Season 7 Redux – Top 11
I got kind of busy with the People’s Choice Awards tonight. I watched the episode, but haven’t had a minute to collect my thoughts. Maybe I’ll post something later, but in the meantime, here’s a post for the rest of you to discuss tonight’s Fox Reality Channel re-run of the American Idol Season 7 Top 11 episodes.
I’ll say this one thing for now–Beatles week should not have been repeated. That was a mistake.
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68 Responses to “Season 7 Redux – Top 11”
lefty said:
Yep, one disastrous example comes up in a few weeks by the American Idol himself – Innocent on IGB.
I had no idea that David A. and Chikezie switched. I agree that I think it worked in Archie’s favor.
I won’t say much on Syesha other than none of these Idols were brilliant every week. Even Syesha. Frankly if she was she wouldn’t have seen the B3 so many times. I have already agreed I don’t think she ever had a trainwreck performance, but as Idol has shown us it’s sometimes better to be a trainwreck then forgettable (see Rami for forgettable).
Also most of the Idols that had trainwrecks at one time or another also had unforgettable performances other weeks. Performances that will probably go down in AI history to some extent, so it balances out a bit.
“There were only five good singers this year: Carly, Michael, Davids, and Syesha”
I agree with those ones but I think Chikezie has a good voice as well. and even though she may not have shown it very well, I still say Ramiele has the best voice of the bunch.
anyway, here’s my recap, in order by judges comments
Archie: Great Archie performance, perfect way to bounce back from WCWIO. I wasn’t a big fan of it, but it was great for people who like Archie and the Beatles.
Syesha: She sounded and looked beautiful. I remember watching it the first time through with my dad and he was annoyed she went with a guitar instead of a piano, but she admitted she sang it very well.
Carly: It was a good vocal, she did very well.
Cook: Not one of his great ones, but not one of his bad ones either. I liked it, but that’s not exactly shocking. Plus it was the only time he played his Les Paul in the first 7 weeks of finals, so it could never be bad in my eyes. Although, now looking back on the whole season, I hope Bo gave him a little tutoring on the vocoder (or whatever it’s called) when he was there top 4 week.
I get you brie, and despite my slightly unhealthy obsession with Michael
I will agree that in many cases he should have chosen better songs (Beatles night take 2 is a great example). I was responding more to an earlier comment about Michael’s lack of musical skills which I think is really countered by his strong and diverse material pre-idol. He said his new album is going to stick with a soul vibe, too bad he didn’t get to that point when he was on idol…then again the judges would have praised him for 2 weeks then criticized him for sounding the same by the third week!
Sorry but I don’t believe she’s earned one iota of respect. She was the most full of herself contestant this year…maybe all years. I wanted to puke after Idol Gives Back when all she could talk about was Shesha and how somebody wanted to give money if Syesha would talk to them on the phone. My jury was still out until that moment. But come on, Syesha, at least pretend you care about others more than yourself.
ETA to say that I think Michael chose some great songs (other than Queen covers). I just don’t think he did a damn thing to make them his or to showcase himself. I always got the feeling from him, my first favorite for the season, that our seeing him was enough…that he felt he was so good that he didn’t have to work at it. Maybe TPTB put this notion in his mind, maybe he didn’t think this at all…just the feeling I got from him.
Syesha has uber-fans? Who knew, good for her!
I’m excited about tonight’s episode. Bring on Top 10… Wish I had Fox Reality to watch Billie Jean on the big screen again. Daily Motion will have to do.
Guess what newbie! You’re banned.
Yeah, I just never got that vibe from him. Michael is certainly confident, but he’s not a young kid starting out, just like DCook. He’s 30 and has been working at this for a while so he is more sure of himself than many of the other contestants. I just don’t think Michael’s strategy was to change the songs, instead he sang songs that would represent the music he planned to sing (not a great strategy clearly but it seems like that was his plan).
I won’t try to convert anyone that doesn’t want to be converted, but post idol he has been so generous and kind with his fans that I just have a hard time seeing him as any less than a fantastic singer who’s also really nice and funny
Tonight has some good moments. Billie Jean for sure. I also secretly love it for Jason’s B3 spaz out. It’s when Simon first jumps from the Jason train, though he was back a few weeks later.
I think it was after this week too where the Idols told the crew to stop the swaybots and audience from clapping during their songs because they were throwing the Idols off in their performances. Apparently the audience can’t clap in rhythm.
What I am not looking forward to is KLC’s God Bless the USA. A smart choice for her, but ridiculously manipulative.
idolrox said:
Or . . . music and appreciation of music is for the most part a subjective thing and people will have different opinions. We’re all sharing our opinions here and, unless you tell me that you have a Ph.D. in music AND have a stack of Grammys in your closet, I think your opinion should count just as much (and as little) as everyone else’s.
I’ve not participated in rewatching S7 but do recall that during the first run of S8, Syesha hit some sour notes in a few of her performances during the early part of the competition and I got so turned off by that (as well as her going for notes that were a real reach for her — and not quite making them) that I actually got conditioned to dreading hearing her because she was always a disappointment to me. Disappointment in terms of her having potential but always blowing it (for me) by being off in some parts and picking the wrong key to sing her songs in. IMO she got better towards the end of the season but in the early part of the season, I certainly wasn’t surprised with her hitting B3.
