Another night of Season 7 reruns from the Fox Reality Channel, peeps. Tonight we re-visit the Top 12.
It’s Beatles’ night, and I remember being pretty excited, and a bit nervous about this. Nervous ’cause it really sucks when your favorite songs in the universe are butchered by horrible singers. But as it turned out, the kids, for the most part, don’t send me screaming from the room like I feared.
Syesha Mercado started the night off with a straight-up cover of the Earth Wind and Fire version of “Got to Get You Into My Life.” The performance came off a bit dull and cabaret and it’s a little off putting, the way she pauses before she sings the word “Life.” Next is Chikezie, and he pulled off, seriously, what I think is one of the most original performances of the entire competition. Chikezie never got enough props for re-arranging the Beatles’ “She’s A Woman” into an electrifying country-blues-rock mashup. What a revelation. Poor little Ramiele Malubay continued her slide with a snoozeworthy “In My Life.” The big Idol stage just swallowed Rami up, like the big arena stages would later on tour. Jason Castro–hm. I did appreciate some of his phrasing on “If I Fell”, but the whole effect was rather dull, particularly with bandzilla drowning him out. His vocals barely registered on the high notes. No wonder Simon frustrated Carly Smithson so much. He praised her “Come Together” effusively, but really, how was that better than her past couple performances? For me, the song was a bit cabaret–like Celine Dion covering the Beatles, but there’s no denying the power of her vocals. I have to admit that I didn’t connect with David Cook’s interpretation of “Eleanor Rigby” He presented the song with great showmanship, but I just didn’t feel like he got at the bitter lonliness in the song. And I really did not dig the big emo-screamo glory note at the end.
Brooke White, on the other hand, delivered a raw and heartfelt “Let it Be” that more than made up for less-than-stellar vocals. David Hernandez had the worst performance of the night. “I Saw Her Standing There” was the weirdest song choice ever–it did nothing to showcase his vocals, and he sang and worked the room like he was on a Disney cruise ship. *cringe* It’s no wonder he didn’t survive the week. I totally disagreed with Simon that Amanda Overmyer was better the week before when she sang Joan Jett pretty much like Joan Jett. She bluesed up “You Can’t Do That” and really made it her own. And I love that she didn’t change the pronouns. Absolutely my favorite from Amanda. One of the most underrated Idol performances of the entire season is Michael Johns’ soulful rendition of “Across the Universe.” His subtle, plaintive performance flew right over the heads of Randy and Simon, while Paula got it. I’m glad somebody did, ’cause that was just beautiful. Kristy Lee Cook’s countrified “Eight Days a Week” probably looked really good on paper. And actually, I don’t think it’s the trainwreck most people think it is. It was the combination of a breakneck tempo, Kristy Lee’s crazy eyes (which were in full force here) and a nutty high note at the end that pushed the song into WTF!?!!? territory. Watching David Archuleta fall apart on stage–blanking on the lyrics, performing like he was having an out-of-body experience–was disconcerting. At the time, I wondered if young David could handle the pressure, and thought his meltdown proved the age limit should be raised to 18. David would go on to show that he had the mettle to handle the competition, but I think maybe the pressure of being the front runner, and the stress of singing an unfamiliar song just got to him that night. It happens.
Kristy Lee Cook made her second trip to the bottom 3, Syesha Mercado her 1st. Both would wind up in the bottom several more times. David Hernandez, though, is the one to go home. There was no overcoming that trainwreck of a performance without a strong fanbase.
Did you watch? What do you think?
This was the week I think the votes messed up the competition. Kristy Lee deserved to leave and, if she hadn’t been around to do her cheesy version of God Bless America, I believe Michael would have joined the David’s in the top 3. And, as much as I enjoyed his ATU, Come Together would have been a better Idol song for him. Check out the youtube videos of him singing this and imagine Paula’s reaction!
Chikeze did absolutely win the best performance for the evening and deserved to join the tour based on this nite alone. Shame he didn’t have a chance to do more of this - boring ballads didn’t work for him.
Amanda lost me as a fan on this one - realized she spent her time on stage looking at the stage, no eye contact, no change up and really, really scary outfit.
Brooke was the only female that made it to my “great job” list this nite - Chikeze, Michael, Brooke,DC.
Totally agree about Michael’s performance of “Across the Universe” Absolutely Beautiful…… Stunning , I must say…..Everything else was just Ok..I really did enjoy them all.
I absolutely loved Chikezie’s performance this week. If he had done more like this, I believe he would have stayed around quite a bit longer. Fantastic.
Brooke’s performance was mesmerizing. Her vocals may not have been perfect, but they were heartfelt and goose-bump inducing. Beautiful performance.
Eleanor Rigby was very good, but definitely not my favorite DC performance. His reaction at the end of the song, however, was so endearing. I absolutely loved it and wish that we could have seen more enthusiasm towards the end. I guess the pressure takes it out of everyone to some degree.
And poor Archie … I felt so bad for the kid. Fortunately, his great performances from the semis and his strong fan base were there to support him this week.
