Top 2 - E.g., The FINALS!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
All RIGHT. I can't profess to being too excited. Melinda was my girl and I'm deeply unhappy that she was booted last week. But I've stuck with the show this long so I'm seeing it through. They just showed the Kodak - if you look WAY into the toppiest topmost balcony, that's where I sat for last year's final competition between Kat an Taylor. MAN was THAT vibe different. Anyone have any news on whether Taylor is performing this year??
Ryan talks about the Kodak being packed (duh). It's the "Battle of the Sexes" version of American Idol, apparently. We hang with the judges, who are dressed up. Randy's outfit is weird. Paula's hair is weird. Simon looks good in a suit-sans-tie. I also dig Ryan's suit. Paula broke her nose? Does that explain why her face looks weird? WAY weird. She tripped over her dog. Ryan says "so the bitch is OK". Oooh. So much for family-friendly. More after the click! Click it!
The songwriting contest winners came out of Seattle which is where, ironically, both Blake and Jordin auditioned. Newsflash: it was raining in Seattle during the auditions. We flash back to the good, bad and ugly of Seattle auditions. We see the two of them in line for their very first auditions. They look WAY different now. It's actually a pretty nice retrospective. I don't know, folks - without hearing a note sung, I'm leaning Blake. I'm not a Jordin-hater. But I do respect Blake's risky choices. Exsqueeze me? Baking powder? Did Ryan just say Jordin's "consistent performances" got her where she is today? My ass. She ranged from ear-bleedingly, off-keyedly horrid to brilliant with nary a gasp in between. I thought she sucked way more than she rocked.
With that, we're to the first commercial.
And we're back. We have a new Jordin/Blake coin thingy to choose who sings first or second. Blake unwisely chose to go first. Hm. This all happened last week. We're back live at the Kodak. They have three songs tonight - their favorite, something they did before, and the winning songwriting song (they each do this).
Blake Lewis starts with You Give Love a Bad Name. He starts off beat-boxing. This was not, I thought, one of his better performances, but it wasn't a bad one either. The drummer is on stage with him. He starts out and stays in tune. The arrangement of this song is growing on me. He's shouting a little in the chorus and pulling just ever-so-slightly flat. It's minor, but it's there. There's a LOT of beat-boxing in this tune. Not as much singing. But it's a good overall performance - nothing socks-knockingly wonderful, and his mic technique is causing his voice to fade in an out. Overall, just ok. Not great, not bad.
Randy: 10 out of 10 on beat boxing. Singing just ok.
Paula: She thinks Blake outdid himself. She gives him a 10+. She must have broken her ears, not her nose.
Simon: Not the best singer, but definitely the best performance. The singing was a bit flat and he was shouting, but he doesn't think it matters. It was his best performance three or four weeks ago and he was right to do it again.
He's with Ryan. They review the reviews. 1-866-IDOLS01 or 03 or 05 or text to 5701.
Jordin Sparks is doing Christina Aguilera's Fighter (a new song). She starts out stalking around. I don't think I know this song. It's rocky R&B. She starts out quite strong. She goes to a bit of shouting but the chorus comes back down to where she can actually sing an not scream. The song itself is pretty frenetic. I have no concept of how popular it might be. The second chorus is very high and she's doing the shouty thing again and it sounds a bit out of control. I think this song is WAY harder than Blake's first one was, but it honestly hurts to listen to Jordin sometimes. From a singing perspective, though, better than Blake, but he edges her with a decent vocal and a better performance. Round 1 Blake.
Randy: He found it a very interesting choice tonight. He thinks it's the great entertainer against the great singer (what - Melinda's here?).
Paula: Best. Finale. Ever. She was stellar.
Simon: He likes the choice of a younger song. He thought the vocals were shrieky in the middle (I agree) and he calls round 1 to Blake. Interesting.
Randy gives performance to Blake and vocals to Jordin. 1-866-IDOLS02 or 04 or 06 for Jordin or text to 5702.
Commercial time.
And we're BACK. We get a little Blake retrospective. He wanted drums as a kid. He never got them. So he beat boxed. His father and he resemble each other. Blake will be doing Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved for his second song. We haven't heard that before. It's a more subdued, seated Blake this time around. He sounds good in the first verse. I think anything Maroon 5 suits his voice. He's generally in tune, but we're going to the chorus. He cops a falsetto for the chorus, and it's passable. He's kind of pinching it, frankly - tightening his throat so that although he hits the note, it sounds shrill in the falsetto. He's through the bridge and back to the verse. It was pretty good. Back to the second chorus - same complaint with the falsetto. But this WAS a good SINGING performance for Blake.
Randy: Great song, very nice vocal. Very nice.
Paula: Really got into the ease of the song. He was relaxed.
