American Idol 8 - Top 7

So April is turning out to be a rather slow month in the "Luke's Ponderings" blogging world. Thank god for American Idol at least! Ah yes, we have transitioned into a new week and we are now down to seven contestants to compete for this season's American Idol crown. So far, there is only one stand-out in this year's crop of contestants - but things can change. This week's theme on Idol is "Songs from the Cinema" with guest mentor Quentin Tarantino. He's created some epic movies and he seems to know music, too. I am glad to see he'll be a mentor that'll pull no punches and will say what's on his mind. Hopefully the contestants choose the right songs that'll make everyone happy. Let's begin!

Allison Iraheta - "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" : You know, I do like this Aerosmith song, but it doesn't seem to fit with the American Idol mold. David Cook did okay with it last year in the finale - maybe Allison can have better luck this year. The performance starts off too low for Allison; she has trouble with those lower notes in her registry and it's kind of hard to hear what she is singing. I don't think this is the right song choice for her. Even the part of the song where she totally rocks out and sings with that rocker flair is just okay for me. In my opinion, not Allison's best performance but it was miles above many of the other contestants tonight. However, with Allison being first and with her relatively small fanbase, she could be in trouble.

Anoop Desai - "Everything I Do" : Anoop is doing what works best for him: singing ballads. This really is his strong suit and he's really impressing me this week. I like how he's turning this song into his own - definitely not being a copy cat. He really seems to be in his element and is hitting all of the right notes. His vocals are very nice and they don't even waver on the upper notes when he belts it out, either. Another very nice, controlled vocal from Anoop. Maybe not quite as good as last week's performance, but certainly one of his best. He was definitely connecting with the song and it's nice to see Anoop stepping it up week after week.

Adam Lambert - "Born to be Wild" : And now we have reached the point in the hour where Idol becomes "The Adam Lambert Show"! What on earth is Adam going to bring to the table this week? And lookie here - it's Adam being his rock star-self. "Born to be Wild" is a very upbeat, uptempo, high-energy song. Again, when Adam goes this route, his stage presence is undeniable. However, I tend to enjoy his controlled ballads versus his shouty, manic rock performances. His song tonight was rather manic and wild, but it was a high energy performance. Just look at everyone in that audience on their feet. I bet his concerts are really going to be a lot of fun to be present at.

Matt Giraud - "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" : Wow, I am really impressed with the way he's giving this song a totally new sound. I love the original by Bryan Adams but Matt starts this little ditty by stripping it down with him just playing the piano while he sings. And then some elements of the band are added and it tends to lose its charm. I am not liking the middle and end portion of his performance, especially when his voice cracked at a few different points. I almost think that threw him off a bit and he started hitting some off-pitch notes. He's an amazing pianist, I'll give him that. However, tonight's performance overall was just average and a bit safe.

Danny Gokey - "Endless Love" : Interesting look for Danny this week. No glasses, he clearly did not shave for a few days, and he's dressing in a different style. Kind of like ... Kris Allen! He's even performing like Kris Allen - sitting on a stool and looking into the camera with a heart-felt gaze. Copy cat! Okay, so I'm kidding about the copy cat thing but the American Idol stylists did him a disservice this week. Yes, he starts his performance very controlled and we see a vulnerable side to Danny. However, I don't believe he was hitting the right notes in the first part of the song. The notes were kind of all over the place. Then, once we get into the crescendo of the song he begins to over-shout. Clearly not the best we've seen from Danny and it's just average for me.

Kris Allen - "Falling Slowly" : Okay, talk about a totally obscure song when comparing it to all of the other's we've heard so far. I am completely unfamiliar with this song, yet Kris is making me like it. And with tonight's performances only being about average for just about everyone thus far, Kris has the potential to be tonight's star. I am really enjoying Kris' performance. It's very sensual and soulful. His phrasing is elegant and his vocals are pitch-perfect. I can really sense the emotion from the song just in the way Kris is performing it and he has really connected with it. I think he did just enough with the song to make it is own - obviously he didn't want to experience another repeat from last week. Honestly, I don't know what Randy heard to make him dislike the performance that much. Was he in another world??!

