Before I begin my critique of tonight's show, you need to know, dear reader, that I adore Broadway. I'm not an expert of Broadway, but I love musicals! Having Andrew Lloyd Weber as a guest "judge" was such a treat! An amazing treat! He's a musical genius, and I was very excited to have him on the show.
Here are my thoughts:
Sayesha Mercado: It was no surprise to me that she did so well. Sayesha is an actress, and doing a musical piece was obviously heaven on earth for her! There were a few parts that were off, but she did a fabulous job. It was fun, flashy, and nice on the ears --okay, and eyes. As Simon said, she looked great! (yeah, he said sexy, and he was right!).
Jason Castro: I was upset with his performance. It was way too timid. And what was up with that "I'm so scared to sing this song!" thing?! Come on! It's too far into the competition to have no confidence. And even if you have no confidence, you fake it, boy! You act confident and then you'll be confident! The problem was that "Memory" could have been awesome for him. It had a nice slow melody --and he could have really done a great job. I'm starting to realize that like other competitors, Jason doesn't do well with new music. He does great with stuff he's learned over the years (nobody can tell me he didn't do "Hallelujah" or "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" before, because it's obvious he knew them well), but what about new stuff? I was just so disappointed, because I saw the potential for this performance to be great. And he started great...and then...slowly...died...like the cat in the song! Wait, does she die eventually?
Carly Smithson: Again, she was thiiiis close with me. So close! I thought she was smart to go all rock n' roll and she did a great job. But the yelling thing at the end...? So bothersome to me. I did think the T-shirt she pulled out after Simon's words to her was just hilarious. That was funny!
David Archuleta: Surprisingly, I totally agreed with Simon. It was a good performance, nice and controlled, fun with the R&B take on "Think of Me", but at the same time, it just didn't do it for me. It was too...forgettable. It felt like Elevator Music to me. It did! But that doesn't mean David still didn't blow it out, nor change my prediction that he'll win the whole enchilada.
Brooke White: When she asked them to start over again, I about wet my pants. Wha?! How could she do that?! That type of stuff gets you kicked out of Hollywood week! I told Brandon "She's going home tomorrow because of that", but then I sat and listened. I don't care what Randy, Paula, or Simon said about her performance --I don't think it was strain in her voice, I honestly think it was emotion. It was so beautiful! Seriously, for the first time this season, Brooke gave me goosebumps. I loved it. Loved it. If she had not forgotten the lyric at the beginning, then it would have been perfect, and the judges wouldn't have thought it was about the mess-up in the beginning. I was really proud of her and her dress was amazing. I think this was one of my favorite Brooke performances. Many may disagree, but I still think she was amazing.
David Cook: Eh. I loved about 2/3 of it. When he hit the first high note, I was all "Yeah!! go, go, go!" It was really great! But then...at the end...I don't know. It bothered me. As a musician. Here he was, singing all sweetly, good crescendos and decrescendos, and then this sweet ending to...POW!!! Here-have-a-really-big-note-ending-on-a-different-chord-rather-than-tonic! That just bugged. The contrast was too startling and I think it took away from what he had previously done. But, like I said, the first 2/3 of it was really good.
Who do I think should go home?
Carly, because I don't like her.
Jason, because he was being all weird again.
Brooke, because she lost the lyric and even though I agree with Simon (about how she didn't really have a choice but to start over), Paula was right. You don't do that. You don't forget the lyric when you only have one shot.
Who will go home?
No idea!
What did you think?
12 comments:
Unfortunately I think Brooke is going home. I really love her and think she could do well but I think she's losing her fan base. Although she is the vote-for-the-worst so she may hang around for another week...
I think that Jason should go home, I thought he was terrible! I thought Brooke was much stronger this week than she has been for the last few, even if she did start over.
What was up with Jason not knowing that a song from "Cats" was sung by a cat? Duh.
I think Syesha could totally do broadway. She should just forget about pop singer and go for the Tony.
David C. was decent. I liked that David A. tried to make the song contemporary, but it's just not my kind of music. I thought Carly was actually pretty entertaining.
Brooke, Brooke, Brooke. Why did she have to mess up the beginning? I still love her, but I don't know how much longer she'll be able to hold on.