As for her perceived snootiness or fakeness of what have you, I was actually a little stunned by this because I never really got any kind of fake or snotty vibe from her. However, once I started hitting the interwebs, I did notice that a lot of fans seemed to be turned off by her perceived vanity/self-centeredness. But then again, I’m also one of those folks that never got any kind of smug, cocky, pompous, etc. vibe from Cook and was surprised when Simon pointed it out and when other folks (when I began trolling the interwebs) seemed to agree. Needless to say, I pretty much ignored both memos on Syesha and Cook — though I did cringe for Cook when he did that shit on his hand during IGB week. That pinged by “douche alert” button big time, though at that point I had irretrievably become a fan of his glaringly superior talent and couldn’t give a shit less if he was actually douche. (I, of course, realized later after much careful watching and judging every single nuance and action that he was indeed one of the good guys.)
I think most of us would agree with this. He just didn’t play the game as well as some of the others, really, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a great singer and terrific guy … and very very easy on the eyes. :smile1_ee:
I think they were great songs too, but just not great for him.
That was the example that I had in mind for Cook. Tonight’s (You’re the Voice) is Archie’s; Brooke’s was You’ve Got a Friend; Michael’s was A Day in the Life or Dream On; Carly’s was The Show Must Go On; etc etc.
Obviously that’s just my opinion, but none of those were generally well-received IIRC.
Yup…I challenge anyone to deny that :grin1_ee:
I honestly can’t wait to watch tonight’s episode. It was a great night for a lot of the performers which is always more entertaining.
That’s why I tivo brie…no need to torture myself!
As usual, I only caught 4 performances last night, the 4 last ones, Jason, Syesha, Chikezie and Ramiele.
Jason- um…….
Syesha- This was her turning point, thank god. After this she at least stood out.. and got herself all the way to the top 3! She even looked beautiful, and people who diss her for no apparent reason, get a life.
Chikezie- I said back then that this performance was very un-american idol ish. Last night, what I heard was EVEN WEAKER!! than I remembered… it was a weak performance for him definitely.
Ramiele- She was better than I remember. Boring song choice, but she actually sang it pretty well.
Results- The Q&A- all about the judges! Boring! And when they are for the contestants… still boring: What’s on your Ipod- who cares! Lame. Hope they get rid of that this season.
I find it really weird that the weeks Syesha was safe, they waited til like the end to announce it… like it’s supposed to be surprising. She DID have one of the best performances (IMO The best of the Top 11 night) so it’s not that surprising she’s safe…[they did this Top 9 as well]
Amanda- eliminated, was she forgetting her words or not with the band in parts? because I heard that and didn’t remember that happening. so that was pretty weird, the end this time aroung was alright though.
My sister- who never watches the show anymore, noted that “that girl’s not even singing!”- who was it? Amanda, during the group song.. lmao!
I had time to rewatch the group number today and I did notice that Amanda wasn’t singing much. That was really one of the cheesiest numbers in terms of choreography. BUT my favorite part of the entire medley was when Amanda finally did come in with “And in the end …” It was like *snap* and the silliness was gone.
Also, did anyone else notice that Rami’s mic was off during her part?
Well believe it, baby.
Well, we’re now well past Top 11, but I’m back simply to say…
Michael Johns is fine. He just can’t sing Queen and get a pass from me. I said it earlier, I think, as did someone else. No one can touch Freddie Mercury, so for anyone to even try causes problems for me. And, rightly or wrongly, that leaves the performance in the karaoke or wannabe realm. I guess Freddie is my Whitney or Celine or whomever the judges always pan contestants for taking on. Not to sound like Paula, but there are textures, or colors, or nuances in Freddie’s voice that simply cannot be duplicated, much less surpassed. (May he RIP…) Perhaps if Michael didn’t try to sing the songs straight, he’d have fared better with me.
That said, he’s a talented guy….just wait ’til Dolly week. He’ll prove it beyond your wildest imagination! LOL
Some quick comments: I think if Carley would have worn much less eyeliner her eyes would have not been so scarey. Beautiful song.
MJ’s ” A Day In the Life” makes me want to download the Beetles version. What a great song!
DC. Sorry, nothing could have turned me away from him at this point, and loved the performance! Just a really tough follow up to the previous two weeks, but he carried it off just fine. Yeah, he’s a rock star! I loved his response when Ryan asked him how he would respond to what to Simon’s comments.
Syesha. Her performance was beautiful this night! Paula suggested she show this vulnerability more and she didn’t seem to grab a hold of that advice.
I think it was Amanda’s time to go, but I actually teared up watching her send off performance. This was such a big week and the top 10 looked so sad for her. awww.
Brooke and Jason were able to build up their fan base so they were set.
DA. A wonderfully pure performance. Didn’t need the runs Randy was encouraging.
I guess that’s it.
DANG IT! Late Again…I’ll keep it short and simple.
D.C. was great, again…no missed notes, no forgotten words, no awkward movements (i.e., dancing), nice outfit (especially those pants), great but-shot from the cameraperson (yeah, I’m going there).
Also very good: Syesha (I thought her tone was great and she didn’t rush the vocal); this also applies to Rami (I’m not familiar with the song she sang, but her vocal sounded heartfelt and sweet to me). I also really, really liked Carly this week with Blackbird(someone should have told Carly that this kind of song will always showcase her vocals, because lower register is just awesome). Archie’s vocal was very nice, but also very boring.
Everyone else blew chunks and/or made me want to blow chunks.
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Peace Out & POKE SMOT :smoke_tb: