American Idol- Top 10

The ABC version of American Idol passes by fast in April and May. It sure seems as if there are more weeks of the audition episodes than the voting rounds. Two contestants were eliminated tonight and two more will be tomorrow. I watched this evening's episode live and now will write about it an hour or so after it ended. Tomorrow, I will watch too late to a blog entry, but will plan to post one on Tuesday.

Let me say once again just how lousy the system of "live coast to coast voting is." People need to start voting for the contestants at the beginning of the episode, and in some cases close to two hours before they sing. That leads to this being much more of a popularity contest than a meritocracy based on the actual voting performances of the round. This particular season, this system seems most unfair to a contestant from the west coast of Canada and one with ties to Hawai'i. I do not think many people in that area are watching the show live, even if they have access to be able to do so. Nonetheless, these two contestants probably have large enough fan bases on the mainland of the USA to stick around for a while. The same probably could not have been said for a particular wildcard singer from the Republic of Georgia.

Tonight was "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" night, mentored by Idol's favorite runner-up Adam Lambert. The second half of the show was much stronger than the first half. Many contestants really did not do anything "rock" like as their selection, and the same could be said for Adam Lambert's own solo performance. With the voting system though, I do not know if anybody is really getting cut or making it based on "song choice" anymore.

1. Tyson Venegas- "For Once In My Life"

From a performance perspective, Tyson is continuing to do the right things. He worked the stage and showed off some dance moves to start off the evening.

Vocally, I thought it was his weakest performance and I detected some moments where he appeared to sing off key. Tyson is very much an Idol throwback to a bygone era of the good old days of the Bush Administration. I am actually old enough and sadly schooled enough in Idol history to remember Justin Guarini doing this same some, also with a lot of dancing back in Season 1. I think he had the better vocals back in 2002 however.

 

Katy Perry felt the need to name check Zachariah Smith in her comments. It felt like she had some kind of ulterior motive. Later on in the episode, she brought back the cape she wore as the guest performer on Idol in 2009 when she used her fame gave an unethical endorsement of Adam Lambert's candidacy.

2. Warren Peay- "House Of The Rising Sun"

For a couple brief moments during this performance, Warren's vocals sounded very solid. For most of the rest of it, he was just ok and it seemed underwhelming.

He did an acoustic take on this '60s British Invasion song and in theory that arrangement could have worked well for him. For whatever reason though,Warren did not sing a ton of the actual lyrics. He had a couple sustained "runs" that did not include the words of the song. Based on what was discussed in the mentoring session, that seemed to be intentional and not a case of him forgetting the lyrics, but it might have confused some people. Did the worship leader deem some of the lyrics from this song about a whorehouse to be inappropriate?

3. Haven Madison- "Livin' On A Prayer"

At least she was going to embrace the theme. This had the potential to go sideways though. I recall how Jordin Sparks struggled with trying to pull off this Bon Jovi rock song when she was a teenage contestant.

Haven pulled this off like a pro though and I was pleasantly surprised. She might have gone a bit off as usual during the high notes (the ones Jon Bon Jovi has been unable to attempt since around 1988) but she arranged it so that it would suit her voice as well as possible. Haven's attempt at '80s rock was more than credible.

4. Lucy Love- "All Night Long (All Night)"

I will try to keep this entry as short as possible because there was a lot going on. Lucy paid homage to Lionel Richie who was portrayed as being responsible for saving her last Monday, by singing one of her songs. She should not have done this song. Based on her big and often gruff voice, I think Lucy might actually have had some success with something in the rock genre. It is a huge Idol cliche, but she might as well have sung Heart's "Alone."

This was just not a song she was able to put much emotion into, unlike the two performances from last week that I thought were very good. This was much more like what I thought was a subpar and cheesy impersonation of Tina Turner during Hawai'i. Lucy could not resist the urge to fake a Caribbean accent in the song, sort of like how Richie did it back in the day. I really did not like the vocals. It felt extremely Karaoke.

