American Idol- Top 7

In full disclosure, I did not see Monday's Idol episode until late Tuesday night. Now, it is late on Wednesday night and I am catching up with my recap. This may be a shorter one than usual.

 

As has become a recent tradition, it was the Judges' Song Contest, which is an interesting concept, in which the three judges each anonymously pick a song for each contestant. The one that gets picked wins a point for the judge, and then the kids try to guess afterwards, and this year Jelly Roll joined in the speculation, although he basically just agreed with the guesses. At the end of the night, the winner(s) would get to "save" one of the two contestants voted into the Bottom Two.

 

For one thing, I have to think that the judges already had a list of what songs had gotten picked and thus knew who had "won", but they went along with pretending to be so competitive about this. I believe Katy Perry won the last two years, and now this season, Carrie Underwood came across as perhaps too competitive. She seemed sort of in a down mood all night.As she said, she is only used to winning on American Idol. Gee, is she for real with all that? I think the night would probably wind up worse for one of the kids who was about to have their dreams of Idol victory dashed.

 

Nobody really had a bad performance on Monday, and in fact, I think that one contestant continued to show a good amount of growth. Some others though, I think probably had their least good round in terms of the solos. There were also a spattering of duo and trio performances throughout the night. One of those was really horrible too. While Idol tells us that they are not officially part of the competition, they did take place during the time where people were voting, so as I always do, I had to rank them, and the fair way to do so in my mind is to judge each contestant against the other in the order of which they sang. This always leads to some inconsistency in what is being compared, but there is really no other way. If I have to break ties, I put emphasis on the solo performances. I also imagine Kolbi and Canaan had also rehearsed their parts in these groups and I can speculate as to which song they would have done. I suppose all the rehearsals had to be re-arranged to take out the parts of the 9th and 10th place finishers (we will never know who was who) or perhaps they just learned those songs on Monday morning. Frankly, that would not shock me either.

 

1. Breanna Nix- "Independence Day"

 

Breanna picked perhaps the best known of her choices, and a song that used to be done on Idol a lot, including by Carrie, even though Ms. Underwood was not the judge who selected it. 

It seems like this was the most country oriented song Breanna has done this season. Towards the top, she forgot to sing some of the lyrics. Then, she caught her composure and sang very well once again, although it seemed like she was maybe singing louder than she needed to be. It is clear that Breanna is still dealing with her nerves, and like several other recent female performers, is basically shaking on stage when hearing the judges' comments. She should realize this set of judges are far "nicer" than what we used to get on Idol.

 

2. Mattie Pruitt- "Always Been You"

 

On Sunday, I thought Mattie easily had her best performance. In my view, she continued this momentum on Monday. While she certainly does not as great of a voice as some others in the competition, this kind of current song suited her better than anything else she had been doing.

 

I think I have heard this song somewhere, but am not really too familiar with it. Mattie did sort of an interesting vocal modulation a few times that at least made her stylistically stand out. I can envision that a lot of young girls especially would have been into this.

 

3. Gabby Samone, Josh King, and Jamal Roberts- "Dancing On The Ceiling"

 

Of course, Idol will use these group performances to pay tribute to their judges. I think Canaan probably would have been included in this group and might have been funny to hear him sing something with zero faith-basied connotations.

 

Nobody really bombed, but this seemed pretty haphazard all around. Gabby probably did her thing the best/ Jamal sounded a bit like Lionel at the beginning of his solo part and  Josh looked and sounded a little out of place with them both.

 

4. John Foster- "I Cross My Heart"

 

Well, I guess they are not trying to avoid John having a girlfriend on the show after all.  She was mic'ed up in the audience pit and everything.

 

George Strait is pretty much right up John's alley and he sang it professionally. I just find this kind of music sort of boring. John is quite competent in his genre, but I feel like he is no longer capable of doing anything on stage that would surprise me in an impressive manner. Once again, he had the guitar on him but barely played a chord.

