American Idol- Top 8

The week has been busy and the Idol schedule has been a bit difficult to navigate in terms of watching a two hour episode in one sitting and then blogging about it. I watched Sunday night's episode after it aired on Sunday and now about 24 hours later, I am trying to extract specific memories to go with the rankings I composed on the spot. I have been doing this for the past couple of Monday episodes, but now am doing it for the Sunday show. Of course, there was also an episode of Idol that aired tonight, but I am doing first things first and will focus on my recap of the first show of the week. Tomorrow, I will watch the Monday show and then on Wednesday plan on doing another post. If this were still the days of the Bush or Obama Administration, it would be very difficult to avoid hearing spoilers on what happened tonight or who got cut. Somehow though, I think I will manage to go all day tomorrow without finding out. The franchise is just nowhere near the cultural phenomenon it once was.

 

Last night, aka Sunday, the then Top 12 took the stage to honor women in the music business,which might be considered "woke" to some. The mentor was Miranda Lambert, whom also took the stage and in my view sang pretty poorly. Nonetheless, she was the first Lambert to be on Idol since the most recent guest appearance of Adam. (Does anybody remember Season 10's Alex Lambert?) Miranda was on Idol for the first time ever. She used to appear occasionally on "The Voice" as her former husband Blake Shelton was a "coach" for about 29 seasons in a row. That is where Blake met his now wife Gwen Stefani somewhere along the way. While Miranda Lambert, like Idol judge Carrie Underwood, is a considered a huge female country star, this is a rare recent season without a true female country singer among the finalists. Two of the remaining males can definitely be considered country though. This all led to a bit of an odd episode, that learned pretty heavily on country and with a lot of cowboy hats. Perhaps, the non-country contestants were trying to appeal to whom they thought was watching and voting, which may have included people tuning in just to see Miranda Lambert.

 

From my perspective, a couple of the contestants last night had their best showing, though they still were not better than many of the others, while a couple had perhaps their weakest overall performance on the live Hollywood studio stage, and still deserved to advance.

 

Here is how Ladies' Night proceeded:

 

1. John Foster- "Something To Talk About"

 

I have no doubt that John is racking up tons of votes. I think perhaps some did not want him to mention his girlfriend on the show. He was sort of forced to do so though by Luke Bryan, when he acknowledged that he already knew her and a cousin or two among his fawning fans in the front row of the studio floor audience.

 

This was a vocally decent but once again fairly corny performance. This is the sort of thing though that got Scotty McCreery, who was maybe just a year younger than John all the way to victory several years ago. There just was not much of an impact by his voice itself though and it really seemed like the guitar served as nothing more than a prop. I would not be surprised if did not actually play a single note on this Bonnie Raitt song. I am not even sure if he even had a guitar pick in his hand. It also occurred to me that this was the song that once (finally) got Sanjaya Malakar eliminated.

 

2. Kolbi Jordan- "The Chain"

 

At the time, I thought this was a smart strategy by Kolbi. She said the audience might have just expected her to sing Aretha or her personal idol Patti LaBelle. Instead, the contestant sang a Fleetwood Mac song, and made it pretty country along the way, which is fairly different than the original. Kolbi was dressed in sort of a sparkly western outfit and a cowboy hat.

 

Some might think Kolbi acts a bit too cocky on the show, but I have really enjoyed her personality. If past Idol contestants like Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson can host syndicated daytime talk shows, I think Kolbi would be perfect for a job like that. I liked her vocals on this song, She always has a very strong voice, but this was perhaps not as impactful as some of the other songs she has done, because it was a bit out of her comfort zone, as she took a calculated risk to get country fan votes.

 

3.  Josh King- "Rolling In The Deep"

 

Really? This song? Josh? Good luck.

 

All things considered Josh might have had his best vocal performance, at least at the beginning, on this Adele number, as he tried to make it more "bluesy" while playing piano. In the context of a small lounge, it might have been considered quite good for what it was. Then, he got up, ran around stage, pulled out his harmonica, and it got pretty manic and amateurish.

 

There is definitely something going on wish Josh personality wise that is either beyond his control or quite calculating to appeal to a category of Idol voters. He is embracing the "awkward dork" image for all it is worth. There really should be a focus group study on who exactly is voting for Josh and why. It could be that his racking up huge numbers from his home state of North Carolina, which last year elected a Josh as Governor.

 

4. Breanna Nix- "Water Under The Bridge:

 

Back to back Adele on the Idol stage. For some reason, I am finding this one a bit more difficult to remember details than some of the other performances last night. I know that she showed up to her mentoring session in (ripped) jeans, which might have confused or angered some of her Fundamentalist fanbase.

 

I remember that Breanna sang this song very well, but she always sings well. I thought that perhaps that on some of the bigger notes towards the end, she lost some vocal control. Her young son is in the audience, being held by the dad, with giant earphones on, every week. It seems like Idol is pushing hard to get as many very young children or siblings in the crowd at all times. I also noticed that at the end of Kolbi's song, her mother started walking away from her seat, perhaps to some sort of waiting room, before the segment was even over.

 

5. Canaan James Hill- "Love Wins"

Seacrest tells us that after the break, CJH is taking on Carrie Underwood. Well, obviously, this was going to be "Jesus Take The Wheel." Alas though, no. For the first time ever, Canaan sang a song without overt religious themes on the Idol stage. Still though, it might as well have been a gospel song, based on the lyrics and the way he performed it.  I sort of have to give him credit for proving me wrong and doing something secular, but if he was going to cast aside those restraints, he might as well have just gone for it and done something completely unexpected. For this song, he had been worried about forgetting the words, and indeed he seemed to do just that at the end, and instead just did some of his well-established runs.

