American Idol 9 Top 24 – What Should The Idols Sing? (Plus Song Spoilers!)
The live shows finally begin this week (YAY) with the Top 12 girls singing on Tuesday and The Top 12 boys on Wednesday.
- After the jump, check out Top 24 song spoilers from Idol Maniac, who helped successfully spoil the Top 24 this year.
The song theme for the semi-final round will be “Hot 100 Top 10’s”, but I’m hearing the producers aren’t strictly enforcing the theme.
This year, contestants WILL be able to play instruments during their performance (Instruments were allowed during the semis Season 7, but not allowed until the Top 13 Season 8.)
Over at Idol Forums, Idol Maniac has posted lists of Top 10 songs for the years 1972-1010, Here. What do you think the Idols should sing?
Also, would anybody in the LA area like to attend the Girls dress rehearsal on Tuesday? Give me a holla at mjsbigblog @ gmail dot com. I know somebody with an extra ticket.
Are you planning to attend Idol dress rehearsals this year? Once the Top 12 begins, they are fairly easy to get into. If so, I need your help! I need reporters willing to call me right after dress with song spoilers. Contact me if you are interested!
OH. Don’t forget to sign up for my American Idol 9 pool. There will be prizes. Sign up HERE.
Song Choice Spoilers (in no particular order)…(Via Idol Forums)
“At Last” by Etta James (John Park)
“Happy” by Leona Lewis (Ashley Rodriguez)
“It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls (Siobhan Magnus)
“Oh Darling” by The Beatles
“Wonderful World” by James Morrison (Alex Lambert)
song by Ingrid Michaelson (Didi Benami)
song by Michael Buble (Katy Stevens)
song by The Beatles
song by The Beatles (Jose Munoz)
song by The Who/The Guess Who (Tyler Grady)
Posted in 62 Responses to “American Idol 9 Top 24 – What Should The Idols Sing? (Plus Song Spoilers!)”
I don’t understand contestants passing up the chance to sing recent songs when the opportunity presents itself in the semifinals rounds, unless they are going for a retro sort of appeal, like Bo or Taylor (but even he managed to sing a song from 2004 in the semis). Everybody and their grandmother has a guitar this year, so you have to wonder when the rearranging is just going to get old. I don’t have anything against updating songs, but when you become known for it, you risk developing a fanbase who only likes you for your rearranging skills, which leaves you SOL when it’s time to peddle your original music in the fall.
Love, love the choice of “Wonderful World”!
Do we know when the shows are being taped yet? Tonight fir the girls?
If Tyler Grady is singing Guess Who, I would love him to sing “American Woman”. “These Eyes” could work as well.
Oh, Siobhan, I want to like you (and I do), but how can I ever like that song choice? That’s such a dated song and such a terrible song in my opinion.
I want to hope she’d change it around and play with the arrangement, but she’s a belter, so I bet she’ll sing it straight.
Simon will hate it just by title alone. I remember Ellen saying they wanted her younger, I don’t think this song is going to do it.
I hope she doesn’t leave tomorrow, because there is something about Siobhan I like.
Lots of Beatles, that can be such a double edged sword….
Cuz everything on the radio now either a) is loaded with “Auto-Tune” and they don’t have that option (yet) on Idol or b) is just a sample of an older song anyway, or c) Both!
Probably because many of the Beatles songs are classics. They often bridge generations, and they are also easy to reinvent.
I also agree singing modern, current songs are a risk. Many contestants have failed doing this. The only exception is the opposite gender rule. Otherwise, there is a major risk for comparison.
AI has proven time and time again that choosing modern songs is NOT a smart move, unless it’s pretty different from your current style – otherwise it invariably sounds like a cheap copycat of the original. (example: about 90% of the Top 36 from last year)
IIRC – most of the Top 24/Top 36 “themes” fit my categorization of being very free – choose a “top billboard song”, for instance. It’s not till they get to Top 12 that there are definite themes (as in, 1980’s songs, as you mention, or disco, MJ week, etc.) That’s what I mean.
ETA: That’s why you had last year’s Top 36 performances essentially being anything under the sun – from classic rock to contemporary alternative, pop songs, 80’s songs, etc.
The person who picked “Happy” is just walking right into the fire. That is Leona’s song, so Simon will never like it sung by anyone else
Because when you pick a contemporary song, it’s much much too easy to end up singing it *very* much in the same exact style in which the original performer sang it — because that performer and you are performing in the same era and most likely have certain major similarities in your style, compared to singers from another era. When that happens, you’re running a huge risk of being labeled “karaoke” *and* of producing a version that’s deemed too similar to the original and inferior to it.
If you sing an older song — or a contemporary song in a style that’s very very different from your own, like Kris and Heartless — then you have a chance to remake it in a contemporary style and you’re going to be less likely to be compared to the original performer because everybody won’t remember that person as well. Old stuff doesn’t have to have merely retro appeal. To see that you only need to compare Jamie Cullum and Diana Krall, for example, singing the jazz standards, in comparison to older or more cabaret-oriented singers doing the same songs. A contemporary singer who’s good and sure of his or her own style has a very good chance of remaking an older song in a very contemporary way, while when a contemporary singer tries to remake a contemporary song (in under a week, especially) the issue of karaoking it becomes very live and very dicey.
I’m not sure that singing a copycat version of a current song (which, make no mistake, is what will inevitably happen) is really all that daring.
I’m hoping she does, actually. Admittedly, obscure numbers on Idol are a gambit, but not necessarily a bad one. But I’m just selfishly hoping for material that isn’t as blatantly obvious.
Yeah, it’s a serious dud of a song. Bad history on Idol, too. It has an extremely tricky vocal line in it that maybe Siobhan, with her large pipes, can pull off, but considering that Kelly Clarkson (amongst others, but I recall it was being Kelly’s worst performance on the show) had issues with the song, so it seems to be an excessively bad idea.
Interesting on Didi’s choice; Ingrid seems a little obvious given her stylings, so Didi may end up looking copycat, but on the other hand it’s interesting material relative to Idol. And Katie gets points for picking something contemporary as well, even if I’m not particularly a Buble fan; it shows promise that she might be consciously avoiding the Celine Dion-type catalog we’ve heard all too often, which I had feared for her. I’m actually most interested in hearing what Crystal is going to choose; hoping she does something interesting, and even if she goes the way of copycat it’ll probably be on better material than her peers.
First week of semis tend to be a little poor in the song choice department, so I guess I can’t complain too much about any of the choices here.