seriously, tonight's show reminded me of the semifinal rounds in seasons one and two--just a bunch of mediocre and uninspired singers. Casey James wasn't that great, but he sounded like Kelly Clarkson on Big Band Night compared to what came before.

A few words on each before I return to watching Olympic hockey...

Todrick Hall ("Since You've Been Gone") -- I don't even know what to say about this odd performance-- it was a total reworking of a very good song that, as the judges said, made the verses barely recognizable. Having said that, the judges are always saying that they want to see people change up songs--so it appears they only want people to change them a little bit, not too much. Looking back on this after hearing the following 11 performers, at least he showed that he had some personality, was kind of interesting to watch and had a decent voice -- which was much more than most of the group did.

Aaron Kelly ("Here Comes Goodbye") -- Wasn't this kind of the male equivalent of a bunch of female performances last night. You know, the ones that the judges said were too much like the original version, showed nothing original, etc. There was nothing wrong with it, but I didn't notice the amazing voice the judges claimed he had, either.

Jermaine Sellers ("Get Here") -- Jermaine goes with the song Justin Guarini sang about eight times on the show in season one. The beginning of the song was so soft and weak that I could barely hear him over the heating system in my apartment. Then he got loud and strange and the less said the better.

Tim Urban ("Apologize") -- Now we know why he was a late addition to the top 24. That sucked. Off key and not good.

Joe Munoz ("You and I Both") -- Who is this guy? Had we even heard him sing before tonight? I have a feeling the last time we'll hear him sing is Thursday night when he's eliminated. It was boring and he had little personality and didn't he kind of sound like he was singing in Spanish or some other language at points in the song? Or was it just me. As for Kara's statement that he should be given a show to "get his bearings," I actually agree. Except that last night, Kara was upset that she didn't know who various people will be as an artist via the song they chose. So which is it, Kara?

Tyler Grady ("American Woman") -- Yeah, so he acts like he wants to be Jim Morrison and that will get old quick, but his voice was OK and he had some personality on stage so he was at least tolerable.

Lee Dewyze ("Chasing Cars") -- I agreed with Simon, I did like his voice and thought he had a decent performance, even if I have no plans to be downloading his song from ITunes. As for Kara's suggestion that he should be doing a Bad Company song, I never want to hear anyone sing a Bad Company song (and didn't she just get through telling Tyler to not do classic rock songs but do newer songs? Doesn't she listen to herself?)

John Park ("God Bless the Child") -- Liked his marriage proposal for Shania Twain. Didn't like his flat, bland singing.


Michael Lynche ("This Love") -- Another performance with very little originality and singing that was nothing special. But, as others have written already, he's probably destined for the "big guy who seems like a nice guy" spot in the final 12 previously occupied by Matt Rogers and Matthew Sarver -- where he'll go out in the first few weeks because he has no chance of winning whatsoever.

Alex Lambert ("Wonderful World") -- This guy has negative stage presence and charisma, and in the brief clips we saw with him from Hollywood Week, that was the way he was there -- stiff as a board. So the judges should have known what they were getting. Having said that, he did have a nice, raspy, sort of Bryan Adams thing going on with his voice, although he did miss some notes.

Casey James ("Heaven") -- As I mentioned before, pretty good, but compared to the rest of the junk we were subjected to, sounded like he actually was Bryan Adams. Seems to know what he's doing, has a decent voice, and was certainly in the top two tonight.

Andrew Garcia ("Sugar We're Going Down") -- Not sure why the judges had such a problem with this. I thought it was fine -- not his "Straight Up" from Hollywood Week, but in the same vein. He just altered a much worse song. My concern is that Andrew is a one-trick pony, and his one trick will get old very quickly.

I have no idea who is going home, because there are so many who deserve to. I would send home Tim Urban and Joe Munoz, and I think that's what America will decide too.

The last season of Idol as we know it begins

I've avoided blogging about it so far, but now that we're down to the top 24, I guess it's time to start blogging American Idol again -- especially because with Simon leaving, this is the lastyear of AI as we know it. Before we get into the singers, though, I must say that after the first Hollywood episode, when everyone was praising Ellen DeGeneres for how good she was as a judge, I should have blogged what I was thinking then--which was judging the few, edited clips of Ellen they showed is not a true picture of the judge Ellen will be on the weekly live shows. And tonight I didn't really find that she had much insightful or interesting to say at all. In fact, I kept thinking all night when we went to the judges what I thought most of last year: "Why again did we need four judges?" Just like last year, when Paula seemed to step up her game with Kara around, I did think that both Kara and Randy stepped it up tonight--Randy occasionally offering an insightful comment, and Kara not being nearly as annoying with her "artistry" crap as last year. The only thing I can remember about Ellen tonight is the opening bit--which was funny when she talked about Simon being into her, and then became unfunny quickly with that videotaped bit with the hands on the leg, which looked like a bit that Jay Leno rejected.

