Idol Cares / Cops Out

Let’s say goodbye to….NO ONE! This week’s votes will be added to next week’s votes, and given that this week’s turnout was so high, should register about 60-70% of the total for the two weeks. And next week TWO people will be eliminated. So those given a stay of execution (I’m looking at you Lakisha and Chris), bring your A Game next week because you are not long for the show. The thing that bothered me the most about this was that they left Jordin last. Leave Lakisha last, or Phil, or someone who’s not 17 and expects to possible leave. Making Jordin cry in order to facilitate the surprise wasn’t very nice. The order of next week’s elimination in terms of the pool does not matter, both contestants are considered TIED and leaving at the same time unless Ryan says explicitly what the order was. (As in YOU had the lowest and YOU had the second lowest.) Which he won’t….

This week my favorites were Chris (shocking!), Blake and Melinda (as per usual) and Jordin. Jordin was actually really good and I think her performance would have stood out more if it wasn’t overshadowed by Randy proclaiming it the greatest thing EVER!!! (which it was not.) Chris and Blake both sang nice, if understated versions of their songs. And Melinda is Melinda! Phil was just as good as last week, although I’d be lying if I said he resonated with me even a little. It’s “Phil’s on, switch over to the Bulls game.” And Lakisha…very disappointing. Awful song choice, its not a very good song, and there’s no way she was beating Fantasia in the minds of the judges. And then she screamed it all the way through.

The Idol Cares show itself was very good. Almost all the performances were good, and even the cameo’s were funny. Carrie is really good and it’s hard to take anything away now from her victory. She’s almost always good every time she sings. Kelly Clarkson was also very good. The actual Idol Charity song was awful! But the cause was so good I’ll accept it! I’ll go download later as a donation. It really felt like the finale save for the clips. They were all really moving. I have to hand it to them, they took their usual hard sell and applied it to a great cause, and there is not one thing bad about that. Hopefully they raised a ton of money.

Did you see Sanjaya’s sister in the audience with the Simon “I’m watching Sanjaya sing” face? Probably due to the news coming about Momjaya (I’m not sure if it’s her prior arrest or a new one) and the fields of marijuana plants she was cultivating. (She was growing 210 plants.) Explains a lot about her son I’m thinking…

Top 6 Results Show - Idol Cares!

Two hour results show today with tons of performances and appearances, (supposably) Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Madonna, Bono maybe?

I'm thinking Lakisha and Chris in the bottom two. I feel like Phil is connecting with the audience, and that both Chris and Blake can't continue on forever. And Lakisha is really lacking in something right now, and maybe Jordin is syphoning her votes.

BTW
I heard Bono might do the mentoring next week but next week is Jon Bon Jovi's time supposably so I'm not sure.

Top 6 Live Thread

My daughter willing (if she's not grouchy!) I'll be posting my thoughts as they go. Please post too! See you at 8....

Couldnt post before, baby was eating! Saw it all though...

Liked Chris a lot today. Very surprising. I think if he comes along more, Blake will be hurt. They very literally share fans (CAKE).

Blake was good too if less so. Very understated but nice.

Melinda is just too good. There is something lacking in her personality wise that is keeping her from being an overwhelming favorite, and just a favorite. As good as she is, i dont wait for her to sing each week that much. Still, easily the best singer.

Phil put in another good performance. All of a sudden, Phil has joined the fray! If he's not bottom two, he may be in better shape than the other guys

Note: Where is Bono?

Lakisha again had a so so performance of a former idols song. Im not sure why you'd choose Fantasia's song, She is a judge favorite so unless you nail it, they will call you on it. O agree with the above poster, she may go out this week.

I really liked Jordin. I think she is the best young contestant in the history of the show. Shes like Diana with a better voice and personality. I think she has a legitimate chance at the final. The only thing bad about the performance was Randy overkilling on the praise. Best performance ever it was not.