Lil Rounds - "The Rose" : Ah, the coveted pimp spot. Ugh, the producers are giving it to Lil - who clearly is not deserving considering how horrible she's been the past three to four weeks. I am a fan of this song and Bette Midler's interpretation. Heck, I even sang it as part of a group performance for my high school chorus class (in which I didn't end up participating anyways - that is a story for another day). But Lil is not making me love her interpretation. In my opinion, this is a song that doesn't need to be changed drastically and she rearranged it horribly. The beginning of the song was horribly off-pitch and she didn't improve much once the song ended. Honestly, what is this woman trying to do? I am glad Simon called her out for her karaoke-like performance because it honestly was not good. A terrible way to end the show!

My goodness, in my opinion there were only two or three performances that I thought were good. All of the rest were mediocre at best. Here is how I rank this week's performances:

1.) Kris Allen
2.) Anoop Desai (actual bottom three - 4/15/09)
3.) Adam Lambert
4.) Allison Iraheta
5.) Danny Gokey
6.) Matt Giraud (actual bottom three {SAVED} - 4/15/09)
7.) Lil Rounds (actual bottom three - 4/15/09)

My pick to go home this week is Matt Giraud. And that pains me to say it because I honestly like the guy and have been rooting for him to do well since he's a Michigan guy. However, he's up one week and down the next. Tonight was clearly a down week for Matt and even when Kara finds it difficult to praise something you've done, you're toast. And Kara is Matt's biggest fan! Do I think the judges will use the save on Matt? I doubt it unless Matt makes a big improvement during tomorrow night's results show. Many of this season's performers have a really good week and then follow it up with a poor one. However, Lil has been absolutely poor for a good month at least. And it appears she may be getting more support since votefortheworst.com has made Lil their person to support in the competition. That's why I don't forsee Lil being voted off, even though she certainly deserves it. As for the potential that Kris or Anoop get eliminated - it's certainly possible as we really haven't seen a minor shocking elimination since Alexis Grace was booted off. However, if either two of them get voted off this week - I don't think it's going to be all that shocking, maybe more so for Kris but not Anoop. Let's face it, he'll lucky to reach the top five.

And that wraps it up for this week's American Idol recap. Be sure to check back in next week as we get down to the final six performer's of season eight! Enjoy tomorrow night's result's show!

Matt Giraud would've been eliminated if the judges wouldn't have used the save!! Matt Giraud is saved! But, two contestants will be eliminated next week!

American Idol 8 - Top 11

It's time to get out your cowboy hat and boots and celebrate country music on American Idol this week! More specifically, the songs featured on this week's Idol come from artists who belong to the coveted Grand Ole Opry. This week also is the first of the mentor weeks as Randy Travis gives his advice about each of the contestant's songs. There isn't a huge amount of recent country artists included in the Grand Old Opry, from what I understand. So the contestants have a choice of picking songs that go way back to the Country-Western times. Somehow I don't think they want to be classified as being too "old-fashioned" either. Seeing that Carrie Underwood is a member of the Grand Old Opry, how much you wanna bet that we'll be seeing one or two of her songs featured by this week's contestants? I guess we'll find out.

Michael Sarver - "Ain't Goin' Down Til the Sun Comes Up" : Country seems to fit Michael well even though he's made comments previously that it's not the kind of music he wants to sing. It's a very fast, upbeat country song. He appears extremely comfortable on stage singing this song, even interacting with the audience. Michael does a nice effort with this performance. It involved plenty of risk especially with a song that moves as fast as this; it could've been very easy for him to stumble and forget a lyric or two. It was a good performance, but not spectacular. Agreed with Randy in that it didn't show off his vocal abilities like it could've.

Allison Iraheta - "Blame it on Your Heart" : A very rock-country type of song for Allison. I am not familiar with this song but I am going to assume the original does not have this much of a rock flair to it. Allison infused her own rock edge to it and it fit her personality to a T. She plays to her strengths and does a nice job. She is having lots of fun; seems very comfortable moving around on stage. I do think that her lack of a large fan base may end up hurting her at this stage of the competition. She's been a solid performer, but typically the American audience doesn't embrace a female rocker like Allison.

Kris Allen - "To Make You Feel My Love" : Kris is going without his guitar tonight which I think is a very good move. I always feel that by mixing it up week after week, it shows off more variety. Kris shows a very vulnerable side to him with this performance. I think he's been getting better and better with each week. I tend to agree that he's probably better at singing ballads than more of the up-tempo songs. I could really feel his connection that he had with this song and he's definitely doing the right things to stay in this competition.