As far as the singers, my general impression was that it's a very attractive group of women, most of whom are solid singers. No clear frontrunner, but a bunch with breakout potential. As for Ryan's comment when the show started that we "know this group better at this stage of the competition" than others," I have no idea what he's talking about. There were four or five people tonight I'd either never heard sing or heard no more than 20 seconds of singing from them over the last five weeks. Yeah, I know that Katelyn Epperly's parents got divorced and Didi Benami's friend died and Katie Stevens' grandmother has Alzheimer's, but don't we know that kind of stuff about a handful of the Idols every year?

Paige Miles ("It's All Right Now")--What an strange, bad choice of song. Not a strong melody, and the chorus is the same thing repeated over and over. Even worse, the backup singers drowned her out or sung instead of her on the chorus. I know Simon says she has the best voice of the women, but while her singing wasn't bad, she didn't really show me anything memorable. Combine the fact that she went first in a two-hour show, we didn't know anything about her before tonight, and her clip at the end of the show was mostly of the chorus singing, and I think she's in danger of going home.

Ashley Rodriguez ("Happy")-- Didn't think it was the montrosity that the judges thought it was, but it was unoriginal and predictable. She's pretty, though.

Janell Wheeler ("What About Love?")-- She's pretty, too, and apparently is Tim Tebow's ex-girlfriend. (I hope her position on abortion, whatever it may be, doesn't become an issue....) That was not good. I really liked Janell doing "American Boy" during Hollywood Week, but her Taylor Swift song later in the week wasn't very good, and this was disappointing. Ellen, apparently taking the Paula role, praised her for how she "moved easily on stage." Yes, she at least didn't fall down. That kind of sums it up for Janell.

Lily Scott ("Fixing A Hole")--That was really cool. Unique voice, good choice of song, sounded great. Not sure what to make of Kara's comment that the best thing for a singer is to stand on the street and busk. Really? When I come out of the Metro and see someone busking, sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I don't, but I never think, "We really need someone singing on every street corner." Oh, well. I was disturbed, though, at the way Kara seemed so excited that Simon put his hand on her leg. Didn't I read you got married, Kara?

Katelyn Epperly ("Oh, Darling") -- I thought Katelyn was one of the weaker singers in the final 12 women, but that was surprisingly good. Yeah, her voice isn't as powerful or unique as some others, but the whole thing worked for me. An offbeat song choice, a fun performance and she looked cute--unlike Kara, I didn't mind that she tarted herself up. But at least Kara called herself a bitch--that was satisfying.

Haeley Vaughn ("I Want to Hold Your Hand")-- When they announced what Haeley's song was, I said, "Oh, no. Why would you do that?" And yet, I actually liked Haeley's arrangement of the song. I just didn't like Haeley's singing of the song, which was screechy and pitchy and all over the place. Yeah, Haeley's different, but she's 16 and way too young and has no chance of coming close to winning this thing. Too bad they didn't tell her to come back next year with another year under her belt, and give her slot to poor Angela Martin, who had a sad story and was a better singer.

Lacey Brown ("Landslide") -- Lacey, let me give you some advice. For your first song on the semifinals of American Idol, why would you pick a song that was sung by Stevie Nicks, one of the most distinctive female rock vocalists of the last few decades, and has also been covered by another hugely popular and distinctive singer in Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks? What chance did you have of doing anything that would make us forget them? And when she said that she chose the song beacuse it
"speaks to me as a person," I realized that she hasn't read my blog over the past few years. How many times have I said that you pick a song for how it makes your voice sound, not because you like the lyrics? You can worry about the lyrics once you win. Anyway, it was boring and kind of off-key and a big mess.

Michelle Delamor ("Fallin") -- This song should have been banned from American Idol by now--we must have heard it 40 times, especially in the audition rounds. Having said that, she did a solid but unspectacular job on it, even though the backup singers were too dominant at times. Since I don't remember hearing her sing previously on the FIVE WEEKS I've already sat through, I hope we get to hear her sing again on a less familiar song.