All in all an interesting show. Prepared for 2 hours of fluff to get to the real point of tommorrow, the eliminatioN! (and feeding children in africa, its nice to see the idol machine at work on something like that)

Id say Blake, Lakisha, Phil and Chris all have a decent bottom three chance. I fear for Lakisha - if her fanbase is not good, shes out....
JUAN

Top 6 - Inspirational Songs / Idol Gives Back

Tonight is the 2 Hour IDOL GIVES BACK, where a donation will be made for every vote cast. There will be 4 hours of voting and 2 phone lines per contestant. The theme is inspirational songs. Expect lots of slow songs and some powerful vocal performances. The show was taped yesterday, so song choices, etc. are not any secret. (There’s a lot of stuff going on today, so I think time constraints are a concern.) And the coach today is (drumroll) BONO! Whoa…should be very interesting. Can’t get much better there… There’s lots of chances today for people to really shine, the list of songs they had to choose from has some real “Summertime” potential moments in there.

Tomorrow is the actual IDOL GIVES BACK show, with the elimination being wrapped around a ton of guest stars, including THE BIGGEST DUET IN MUSIC HISTORY (I think this may be them being cute rather than something real) and appearances by Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, among others. (Celine Dion is on tomorrow, there will be no Celine Dion themed night. Thank god.) Feels similar to the finale, lots of idols and lots of guests performing together.

Should be great, and no specter of the great Sanjaya hovering over us as well.

Sanjaya is gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Viriginia there is a Santa Clause.

What a great elimination, we had the SCARE THE VOTE BASE TO VOTE PERSON (BLAKE), the SHOWING GREAT WEAKNESS PERSON (LAKISHA) and the PERSON WE ALL NEED TO GO (SANJAYA) and the right one went.

I'd expect Blake fans to rally (and Phil and Chris fans to be more complacent) but I'm worried Lakisha might not be around too much longer. She's one breakway performances from being a contender, but I've gone from wondering when it would happen to wondering if it will happen.

Next week should be interesting, with the charity concert and all, there will be lots of background noise to idol. Will people get lost in the shuffle? Will we get a shock elimination?

The other nice thing was Melinda coming across as so nice and genuine, especially in a week she was (once again) so kick ass. Go Melinda!

No more Fergie please. The theme of this season's guests seems to be catchy but annoying pop songs and the stars who sing them.

Week 7 Thoughts / Discussion Thread

I thought I'd post a thread for everyone to post their thoughts (all three of you!) tonight as well as me. I'll just update the main post I think when I can (when Kate is not yelling!). Country night, Simon criticizing the songs, strange song choices, and at least half of the performances songs I most likely hate! Good times...

Phil leads off....not my thing, but not bad! Great comments from the jduages, and Phil has a personality! Will it save him?

Jordin sings the guest's song! Always good to suck up. Really nice song! Really great vocals. You know, someone needs to go next week. I hope this keeps up.

Sanjaya was decent if by far the worst. He's not entertaining bad anymore, just bad bad. Sucked the momentum out of the show. I like how Ryan said LETS ALL GO WEAR RED BANDANA'S. Um, let's not unless we are all becoming a big gang (who hates Sanjaya i guess)

Lakisha was decent but SCREAMED through part of the song. Singing Carrie Underwood's song was not a bad choice i thought, but she tried to Lakisha it. Didn't work. Her worst is still pretty good though, but we are running out of time for her to recapture her Top 24 Magic. She was channeling Trenyce tonight, in the volume overpowering the singing.

Chris is next....not bad. Funny, i was telling my wife he's nasally, and Simon mentioned it, and Chris said ITS ON PURPOSE. Um, ok, you have this tone like you are plugging your nose and its on purpose.

Melinda was next and she was great! Simon scolded her on the WOW YOU REALLY LIKE ME! face, which is a few weeks too late on that in my opinion. I loved how she did the song in her own style, but stuck to the country theme, Very good...

Blake will cap it off! Every show should end Melinda / Blake...

Blake really channels the spirit of Morrisey. He has that same type of moody vocals. I really liked this. It sounded like The Cure does country. He knows himself as an artist more than anyone else in the show.

Interesting show. One would think Sanjaya, Chris, Phil and possible Lakisha will make up the bottom three. Hmm...