Lil Rounds - "Independence Day" : I thought the low notes in the early part of the song were too low for Lil and she struggled a bit there. She tried singing a straight country song and I don't think it quite fit her. She certainly could've included a more R' n B edge to the song and probably would've had much better success with it. I don't agree that a different song (such as Randy's suggestion of "I Will Always Love You) would've done Lil any better either. The performance definitely got much better in the later half of the song where she was able to hit those power notes like she usually does. This week certainly wasn't as strong as Lil has been.

Adam Lambert - "Ring of Fire" : I can empathize with Randy Travis in how he was speechless over Adam. I mean, what can you really say about this? It started out very intense. It almost seemed as if I was watching a Broadway rendition of this classic Johnny Cash song. He starts to infuse his usual vocal dynamics into the song once the tempo picks up. This whole performance has a very different sound to it; no question it has more of a middle eastern flair to it. I can say I've never seen anything like it on American Idol. Honestly, this is supposed to be country week, right? One thing you can say about Adam is that he is entertaining.

Scott MacIntyre - "Wild Angels" : I can tell Scott enjoys picking songs that tell a message. Again as I've said before, Scott isn't the most dynamic singer during this season of Idol - but he definitely holds his own. He struggled more with the lower notes in this song. I would tend to agree that he shouldn't always be playing the piano during his live performances but then again, he's not going to be moving steadily across the stage without it, either. He's doing what he feels is most comfortable to him. The falsetto note towards the end of the song wasn't great. Overall, I'd say it was a good performance from Scott, but not great.

Alexis Grace - "Jolene" : It will be interesting to see how Alexis pulls this one out. We're used to seeing her sing rock songs with a harder edge. "Jolene" is more of a softer tune and Alexis even said she wanted to show that side of her. I don't entirely believe it was the right song choice for this particular week. Overall, she struggles a bit with the song and is off-tune throughout. The arrangement just wasn't as favorable for her to be successful this week, either. Basically, it was just an okay performance and actually was quite forgettable. A rare off week for Alexis so far in the competition.

Danny Gokey - "Jesus Take The Wheel" : There's always a certain risk to choosing a song that has been created by a former Idol. I think a different song would've suited Danny better, especially one that wasn't so low or bland to start. The front part of the song just sounded awkward to me; even though that's how it's supposed to sound. Of course be rebounded well with the later half of the song once the tempo picked up and he was able to get into his upper register. That is typical of Danny's performances there. He's a very likable guy, but this week he was just good for me, not great.

Anoop Desai - "You Were Always on My Mind" : Anoop goes the Kris Allen route and performs a softer, vulnerable ballad. It's a perfect song choice because it allows Anoop to show off his vocal talents. He is definitely much improved over the last couple of weeks. He doesn't go over board with the song and holds back more. It was definitely a much more controlled performance and he doesn't try to do too much with it. It was very well done and it's nice to see him get such great reviews from the judges. Another very likable guy.

Megan Joy - "Walking After Midnight" : We have absolutely no idea that Megan has been sick this week except after her performance is over when she starts coughing. I don't know what more you can say about Megan that hasn't already been said. The judges say time and time again that she's quirky and unique. That about sums up this performance. It was the perfect song choice for Megan and she delivered on that unique sound of hers. She made the song her own and certainly made it much more memorable. And actually, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be.

Matt Giraud - "So Small" : Whenever I think of Matt, I just can't get his Coldplay performance out of my head. He has been severely damaged because of that and hopefully as we move further along in the competition, that performance in particular can be all but a memory. He is a super-talented guy and there's no question he belongs in this competition. He does a very impressive job with this Carrie Underwood song. He is a true consummate musician - I think he nailed this song tonight and it proved to be a very memorable performance.

So how did the contestants fair? Here is tonight's performance rankings:

1.) Matt Giraud
2.) Anoop Desai
3.) Kris Allen
4.) Allison Iraheta
5.) Adam Lambert
6.) Danny Gokey
7.) Megan Joy
8.) Michael Sarver
9.) Lil Rounds
10.) Alexis Grace (actual eliminee 3/19/09)
11.) Scott MacIntyre

CODES:
best of the night
in danger of being eliminated

As for who will be eliminated tonight - now that is a very tough call. Even though I've had a very tough time connecting with every one of the contestants this year, they are all extremely talented. I thought these last couple of weeks have been very strong, vocal-wise. In my opinion, the top six in this week's performance rankings are a lock and in no risk of going home anytime soon. Adam, Anoop, and Danny have such huge fan bases. Allison has been consistently strong each and every week even though her fan base isn't quite as big as the three guys mentioned. Kris Allen has been improving with each week and is quickly becoming a fan favorite. And then there's Matt Giraud who we know is an amazing musician. He stumbled pretty seriously after his Coldplay performance but quickly picked himself back up and is making a strong push towards the later stages of this competition.