Didi Benami ("The Way I Am")-- Didi was my favorite coming into tonight for a number of reasons. That version of Kara's song "Terrified" she did with a guitar during Hollywood Week was terrific, she's quite attractive, and she's apparently Jewish. (The name Benami is Hebrew meaning "son of the people," and her given first name is "Vered," which is also Hebrew for rose.) But I was a little disappointed tonight--she left the guitar home, did a song I hadn't heard before and did an OK but nothing special job with it. In fact, she kind of reminded me of Megan Joy from last year--in that she sang an offbeat song in an offbeat way--and that's not a good thing. I hope she steps it up next week. (OK, I actually voted a couple times for her--just wanted to make a full disclosure.)

Siobhan Magnus ("Wicked Game")-- Wow, she's a glassblowing apprentice. Who knew there stil was such a thing? The first two lines of the song were terrible for Siobhan, but as Randy would say, I thought she "worked it out" and the rest of the song was quite good, different and vocally solid. I'm intrigued.

Crystal Bowersox ("Hand in My Pocket")-- I've never really liked this song, but Crystal kind of made me like it. The guitar, the harmonica, the vocals--all of it worked for me. Simon is correct, though--she does have to do something to surprise us, not just sing acoustic versions of female singer-songwriter hits. I hope she can do that.

Katie Stevens ("Feelin Good") -- Love when American Idol announces that a song was by, in this instance, Michael Buble, when someone else, in this case Nina Simone, actually popularized the song and Buble is only the most recent to do it. Then again, of all the things wrong with American Idol, this is probably the least important. Anyway, Katie did OK, and with her being in the "pimp spot," it's obvious the producers want her to advance. She's got a nice, rich voice, but it was kind of a strange choice of song for a 17-year-old, as the judges said. On the other hand, it always seems like when the judges say that, they're implying that they want her to sing a Britney song or something. Why? Maybe she's showing that she wants to be a artist who sings jazz songs. It's not going to win her American Idol, but it's still a persona as an artist...

Who's going home? This is tough, but I'll say Lacey Brown and Paige Miles, for the aforementioned reasons, although I wouldn't rule out Haeley Vaughn or Ashley Rodriguez either. But the word Haeley was trending on Twitter a little while ago, so she's probably safe (unless everyone's tweeting about how bad she was, in which case I have no idea.)

Fingerhut out!

Idol's back -- for the last season as we know it

As usual, I'm not going to do a recap of the audition episodes of Idol, because half of these people we'll probably never see again--and it's hard to tell how hard anyone is after twenty seconds of a capella singing.

I do want to say one thing, though: This show is likely dead next year when Simon is gone. To be honest, while I missed Paula, it didn't really have that much of an effect on tonight's show. But Simon was the whole show tonight. Every auditioner wants to see him. Every auditioner wants his approval. And it's not just in the auditions. When we get to the final round, when is the audience most excited? When Simon likes someone. Why did people start watching Idol in the first place? Because there was a judge who was willing to actually say people were bad when they were bad.

I have no idea whether the X-Factor will be successful. And I have no idea who will replace Simon on Idol. But I can't imagine Idol will continue to be successful without him.

Not a bad finish

The American Idol finale inevitably seems to disappoint because of the format. Ever since the incredibly entertaining finale in season two, where Clay and Ruben each did a coronation song and then selected two songs they hadn't performed before, they've had each singer duplicate at least one song from the season--and then saddle each singer with a horrible coronation song. For whatever reason, last year's finale was a little better than usual--the coronation songs weren't as bad. This year, again, the finale wasn't that bad--even though the coronation song was horrendous--because the repeat songs they both did were really good. So let's break it down.

Adam doing Mad World--Simon was correct in that the fog and the coat and the steps made the whole thing a bit much, especially since the reason this performance was so good in the first place was because it was so stripped down. But it was still really good.

Kris doing Aint No Sunshine--I remember this being good when Kris first did it, but he actually improved it the second time out--what I love to see in an Idol finale. One of his best performances of the season.

Adam doing Change Is Gonna Come--They should let Simon Fuller pick songs more often for the singers, because this was a great choice for Adam--a classic soul song that allowed him to both belt out parts and be soft and soulful at times. A song that was right in his wheelhouse, and yet it was still challenging. And he did it really well. It came close to going over the top a couple times, but never did.

Kris doing What's Going On?--Once again, Simon Fuller does a good job. It's a classic song that fits Kris, and yet doesn't fit him so well that it isn't challenging at the same time. I actually sort of agreed and disagreed with what Simon had to say: Stripping it down to just an acoustic guitar and some guys playing drums did feel sort of small for the moment. Yet I also disagree in that doing the song in this style is what we expect of Kris--it's why we like him in the first place. His most memorable performances have been in that style, so why shouldn't use that style in the finale? As for Kara praising Simon Fuller for picking a socially conscious song for Kris--Kara, idiocy like that isn't going to get you brought back next year. (By the way, the head of Fox Entertainment refused Monday to say there would be four judges next year.) Remember Kara? It's about artistry.