 

5. Josh King- "Home"

 

OMG, they wanted him to sing "Great Balls Of Fire", that would have been on brand for his neo-"Vote For the Worst dot com" appeal. It also seems like Josh has a bit of a backstory that I did not know a lot about. It seems like he is somewhat of an experienced actor and was on Saturday Night Live as a child (obviously not as a cast member.) We had already heard that he once sang backup for Fantasia at a church and now we saw a clip of him singing this very song at a David Foster (brother in law of an Idol vocal coach) concert. Josh has also apparently been at a lot of Michael Buble concerts and sort of lamented the fact that the Canadian crooner is currently on "The Voice" this season, and not Idol. This was a bit of breaking the fourth wall. I think it even took Seacrest by surprise. He should have taken the opportunity to throw some shade at Carson Daly. So, what I am trying to say is that either Josh is the Forrest Gump of American Idol, or a lot of his sad sack positioning could be an act. I just wonder what the eliminated MKY thinks about Josh surviving round after round after having to basically carry him in their Hollywood duet performance.

 

Yes indeed, this Buble song does sort of have some ominous lyrics for someone trying to advance on a show, but it has been done on Idol before. Josh sang it somewhat decently, but nowhere near spectacular. The song choice itself was the "safest"and least entertaining of the the three options he had.

 

6. Gabby Samone- "Hero"

It seems like Gabby wanted to do the Celine Dion option, but realized she has already covered her this season. So, she went with Mariah Carey, whom apparently she has met professionally before. We also learned that Gabby has sung with Justin Timberlake. So, despite having apparently been homeless in the past few years, she is definitely not a complete novice in this business, even if she has not been on a show like "The Voice" previously.

 

Needless to say, Gabby sounded very good on this ballad. It is what she can do in her sleep.I just was not quite as wowed as some of the other things she has done.

 

7.  Thunderstorm Artis, Slater Nally, and John Foster- "Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Everyday"

 

My opening statement is that Luke Bryan's "Huntin', Fishin', and Lovin' Everyday" may legitimately be the worst song I have ever heard in my life. Seriously, people spend their money on that crap? Why not a country fan, I could at least understand why people liked past Idol judge Keith Urban. Luke Bryan? I just do not get it.

 

This was almost hard to watch, although, they naturally received no criticism. John sort of was best suited for this, but Slater sounded awful on his part. Thunderstorm, who as mentioned is from Hawa'i', and not the Deep South, seemed a bit out of his element also. It was also noted how since he is so much older than teenagers Slater and John, had to sing the lyric about whiskey. 

So, now that everyone has sang at least once, I have my first set of rankings:

 

8, Slater Nally- group

7. Joah King- group

6. Thunderstorm Artis- group

5. John Foster

4. Breanna Nix

3. Mattie Pruitt

2. Jamal Roberts- group

1. Gabby Samone- group

 

8. Jamal Roberts- "I Believe"

I think he made a mistake by not doing "Grenade" by Bruno Mars, which while a song from the last decade, would at least have made him seem a bit more current.

 

Next. we learn that Jamal just had a new baby daughter (named Gianna) born that day! Or on whatever day he filmed the interview. That is news and definitely an Idol first to have a contestant welcome a child during the actual voting round. (We have seen it happen in auditions and Hollywood Week.) Obviously, Jamal was not present for the birth of his third daughter, who unlike Harmony and Lyrik, does not have an overly musical name. While none of this should really deflect from his talent, there are some obvious questions raised. We have not heard anything about Jamal being married or still partnered with the mother of his other daughters. I doubt he is the new Nick Cannon or Elon Musk. Maybe they all still have the same baby mama and she just has not been shown because she has been pregnant in Misssissippi but it seems like he would have at least offered some sort of gratitude to the woman who just gave birth while he is on television. 

Anyways, on to the music, which is why this show exists I suppose. It is weird to sing Fantasia's winner singer, especially if you are a dude. Jamal has the vocal pipes to do it though and mostly succeeded. At first though, it seemed like he was content with letting the backup singers (including 2009 seminifinalist Felicia Barton) sing the chorus. Jamal was obviously going to get praised heaped on him for taking on Fantasia's anthem but it felt pageantry and kind of pointless to me.