Simon: It was good, it was safe - it wasn't as good as the first performance and he wouldn't have chosen that song in the final because he doesn't think it makes that much of an impact. Hm. I do think it's wildly popular.
Ryan's with Blake. 1-866-IDOLS01 or 03 or 05 or text to 5701.
Another commercial break.
Now we get the Jordin retrospective. We see her singing at 12 in braces. We meet her parents. We learn this is her dream. She's be singing Martina McBride's A Broken Wing. This was, for me, the strongest performance she had this season. I also think it was long enough ago that it's a good choice. You know something I like about Jordin? She's quite modest in what she chooses to wear. It's refreshing. She's doing the song well. She's in tune through the first verse and chorus, but she IS trending shouty in the chorus. I think it's just what she does. It does hurt, but at least she's in tune. Overall very good.
Randy: He loved her since day 1. He believes she's the most talented 17 year old singer he's seen. He loved it.
Paula: Thought she sang it great. Excellent.
Simon: "Now THAT was good."
She's with Ryan. 1-866-IDOLS02 or 04 or 06 for Jordin or text to 5702.
Gotta give Round 2 to Jordin.
We're back after commercial for the final performances from each. We meet the songwriters who won the songwriting competition. They look very - normal. Their song is This Is My Now.
Blake starts out seated on the big hayuge diamond vision screen. Of course, we don't know this song. The beginning is pretty Disney Films for me. The first verse is good vocally - not too challenging. We're in the chorus, and honestly, I think it sounds like every other schlocky AI inaugural song. That's not Blake's fault. But his vocal is REALLY REALLY off in parts of this song. It's like he got lost in the band. This song SO doesn't suit him. I wonder if he puked when he heard it. Honestly - I like Blake - but I want him to stop singing this song. This vocal is not good. Not a good way to end it. The song gets an F and Blake's vocal barely a C.
Randy: Randy knows it doesn't suit him. He thought it was all right but not great.
Paula: She thought he did a great job.
Simon: He thought it was all a little odd. He thought Blake looked frustrated. He thinks we have to judge Blake primarily on the first two performances.
Honestly. Blake looked like someone killed his dog and I would have to agree - he got screwed by that song. Highly unfair. It's like someone giving me a Reba McIntyre tune to sing (which I hate) and then basing my whole career on just IT. Poor Blake. 1-866-IDOLS01 or 03 or 05 or text to 5701.
OMG. I have to listen to that awful song again. Jordin is doing This Is My Now this time around. She's clearly changed the key and this clearly suits her more so than it suited Blake. She's shaky to me at the beginning, though. She's screaming her way through what passes for the chorus. Vocally it's better than Blake's version, but I can't say it's great by any means. This plays right into her screaming propensity. She hits a super power note at the end, though - TOTAL money note, and then screams a higher than high note. Ack. She looks pretty though, and starts to cry at the end of the song, which really annoys me. Round 3 Jordin, but I'll vote for Blake.
Randy: He thinks it's great. It's about her and finding the superstar.
Paula: Paula cries. For some reason Jordin's parents are wonderful to Paula. Jordin should be proud.
Simon: Last week Simon didn't think she was good enough to make the finals but he was wrong. She wiped the floor with Blake on that song.
She's with Ryan. 1-866-IDOLS02 or 04 or 06 for Jordin or text to 5702.
Ryan talks about how we can GET THAT SONG at American Idol.com. Personally I want to ram a spiked shoe through the eyeballs of the guys who wrote it. So I don't think I"m buying it.
Jordin sang better than Blake. But yawn to Jordin. Blake performed better than Jordin. But that last song - my God. But because they hosed him so totally, I'll throw votes his way.
Labels: American Idol, Final 2, Finals, Performance
posted by RenaRF @ 7:20 PM,
1 Comments:
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At 2:20 PM,
SuperflyTNTdaShizzle said...
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I've got to run catch my train in a few minutes so this will be mercifully short. I don't care anymore. Every season someone I think shoul at least be in the finals gets knocked out, but this year it was ridiculous. Melinda was so much better it wasn't close.
Blake performed better, Jordin sang one song better, (I give neither of them points for that sappy crap they foisted on us at the end. I call the Idol song search a big failure. It was at least as bad, if not worse than the usual drivel we get for the "original" Idol song, (then again why would I think that a public that didn't recognize hoe far superior Melinda was to know a good song to vote for). The should have had a top 5 songs or something like that and let the performer pick one of the 5. I did get a laugh at Ryan telling the one songrwriter, (and I use the term loosely), because it, "made him feel short". Jeez, if that's the case he should never stand next to Jordin.
Who will win? I'm still hoping that Melinda will pull it off in a major upset.