Idol Chatter 2/17/09

[T_Bone0806]

The show was absolute crap tonight. Just about everybody was terrible. If this is what we have to look forward to this year, we're in trouble.

Spoiler

The Good:

Danny Gokey "Hero" The best of the night. They need to drop the dead wife angle now. We all know the story. Now he needs to win or lose on his merits, not his backstory. A-

Ricky Braddy "A Song For You" Good voice, too much vocal trampolining. Also a bit too "showbizzy" for my tastes. Still one of the best tonight, although that's not saying much, considering that most everyone sucked eggs tonight.


The Mediocre:

Alexis Grace "I Never Loved a Man" Her voice is not strong enough to tackle this Aretha belter. The ending was a mess, otherwise it was a serviceable performance. At least she hit most of the notes. The best of a TERRIBLE group of females. C+

Tatiana DelToro "Saving All My Love For You" Not the trainwreck it could've, and SHOULD'VE been. Shows you how low the bar was set for tonight when this annoying dipstick placed this high on my list. SHe had a higher percentage of attained pitches than most tonight. She also must've been sedated tonight, as she left the histrionics home. C

Michael Sarver "I Don't Wanna Be" Mr. Oil Rigger didn't strike it rich tonight. Not at the top of his game. There were moments, but not enough of 'em. C

Anoop Desai "Angel of Mine" Like Michael, he's better than what he showed tonight. Hit some real cringe-inducing notebombs. C-

Stephen Fowler "Rock With You" I like the SOUND of his voice. I didn't like what he DID with it. The vocal runs were ill-advised and poorly performed. C-


The Awful:

Brent Keith "Hick Town" Blah. D+

Ann Marie Boskovich "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" Her improvisation was horrifying. D

Jackie Tohn "A Little Less Conversation" How 'bout a little less yelling, a little more singing? D

Casey Carlson "Every Little Thing (S)he Does is Magic" Every little thing she did was awkward. And bad. D

Stevie Wright "You Belong With Me" I don't think she sang a single note in key. And I'm NOT exaggerating. She shouldn't feel too bad. Taylor Swift, who recorded the song, can't stay on pitch live either. F


I think Danny gets voted in for the guys, Alexis for the ladies. Based on tonight, I would put Ricky in as the 3rd finalist, but I think Anoop or Michael will get the popular vote for the 3rd slot, with the other one being brought back for the wild card episode.

[peacock2121]

I was red faced.

Sting and I have traditionally used Idol as a "date night". We watch together - both the performance night and the vote off night. He has always hated the shows before the final 12. He says they have been bad singers who pick bad songs until the final 12.

I told him, very excitedly, that this 12 had great singers - not like years past - really great singers. I enrolled him in watching with me.

My face was so red.

I went to get him (as he had already bailed on me and the show) when Anoop was starting. I loved him in all the previous showings - yuck, yuck and yuck.

Danny himself is turning away from the widower story - good for him. I loved his version of Hero and I loved his response to Ryan asking what he pictured as he sang it.

Alexis dirtied up quite nicely.

[Ritterskoop]

Television Without Pity's headline:

Every Little Thing She Does is Tragic! Tragic! Tragic!

[etaoin22]

To be fair to both Idol threads I will make an irrelevant and out of context post in this thread as well.

Spoiler

Mission accomplished.

[BigDrawMan]

I watched the first girl sing the elvis song.

she displayed no entertainment value

i dint watch anyone else

[T_Bone0806]

Television Without Pity's headline:

Every Little Thing She Does is Tragic! Tragic! Tragic!

That song swallowed Chris Sligh alive in Season 6. And he's a good singer. Perhaps this will discourage anyone from going for the "trifecta" down the road.
Same with the Aretha choices. You'd better be freakin' awesome with solid steel vocal cords if you're gonna tackle Lady Soul. Alexis will survive not because she was outstanding, but because she was the least sucky. She really is lucky she got away with putting on the big-girl shoes last night. And as far as Ann Marie goes, "A Natural Woman" was a natural disaster.

[T_Bone0806]

I watched the first girl sing the elvis song.

she displayed no entertainment value

Well, not unless you find entertainment in watching your cousin "sit in with the band" at a wedding after consuming 47 margaritas.

[secondchance]

I was so bummed with Jackie Tohn's "performance" last night. I really held high hopes for her... Glad I didn't place any bets.

Tatiana surprised me. Sedated or not, her singing last night actually made me feel a twinge of impressed.

Tbone - appreciated your take on it all. Keep it coming.

[astrnomr]

Television Without Pity's headline:

Every Little Thing She Does is Tragic! Tragic! Tragic!

