This was such a bad week and for so many reasons.
I have a very strong feeling now that the younger members of the viewing audience are basically being played/conned/manipulated into thinking that David A is the best thing since sliced bread, the poor saps. I honestly think he’s got about 6 or 7 script writers writing little speeches and directions for him (A giggle here and a giggle there and they’ll love you David) and that the others are basically being hung out to dry, because the comments after their performances were extremely arrogant and cock-sure and then defensive at times, yet David A’s was calculated, whimsical, but bile inducing for me.
I’m not a fan of precocious at allll and David A just oozes it. Bleh!!! What does he know about singing a song that others would connect with? Did he write it? No, and the only time I personally have a connection with his voice is on the morning after a night of heavy drinking and I’m hanging over the edge of the toilet pan. Horrible.
Amanda – Really talks a very good song, and doesn’t do too bad at performing them, however, it was no surprise whatsoever that she chose “Back in the USSR” – Predictable really, not as good as last week and her physical Elvis Presley impersonations are really becoming pronounced now. Shame! Lastly, Amanda mentioning about concert tickets and showing the people what they would be getting if they came along was a really, really stupid thing to say.
Kristy – Although this was so much better than last week, the first couple of notes were really, really bad (they actually made me wince as well as some others during the rest of the song) and then as she got into it she turned something on the gritty side of things into something insipid and sugary. Sorry, I didn’t like that at all.
David A – They have him very well scripted now, to the point of nauseating. “Long and Winding road” is a good song, but he put so much sugar on it that I had to take a shot of insulin during the middle of it.
Michael – I really winced when I heard he was going to do this song and most especially when he said that he’d chopped it about. Given the performance and what he did with the song I think I was vindicated to feel this way. This was bad. Bad song arrangement and not good singing at all. He missed all the high notes – they also have to be so pure sounding and they weren’t. Bad. I’m also not a fan of the possible audience manipulation vote either. He could have mentioned in the video about his friend and left it to Ryan to mention it again after such a bad performance, but he didn’t. Bad, bad, bad...
Brooke – I like this song and again I’m not surprised she chose “Here Comes the Sun” because it suits her voice. But it was bland compared to last week and her dancing did her no favours at all. It also gave a flavour to the song that was also not favourable for me... Sorry... Not good at all.
David C – I really don’t like him at all. I don’t know what Simon was on about last week when he said that if the contest was a personality contest then he would have a very good chance of winning it, because I really don’t like David C. Just who the F*** does he think he is???? WTF he was doing with that mic is beyond me, and the ending was the height of arrogance. Still, as sad as it is for me to say this, he did do a good job though. Mind you, I’m really pleased Simon said what he said. Smug! Yeah, good description there, but talk about complete turnabout from last week.
Btw, I was trying to think who David C reminded me of, and I suddenly realised it was Eddie Izzard. If he were a stand-up comic I suppose that would be a good thing, but as a supposed rock singer, I laugh almost as hard as I do when watching Eddie on stage when I think of that comparison. Heh!
Carly – Bad, bad, bad. Such a bad, bad, song choice and someone should go burn her top right now. Sorry... Admittedly she has great control over her voice, but this type of song does her no favours at all. I read somewhere that someone said it’s not her voice they hate it’s the way she looks when she sings, and I agree up to a point. I don’t hate the way she looks when she sings but I don’t like it. I’d buy a CD of hers though.
Jason – I winced again when I heard that he was going to do “Michelle” – It is such a putrid, sappy song (Most of Paul Mac’s songs are from the early Beatles period, in my humble opinion). Still, you just can’t do anything with “Michelle” and while it was far less breathy and timid than last week, and in tune, it was not a good song choice simply because it is such a sappy, weak, horrible song. The thing that made me LMAO though was when Randy said he didn’t think Jason connected with the song because, in all honesty, there’s nothing that you can connect with when it comes to “Michelle”.
Sayesha – She does have a good voice, but her theatrics during this song really put me off her performance. It sounded like she was reciting a Shakespeare sonnet, not a pop song called “Yesterday”. Still, the best of the evening, in my opinion, but not hard to do because the rest was pretty bad. What I honestly can’t stand though is this sudden influx of the contestants wanting to touch people with their songs. Makes me want to barf in a big way.
Chikezie – Eeep! The first part sounded like he was singing a totally different melody to the backing band and then the second part was just horrendous. I thought it had suddenly switched to that part of the show where they show a clip of the most weird to audition. Horrible.
Ramiele – In my opinion, the best work ‘The Beatles’ did was when they left the Pop scene far, far behind them, so when I heard she was going to sing “I Should Have Known Better” I just knew it was going to be bland and it was. There are two ways a song like this goes, that it feels like it’s going on and on and on, or that it was over really quickly because half way through you fell asleep (and you wish that this would happen). Sadly I was awake for the whole thing. Not good at allllllll...
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I don’t know who’s going to be up for being voted off. Well I do know that David A is going to be staying considering he got the biggest cheer at the beginning (What a thoroughly crass way of introducing the contestants, btw), but to be honest, it’s all in the air this week, because it was a pretty bad showing by all of them, ranging from bad song choices to a dank, lurid arrogance and overt theatrics.
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As for who was voted off, are the voting audience deaf? I’m beginning to think so. Kristy should have gone long before now, and even though Amanda was predictable, she still managed to get nigh-on all the notes in the right place and entertain to some extent. I really can’t say the same for Kristy.
All in all, I think the winner of American Idol 2008 is a forgone conclusion and not because he’s the best there, but simply because once again hype and manipulation is winning out. I think I’ll be giving this a miss unless David A is voted out way before the finals.