The results show was, well, the results show. I must admit that I had to leave the room when David Foster came on. The man is no doubt phenomenally talented but his massive ego and holier than thou attitude make him quite unbearable as far as I’m concerned.
I just remember this night as being the first on the Big Stage and there was definitely a difference in how well the kids coped with the change. Plus maybe they were feeling added pressure from wanting to make top 10 and go on tour. DC caught my attention this week not really cause of ER, though that is one of my favorite Beatles songs, but cause instead of melting down or merely coping with the stage he seemed to absolutely be having a blast performing.
Chikezie and Brooke also turned in great performances. Unfortunately I think KLC’s 8 Days A Week just sucked all the air out of the room. It was hilariously bad then and it still is now…though I have a little more sympathy for KLC cause it does seem the song got away from her and was played faster than she expected.
Yeah, I agree, and I thought Kat McPhee’s performance was really wooden. Too bad because I love the original.
I loved Brooke and Carly’s performances. Brooke had her magic moment and Carly had her strongest of the season IMO. I don’t quite dig Chikezie’s as much as everyone else seems to. He always just seemed so corny too me, I couldn’t take it. Cook’s performance was good. It cracks me up that says “wearing his socks in the night” instead of “darning his socks in the night” there’s a little stumble where he realizes he mixed it up but he just goes with it, haha. David H. was a total freaky mess. Kristy Lee - yikes. I think it was the trainwreck everyone said. Syesha and Rami and Jason - snoozers. Michael had a good performance. Amanda - not really my thing, but I appreciate that it was in the top half for the evening. And Archie…definitely really rough, but fortunately he had a super fanbase by then that was determined to save him. Dean Kaelin mentioned that top 12 night Archie supposedly had 50% of the total vote, with the other 50% being split among the 11 - not sure how accurate that is, but it wouldn’t surprise me because he was definitely running away the most popular at that point.
I agree totally MJ. I recall hearing too that there was issues with the arrangement being wrong initially giving him hardly any time to rehearse with the band. So things added up definitely. I think he proved that coming back from that bad week showed his character much more than the mistakes did. Actually as the weeks went on, I became rather impressed that he seemed to handle the pressure much better than the others who were much older than him. I actually think it would’ve been a good performance without the missed lyrics. There were moments of good stage presence but the dropped lyrics three times really overshadowed anything good that might have been there. I was so bummed because from that point on, no one thought he could handle anything that wasn’t a ballad. He really needed an uptempo number that week after Simon’s previous “gloomy” comments…bummer that it didn’t go well for him.
Me too. I didn’t get it.
To me he was good only when NOT singing a ballad. His ballads always seemed to come off as very old-fashioned. I loved the performances that showcased his energy.
I may be kinda alone here (as in like 1 of 7 in the whole world.) But I wasn’t looking forward to Beatles week simply because I really don’t like the Beatles and find their songs to be boring and overrated at best. But I was pleasantly surprised with this week.
(in order of rate according to the judges)
Chikezie: Awesome.
Carly: Only Beatles song that was performed in those two weeks that I did like. It was great.
Brooke: I liked LIAB better, but it was a great performance and very Brooke.
Cook: many people have said that the verse section of this performance was out of tune. After watching it yet again I still don’t see it (er, hear it). So either A) My tunelessness hides the lack of tune in others from me, or B) love is deaf as well as blind. Also, my dislike of the Beatle’s helps me like this better than the average person, because I don’t have the original to compare it to (and when I did hear the original I didn’t like it).
Amanda: fun performance, I think she should have stayed in, but her refusal to play the game got her eliminated. Too bad.
Jason and Michael were a little underwhelming. And I actually kinda liked Kristy’s, she maybe should have slowed it down a little. Simon can be a real jerk some times (a lot of it, actually)
Brooke’s Let It Be still brings tears to my eyes…absolutely incredible.
How did he know this? I was under the impression only the producers knew each week’s vote totals. Do the contestants know?
Dean Kaelin LOL
Here’s a couple more excerpts from David’s interviews with Life Story magazine on the pressures of ending up with songs that don’t work for you and how he felt about bombing on “We Can Work It Out.” I think he has a healthy perspective on the experience.
Life Story — p. 27
I always enjoy David’s metaphors. :)
It’s also interesting to learn that David thought he deserved to go home for the disastrous We Can Work Out. Dean Kaelin says David was sick (with strep throat) and stressed that week for other reasons but David makes no excuses for himself in this interview.
Life Story - p. 28
From Scifisam: “Cook: many people have said that the verse section of this performance was out of tune. After watching it yet again I still don’t see it (er, hear it). So either A) My tunelessness hides the lack of tune in others from me, or B) love is deaf as well as blind. ”
I am glad someone brought this up. I was once tested and told I had a perfect sense of pitch. I don’t hear the out of tune singing here at all. That is a common statement about David, but, with one or two exceptions (both brief, and one prior to AI), I have just not heard him be off key. It puzzles me that it keeps coming up.