And THANK YOU to Sir/Lord/whatever Andrew for asking David A. to keep his eyes open!
I wish it was Carly. I HATE that song and that musical! (I won't even name it!) It always offends me so much! But honestly I think it will be Brooke. I think people are getting sick of her crying and man, when she started over, that sealed the deal!
I think Brooke needs to go. She's my favorite but I hate to see her falling apart like this. I think at this point she'll be relieved to go.
I wish David Cook would go, though. He was horrible. That song was horrible. Just awful.
Jason shouldn't have tackled Barbara Streisand. Bad idea.
I don't have anything against Broadway but I thought it was a horrible choice for an AI night.
I didn't agree much with you this week, Cheryl! Surprise! I reread your post to see if it would change my mind, but I still feel the way I feel. I didn't enjoy David Cook last night at all. And I thought David Archuletta was the best he's been in a few weeks (excepting last week, of course). And I still enjoyed Jason. But like you said, he should have faked confidence so everyone would interpret his performance as emotional, not fearful. I think it was emotional. But he is so honest that it sometimes gets him in trouble.
You'll have to read my update to see if I can change your mind!
I love Broadway, too. ADORE IT. You will be hard pressed to find a gal more into Broadway musicals than I am. And while I disagree about ALW being all that (I'm more of a Sondheim gal) I was looking forward to the show, simply because I would know all the songs.
Warning: this comment gets very negative from here on out.
With the exception of Syesha, it was horrible. Syesha was fabulous. She was awesome, and I hope being in the first spot didn't kill her chances of moving on.
Brooke forgetting the words, ugh. Although I do agree with you that it wasn't that bad of a performance after that, this is too far in to pull that, AGAIN. And she should have picked a different song. "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" from Evita would have been GREAT.
Carly was awful. It's a horrid song from a horrid musical and she shouted it horribly. The thing is, she messed up the words too. BADLY. She just didn't show it, and made up other words.
David Archuleta ALSO flubbed the words. I guess this week was extra stressful or something. Seriously, go look at it again on YouTube. After he sings "Imagine Me...", he mumbles nothings until he remembers the words again. Why noboby called him on this, I can't imagine, unless he hid it so well, or just nobody was listening.
Jason was ghastly. He should have picked another little ukelele song and prayed to get through it. Picking Memory, it's almost like he WANTS to go home.
David Cook was fine. At least he didn't do some weird emo version, like he always does.
I guess the lesson is: don't show it when you screw up the words.
I am still in love with David Cook - I think hes cool. Every week I phone in twice for him and twice for Brooke (this is my attempt to be a good mormon - and David A is just a little lacking in personality for moi).
I hope the dreadlocks guy goes. He does the same thing every week.
Wiz-
You have to know that I did take everything they sang with an American Idol grain of salt. For sure, Sayesha was the best of the Broadway! But I think they all did with it what they could...kind of like country night. Or the Beatles night. I think that's the problem with such a diverse group this year. Every night, someone is odd man out (or in?).
Kudos for the details, though! I totally forgot to mention that both Carly and David A. forgot the lyrics as well. They just did what Brooke was not able to do, i.e. fake it really well. David Cook also messed up two of the "Music of the Night" words --nobody noticed that, either (Floating, Falling --he switched 'em.).
Julie-
I read your post and I don't think we disagree as much as you think we do... :)
Camellia-
I love seeing you commenting!
Bythelbs-
Yeah, I thought the whole "Memory is from Cats?!" thing was nutso, too. How could you not know? And I also think Sayesha should just do Broadway and skip the pop world.
Susan-
Agreed. Broadway rocks, but not on American Idol.
I know it's way after the fact, but I'm just catching up on your blog....busy week. I totally agree with you on most of them! David C....what the heck was that last note? Totally ruined the song. I'm tired of Carly's screaming...we muted it because I didn't like the lyrics and didn't want the kids hearing them. And Jason, Jason, Jason -- he had a chance to show off his voice and chose to keep it all whispery and soft. Hated it!
By the way, there's no "a" in Syesha. Oh wait, I mean there's only one "a" in Syesha.
Sorry I didn't tell you sooner.
Hey! That doesn't help and certainly doesn't count a week late, bythelbs. Nice try! :)
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