The Girls - Round 3
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Ok. I have just literally gulped down a bowl of Annie Chung's Miso Soup (LOVE that stuff) and am ready to live-blog tonight's episode. It's the final round before the finals for the girls, folks, as if all of America didn't already know that. Nakedella is still here, and if the spoilers MJ posted are correct, she's singing one of my FAVORITE songs and had BETTER NOT screw it up. With that, let's begin.
Seacrest does a fashion twist tonight, donning a black turtleneck (instead of a button-down) with his jeans and jacket. The turtleneck thing is a bit much - it's like a really HIGH neck on that sucker, and Ryan has it all scrunched up. We learn that no one can find Paula. How weird. And with that, we're to the American Idol fabulous computerized music and intro. They're live folks. The girls pull out all the stops to win YOUR votes. Melinda's in the pimp spot tonight. It would be better if they stuck Nakedella in the first slot, but she's 3rd. Ironically, Haley Scarnato is 4th, so I'll have uninterrupted pain. Paula made it, along with Randy and Simon. Simon's doing a light gray shirt tonight. Shocker. Actually, I like it. He's a smarmy egotist, but I think he's cute. Click the click for the rest of the show.
Presumably we're still with the "things you don't know about [insert Idol name here]" theme, and we learn that for Jordin Sparks, football is a huge part of her life. She's apparently an Arizona Cardinals fan, poor thing. She wanted to be a pro football player at one point, but singing won out.
She's singing Pat Benetar tonight. Jordin's a naturally talented girl, but I find her inconsistent and a bit sloppy in spots. This song is no different. When she's on her note, she's ON IT. But when she's off, it's glaringly obvious. Heartbreaker is the song, and anyone who ever sung a note knows that singing Pat Benetar is difficult. I find her a little overpowered by the band and background vocals in spots, but she ends VERY strong with a high high strong note. Overall, the performance was quite good, but not great.
Randy: It's weird for him. It's a different show when the girls come in. There were pitchy spots and it wasn't her best performance, but it was still dope.
Paula: She thinks she has energy and thought it was great.
Simon: He's not as enthusiastic - it's a bit manic for him and shrieky in spots, but she's done well, she shows her personality, and he thinks she'll be here next week. It wasn't her strongest performance, though.
Ryan's with Jordin, and she can feel the top 12. She's excited. 1-866-IDOLS01 or text to 5701. Jordin's cute as she scrunches down so as not to tower over shorter Ryan.
And we're back from commercial. We start in the Red Room, with Ryan on the couch flanked by Sabrina and Gina. Gina looks edgier tonight. Sabrina looks all Gloria Estefan chic. Ryan talks about the praise the girls are getting, and Gina thinks it's a blessing. Sabrina thinks everyone is nervous because they know what's at stake.
Sabrina Sloan wanted to be the next Katie Couric in high school. We see a clip of her being a high school news anchor.
Sabrina starts behind the microphone, standing center stage. I vaguely think this is a Mary J. Blige song. I don't know that Sabrina has the right voice to cop the wildly popular grammy-nominated Mary J. She sings this well, but some of the high notes are pretty tight and grating. She's better when she works some nuance to her performance - her soft spots are lovely. This song is highly stylized, and I can't say I loved it. I think she substantively hit the notes with a few minor exceptions, but the tone with which she did it was really not appealing.
Randy: Not his favorite performance, but another good solid performance. It showed her big voice, but he wished for melody.
Paula: One thing is consistent. She can sing sing sing. Her voice soars - it pierces through, and she looks beautiful.
Simon: She's a great singer, but it's lacking the emotion he sees from her main competitors, Lakisha, Melinda and Stephanie. It reminded him of a hotel resort performance. She's a great singer, bu she's got to inject personality. She'll only go so far without it. Too mechanical.
Ryan joins Sabrina, and his turtleneck is still high. Ryan wants to know if she deserves to be in the top 12, and they all agree - yes. 1-866-IDOLS02 or text 5702.
Antonella Barba has been playing the violin since she was a tiny kid. Wait - this is a segment about "things people would be surprised to learn about her" and she talks about playing the VIOLIN??? Good God. I will say also - she shows ZERO personality in her pre-song package.