Now as for the bottom five of the performance rankings, the only one that could be considered a pretty sure lock to stay in this competition for a long time is Lil Rounds. She, too, has a pretty strong fan base. Megan, Michael, and Scott are basically just cannon fodder. It'll only be a matter of time before they get eliminated. As for Alexis, she also has a relatively small fan base and one weak performance like this week's could leave her in serious danger. That is why I am picking Alexis Grace to be this week's eliminated contestant on American Idol. I know, it's a mild-shocker seeing how well she has done in prior weeks. But does anyone see her outlasting Adam, Danny, Anoop, or Matt? The males truly are the stronger of the gender this season and the only female contestant that stands a chance to last awhile is Lil, and maybe Allison, too. It could be a very, very interesting results show tonight. Don't miss it!

(UPDATE: Sad to say, but I ended up being right - Alexis is eliminated. It is never easy, especially someone with her talent. Only one sub-par performance was all it took for her to be booted off. I am disappointed she is gone, to say the least.)

American Idol 8 - Top 36 Group 1

And here we are! It's the start of the season eight of American Idol performance review blogs here on Luke's Ponderings. Last night we had one group of semi-finalists perform and tonight we will find out which three will advance to the top 12. I'm not sure I'm digging this new format that American Idol has adopted quite yet - that is still up for debate. Anyways, it is what it is and we'll have to live with it for now. So tonight, we'll find out which top vote getting female and male contestant makes it through to the finals. Then, the third highest vote getter, whether it's female or male, will also advance. To be honest, there were only about three or four that sang that well last night, so the voting by the American public should've been pretty easy. On with the reviews!

Jackie Tohn - "A Little Less Conversation" : Jackie is probably our one and only true female rocker on this season of American Idol. I definitely liked how she put her own spin on this classic Elvis song. However, some of the phrasing of the lyrics was a bit awkward at times. It almost seemed as if she performed this song in the past. She certainly is a good performer, even though the vocals might not be spectacular. The performance didn't blow me away, per se, but it was still quite entertaining. Was it one of last night's best performances? It was up there, but not the best.

Ricky Braddy - "Song For You" : It's rather a shame that the producers did very little to promote this guy during the past few weeks because he's actually a very good singer and a likable guy. We certainly know a ton more about Michael Sarver and Danny Gokey than we do with Ricky. I think his lack of screen time will hurt him in the end. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance as he displayed great vocal control and had no trouble hitting the right notes in the song. It was basically a pitch-perfect performance and he injected a great amount of soul into the song. Simon said he may not have star quality - which he himself should accept some of the blame, seeing that Ricky's received very little air time on Idol thus far.

Alexis Grace - "Never Loved a Man" : She has definitely changed her image from the first time we saw her during the audition stage of the show. She looks more edgy and grown up, if you will. She's got a very big voice for such a small person. Another very soulful performance, like her predecessor. It was a very sassy, almost sultry performance. Who knew she had this in her? It was a very strong vocal performance and certainly not boring. In fact, it was a joy to watch. It ended up being one of the highlights of the night - the best female performance of group one. Showed a ton of confidence.

Brent Keith - "Hicktown" : It appears Brent would like to become a country star if he happens to make it far on Idol. He seems to have that country look to him and if he can succeed, he could go far. I am not familiar with country music, so I don't know anything about this song. It sounds like a country-rock kind of song; definitely something fun to dance to. It's up-beat and he's rocking out to it, but I don't think it's exactly the right song for Brent. I agreed with Kara's comment in that it was a safe song choice. He could've picked something that showed off his vocals more. At least he had fun with it.

Stevie Wright - "You Belong to Me" : Stevie was one of my favorites from the very beginning of this season. We really didn't see a whole lot from her during Hollywood Week, so I was pleased she made it through to the top 36. However, this song for her was the absolute wrong choice. It doesn't even start off all that well. It's very pitchy and it almost seems too low for her. She struggles with that lower register in the song. Yes, it's a fun up-beat song and it's a safe selection, but she doesn't even sing it half-way decent. I suspect her nerves may have gotten the best of her. It just didn't work out for Stevie last night.

