American Idol

[DonFan]

A post from another blog about American Idol:

I thought I'd suggest some songs for some of the folks in the contest. Starting with the oldest, Danny Gokey (1990), it would be "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen. Then to Adam in 1982 and it just has to be "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley. LHM, he could do that song so proud. And for Lil and 1984, she had better pick my main woman, Tina Turner, and "Better Be Good To Me. She's got the energy and she's got the pipes to hit this one out of the park. We have three 1985 babies in Kris, Matt and Scott. I'm picking "Lover Boy" by Billy Ocean for Kris, "One More Night" by Phil Collins for Matt and "No More Lonely Nights" by Paul McCartney for Scott.

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Those are excellent suggestions. Eagles/Henley and Queen--my two favorite groups/singers on the planet! It would be great if some of the contestants actually picked some of these songs.

[eaglesvet]

Matt could do that Phil Collins song well, I bet.

[sodascouts]

Well, we got a Henley song, but it didn't work out so well!

Kris did All She Wants to Do Is Dance - with a kind of jazz/horns take. It... didn't really work.

Listen to it here:
http://www.rickey.org/?p=13924

[Maleah]

Do to darn work, I missed Danny, Kris, and Lil so I'll wait until I hear the complete songs before I write my "review." lol I only heard the clip at the end and it definently was a little different. With the way that the guys seem to feel about Idol, I'm kind of suprised that Don gave permission for them to use his song. Although it's DEFINENTLY very, very, VERY good promotion for him and his work!!!!!!

[Prettymaid]

Danny (Stand By Me) - Danny's standing his ground and belting out the ballads. Good job!

Kris (All She Wants to Do Is Dance) - All I wanted to do was change the channel! Bottom three tomorrow.

Lil (What's Love Got to Do With It) - I'm getting bored. Bottom three.

Anoop (True Colors) - He's earned himself another week.

Scott (The Search Is Over) - Yes Scott, the search is almost over and you ain't it!

Allison (I Can't Make You Love Me) - I love this song and she sang it better than the original! I'm feeling 'finale' for this girl!

Matt (Part Time Lover) - Great job. It's just not my thing. But he's very good.

Adam (Mad World) - OMG! The control this guy has over his vocals! He's meeting up with Allison in the finale!

Who's going home? Scott...please let it be Scott!

[DonFan]

Well, we got a Henley song, but it didn't work out so well!
Kris did All She Wants to Do Is Dance - with a kind of jazz/horns take. It... didn't really work.

You are so right. It didn't work at ALL.

Adam was wonderful, again. I hate that the producers allowed the show to get so behind schedule that he was not allowed to receive his well-deserved praise from all four judges. Adam, Allison and Danny remain in my top three, and I think Scott will be the next one voted off.

[eaglesvet]

When I heard the beginning strands of "All She Wants to Do is Dance," I couldn't help but smile in thinking of all the Borderers who watch the show smiling...but then I realized it was all downhill from there! Oh, brother. But, I think Kris has got enough of a fan base from past weeks to (hopefully) make it through.

I thought Anoop really scored with "True Colors." I never really appreciated Cyndi Lauper, but his version showed me what a beautiful song it really is. And his voice was incredible on it.

Ditto for Allison! Great song choice for her, and her vocals were right on! And this week she dressed appropriately, although now Simon had to comment that she wasn't quite likeable enough. Way to go.

And ditto for Matt--he really showed his strengths in the Stevie Wonder song. I was afraid that the judges were going to say that Stevie's songs shouldn't be touched (like they do whenever a woman tries to sing Mariah or Celine or Whitney.) Thankfully, Matt did the song justice!

Embarrassingly, I didn't recognize Adam's song, even though the eighties were my prime music listening era. And even though I liked Tears for Fears. And have one of their albums. Just not that one. Thank heavens for google and wikipedia. I now know both the history of the song, and the entire plot and underlying meaning of Donnie Darko. Sounds like a really weird movie. I definitely would have liked to hear all the judges comments on Adam's performance, since I have absolutely no context to base my opinion on...which is, a good performance, but not my favorite. See above.

[sodascouts]

OK, my thoughts!

Danny - I thought his version of Stand By Me was an interesting take, and he made it work. Good job!

Kris - I was trying to be tactful earlier, but as soon as I heard the weird horn opening, I knew we were in for trouble. It reminded me of Heney's cabana Hotel California, only worse. I give the guy props for showing appreciation for our guy and I realize he was attempting to "make the song his own" but sorry... that was a FAIL! Still, I hope he doesn't go home just yet.

Lil - Was anyone else surprised that "Lil Rounds" is her real name? I thought for sure it was a stage name, like Lil' Kim.... but apparently that's not the case! I had no problem with her performance - it wasn't the best of the night, but it certainly wasn't bad.

Anoop - I love "True Colors" - one of my faves from when I was a kid. He did a good job with it and showed you just how textured his voice is. Nice! (Right up there with Lucy Walsh on Rock the Cradle!)

Scott - Again, another song I love - in fact, "The Search Is Over" was on one of my mix tapes that I played over and over! Scott was brave to come out there with a guitar and rock it. The song is very powerful when done right, but very difficult to sing, and it showed. Still, he was so earnest... it's hard to hate on it.

Allison - I have this song on my George Michael's Ladies and Gentleman CD, and it's also a fave of mine. (I'm an eighties girl, what can I say!) At first I thought it would be too mature of a song for her - especially when she started with kind of a smile during "turn down the bed" - but then she got into the song and rocked it. You go, Allison! She better not be in the bottom three again after that.

Matt - I was nervous FOR Matt when he began this song. It's difficult to sing, and he really needed to excel to overcome the judges' negativity from the last show. Obviously, it worked - they were happy. I wasn't feeling it as much as some of his other performances, though. My felllow Idol-watching friend texted me that she thought it was obvious that this song was picked to please the judges and not Matt. I think I agree with that. Hopefully, he won't be at the bottom three again like the last time the judged loved on him! He deserves to stay. Go, Matt!!!

Adam - OK, Adam fans.... I'll say it.... he did good. I love Tears for Fears and while "Mad World" isn't one of my favorite songs of theirs, he really did it justice. I think he does best on these type of very dramatic, theaterical songs. Also, he controlled his voice and didn't do those over-the-top screeches that annoy me so (except for the last note). As a result - nice job, Adam! Didn't think it was so great that it deserved a standing ovation though.

Bottom Three: Scott, Kris, Lil.

Who Will Go Home: I think Scott's time has finally run out.

ETA: If you want to want to watch the episode online, you can do it here:
http://mjsbigblog.com/american-idol-...ce-video-2.htm

[Prettymaid]

Adam was wonderful, again. I hate that the producers allowed the show to get so behind schedule that he was not allowed to receive his well-deserved praise from all four judges.

Tell me about it! My SIL stopped by just after Kris' performance and stayed and talked during the show, so I missed some of the others. After Matt's performance I realized that I didn't remember seeing Adam at all and it was very close to the top of the hour. Fortunately, I can rewind during a show, so I rewound to the beginning, replaying the parts I had missed. But because the show was scheduled to end at 8:00 (CDT), it did not record Adam's performance. I had to watch it online. Anyone who recorded the show to watch later will miss Adam! That's not fair!

[Stars]

I was so disappointed with Kris' version of "All She Wants to do is Dance"! I had just come home from working late, and he was just beginning to sing. I actually had to leave the room!