She's singing Put All Your Records On, a smash hit by Corinne Bailey Rae, nominated for Song of the Year this year. It starts out and I have to say - I don't like her at all personally - but this song totally suits her. She kind of drops a run in the beginning, but finds her way again. We're at the chorus. Some of the lower register twists are sloppy for me, and she's a hair flat here and there. This is without a doubt her best performance, but I have to say - the section they chose when they chopped up the song was not vocally challenging at all. It's difficult to compare her to someone who did Mary J. and went big. This was good, though.
Randy: Good song choice. It was a nice ending, but pitchy in the middle there. He doesn't think she believes she can do it - just ok.
Paula: The right song choice for her and where she stands with her range, lower notes - she has to watch out. But it was the right song.
Simon: You've gone as far as you can go, Antonella. The reality is you're surrounded by some pretty amazing girl singers and he doesn't know how much more she can do because her voice isn't going to get any better. He feels fer her - she's taken a lot of stick in the media and she's handled herself well throughout, and she doesn't think anyone should be put through that, but he's not going to patronize - it wasn't your worst, but he has a problem because he wishes she could sing better.
Ryan's with her, and she doesn't compare herself to anyone else, and wishes the judges wouldn't compare her to anyone else. She doesn't try to be them and they don't try to be her. Simon interjects that "no they wouldn't" and takes some flak from Paula and Ryan, but then Simon says to just "get real". 1-866-IDOLS03 or text 5703.
Gotta say as they go to break - I agree with Simon, and I think it was classy to give her snaps for the whole thing in the media. But he's right - she's not the same level or caliber and if she thinks that she shouldn't be compared, she has bigger problems than soft-porn pictures on the internet. And with that, we're at a commercial.
And we're back. Ryan's center stage. American Idol is the number one show in the country and it can change lives.
Haley Scarnato was a gymnast. She did it for 10 yea rs until she dislocated her shoulder, and then she turned to singing, her true love and her passion.
She's singing a song I have literally never known. She starts out well vocally. She has asweet kind of off-broadway musical voice tonight. I have to say - this does sound like second-rate musical to me. And it's not because she's bad, because she's not singing badly at all. She's hitting her notes. But the song is obscure for me, and very high school musical where she's the best singer in the school. The ending was ridiculously weak. I can't decide which performance I disliked more - Haley's or Antonella's - I think Haley's because it was just so Godawful boring.
Randy: So an interesting song choice for him. It's who she is. It was ok. It was in tune, but had no pizzaz, no wow. No "yo".
Paula: Haley is the kind of artist that song showed. It wasn't her favorite song but she sang it well.
Simon: He thought it was horrible, just horrible - he thought it was like some terrible, ghastly high school musical performance. He realized halfway through he didn't know her name, and she hasn't made an impression.
Ryan's with Haley, after Ryan had to remind Paula that Haley's last name is Scarnato. Haley's "clocking in" and "clocking out". Her attitude is very cavalier. Simon reiterates that it's not personal, and Randy re-establishes that there's no Wow. Gotta say - didn't like Haley's attitude AT ALL. But if you want to vote for her it's 1-866-IDOLS04 or text to 5704. Not likely.
We go right to Stephanie Edwards, who has been singing since she was 3 years old in front of her parents. Her parents would ask her to sing in front of people and she would be shy and run in her room and cry.
Stephanie is a pretty girl. Again, I don't know this song - but after hearing Antonella and then Haley, the difference is striking. Stephenie is rungs above either of those girls with her first note. Now, she seems to favor this whole Beyonce kind of stylized songs, which I don't prefer, and I hope she makes it to the top 12 so I can hear her do something besides this. Oh ow - she went somewhere really far afield in that close-to-the-end run, and her last high note was a little rough for me.
Randy: A for a valiant effort. She was automatically compared to Chakha (apparently the song was by Chakha Khan) by Randy, and he can't get with it. It was just ok for him.
Paula: Darn near flawless, and watch slightly falling behind in the music. Beautiful voice and great showmanship. Commanded the stage and great job.
Simon: One of the best that Idol has. She has a tendency to go a little bit copycat, but for hi, she's done 100% enough to go into the final 12 next week.
Ryan's with Stephanie, and wants to know if she has the "yo" factor. He cautions her to pick songs where she won't be compared because Chakha "done already sung it". I hear what he's saying. 1-866-IDOLS05 or text 5705.
We're at a break.
And we're back!! We're on the fringes of the Red Room, and Ryan stalks around to get to Lakisha, who relaxes on the rails. Lakisha's ready to bring it. She hugs Ryan and she's off.