 

In the audience, were Lucy's two young children, with giant sound blocking headphones on and at least one of them appeared to be majorly crying. I was not at all surprised when the young girl wound up in her mother's arms during the judges' critique, delivered by a stage hand. Idol has gone from having the young children of female African-American contestants watching backstage (Fantasia), to sitting on Randy Jackson's lap (Lil Rounds), to actually being held by their mother. Lucy's tear-streaked daughter was very adorable in this moment, but America did not fall for the sympathy factor.

5. Oliver Steele- "Georgia On My Mind"

No, not the Georgia that Nutsa comes from but the heavily populated southern state that just lost out on the Democrat National Convention. Perhaps Ray Charles is in the Hall of Fame, but this is definitely not a rock song and even Adam Lambert dished some shade by saying that he found the rendition in the practice session a bit boring.

Last Monday, Oliver changed the arrangement on his song to make it more uptempo and I was not a fan of that and he did the same thing here. He has a good voice, but I found this performance underwhelming as well and yes, a bit boring. He received some very mild criticism from the judges and seemed ready to defensively say some things back but wisely held off. He even sort of did that last week when he was being complimented. Oliver seemed to have frustration written over his face though on the feedback he received.

6. Colin Stough- "Midnight Rider"

I felt that Colin had a much better performance last week on Monday after he had been voted through and it quickly occurred to me that he just might up winning the whole thing, by virtue of the kind of singer he is.

Tonight, seemed like a step backwards. Colin has a nice voice, but to re-use a word from the first half of the show tonight, the whole thing felt underwhelming. It would have been a decent bar performance for sure, but on the big American Idol stage, seemed ordinary.

7. Marybeth Byrd- "Dancing Queen"

A countrified version of ABBA? Something tells me this will not get played in London this coming weekend at the big Coronation thing.

 

MBB had impressive hair extensions and an outfit Dolly Parton would have been proud of. I think she was trying to sound like Dolly as well, but the arrangement of the song was still disco-ish. For a song about dancing, she did not seem to move around on stage at all with her feet. There is no denying that Marybeth has a nice voice but she seems somewhat limited and just does not have the kind of connection that some other female contestants this year have.

8. We Ani- "Something's Got A Hold On Me"

I do not know if she can win this season, but even back in Hollywood Week, I had her pegged as having major star potential.

We were told before the break that she would be singing Etta James and that did not feel very Rock & Roll. My mother wondered if it would be "At Last" and though she has been a fan of We, thought it might be boring. I wondered if she might sing "I'd Rather Go Blind" since Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles were already covered this evening.

Nobody should have worried this would be boring. It was a great song choice for her (a big portion of the song has been sampled all over television in recent years) and she had a definite rock edge to the arrangement. We definitely knows how to play the Idol game and she continues to impress both as as vocalist and a performer, plus managing to seem likable, fake speaking voice or not.

9. Nutsa- "The Show Must Go On"

Bring on another diva! When they previewed she would be doing this song, I commented, it was right up her vocal wheelhouse and would feel predictable. Oddly, Adam Lambert, the acting lead singer of Queen tried to steer her away from doing this song or to somehow tone it down a bit.I was confused with why Nutsa's hair looks much better in rehearsal than whatever slicked back femmullet she once again brought out on stage.

After this performance, I wonder if Lambert was just a bit envious of how she attacked it. This was really, really good, and far better in my view than her attempt to do the Dreamgirls song. It was not predictable like I thought it would be. Nutsa brought the drama and intensity and hit some crazy notes. Afterwards, it felt like the audience reaction was a bit muted. 

During this time, she had a smudge on her chin that was from her very red lipstick that had gotten on the microphone. Even more lipstick started to smudge. It felt somewhat appropriate since a line in this song was how event though "makeup may be flaking" it was "on with the show."

