Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Kristy is gone and 6 go Broadway!

Kristy went home last week. Mariah week did her in, even though she did better than a few others IMO. Syesha and Brooke were indeed in the bottom 3 though and that should serve notice to them to pick up their game.

It was Broadway week and Syesha did just that IMO. Her performance began a little boring but then she picked it up and did a great job. Her vocals fit the song really well too.

Jason's performance was not the best vocally but I liked the emotion he displayed for the song and its lyrics.
I am an emotional type singer in that I like to show lots of emotion in my vocals so that the listener can hopefully feel the emotions behind my lyrics. I get that from Jason and I really like that aspect of his performance.

On a side note, it was cool to see KISS' Paul Stanley in the audience. That excited me as he's a huge idol of mine. I've had fans over the years tell me that my voice is similar to his and I consider that a compliment. I just wish I had the career he did!

Anyway, back to the show! Brooke imploded again. Her nerves are clearly getting to her. While she got praised for beginning over last time she made a mistake, you just can't keep doing that and for it to happen again just comes across as her being unprepared. It totally sent her into a small tailspin and Simon was right when he said she spent a large part of the song trying to not make anymore mistakes instead of just singing. I also didn't get the emotion from her again. She's going backwards now instead of progressing. Very disappointing.

David Archuleta must've been jumping for joy with this week in line to do. He did a great job as usual.

Carly oversang a bit in the middle of the song but sounded strong and solid.

David Cook was very good.

Bottom 2 is Jason and Brooke with a toss-up for Carly or Syesha for the 3rd but safe person. It can go either way but with this being Brooke's 2nd bad week in a row and probable 2nd straight week in the bottom 2, I think Brooke goes home before she has a breakdown on stage.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Michael is gone and the Lucky 7 sing Mariah!

I had 2 out of the 3 bottom contestants right last week but I didn't see Michael Johns going yet at all. By all the talk on the local radio stations, the DJs and women all loved him. It seems the same can be said about David Cook so hopefully he goes too! LOL! Yeah, I know... bad Mario!

Last night's mentor was Mariah Carey and I figured it would be an interesting night of hits and misses and I was right. I'm a big Mariah Carey fan and was a huge fan of her older material early in her career. I hated to see her go through all she did after doing "Glitter" and her breakdown but I'm glad that she's come back stronger and better. I'm also really happy to see her back to the style of singing where she is using her full vocals instead of the light singing she was doing in recent years. As a mentor she did a good job. She came across very down to earth and she was very helpful to the contestants in giving them ideas and melody lines for their ideas for her song. It was all very interesting to see and must've been a great experience for the contestants.

David Archuleta was in full effect doing "If you believe" from the movie "Prince of Egypt" which Mariah dueted with Whitney Houston. Great way to start the show.

Carly did "Without you" and while it was good, I agree with Simon in that it sounded as if it never really got where it needed to go.

Syesha took on "Vanishing" and while they kept saying she was smart for picking a lesser known Mariah song, with 160 million albums sold world-wide I think there are not many lesser known songs of Mariah's. For true Mariah fans, this song is a favorite because it is such a great song with amazing vocals. Syesha did a nice job but she didn't get the song where Mariah got it and that is probably enough to turn off Mariah fans to voting for Syesha.

Brooke's performance of "Hero" just left me flat. She was overly nervous, her voice never seemed to be in the right key and it was just a very disappointing performance.

Kristy's version of "Forever" was nice. She keeps soldifying who she is as an artist even if she isn't the best. That is an important quality that she is showing and will help her score a record deal in the near future.

I didn't like David Cook's version of "Always be my baby" at all. It was definitely original though! ;)

On the other hand, I loved Jason Castro's version of "I don't want to cry".

So who goes to the bottom? IMHO, I think the bottom 3 will be Brooke, Carly and Syesha although everyone is in danger except for Archuleta. I think Brooke gets to go home 1 week too late. (She was upset this week because she missed her sister's wedding).

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Ramiele is gone and the Top 8 do inspirational songs

Ramiele was sent home last week and unfortunately it was time. She was clearly not ready and not yet sure of her identity and how to use her vocals to their best light. She's a cutie though so we'll hear plenty from her in the future.