The crazy thing about Lakisha Jones is that she is terrified of animals - any animals.
She's singing Whitney this week. Only she and Melinda can cop the greats, I think. She does the verse very well and then powers her way into the chorus. She does this effortlessly. I Have Nothing is the song, btw. This is a powerful, emotional song and while she sings it utterly flawlessly in terms of her intonation and power, I do think it lacks a little of the "throw down" mentality needed to really sell it. That's my only minor criticism. She is by far and away the best of the night for me so far.
Randy: He liked that. He doesn't know if it's her best, but another great performance by the great Lakisha.
Paula: You've already made us love you and you're going to stay right here and work on being the next Idol.
Simon: What we haven't seen that she brought was passion, talent, believability - and just picking up on last week's outfit, tonight she looks beautiful.
Ryan's with her now, and her Aunt and mother are going Bugcrap Crazy in the seats. 1-866-IDOLS06 or text to 5706.
Another quick break.
It's Red Room time as we return, and there's only two girls to go. They're all throwing pillows at Ryan. It's kinda cute. He's with Gina. She's hangin' out, a little nervous. He reminds her everything's on the line.
Gina Glocksen relies on lucky charms. She has troll, who's always in her pocket, and there's pickle, which she clenched during the Green Mile. She also has a lucky pillow.
She's singing a girl rock song I don't know. She starts a teensy bit rough for me bu when she gets to the main part of the song she sounds better. The things she does that I don't like, she does consistently - she gets screamy in spots when it gets really high an powerful. I much prefer her voice when she's not doing that, frankly. I don't know this song at all and she's generally hitting the notes but it's all at the same volume - loud. She ends a little shaky - last note doesn't work at all. Despite those nits, though, I thought it was a good performance.
Randy: Finally the real Gina comes out tonight. There were some pitch problems, but he liked that this who he always thought she was.
Paula: She agrees this is who she imagined Gina to be. Watch not to oversing.
Simon: It's the first time he's seen her look comfortable, and this is what they wanted at this stage in the competition. She tended to scream the song, but he hopes she makes it through next week. He hopes the song wasn't too extreme for the audience, but she deserves to be there.
Seacrest is with her (btw, the band was Evanescence), and she comments that this was definitely her. 1-866-IDOLS07 or text 5707. I'll vote for her tonight - just because she WAS different and I would like to see her in the top 12 ahead of Antonella and Haley.
Commercial time.
We're back with my favorite singer in the competition thus far, Melinda Doolittle, workin' the pimp spot.
Melinda Doolittle shares that her friends think she's OCD, but she characterizes it as "equal opportunity". She talks about chewing one side and then the other; stepping on one crack with one foot and then the other; touching something cold with one hand and having to touch it with the other. Huh.
She's singing I'm A Woman, again with what seems to be a custom arrangement. This is where being a professional musician, I think, really pays off, because she knows how to to work an arrangement. This song is very very good and it's believable with Melinda. She's about halfway through and I'm waiting for her to unleash with something that blows my hair back - here she goes... Excellent. Didn't like it as much as last week, but still loved it.
Randy: (Crowd won't shut up) She's the hottest one of the night. She's a consummate pro. she's ready to go make a record.
Paula: So phenomenal, likeable and lovable - can't wait to see her every week. Fantastic.
Simon: "You little tiger". Heh. He thought they had a pussycat - he loved that. It's very nice that she is actually enjoying every second she's having on the show. She loves it and she should, a million percent we'll see her next week.
Seacrest is with her. 1-866-IDOLS08 or text 5708.
We recap everyone and their numbers - I will say - they picked the weakest part of Antonella's song to highlight. My final rankings:
Melinda Doolittle
Lakisha Jones
Stephanie Edwards
Sabrina Sloan
Gina Glocksen
Jordin Sparks
Antonella Barba
Haley Scarnato
I have to say - it's very close for me between Lakisha and Melinda. The are both outstanding. I From Stephanie to Jordin, I thought they were all very good tonight. Antonella and Haley were completely mediocre (though not Godawful bad) and they are the obvious weakest two (for me).
So... Tomorrow night we'll know who's out and who's in and the big TWIST or EVENT or whatever it was Ryan pimped last night. Till then, thanks for reading! And yes, Cindy, the girls were definitely better than the boys this week, too. By a long shot.
Labels: American Idol, Girls, Round 3, Semi-Finals
posted by RenaRF @ 8:12 PM,