That song swallowed Chris Sligh alive in Season 6. And he's a good singer. Perhaps this will discourage anyone from going for the "trifecta" down the road.
Same with the Aretha choices. You'd better be freakin' awesome with solid steel vocal cords if you're gonna tackle Lady Soul. Alexis will survive not because she was outstanding, but because she was the least sucky. She really is lucky she got away with putting on the big-girl shoes last night. And as far as Ann Marie goes, "A Natural Woman" was a natural disaster.

I don't know about never singing a song by Aretha Franklin or The Police, but there are definitely some artists you should never touch -- Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and George Michael are at the top of my list. One of the things Simon tries to stress to the contestants (that they always ignore, even after all these years) is that you need to make a song better or else nobody will give a crap. I don't think David Cook was the best singer last season, but each week, he performed songs that were better than their originals. (Well, except for "Happy Together". That was a train wreck that he was lucky to survive.) Certain songs, like "Natural Woman", are also in the category of "don't try this" because they will be very hard to perform better than the original. Try to find songs that you can inject some life into. Pick songs everybody knows, even if you don't like it. Nobody cares how well you might sing a song if they don't know what the original sounded like. The audience needs to be able to compare it to something or else they won't know if you did a good job or a bad job. Also, don't sing "Last Dance" -- it's a bad luck song. I think that it has been done four times on the show, and three times it led to elimination that week.

As for the results, I was a bit surprised to see who took the top male vote. No surprise on the female vote because 4 of the 6 were train wrecks. The wild card (Danny) is probably the one that will go the farthest of the three.

[Sir_Galahad]

As for the results, I was a bit surprised to see who took the top male vote. No surprise on the female vote because 4 of the 6 were train wrecks. The wild card (Danny) is probably the one that will go the farthest of the three.

I do not recall them saying that Danny was the wild card. I thought Danny was the top vote getter and Michael was the wild card. If you recall, Ryan said that there were only 20,000 votes separating Michael from Anoop. That would lead me to believe that Michael was the third top vote getter and, thus, the wild card for that night.

And I hope, at some point, they put certain songs "off limits." And, don't these kids watch the damn show and see that the judges say the same damn things about performances of those songs??!! It really makes me wonder if these kids just don't watch the show or really think they can pull off singing those songs. Seldom is that the case, as we have seen.

[minimetoo26]

Also, don't sing "Last Dance" -- it's a bad luck song. I think that it has been done four times on the show, and three times it led to elimination that week.

As for the results, I was a bit surprised to see who took the top male vote. No surprise on the female vote because 4 of the 6 were train wrecks. The wild card (Danny) is probably the one that will go the farthest of the three.

It's I Wanna Dance With Somebody that is the Song of Death.

Danny wasn't the wild card. He was the top male vote getter. Michael squeaked past Anoop for third by 20,000 votes, and I can attribute that to Ricky Braddy--he was listed as being from Tennessee until Tuesday, when he was listed as being from Elizabeth City, NC. That skimmed off a bunch of NC votes from Anoop. DialIdol has Ricky winning NC even over Danny.

[Ritterskoop]

As for the results, I was a bit surprised to see who took the top male vote. No surprise on the female vote because 4 of the 6 were train wrecks. The wild card (Danny) is probably the one that will go the farthest of the three.

Danny had the most male votes.

Sarver was the Neutral, only slightly ahead of Anoop (who we are likely to see again unless one of the other two groupings has two worthy wild cards).

[Snaxx]

I tripped over an article that says the next highest vote-getter is assured of a chance to sing in the wild card round. Since Anoop missed by only 20K votes he is assured of a spot unless one of the gals, such as Tatayana, was even closer. Beyond that, the judges do all the picking.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tml?cat=33

[peacock2121]

I am a very happy girl.

so far

[astrnomr]

Danny wasn't the wild card. He was the top male vote getter. Michael squeaked past Anoop for third by 20,000 votes.

Okay, that makes more sense. I wasn't paying full attention to the tv, so I thought it was the other way around.

[secondchance]

I'm really not on the Michael Sarver boat. Sure- likeable, dad, hard-worker...
but majorly average and looks absolutely ridiculous bopping around on stage.

[peacock2121]

I'm really not on the Michael Sarver boat. Sure- likeable, dad, hard-worker...
but majorly average and looks absolutely ridiculous bopping around on stage.

I am in the boat.

Hope it doesn't sink.

[Ritterskoop]

Danny wasn't the wild card. He was the top male vote getter. Michael squeaked past Anoop for third by 20,000 votes.

Okay, that makes more sense. I wasn't paying full attention to the tv, so I thought it was the other way around.

They did not spell it out that way on the show, but it follows, as (1) they did not announce Danny as the Neutral, and (2) it's the only way it makes sense, if Anoop's vote total was so close to Sarver's.