Top 7 Country Week with Martina McBride

It’s country week with Martina McBride! (I’m not sure who that is mind you, but she can’t be worse than J-Lo, whose coaching involved bringing Blake in to help Haley (worked great for Haley!) and teaching Lakisha the proper way to say CONGA… (say it CONGA, CONNNNGGGGGAAAAAA………) This week Marc Anthony said he’d like to take Sanjaya under his wing and make him a star… (moving on…)

Country week is interesting, because there are so many country songs that have been redone as mainstream pop or R&B (or vice versa) that this is really a theme that the artists can twist around to fit them. I’m hoping Lakisha, Jordin, etc. don’t take the easy way out and try a Faith Hill type ballad, but then again, it would probably be real good! There is enough variety that everyone should find something to suit them (even Sanjaya!).

I was going to handicap the remaining field, but I think I’ll wait for one more elimination. Phil is looking really vulnerable right now, as much as for his own appearance in the bottom two as the other contestants avoiding it for the most part. Should be an interesting week.

Why Akon?

I was watching last week's results show, and noticed (which i had forwarded throught) ANOTHER Akon performance. Do the people in charge of idol listen to Akon's music? (Note: I'm not sensitive and it doesn't bother me. But I'm not the 12 year old girls watching with their parent's idol targets to sell things to.) A polygamist, who is know for doing songs with gangster rappers, who about 95% of his album (even a clean version) probably couldn't be performed on idol. I'd love to see a parent who se kid likes Sanajaya ask for an Akon song and be able to download his smashes "Smack That" or "I Want to **** You" featuring Eminem and Snoop Doog respectively. Great fun!

Just wondering...he seems way too PG for Idol.

Top 8 Results Show....

Who will go? There's a couple of thoughts here, the deserving (Haley, Chris (yesterday) and Sanjaya (everyday except), the less popular (Phil) or the DREADED SHOCK ELIMINATION! (The three diva in the bottom three? The shocking Chris Daughtry elimination?)

There's more spoilers, theories about who goes out than i can ever remember. One sounds credible, but we shall see. Funny thing is all the spoilers basically indicate people trust the voting results, if hate them. Usually the conspiracies are idol is fixing the votes.

40 more minutes!!

and we have the bottom three, Chris, Phil and Haley! And HALEY goes home!!!

America, you have done well. And every single predictor (odds makers, dial idol, various prognosticators) ALL were wrong. All of them will say idol cheated, etc. but the fact of the matter is, the reason the show works is although you can sense often who deserves to go and does go, you can't predict 100% ever.

04/10 Top 8 on now -- Play by play

(Juan is currently entertaining guests so he'll catch up later...)

So, "Jenny from the block" was not bad in her coaching, at least with getting the top 8 to move and get the beat right. We were commenting at work as to what kind of voice coaching she would give. She liked Sanjaya...ewww.

I liked...
Lakisha's energy. A little surprised that she had to try a bit to get the right beat. Paula's comment for her seemed to come from left field (only because she typically reiterates what Randy says), but I thought Lakisha did step outside of her comfort zone looking back to the practice and did her best to capture a "Latin essence." Cringing during Phil's practice, but I really liked his voice on this awesome song. Liked Blake again...can carry a tune AND perform.

Not crazy about...
Chris, Haley, Jordin. Chris chose an awesome song (wouldn't consider it "Latin" though) and much to live up to (hello, Santana and Rob Thomas), but just didn't cut it. Haley is most definitely going home...bad singing, no boobage dress, SEE YA! I was confused and tired watching her trying to keep up. Even Simon said her singing doesn't work so "wear as little clothes as possible." Ouch! Not enough spirit from Jordin, but still like her. I expected Sanjaya in some flamboyant getup, but instead his attempt at sounding/looking sexy/sultry was lame and creepy.

I only caught the recap of Melinda and was worried when Randy and Simon didn't have much to say about her earlier, but I liked it. I actually paid more attention to her hair - very pretty tonight! And the best overall look thus far -- only mention that cuz fellow fan WLS has some issues with her looks...lol! Overall, the show was not as disastrous as some anticipated, but someone REALLY needs to bring the house down!