 

9. Breanna Nix and Mattie Pruitt- "Something In The Water"

 

Finally, it was Carrie's turn to get one of her songs performed. I guess Kolbi would have joined in if she was around, but instead it was just the two. It did look like a much older sister and a younger sister and some might have even gotten a Judds mother-daughter vibe to the pairing.

 

They both did decent. Mattie definitely was trying to sound more country here than she has on her other performances. This was a better chance for Breanna to shine though.

 

10. Thunderstorm Artis- "Faithfully"

 

I cannot help but find it hard to believe that so many music fans hate on Journey and on songs like this. It is one of my absolutely favorites and I was instantly convinced that Carrie Underwood was the one who picked it for Thunderstorm.

 

I also knew he would not sing it anywhere like the way that Steve Perry or Arnel Pineda or past AI winner Caleb Johnson did. That is sort of too bad for me, but I think T-Storm largely succeeded with his acoustic version. There was one part where I did not like his musical choice, so I had to deduct some points there.. He said the lyrics about being on the road as a musician and away from his family spoke to him. Mrs. Artis (maybe we should call her Lightingstorm) is always there with a baby on her hip and the toddler being held by grandma or an aunt perhaps. After the performance, Seacrest walked him over to where she was standing and basically let the contestant profess his love for her. This seemed like blatant Idol manipulation. Is T-Storm the chosen one they want to win?

 

11. Slater Nally- "Atlantic City"

 

My first thought was that the good ol' boy (he is literally still a boy legally) from Georgia sand the night before about New England and now was singing a song about Atlantic City.  I do not know this Bruce Springsteen song, but was surprised it was available. I thought once Clive Davis had to go to great lengths to get The Boss to clear one of his songs for the show.

 

The fringed shirt Slater wore seemed a bit pointless for this. It would have made it seem like he was doing a more country number. I think Slater is actually better at this sort of Americana rock thing than pure country. The vocal itself maybe had some very good parts and some not as great parts, but I do find Slater impressive as a young musician and think that he has even greater potential as he gets older.

 

"Round Two" Rankings:

 

8  Josh King

7.  John Foster- group

6.. Mattie Pruitt- group

5. Jamal Roberts

4. Thunderstorm Artis

3.  Slater Nally

2.  Breanna Nix- group

1.  Gabby Samone

 

Combined Rankings:

 

8. Josh King

7. John Foster

 

6. Slater Nally

5. Thunderstorm Artis

4. Mattie Pruitt

3. Jamal Roberts

2. Breanna Nix

1. Gabby Samone

 

Who should have been the bottom two: Josh King and John Foster

As the show went to its final commercial break and we learned that Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie would share the contest trophy (which Carrie Underwood, wife of an NHL player who never got to hoist the Stanley Cup smarlly refused to touch), I figured that Josh had to be one of the bottom vote getters. I mean, it has to happen eventually, right?

 

As for the second slot, I was pretty sure it would not be John or Slater or Thunderstorm. It could have been any of the others, but I thought that Jamal might be the unlucky one. I had no doubt the judges would save him though and wisely sacrifice Josh.

 

Who I predicted would be the bottom two: Josh King and Jamal Roberts

 

Who was the bottom two: Josh King and Mattie Pruitt

Very interesting. I had thought Mattie had stuck around longer than she deserved and then in the past week, I thought she was greatly improved. America finally caught up to what I was once thinking in regards to what I thought was the bottom two headed into the entire Finals.

 

Who should not have been saved, who I predicted would not be saved, and who was not saved: Josh King

 

People would have lost their shiz if the judges saved Josh. I think he knew that too.  At first , I liked how he sort of subtly pointed his head towards Mattie while looking at the judges, asking them to save her, as if they were not already going to do so. Then, he made it way, way more obvious and it was clear he wanted everyone to think he has being magnanimous. That sort of made it look unfair for Mattie because on the merits, she deserved to be saved on Monday night.

 

Good luck to Josh, who outlasted a good number of better singers, even if he might be a nice guy. I wish him success, whether it is back to the airport lounge or perhaps on some television comedy set in the future.