Adam and Kris doing that horrible song--Really, I can't believe it, but this might be the worst coronation song they've ever made us suffer through. A tuneless mess with barely a hook to be found. I think I might have enjoyed Kris' version a little bit more because you could actually make out the weak melody somewhat better, but his voice was sort of all over the place in parts. I hope we don't have to hear the winner sing this monstrosity tomorrow night in the extended show--and is it really that hard to fit everything into two hours? What can't they cut from what is likely to be a bloated show? The 18 different movies they'll have to promote? The 15-minute montage of "How we got here?" They can't control themselves enough to just do two hours and get on with it--they have to threaten us with overruns?

Oh, and if Kara isn't eliminated from Idol because of her annoying appearances at the judging table, she should be thrown off the show for being involved in writing a song that bad.

So who should win? I really have liked Kris improve and develop over the course of the show, and he might be the more viable artist commercially because his style is more current, in some ways, than Adam's. But the fact that he might be more viably commercial shouldn't enter into it--American Idol is kind of like the Heisman Trophy. Every year, people complain that so-and-so shouldn't win the Heisman Trophy because he's not a good pro prospect or won't do well in the NFL. But that shouldn't matter--the Heisman Trophy should be awarded to the best college football player each year, not the best pro prospect. And American Idol shouldn't be awarded to the guy who might sell the most records, it should be awarded to the person who has earned it through their performances on the show. And consistently, Adam has been the most interesting, best performer throughout the season. That's why I think he should win, and will win. Would I be upset if Kris won? No, because he's pretty good. Adam was just better.

Fingerhut out.

We're almost done with this season

One of the most memorable images of tonight's penultimate performance show of American Idol was when they showed former executive producer Nigel Lythgoe sitting in the audience watching the show. I criticized Nigel a lot on this blog over the last few years, but Nigel, all is forgiven. I know I sound like a broken record, but really--only two songs each for the final three for the first time ever because the judges can't shut up enough--and they can't stop commercializing the show enough--to get nine songs into a program. So no "Clive Davis choice" this year--or "producers choice" like it was last year, which at least prevents the sabotage we saw last year when Syesha Mercado got saddled with that song from the movie "Happy Feet", so there's at least one positive out of all of this. (Sorry for that run-on sentence.)

Anyway, I thought there was one memorable performance tonight and nothing particularly special in the other five performances.

Danny's first song--Why did Paula pick an obscure Terence Trent D'Arby song for Danny instead of, as Simon correctly said, a good song by Terence Trent D'Arby like "Sign Your Name" or Wishing Well"? Who knows? (And by the way, this show is giving me way too many flashbacks. Last week's results show had performances from Slash, the guitarist from the biggest rock band in the world during my college years, and Paula Abdul, the biggest female artist around during my college years. I can remember "Straight Up" being a big song during my freshman year and that song where she danced around with the cat in the video when I was at the beach after senior year. Or maybe it was the "Will You Marry Me?" song I'm thinking of. Anyway, Terence Trent D'Arby brought me back even farther--I remember dancing to "Wishing Well" at my senior prom. But moving on...)

Anyway, I didn't think this was all that great. Danny just seemed to shout the song to me--there was nothing about this performance that about 50 Idol contestants over the years couldn't have done.

Danny's second song--This was better, but a song like "You Are So Beautiful"--while a clever choice by Danny--is almost too easy. Since the song doesn't really go anywhere, Danny could pretty much do whatever he wanted to with the song--which I know Kara likes because switching up the melody turns her on to no end. But "stunning"? "Vocal master class"? Really? Nice performance, but I'm not downloading it from ITunes or anything.

Kris' first song--This was solid but nothing special. I was glad that Simon called Kara out because he's right--it is kind of ridiculous to give someone a song to sing and then get disappointed because they don't totally change the song. Of course, it's what Kara has wanted everyone to do all year, so it wasn't actually surprising--and I'm not sure why Simon waited until tonight to broach that subject--but at least it came up. As for Kara's bitchy "what do you know about interpreting a song," I'm not even going to go there.

Kris' second song--I loved this. This is what I like to see someone do on Idol--not change the melody of a song, but reinterpret the song in a different style or give it a different feel while staying true to what you like about the song. To take a hip-hop song and make it an acoustic-guitar based song was cool and enjoyable. This I could imagine downloading on ITunes.

Adam's first song--I still think Adam is the most talented and deserves to win the competition, but I love the song "One" and I didn't love this. It was fine for what it was, I just didn't really like the total change-up to a classic song. I didn't think it improved the song, it just gave Adam a chance to do his patented scream.

