We are getting down to the wire on this season's American Idol and it ends up being a very important week with the group singing songs by Mariah Carey. I think Randy said it last week that at this point in the competition, this is where we know exactly who the contestants are and who the front-runners really are. The contestants get a true challenge this week trying to pick a song suited to them and one they can make as original as they can to avoid the Mariah comparisons that could come their way. Let's see how they ended up doing tonight:
David Archuleta - singing "When You Believe": First time David gets the opening slot and I guess everyone has to have their shot to open the show. For some contestants this season, it has proven to be the kiss of death. But this should be no problem for David, particularly if he sings well. He picks a very difficult song; one in which BOTH Mariah and Whitney sang as a duet. It starts off really well; even as the beginning of the song has the lower registry of notes that David sometimes has difficulty with. He was really in the moment with this song and you could really feel the emotion David displayed as he sang. He was on pitch note for note and I think this is possibly David's best performance since he sang "Imagine," not saying that any of his previous performances since then were bad. I just feel this ranks as high as "Imagine" in greatness. He even sang falsetto after Mariah's advice of doing so and he nailed it! Truly a spectacular performance from David and what an awesome way to start tonight's show.
Carly Smithson - singing "Without You": I thought Carly was very smart in picking this song tonight and Simon was hoping she'd tackle it even before "Mariah week" began. It is one of Mariah's more popular songs so we'll see if Carly is able to bounce back after last week's mis-step. In the beginning, I thought she tried doing a few things different with the melodies and attempted to differentiate herself from Mariah, but then she mimicked her spot-on for the rest of the song. I'm not saying that was a bad thing, but it would've helped her to stay away from those dreadful Mariah comparisions. She definitely had no trouble hitting the higher notes in the song, but I doubt she has the high range that Mariah does (honestly, not too many people do). I thought it was a big improvement over last's weeks inspirational song choice and it'll be more memorable as well. Also, she looked very confident and happy to be on stage. She does tend to over-think during her performances which might cause her to lose confidence on stage. But I liked her this week.
Syesha Mercado - singing "Vanishing": This is one of Mariah's less-recognizable songs and one that I'm not all that familiar with. Mariah says herself that it's one of the first songs she wrote back when she was 17. I thought this was a very smart move on Syesha's part because during the previous two weeks, she picked big songs in which the judges could not help but compare her with the artists that made them famous. Vocally is sounds good and just as consistent as Syesha's been for weeks. It does sound boring in the beginning but things start picking up as we progress towards the finish. She definitely can hit those big notes with ease. I feel at this stage of the game, it's getting more and more difficult to say anything negative about the contestants performances because they are really starting to show who they are and continue to highlight their strong points. Overall, I thought it was a good performance from Syesha but we'll see if she's someone the voters remember on results night.
Brooke White - singing "Hero": I thought this was a good song choice for Brooke as it definitely suits her style. From the recorded piece, it appeared as if Brooke was going to play the guitar, but she now resorts to playing it strictly with the piano with no accompaniment from band. This has the potential to be as good as "Let it Be." But unfortunately for me, it falls short of that mainly because there were a few pitch problems here and there throughout the performance. Brooke has been one of my favorites for awhile but she has not been as stellar as she could be lately and it very well could come back to bite her one of these weeks. She seems to be a bit awkward on the higher notes as if she's unsure about them. It's definitely very authentic and consistent from Brooke as we've seen this week in and week out from her. She's definitely not going to mix things up and go all Amanda Overmyer on us now. As I said, I still didn't think it was her best but she definitely sounded good. She knows what kind of artist she wants to be.
Kristy Lee Cook - singing "Forever": The contestants tonight are picking very smart songs to perform and Kristy is no exception. She tends to struggle with the lower notes which is when she gets pitchy, which is exactly what happened tonight. Not that it was a huge distraction, mind you, but at this stage of the competition, she has to be better than that. With that being said, I thought this was another strong performance from Kristy; even rivaling last week's inspirational song choice. She is really improving week after week and is definitely making her case for staying in the competition. Just think of all the complaining that was going on when she made it into the top 12. She continues to gain momentum and grows confidence-wise. She was particularly solid with the last part of the song, hitting those higher notes with ease. However, just as in Syesha's case, will her performance be one of those that voters will remember? Personally for me, I think she has a strong case to be in this season's top six, but we shall see tomorrow.
David Cook - singing "Always be my Baby": Who would've thought that David Cook of all people would do a rendition of this Mariah classic? And what surprises me the most is that he is not playing the guitar for two straight weeks which I find to be pretty impressive. Seems like he always tries to fall back to his guitar following a performance without it. So far, this is proving to be better than last week's debacle with that Our Lady Peace song. It does start boring for me, however, and with the lower notes that make up most of the beginning, I don't find this to be David's best. He does start ramping things up particularly when we reach the chorus of the song and the performance becomes memorable. He definitely sounds the best when he hits notes in his upper register and I am liking how he turned the end-portion of the song into something more rock-sounding. But this choice is definitely outside of the box for David and he did a good job with it. Now was it worthy of receiving a standing ovation from Randy? I certainly didn't think so and I scratched my head why the judges were glowing over this so much.
Jason Castro - singing "I Don't Wanna Cry": So it's Jason's first try at closing the show in the pimp spot. Let's see if his performance is worthy of getting such a hallowed spot on the show. So it's neither a ukelele or a guitar that Jason uses and strictly concentrates on his song with the microphone in his hand. This may be a good thing for Jason because singing a Mariah song might be a tough challenge for Jason. It's one of Mariah's more obscure songs which might be a blessing for Jason. It sounded good vocally, no glaring pitch issues but it was something that did not blow me away. Jason stays with his usual performing style and stays authentic and original, much like we've seen during previous weeks. Similar to Brooke, I doubt we'll ever see Jason rock out to a Queen song like a few other contestants have done this seaosn. I believe Jason earns himself a spot for next week's show and I'd be shocked if he were voted off tomorrow (please let it be a girl that gets voted out tomorrow!).
The contestants definitely seemed more prepared and more confident this week which made the performances that much more enjoyable. So for that, I rated tonight's show an eight out of ten. It's not easy to sing songs by Mariah Carey, but I give my praise to all of the contestants for doing an admiral job. Of course, some contestants excelled over others and as Simon said, the boys did a better job with Mariah's songs with the girls (of course Simon would say that because whatever song the girl's sing, they'll always be compared to the original). With that being said, here is how I rank the contestants after tonight's performances:
#1: David Archuleta - best of the night
#2: David Cook
#3: Jason Castro
#4: Carly Smithson - bottom three
#5: Kristy Lee Cook (eliminated - 4/16/08)
#6: Brooke White - bottom three (actual bottom three - 4/16/08)
#7: Syesha Mercado - eliminated (actual bottom three - 4/16/08)
It is getting very, very tough to predict who gets eliminated at this stage of the game. Obviously the four girls will get the strongest consideration for elimination this week but as we saw last week, you can never discount a boy being kicked off (Jason Castro being the male with the least strongest performance). I think Syesha will get the boot this week, but I think I said that last week as well. Brooke and Carly could also be shown the door as well but I do believe Kristy Lee will get another reprieve from the bottom three this week. She's gaining momentum and votes as she continues to up her game. Tomorrow will be a very interesting night and we'll see just how shocking the results end up being on our way to next week's Andrew Lloyd Webber theme.
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