Anoop Desai - "Angel of Mine" : Anoop is probably considered a front-runner of the competition thus far. And those are high expectations when the live shows are only just beginning. Like Randy commented, I thought this was a very interesting and ambitious song choice for Anoop. I don't necessarily believe it was the right song for him, either. At times it seemed too high for him and he had his struggles during certain moments. He's definitely a great vocalist and he did a decent job with the song. But it certainly wasn't his best; not as spectacular as it could've been. And that may hurt him at this stage of the competition.

Casey Carlson - "Every Little Thing She (He) Does is Magic" : Casey is a very good looking, cute girl. Just her overall image alone probably made the AI producers salivate. However, you have to be a good singer to complete that package. And Casey didn't do that last night. It turned out to be the wrong song choice again (and we saw that a lot last night). I don't necessarily believe that singing a song made famous by someone of the opposite sex is always a wise choice. Sometimes it works and other times, particularly in this case, it doesn't. Some of her facial expressions seemed inappropriate and it was like she was making a joke out of the whole process. Still, she had fun despite the performance being littered by off-pitch moments.

Michael Sarver - "I Don't Wanna Be" : I'm beginning to feel that this song should be one of those banned by Idol producers (even though no song will probably ever be banned) because it's becoming over sung. Personally, I enjoy Gavin DeGraw's interpretation of it as well as a few other past Idol contestants. However, Michael didn't end up hitting a home run with it. It was just okay for me. Michael seems more into the country genre than anything - he definitely has that look to him. This song never did properly display his vocals in the way that it should've. An example of the kinds of songs he should sing are like his performance during the sing-off, before the judges selected him as a semi-finalist. He can do a lot better, in my opinion.

Ann Marie Boskovich - "Natural Woman" : She was another one of my personal favorites prior to Hollywood week and she appeared to have a fan following. Ann Marie performs an incredibly huge Aretha Frankin song. Obviously Aretha is an incredible singer and you really need the vocal chops to perform a song like this. Unfortunately it falls short for me. She's off-pitch right from the start and she appears uninspired, just as one of the lyrics says. Yet again, another example of the wrong song choice. Just as with Casey, Ann Marie is very pleasant on the eyes but her singing is only sub-par.

Stephen Fowler - "Rock With You" : In my opinion, Stephen had a good chance to sneak into the top 12 if he presented a stellar performance during semi-finals. He really had a great tone to some of his earlier performances (except for that David Cook song where he forgot the lyrics). But he chooses a Michael Jackson song that is probably one of his least popular. This really fell flat and I agreed with some of the judges criticism in that it was all a bit corny. Even though he says he's not that strong performing behind a piano, what does he have to lose by giving it another shot? Overall, I was disappointed to see Stephen do so badly.

Tatiana Del Toro - "Saving All My Love for You" : Oh brother. Here we have everyone's favorite psycho contestant who is definitely one of the more talked about performers of season eight. Could it be possible that Tatiana could help to lift the spirits of the overall Idol audience by performing half-way decently? I was really questioning Tatiana's decision to pick a Whitey Houston song, much like Randy did. But all in all, it really wasn't that bad. I mean sure, it wasn't perfect; but it was probably the second or third best female performance of the evening. I thought it started off rather shaky and she was a bit hard to understand. But once the song got into a higher register for Tatiana, she performed much better. We'll see if America has fallen in love with Tatiana's antics after tonight's results show. Does she make it through?!?

Danny Gokey - "Hero" : Last but not least, it's Danny's turn to wow the audience. You know, maybe the producers were doing us a huge favor by scheduling Danny to sing last because he really lifted up my spirits after a dismal performance night. He's actually taken some harsh criticism from some of the on-line community because of the back-story involving his wife passing away four weeks before he auditioned. They feel he's been over-pimped by the producers and basically shoved in all of our faces. Give the guy a break already. It's not his decision to be so prominently displayed during these early rounds. And after all, he's a tremendous singer. He's set to go very, very far in season eight. He's already a consummate pro.

So, how do I rate tonight's perfomers? Here is a listing of the top six males and the top six females:

Top Six Male Performers:
1.) Danny Gokey
2.) Ricky Braddy
3.) Anoop Desai
4.) Michael Sarver
5.) Brent Keith
6.) Stephen Fowler

Top Six Female Performers:
1.) Alexis Grace
2.) Jackie Tohn
3.) Tatiana Del Toro
4.) Ann Marie Boskovich
5.) Casey Carlson
6.) Stevie Wright

And last but not least, who do I think will advance to the Top 12:

M - Danny Gokey
F - Alexis Grace
M - Anoop Desai

Enjoy the results tonight!