Adam's second song--A solid performance, but nothing particularly special.

So who's going home? I hope it's Danny, but I unfortunately think it will be Chris.

Finally, don't bore yourself watching a full hour of the results show tomorrow night. I recommend you DVR it and watch the Penguins-Capitals hockey game. You won't be disappointed.

LET'S GO CAPS!

This show is not as enjoyable as it used to be

For those of you coming here to read a detailed breakdown on last night's Idol episode, I'm sorry to disappoint you once again. I'm not feeling well and just want to go to bed. But unlike last week -- when between attending the Caps game on Tuesday night and work commitments the following night (combined with a general lack of excitment about Idol these days) meant I didn't even watch Idol until Thursday night, I'll at least provide a couple thoughts.

Adam, of course, was probably the best because he's just the most comfortable person left in the competition with straight rock songs, but I'm still not sure how I feel about Zeppelin songs on American Idol. Just kind of weird. (And I can't believe he didn't do "Sweet Child o Mine" with Slash as the mentor. He would have killed.) Still, I thought Adam wasn't really that much better than Allison, who I thought was pretty strong. i actually liked Danny tonight, until that awful last note, although Kara, um, Dream On is "early" Aerosmith, the songs you mentioned like Cryin are "late" Aerosmith. Wow, Kara, you're turning into a gaffe machine, the George W. Bush of American Idol judges. As for Kris, "Come Together" has always been one of my least favorite Beatles songs because I always found it kind of boring--so I wasn't crazy about Kris' performance, but I don't think it deserved the beating it got from the judges.

As for the duets, I enjoyed both of them, but found the whole thing ridiculous. To beat a dead horse on this blog, is this show so out of control that they now, unlike every other year, can't have the top four do two solo songs apiece? I presume next week we won't get to hear the top 3 do three songs, as is customary, because they won't be able to fit it in with all the other junk they have to fit into the show and the fourth judge. I'm really starting to not enjoy this show anymore--one reason being that in its eight season, it's getting kind of boring, but the other is the show's increasingly smaller time left over for actual singing.

Fingerhut out.

Nothing has changed

Passover is over, and thus after getting home late tonight, I don't have the time to do a full blogging rundown of tonight's Idol. But my quick summary would be that absolutely nothing surprising happened tonight that changes the competition in any way. Adam was the best, Lil brought up the rear and everyone else pretty much fit tonight where they basically are in the general scheme of things--Kris and Allison near the top, Danny getting great judges' reviews even though I didn't think he was that great, Matt making me wish he hasn't gotten saved last week, etc. I guess Anoop was kind of disappointing, considering he'd been getting better the last few weeks. Tonight, I thought he was bland and off-tune.

A few more quick notes:

Back in season four, they changed the theme name from "Disco Night" to "70s Dance Night" because they didn't want to lose Bo Bice--who had a rough week the night before and was likely to not be comfortable doing a disco song. It allowed him to do "Vehicle," he survived and he ended up going to the finals. That seems so long ago--now, contestants just take a disco song and revamp it as an acoustic guitar-based, Santana-like song (like Kris), or a ballad (like Adam) or a jazzy mess (like Matt). When the show started tonight, this annoyed me--after all, disco isn't about a certain type of song, it's about a certain beat. By the end of the show, I was just resigned to the fact that American Idol has changed and this is the way it is now--and I liked both Kris and Adam's performance, so it wasn't that bad. It still feels not quite right, though.

Also, I said this last week, but it was even more of an issue tonight--When will the judges stop lying to Lil? This week, Kara again went with the "you didn't show us the kind of artist you are" crap. Please, Kara, stop with that and just tell her she sang the song poorly. Simon managed to say it, why does everyone else keep telling her this nonsense?

Amazing what getting rid of the taped pieces did for the time issue, huh? They were pretty much right on schedule tonight. By the way, there was an article this week in which one of the AI producers said they were happy with four judges and weren't thinking of going back to three judges. Gosh, I hope this was just "well, what else can we say during the season" kind of stuff, because I don't think America will be able to take another year of this.

Now, I'm going to go to bed while trying to get those frightening vocal runs from Matt Giraud's "Staying Alive" out of my head. I think he and Lil and Anoop will be the bottom three, and Matt and Lil will go home--although if someone like Allison or Kris or Danny ends up going home and they can't use the judges' save, I'll laugh and enjoy what the judges' stupidity last week will have wrought. Yeah, we all find enjoyment in strange places.

Fingerhut out.

