American Idol did Soul / R&B last night with Usher as the mentor. Before I go onto my thoughts about the show, I want to comment on Usher. He was absolutely hands down the best mentor I've seen on this show. He challenged the contestants, gave them great advice and taught them how to focus on things to up their performances. I really thought he gave great advice that not only would help the contestants but any aspiring singers watching the show. Can't wait to see him perform tonight!
Onto the show, this genre of music would seem to favor some contestants and not favor a lot of them but for the most part the contestants did surprising well.
Siobhan opened the show with Chaka Khan's amazing "Through the fire", definitely a challenging song. Siobhan has the voice to do it. She didn't do it well though. Maybe because of the time constraint of the song and really just having to jump into the big parts right away or maybe she didn't have enough time to rehearse it to get it right. I don't know what went wrong but it was disappointing and was sad to see her devestated by the critique. I don't think she's ever sung anything bad in her life and the critique seemed to sting her. She'll learn from this and she'll be back strong though. Simon must've been happy to see his threat to Crystal winning stumble a little. He better enjoy last night because she won't stumble again!
Casey went next and did a really good version of "Hold on I'm coming". Same for Michael with his acoustic version of "Ready for love".
Didi was up next and did "What becomes of the broken hearted" and she just never seemed to connect to the song with her vocals even though we saw in the video package that she has a deep emotional connection to the song. Maybe that worked against her? Whatever it was, she just didn't sound good singing it. Ryan, perhaps in an attempt to garner her some sympathy votes, tried to get her to disclose why this song was so personal to her but she wouldn't bite and disclose anything. Good for her. It may hurt her but I'm glad she stuck to her guns on that.
Tim went next and we got this whole mini-interview with Ryan about how he is Teflon Tim who just keeps on despite the criticisms. He picked an Anita Baker classic and surprisingly didn't murder it. It was boring but otherwise solid. After the judges gave their critique, Simon joked that it didn't matter what they said because he would still get the votes. Grrr! :/
Andrew finally showed his potential by doing an acoustic version of Chris Brown's "Forever".
Katie did Aretha's "Chain of fools" and while she sang it well, her performing of it was rather emotionless except for the side to side head bob she kept doing.
Lee rocked on "Treat her like a lady". Sounded great! I could definitely see that recorded now and sounding contemporary.
Crystal did Gladys Knight's "Midnight train to Georgia" on piano and then got up to and stood before us and did a strong performance to finish it off. I used to be a huge Gladys Knight fan growing up and that song is one of my all time faves so it was nice to see it done so well. I don't agree with Simon telling Crystal to not change because her folky coffeehouse-ish style is unique. I think that in showing more versatility and the ability to command the stage without the guitar would make her even more unique and showcase her true overall talent even more.
Aaron finished the show with a good version of "Ain't no sunshine".
Its hard to find 3 for the bottom 3 but I will say Didi is definitely in danger, along with Tim and I'll say Katie. I think Siobhan will get a pass this week, at least I hope to not see her in the bottom 3. Although Tim shouldn't be there, I think we'll see Didi go home :(
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