- SN

Top 8 Latin Week with J-Lo

Tonight is Latin night with J-Lo. Hopefully a chance for some artists to leave their comfort zone but still shine (I’m looking at you Lakisha and Melinda!), and others to make a move up through the back or fall back. There is also the chance for high comedy, I have seen a list of songs (although without the artists attached to them), and at least ONE person is going with a real high energy song. (If you want to know check the the post after this one.)

Hopefully if nothing else this week brings us a good show! Last week was pretty lackluster…I think the malaise on some of the shows is causing the Sanjaya phenomenon, notice he wasn’t such a big deal in the weeks prior when the talk of the shows was how great the girls was. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

04/03 Results Show

We say goodbye to Gina Glocksen.

A bit of a surprise, but we still have not lost any of the heavy hitters. (In the playoffs they say they don't really start till someone loses a home game. Well, Idol doesn't feel like it's started till we have a heavy hitter in the bottom three.) Haley, Phil and Gina are the three that you would expect in the bottom three (well, unless life was fair in which case it would be Sanjaya, Mr. Malakar, and S. Malakar as our bottom three). I hope Haley and Phil are not very comfortable in LA. They may not be long there....

I think what really hurt Gina was her placement on the show (right after Melinda and Jordin, which really showed her singing shortcomings) and the fact she had no real niche, she was a rocker chick who sang slow songs in a style that wasn't very distinctive.

I like how they are not being vague in the orders, they are giving top three, middle three and bottom three. And i like the top three, if that really was the top three at least we know the singing in the finale would be good! (I still think Blake sneaks in somewhere.)

Hopefully next week brings us some more inspired performances. One of the reasons i think Sanjay garners such attention is no one else has really grabbed the show yet with something off the charts. I'd expect it soon.

Dial Idol predicts Lakisha #2 from bottom...

thus confirming they are useless. They are predicting a lot of people as vulnerable, and Phil Stacey as the #2 vote getter (SURE!) and Lakisha second from the bottom, second to only Gina.

I'd say Phil or Haley is almost a given to be gone...

04/03 Top Nine - On Now

As i sign on Sanjaya has started singing and my baby has started crying. Coincidence? To be honest its not that bad. His voice is just not that strong, it's just a limitation he has. But he's not awful today so I'll leave it at that. (Note: They need to stop introducing him as if he is some separate part to the show. It's not fair to the other people.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVUtA-As8Ng SANJAYA MUST GO VIDEO. Funny...

The first half of the show was really good. I thought Blake was his usual good self, if not spectacular. Chris was really good and seems to have settled in the last few weeks. I feel bad for Phil Stacey. There is just something about him that's a bit off putting. He's not dull, he's almost dark when he sings. It's hard to explain.

Gina did a nice job again although it's about 10 minutes after her performance and I can't remember it to well. Haley is, well as Simon so elequently put it (and Paula less elequently), hasley has great legs. There is nothing special there really. Jordin also really shined. I hope she is around a long time.

As far as Melinda vs. Lakisha goes, I'd have to give this round big to Lakisha although both were great. Melinda is always spot on with her vocals to the point the judges critique is very anticlimatic. Lakisha showed more personality today though, I thought her performance was easily the best of the night. I definitely need that song tomorrow when they release it.

Should be an interesting elimination tommorrow. I'd hate to be Phil....

04/03 Top Nine Idol - American Standards (?) with Tony Bennett

Today’s theme for American Idol is Tony Bennett and SOMETHING. Apparently Idol likes these vague themes (probably because someone picks a song that doesn’t fit the theme almost every time). Before I read American Standards, but I also read “Songs that inspired Tony Bennett” so I guess we will find out today. Hopefully today will be a standout show, with our dueling diva’s dialing it up, Blake and Jordin continuing to shine, and some dark horse emerging.

BTW, it’s amazing that Sanjaya has become this national joke. I love how everyone thinks that every idol vote is a result of some grand conspiracy. Sanjaya is still her because people who like him are voting for him more than some of the other contestants. Anyone who has watched the show before shouldn’t be surprised in the least. (I need to get some of the better Sanjaya parodies up on the blog. I think I’ll work on that later.) No early word on what is hair will be.

I'll be posting during the show. Need to find some interesting Sanjaya clips too... (There's anti Sanjaya sites all over.)