What a mess

When American Idol first began, I marveled every week what an enjoyable, entertaining show it was. Now, I tune in every week and I marvel at what a mess the show has become. I once wrote in this blog that the producers of American Idol don't seem to know why this show is successful, but American Idol was such a simple yet great concept for a show that even they can't screw it up. But maybe they can. Tonight's decision to only have two judges give remarks on each contestant was really a disgrace. That's the only way they could figure out fitting the show into an hour? Really? They couldn't have cut some of the Ryan introducing the judges crap, and the Tarantino intro, and the other junk that led to no one singing until seven minutes into the show and only one person singing in the first 16 minutes of the show? They couldn't have cut those Coca-Cola sponsored interviews? We really had to hear about Danny Gokey buying a guitar? They couldn't have sold a couple less commercials? They couldn't have just forced the judges to say less? And they didn't think of this before adding a fourth judge?

Look, I'm not bothered (and I can't imagine anyone else will be bothered) to not hear Randy or Kara critique Allison or Adam or Danny. But I am bothered to not hear Simon critique Anoop or Matt or Kris. As much as Simon seems sort of bored and mailing it in this year, he's still the only judge who really matters. He's the voice that's closest to the people. If he likes someone, they get votes. If he pans someone, they lose votes. His bluntness and honesty was the reason people started watching this show in the first place. Hearing his opinions is one of the reasons we tune in every week. It's stunning that the producers don't seem to be aware of this.

Last year, Paula got a lot of attention for giving her critique of Jason Castro's second song before Jason actually performed his second song. It was weird, but odd things always happen with Paula. To me, the big scandal that night was that the judges had been told to hold their critiques until the second performance. What amused me was that the only reason they ended up giving rushed critiques at the end of everyone's first performance was because the head of reality programs at Fox was watching at home and called in to the producer to tell them to get the judges to give some critiques before the second performance. So the network head watching the show was home going, "What are they doing?" Well, at least someone at Fox knows what's going on.

The most amazing thing: They still went four minutes past 9:00 tonight. Unbelievable.

Enough ranting. Quickly, though, let me weigh in on last week's departure of Scott. He handled his elimination with grace and good humor; it's just unfortunate that the judges had to patronize him to the very end by pretending they might save him. Depressing.

After last week's good theme, we get a poor theme--movie songs. It's terrible because it has nothing to do with music--it's just a random, artificial distinction whether a song happened to be in a film or not and has nothing to do with the song.
As for Tarantino, he is someone who is both a fan of Idol and a big fan of music and how it fits into movies--I read somewhere that he said he wouldn't have made the movie Pulp Fiction if he hadn't been able to get the right to use "Son of a Preacher Man." On the other hand, the contestants weren't singing in movies or singing over video--they were performing on a stage. I guess he was OK though--he approached it from a performance aspect instead of totally a vocal aspect, so it did give us something a little different.

Let's get to the singers.

Allison--I thought this was fine, but nothing special. She came on well at the end, but I've heard this song sung a lot by various people, and it didn't strike me as anything particularly memorable. Simon seems to come around on her, though. By the way, I think Allison needs to stop closing her eyes and turning to the side when singing the big notes--she looks like she's trying too hard instead of just performing.

Anoop--Anoop is getting better--I really enjoyed this. He gave it just enough of his own spin to "make it his own" without changing it up too much, and vocally it was just really nice. This is an example of what I meant early in the season when I complained about Kara requiring that someone's single song choice in the semifinal round define them as an artist for the rest of the competition. Anoop has a good voice, but needed a few weeks to figure out what he's good at and what he shouldn't do--and that's always been part of the fun of American Idol, seeing contestants develop and get better and not be a "package artist" from the very beginning. Did Kara watch this show before she started judging it? Maybe, but she obviously didn't get it.

Adam--Obviously not as good as last week--but that was a very high bar to clear--but I liked it. It was interesting and his voice sounded good and he wasn't screechy, as he'd been on some earlier up tempo songs. He really sounds like Axl Rose when he starts wailing, so in case you're reading, Adam, I'd love to see you do "Sweet Child O'Mine" before the end of the season.

Matt Giraud--Chris Daughtry was able to do something good with it a few years ago, but I've never been a real fan of this song---I always found it a little boring. And Matt didn't really change that. The first part was kind of boring, and when he changed up the melody in the second half, it was a little more exciting but the vocals weren't exactly memorable. Matt seems very limited and not particularly versatile to me--if he sings a piano-based soul song, he's fine, but if he does anything else it's not that great. Might be his time to go next week.