10. Megan Danielle- "Angel From Montgomery"

I do not know this Bonnie Raitt song. It would be the only one this evening that I was unfamiliar with. Once again though, I was extremely impressed with Megan.

While clearly influenced by country music, the bluesy grit in her voice just brings her effectiveness to another level, even if she not quite the belter that the previous two contestants were. Luke Bryan was either in tears when talking about this performance or he had a cold or something Already in my head, I was formulating that Megan would take second place this season to Colin and that We would finish in third. I think the next two performers might also have something to say about that though. Comparisons are inevitable by watchers of this show, and I find Megan to be a better singer than Marybeth.

11. Zachariah Smith-"Don't Bring Me Down"

I assumed he might and pretty much figured he should go the full Elvis route here in order to further win over people like my parents and other seasoned citizens watching on television. Zachariah is never going to sell a lot of records, but he makes for great, cheesy, reality singing show television.

Seacrest said he would do ELO and I could not think what song it might be. I never really liked this song, but there is no denying that Zachariah had a ton of fun with it and sounded very good. The entertainment factor was on high. He might indeed go very deep in this competition,despite being billed from the very same small town as Colin. Is he capable of singing a ballad though?

12. Iam Tongi- "Bring It On Home To Me"

I was not sure why they gave him the pimp slot for this particular round. Zachariah will probably never sing a ballad and it would be a surprise if Iam ever went uptempo. What was he going to do here to make this feel like a different performance than the ones he had done previously? All of them were good, but sounded sort of similar.

Iam exceeded my expectations here and definitely could win it all. For the first time, he performed without a guitar. This was not Iam attempting to do Guns N Roses or anything like that, but it did feel like he was able to create a moment. His voice is just so pure and he put some real soul into this Sam Cooke number as well. He also seems like a good kid who is pretty funny, joking about the fly that was on his forehead last week and whatnot. Based on the applause he got from the studio audience, he is as much a fan favorite as ever.

Rankings:

12. Lucy Love

11. Colin Stough

10.Tyson Venegas

 9. Oliver Steele

 8. Marybeth Byrd

 7. Warren Peay

 6. Zachariah Smith

 5. Haven Madison

 4. Megan Danielle

 3. Iam Tongi

 2. Nutsa

 1. We Ani

 

Who should have been eliminated:  Lucy Love and Colin Stough

Who I predicted would be eliminated: Lucy Love and Oliver Steele

I felt it was likely the end of the road for Lucy. Idol voting is a numbers game and I think black voters would be going heavily for We,and for good reason. Lucy has been strong at times but when I thought she was weak, I thought she was really weak and this was one of those weeks. While I do not think it is necessarily fair, her onstage demeanor and perception of attitude definitely turned off a lot of watchers.

The other elimination spot I was not so sure of.  I just knew it would not be We, Iam, Megan, or Haven. On the merits, it should have been Colin, but I thought that was unlikely too. So, I went with Oliver.

Who was eliminated: Lucy Love and Nutsa

So much for the people the judges saved last week. They did not have the votes then and did not tonight either. Idol is about popularity. They should have saved Nailyah and Kaeyra. I think they would have given strong performances tonight.

Based on tonight alone, I think Nutsa definitely deserved to stick around. She has incredible talent though has not always picked the best songs for herself. Based on the "Sing For Your Life" round, she was lucky to be on this week, but I thought she was very good tonight and I wish we would have gotten to see more of what she could do.

As the first true foreign national (not counting Canada) to be before the Idol voters, she was always going to be a divisive figure. It does not seem that Nutsa is an immigrant to America hoping to achieve stardom as part of the American Dream. It seems like she came to America just to go on Idol. That may work for say Major League Baseball players but it would be problematic on a show like this. Maybe Nutsa will seek a legitimate work visa to stay in the U.S.A. or maybe it will be back to Dubai or some other place where she might be more appreciated.

The MAGA types who are voting on Idol were just going to pretend to like an Eastern European diva, unless perhaps she was married to Donald Trump.