Wednesday, May 02, 2007

American Idol Top 6 (x2)

It's a new month and the Idol recaps continue. After last week's non-elimination round, two will go home during this week's results show. This week's celebrity mentor is Jon Bon Jovi. I have been very impressed with the major performers that Idol has been able to attract this year. Bon Jovi is a well known group with a countless number of hits from the 80's, 90's, and today. This will be a fun week to watch and should be enjoyable for the contestants as well. Let the fun begin!!

Phil is up first singing "Blaze of Glory." I don't know why, but it always seems Phil is first or is in the first group of performers. If they are just randomly drawing names, I think Phil has been pretty lucky the last three weeks. Phil is really starting to come into his own in this stage of the competition. I thought the movement through the audience and on the stage was very cool and he didn't stutter a bit. He really rocked the song out and you could tell he had been practicing the song for fifteen years (as he said). Even though I thought it was a very impressive performance, Simon's criticism may end up hurting Phil.

Up next is Jordin and I really have to be concerned for her after this week's performance. She took on one of Bon Jovi's more difficult songs to sing, "Living on a Prayer." It was pretty obvious that rock songs are out of her league, and she seemed to struggle with the song. It was definitely too low for her range and even though she was quite good with the high range in the song, she was still out of her element tonight. Probably the weakest vocal of the night and I really hope it doesn't end up hurting her because Jordin is one of my favorites. It wasn't terrible, but Jordin is definitely not a rocker. Again, Simon criticizes the look of a performer which he should not. Why is that important when it's a singing competition?

Lakisha is next and just as the judges commented after her performance, Lakisha is back. She had her struggles the past three weeks with poor song choices and sub-par singing, but she picked a great Bon Jovi song to sing in "This Ain't a Love Song," one that I wasn't all that familiar with. But she did very well with the song. The low notes always seem to be a problem for her which we heard in the beginning of the song, but she really ramped up to the higher notes and hit them with force. It will be interesting to see how much last week's performance will end up hurting her during this week's elimination.

Going fourth was Blake singing "You Give Love a Bad Name." Blake went totally contemporary with the song and took a major risk by changing this classic and adding his own elements, including beat boxing. It was a risk but one that he excelled at. He did a marvelous job with the song and had everyone in the audience up on their feet. Honestly, he could bring that song back and make a hit song out of it with the changes he made. Blake is one cool character and knows when to do the right thing. He has the instinct of a singer and knows when a change is for the good. He is not at all afraid of taking a risk.

Chris is next singing "Wanted Dead or Alive." Sound familiar? That's right, it was sung by Chris Daughtry during last season's American Idol. Daughtry sang it on a variety of talk shows after his shocking elimination from Idol and really did an amazing job with the song then. How could Chris Richardson handle being compared to the Daughtry rendition? He seemed to do a good job with the song. Probably not as good as Daughtry, but he didn't make me want to cover my ears, either. Obviously it's not the kind of song Chris likes to sing, but he did an admiral job with it. I got a kick out of his facial expressions on the song, anyways. He really acted the rocker type well.

Melinda wraps up the show singing one of Bon Jovi's recent hits "Have a Nice Day." It surprises me that not too many people are familiar with this song, since it's probably the biggest Bon Jovi hit recently. I know I heard it on the radio plenty of times three or four years ago. Clearly Melinda is not a rock singer and she looks absolutely uncomfortable at times singing this song. Her voice seems awkward to me at different points in this song; I just can't exactly describe how awkward it sounds. This probably wasn't my favorite performance from her, but she still did a great job with it. It should keep her around for another week. I had to laugh when she used the "bring it on" hand gesture when the lyric "when the world gets in my face" came around. It was useful for her.

Now the moment of truth. Which two performers go home during the results show? Based on the results of last week, I still think Lakisha will be going home. I think her vote totals will be too low, regardless of how well she did this week. As for the other performer eliminated, I think it's a toss-up between Chris Richardson and Phil. If you look at the past two weeks, Chris probably sang the weakest. How much will Jordin's performance hurt her this week? I think she could be another wild-card for landing in the bottom three (if they even go that route this week). It will be interesting to see tonight during the results show.

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