Danny Gokey--Danny has a nice voice, seems like a nice guy, but is he really anything more than that? This was fine, but I've already pretty much forgotten it a couple hours after I watched it. Just seems like other singers on the show are a lot more interesting performers and singers than Danny is. I will defend Danny on one thing, though. Simon noted that Danny didn't do anything new with the song like David Cook did with the Lionel Ritchie song "Hello" last year. What's funny about that is that Chris Sligh totally revamped this song two years ago, making it into a Coldplay song and I believe Simon and others told him that with such a classic song, he should have just sung the melody. Granted, Chris's version was terrible, and that one could conceivably change up the song without ruining it as badly, but it's still sort of ironic.

Kris Allen--Great song choice, great song, and he sung it well, with emotion. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear what Simon thought about it--did he love it as much as Kara? If he did, that would have really helped Kris. But I guess we'll never know. (And to be fair, if he didn't like it, it might have hurt Kris, but that's the way the show works.) Oh, and Kara--can you really call a song that won an Academy Award an "obscure" song?

Lil Rounds--This was just not good. I have no idea how she got the pimp spot. The first half of the song was off-key and the second half, when she gave it the gospel tinge, was a little better but still kind of flat. You know you're bad when Paula doesn't even mention your performance but talks about what great lyrics the song has. As for the Simon-Lil confrontation, I feel bad for Lil because she's doing what the judges say they want--but the judges haven't been honest with her all through the competition. They keep telling her she's picking the wrong songs, she's not being enough of an artist, blah, blah, and if she picks the right song she'll be fine. But that's not Lil's problem. Lil's problem is that whatever song she picks, she doesn't sing it very well. She's not that good a singer. She probably shouldn't have been so pimped by the show and the judges in the first place. Randy has often said, at his most lucid, that whatever song you pick, sing it well. Lil only did that once, and that was her problem--not the fact that she never picked a Keyshia Cole or Mary J. Blige song. It's a shame the judges never got around to saying that with their ridiculous focus on artistry this year. At least Simon sort of came close to saying it tonight, but not as blunt as it should have been, when he said "You're not the artist I thought you were."

Bottom three: Matt, Lil, Danny, with Lil going home. And the judges hopefully won't even waste time pretending to use the save.

Fingerhut out.

It's Lambert's to lose

For the first time in a few weeks, I'm back in full blogging mode tonight--I get out of work early tomorrow for Passover, so I can come home and take a nap if I'm tired. So let's break tonight's show down, which was a fairly entertaining one for this season, singer by singer.

But first, a word about the theme. I like the birth year theme, because it gives the singers enough songs that they should be able to find something good to choose from, but does limit them enough so that they can't pick just anything. (Of course, some people still cheat, which we'll get to momentarily.)The birth year theme also gave us one of my favorite Idol performances of all time, Constantine's "Bohemian Rhapsody," which in some ways changed the way Idol contestants envisioned what they could do, not always in a good way (like that Michael Johns doing "Day in the Life" montrosity last year.) Tonight, the one problem with the theme was that there were so many singers born in the mid-1980s that the flashbacks I was getting to junior high school were giving me the shakes. Even so, it was nice to see some fresh songs that I don't think have been done on Idol before. Some weren't particularly good choices for the singers, but we'll get to that.

Also, the producers of this show--and the judges for that matter--should be embarrassed at how long the show ran over tonight (my DVR was set to go seven minutes past nine and it still cut off during the recap) and how Adam didn't even get a full critique (and Matt got three words from everyone). How did they get that far behind and not appear to know it until 8:55? They only had eight singers tonight. They've done 10 singers in an hour before and they can't fit it eight now?
I know it has a lot to do with having four judges, which everyone knows by now is a mistake. But why can't the judges in the early part of the show learn to speak concisely--both Paula and Kara just go on and on and on, and tonight often said similar things, although Kara is much more annoying at it. At least they skipped that ridiculous intro where the judges walked out tonight. They got through seven years with Ryan introducing the judges--we really didn't need that weirdness this year to add to all the other horrors we've had to sit through. On to the singers.

Danny Gokey--Anyone who's ever read this blog knows what I'm going to say about the song selection here. Mickey Gilley's "Stand by Me"? I know this has happened before, but isn't this kind of cheating? I have no idea if Mickey Gilley's cover of "Stand By Me" was popular or not (I listened to it on Youtube, and it's basically a country version of the song, not the weird jazzy thing that Danny did), but this isn't a song from 1980, it's a song from the early 60s. Here's a question: The movie "Stand by Me" came out in 1986, and the song (the Ben E. King version, of course) became a radio hit that summer again, if I recall correctly. Could someone born in 1986 sing that song for the birth year theme? Anyway, Danny's peformance was actually pretty good, even with the strange arrangement of the song. He's got a nice, gravelly tone to his voice, but he still doesn't strike me as that special or remarkable. Others seem to disagree, though.