 

All things considered, I think this was maybe Canaan's best vocal. It is easy to forget he is only 17. He looks like he is old enough to run for the U.S. Senate. I think he has been even better over the past couple of weeks on the Idol stage, but there is a perpetual non-exciting Luther Vandross quality to his showmanship.

 

6.  Thunderstorm Artis- "When We Were Young" 

Adele is back again! Thunder said he wanted to play piano for the first time on the Idol stage because it was the first instrument he learned to play back when he "was young." Last night, he sort of looked like a young Barack Obama and some might think he has the self-sure attitude to match. When he was worn glasses before, I thought he looked like a grown-up Steve Urkel.

 

I was extremely impressed by T-Storm's vocal performance here. While I sometimes wish I could understand the lyrics a bit more when he sings, he has such a deep connection during his performances.This was very good and Thunderstorm is gaining a lot of momentum.

 

7. Slater Nally- "Whoever's In New England"

This was a Reba McEntire (also a Voice coach) song I do not know. One might almost assume that a country song that references New England might be some sort of red state smackdown of a bunch of blue states, but I do not think that is what this was about.

 

My views on this Slater performance were somewhat mixed, but lean more towards positive. Maybe I am crazy, but it sounds like his guitar was out of tune and I was wondering if the singer himself was distracted by that. It seems like he was doing a lot of thinking. I have come to appreciate the tone of Slater's voice, though his style of music is not necessarily my favorite. The drama was if he would attempt to sing the end of the song with a big note or play it more safely. Of course, he went for it. The judges said he nailed it. I might not be as sure.

 

8. Jamal Roberts- "Undo It"

 

Another Carrie Underwood song by a black dude, why not?  Jamal has been so good all season and has proven he can use his voice and stage persona to great effect. While Canaan wore a canary yellow suit for his take on Carrie, Jamal was decked all in black, including a cowboy hat. I wondered if some Idol voters might have been turned off by his appearance.

Also like Canaan, Jamal seemed to struggle a bit with the words, in his case at the top of the song. Besides for that though, he sang this fairly rockish country song very effectively. At the end, the hat was flung to the judges' table and ultimately wound up on Carrie's head, albert backwards.

 

9. Mattie Pruitt- "The House That Built Me"

 

For this performance, Mattie sang a Miranda Lambert ballad. During the mentoring session, Miranda encouraged Mattie to be bold and play guitar for the first time on the Idol stage. I am sure the producers would have made her do so otherwise.

 

All of this was set up for a "Mattie moment" and I will say, it was definitely her best performance. Mattie seemed more connected to this song than some others she had done and the somewhat gritty tone of her voice worked better for her. I will not say she is on the same level as some of the other kids on the show, but it was a clear improvement. Mattie was almost immediately in tears after she was done. Last night could have been a good opportunity for her to leave on a positive note.

 

10. Gabby Samone- "I Was Here"

 

When they said Gabby was singing Beyonce, I was really hoping it would be "Halo" which I personally said on here last week that I wanted to hear her do on Idol.

 

Instead, it was a Beyonce song I do not know. Nonetheless, Gabby is always Gabby and she continues to crush it. She can sing softly, she can sing loudly, and always sounds close to perfect. She definitely deserves comparison to a young Whitney Houston, and the hair last night seemed to resemble 1987 Whitney.  Many people will be quite disappointed and sad if Gabby is voted off before the Finale. I still fear that may happen, but for now, she is doing almost everything right.

 

Rankings:

 

10. Josh King

 9. John Foster

 

8. Mattie Pruitt

7. Slater Nally 

6. Breanna Nix

5. Jamal Roberts

4  Kolbi Jordan

3. Canaan James Hill

2. Thunderstorm Artis

1. Gabby Samone

 

It has to be acknowledged, I put every black singer ahead of every white singer. That is not something I consciously did, but as would have been the case if the roles were reversed, that is just how I saw it. So maybe I will not be invited to join Al Sharpton's National Action Network quite yet.

 

Who should have been eliminated: Josh King and John Foster

 

I have been like a broken record on this Josh thing. Somehow, someday, it has to end, right? I did find myself surprised having John ranked behind Mattie. When John is good, he is quite good, and when he is corny, it definitely approaches cringe-worthy. Overall, it might just be a style of musical taste. Regardless, I did not at all think John would actually be voted off last night.

 

Who I predicted would be eliminated: Josh King and Kolbi Jordan

 

It seemed like this was simply a math problem at this point for Kolbi who definitely did not deserve to be eliminated. She had perhaps not her best performance doing a song that was considered unorthodox for her and adding an additional country twist to the equation. With so many African-Americans, I knew vote splitting would cost one of them. Before we had a Top 14, I thought that Canaan might find himself on the outside looking in, but was thinking last night he had a big enough fanbase, even if he sang a song that did not have the words Jesus or G-d in it. It was possible that Jamal was at risk, but I figured it would most likely be a female and that Gabby was getting the votes that Kolbi needed.

Who was eliminated: Kolbi Jordan and Canaan James Hill

 

That is the way it ended up. Two African-Americans were suddenly voted off. I sort of wonder if they would have had better luck if they sang a "Ladies Night"song by a black artist. There would have been a lot to choose from. I had them ranked third and fourth so I definitely do not approve of this result, but it is perhaps not exactly shocking. Canaan seemed fairly surprised though. With the time ticking off, we barely got more than ten seconds of reaction from the two booted contestants. Long gone are the days of the elimination song, montage package, and tearful sing-off of the contestant(s) who just had their hopes and dreams crushed.

 

As I type this, there is already a Top 7, but I am going to try to not find out who is contains until tomorrow evening. I beg of all the massive amount of readers out there, do not say anything to spoil the suspense for me!