Last night the Top 8 did Inspirational songs to kick off "Idol Gives Back" week. As those of you who follow me and my music know, I love to write inspirational music. I truly believe that music has the power to heal, inspire, motivate, move and bring positivity to society and always try to have positive messages in my music. Even in seemingly dark material of mine, that is usually just a superficial layer that if you look past it and dig a little deeper into my lyrics you will see a hidden positive message. My lyrics are a reflection on my personality and how I view things and being an optimistic and positive person, I like to let that be seen through my lyrics. So, with all that said, I was happy to hear last night's theme and am looking forward to "Idol gives back" tonight.

Michael chose "Dream on" and I found it good until the end when he tried to hit the Steve Tyler falsetto screams. Uh no, shouldn't have tried that. No no no. LOL!

Poor choice of song for Syesha to pick Fantasia's "I believe". That is a song so closely associated with an AI winner that it shouldn't even be considered because you will be compared harshly and rightfully so. Fantasia also has a very unique voice which makes the comparison stand out even more. I totally agreed with Randy and Simon in that I also found that she was doing a very good talent show performance but that she totally lacked Fantasia's emotional connection and conviction to the song that made Fantasia's version so special. Syesha continues to pick BIG songs and they are poor choices.

Jason's "Somewhere over the rainbow" was very very good. I'm glad the judges loved it too.

I love Martina McBride's "Anyway", it has an awesome positive message that helped me get through some rough times last year so I was happy to hear Kristy do a very good job with the song. Kristy continues to make very good song choices and she is really connecting with who she is and wants to be. Syesha should take notes.

David Cook's version of "Innocent" was interesting. I'll leave it at that.

I am a HUGE Queen and Freddie Mercury fan and I thought Carly would do well with "The show must go on" but that song swallowed her alive. It was her worst performance IMO. Very disappointed by her performance.

David Archuleta's version of "Angels" was excellent. 'Nuff said.

"You've got a friend" is a song that I did with my band Vogue's Rogues on our "Desecration of an Innocent World" CD so its obviously a song near and dear to me. Brooke's performance was nice but felt a little mechanical for some reason. I'm just not seeing a lot of the emotional connections to the songs that she was getting before. I hope she can get that back soon.

With it being "Idol gives back" tonight, I don't expect anyone to go home but if they were to have a bottom 3, for me it would be David Cook, Syesha and Carly with Syesha going home.

No one will be going home tonight which will make tonight all the more easier to enjoy.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Top 9 is reached and Dolly Parton night?

Hey, I was 2 for 3 with last week's bottom 3. Ramiele squeaks by again and Syesha is again shown no love. It was Chikezie's time though and he knew it. Good luck Chikezie Eze! Gotta love that name!! :)

The Top 9 performed last night and it was Dolly Parton week! Kind of a weird choice for theme of the week but she is a good mentor and legend in the business and that came across well last night.

The performances were a bit scattered all over the place all night long though.

Brooke opened the show and her performance was solid but not exciting. I'm not seeing the emotion of the songs coming through on her performances and that is going to hurt her soon. She needs to connect better with the songs to get the most out of them. She'll be safe though.

David Cook didn't impress me with his arrangement, the vocals were interesting. After last week's Chris Cornell rip-off and not giving credit where it was due, I watched him with disappointment and skepticism last night. It'll take a while for me to warm up to him again.
Bad news for David after the show where he was rushed to the hospital with a high blood pressure. From what I read, he has a relative battling cancer and the person is having a hard time recently and that combined with the pressure and tension from being on the show, etc. seems to be taking its toll. I hope David can deal with it all and that his relative gets better.

Ramiele was better last night. She seemed focused and confident and her vocals were good. She still needs to pick better songs to really show what she can do.

Jason seemed back to his singer-songwriter style last night and gave a solid performance.

I loved Carly's performance and vocals. I also thought that last night she looked the best she has looked so far, I don't know what Simon was talking about but Simon and fashion are 2 things that don't exactly go together. LOL!

David Archuleta's vocal performance was great, loved it. Best of the night. The tone he has in his vocals is amazing. He is definitely blessed with an amazing voice. I was glad to see him with a slower tempo song since he reminds me of Josh Groban and that style of song is perfect to show off his voice.

Kristy sounded good and with it being a country themed week she should be safe this week.

Syesha made a poor choice of picking a song that most people associate with Whitney Houston. Trying to do a mix of Dolly and Whitney's version just left certain parts sounding empty and other parts not full enough. She picked a song way too big for her.

Michael sounded great and I was very impressed with the performance.

Bottom 3 is difficult so I'll pick Syesha, Jason and Brooke. Although picking the bottom 3 is hard this week, picking who is going home seems easy. Bye bye Syesha.