Kris Allen -- First of all, Kris, that whole surrounded by fans thing didn't work for Matt last week. I have no idea why you decided to do that, but don't do it again--it just makes you look lame and we couldn't even see you that well. Then the choice of song--why would you pick a song that pretty much stays with the same limited notes/melody the whole way through? Adding a little jazziness didn't really change that. Simon was right, it was boring--and seemed like you've been reading your good reviews.

Lil--Actually, unlike the judges, I thought this was a pretty good song choice for Lil, until she started to sing it and I thought, before the judges said it, that this does sound kind of karaoke. Of course, the problem with this kind of critique of Lil--the karaoke critique--is that, as Randy unwittingly pointed out during his judges critique, they keep telling Lil to be somebody else ("Oh, you should sing Mary J. Blige, oh, you should sing Keisha Cole, etc.") So she was just trying to be somebody else by doig a karaoke performance, just not the right person as far as the judges are concerned. Here's the other problem with Lil, as Michael Slezak at EW.com has frequently pointed out in recent weeks--the judges keep talking about how talented Lil is, but we really haven't seen much evidence of it. Whenever they showed her in Hollywood, she was shouting and oversinging, and other than her very good semifinal performance, she hasn't had one really good performance in the finals. What exactly did she do to be talked about as "mad, mad talented" by Randy every week? Sorry, don't see it.

Anoop--OK, I'll grudgingly congratulate Anoop and the rest of the University of North Carolina for their victory last night. They deserved it--they were the best team this year. I just wish that the championship game would have been a litle more interesting--having it basically wrapped up by the first TV timeout was pretty boring. Then again, I was able to get 24 instead of wasting my time waiting for a hopeless Michigan State comeback. Wow, I can't believe UNC has won two titles since the last time Duke was in the Final Four. Oh, Anoop's singing. I thought he was great--gave it his own spin, confident and assured, good song. If he does that a couple more weeks in a row, he has top four potential--which didn't seem likely a few weeks ago.

Scott--Tonight may have been the best example of the judges patronizing Scott because of his blindness. If anyone else had been that bad and botched that many notes, would they have gotten the "Well, bad song choice, and boring performance, but it wasn't that bad" critique that he got. Simon said he picked a bad song--the song was fine, he just didn't sing it well. Please America, haven't we had enough?

Allison--She was really good, because she took a song that's often sung on Idol in a very quiet, safe way, and put some vocal power behind it. I think it was one of her best performances of the season. Having said that, please stop comparing her to Kelly Clarkson, judges. It's not fair to her, and while I see the comparison somewhat vocally, there is a huge gap in personality--as the judges sort of acknowledged. Allison seems to have plenty of personality in the video clips, in interviews with Ryan on stage, etc. But she doesn't have much personality when she's singing--something Kelly Clarkson always had a lot of. It may just be an age thing that she'll develop, though. Oh, and I can't believe there's a contestant on American Idol that was born two weeks before I graduated college.

Matt Giraud--"Part-time Lover"--the song that was forever soiled on the Idol stage by the version that Kevin Covais gave us. Matt was much better than that, but I wasn't loving it as much as the judges. Too much growling and vocal runs and scat singing, and not enough just pure singing for me. But it should get him to next week.

Adam Lambert--When this show started, I was a little skeptical of Adam and all his flamboyance and theatrics. (By the way, loved when his dad said he was never interested in sports.) But I'm firmly on the Adam Lambert bandwagon now. Another really great, mostly restrained performance. The guy can sing, and he's interesting. I know there are a lot of Danny Gokey fans out there, including one of my family members, but come on--Adam is kicking his butt every week. Has Simon ever given a standing ovation to any contestant before?

Bottom three: Scott, Lil and let's say Matt because he seems to be there a lot.
Going home: Let's hope it's Scott.

One other thing: PLEASE LEAVE SOME COMMENTS.

Happy Passover, happy Easter and Fingerhut out.

The only good thing about the Idol results show....

is that Kara doesn't talk much. Otherwise, it's just a mess. The latest addition --the lip-synching of the group sings for no particular reason (this is a singing contest and they're fake singing!). Oh, well, David Cook was good--although the way they kept showing his mom was very strange.

Megan's gone, and that's good--very attractive, except for that sleeve-like tattoo, but out of her league the last few weeks. Anyway, if you want to read something funny about my least favorite judge, and some apparent tensions between her, Paula and Simon (which was noticeable last week when Paula made a face after Kara gave a rough critique of someone), here's a link to an US Magazine article.

Fingerhut to bed.