AI5 - Round of 2
I didn’t bother taking notes while watching last night’s episode. What was the point? It’s a bit anti-climactic this year, really. In the dramatic Clay/Reuben finale, I can remember Clay singing “Here, There, and Everywhere,” the spectacular “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with the choir, and his Idol song. This year, the contestants sang two songs we’ve seen them do before, followed by Idol songs that are generally paint-by-numbers Diane Warren wannabe tunes. Neither of them lived up to “A Moment Like This,” or even “This Is The Night.”
Last night’s episode was a sleepwalk. Push the pieces into place, let them do their thing, and move on to the red carpet finale tonight. Seriously, there’s a 7:30 Red Carpet Special preceding AI tonight on my FOX affiliate. I don’t know if they’re all airing that or not.
Predictably, Katharine McPhee did “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree ,” which were her two best songs by far in the competition. The problem is, she just did “Rainbow” last week, so it felt repetitious. Thankfully, she stood up during “Black Horse,” so I won’t have to suffer through any comments like, “Why did she sit down for the song?” Uhm, because it worked?
Finally, her Idol song was far less memorable than the dress she spray painted on for it. I don’t know how she could gasp for breath while wearing that number. . .
Look, it’s a bad song, and I think she knew it. Not knowing the song ahead of time, it’s tough to know if she was “pitchy” or not, but there were certainly places in the song where she sounded lost, and her body language seemed to indicate that she was just trying to get through the song without completely embarrassing herself. And the choir came on too late to add anything to the song. That was a darn shame.
When she finished the final note, she appeared to hang her head in shame, and just wanted to get to the commercial break. I don’t know that for sure, but that’s how it read to me.
Taylor Hicks arrived for his coronation last night, in a delightfully godawful jacket that will be forever burned into my memory. He sang “Livin’ For The City” and “Levon.” The first was a real upbeat performance, and quickly got the audience on his side. It also cemented the fact that he’s a performer. As good as his voice is, it’s only meant for certain things, and it’s his performance qualities that will take him places. “Levon” was a little boring, save the final 30 seconds of pure Taylor mania. He seemed to be sleep walking through the song a little bit.
His Idol single was a better song than Katharine’s, I think, but a large part of that is because he made it sound like his song. There’s no mistaking that it was Taylor singing it there. Katharine lacked that quality throughout the competition, and I think it’s what will eventually give Taylor the victory. She’s a better singer, but he’s a better performer with more experience who knows what he’s doing with himself, and how to sell himself. When Taylor tried to reach for the “glory note” in his Idol song, it was almost embarrassing, but it was easily forgotten thanks to the rest of the song, complete with choir.
Last season, I predicted a Carrie victory just because she pulled off her Idol song better. This year, I’m doing the same for Taylor.
Two odd things: I noticed in certain shots through the night that the teleprompter was cycling through during song performances. Did the Idols get the teleprompters for their original songs, just in case? Not that I want to be a conpiracy theorist, but the last thing the AI producers want is for their forthcoming single releases to be marred by forgotten lyrics. . . Would helping the contestants on those two songs really be such a bad thing?
The second: I don’t remember the judges being that negative on the final competition night in years past. Normally, this is the victory lap. The singers do their thing. Everyone loves them. Negative comments are muted. We celebrate the performers for making it this far and let the voters do their thing. This year, they were ready to pounce. Even when they admitted they liked the performance, they complained about song choice or timing or something or other. Weird.
I do note, though, that Randy told Bo last year that his Idol song was a bad song with a great performance. He said the same thing to Katharine this year. If history repeats itself, then Randy just administered the vaccination shot for McPheever.
The only hope Kat fans have is that Simon’s prediction of Taylor’s win incites enough of a voting frenzy for the underdog. As it was, last night was Taylor’s to lose, and he didn’t. He did enough to win.
May 24th, 2006 at 9:28 am
Before last night’s show, one of my co-workers said it might be a mistake for Kat to do “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” again only one week after her memorable first performance. He was right. It just didn’t have anywhere near the same impact it had last week.
As a result, Taylor easily gave the best performance with “Living for the City.” I would say if he had ONE standout song this season, that was it. And he’s going to win, easily. Just look at dialidol.com
The only suspense tonight is: Will Taylor play the harmonica? I say he will. He certainly owes it to his fans. I’m one.
May 24th, 2006 at 9:44 am
Btw Augie, it’s Bo, not Beau.
May 24th, 2006 at 10:01 am
Yep, it is Taylor for the win tonight. I think if Katharine had performed “Over the Rainbow” earlier this season, she may have been able to harness the magic, but since she just barely sang it, I think the magic of that first performance was lost and did not carry over. Taylor brought it last night while Katharine seemed defeated. While Dialidol is not scientific, they have been pretty spot on this year, and this week looks no different.
May 24th, 2006 at 10:16 am
Whether she played that song last week or the first, regardless she left off on a sour note with the new song… It was just very mediocre at best and really gave nobody and reason to go out of there way and recosider voting for her..
May 24th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Thanks, Bluuzman, it’s been fixed. That’s what happens when you go a year without typing the guy’s name.
May 24th, 2006 at 10:33 am
I think Taylor made brilliant song choices last night, by picking songs that he did on the show back in February/March. Granted, “Levon” wasn’t a good performance, but he went with songs that weren’t going to be as fresh in people’s minds.
Of course, it may also speak to how consistent he’s been…Katherine’s 2 songs stood out so much because of how over the map she’s been.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:22 am
::Sigh:: Taylor wins. I see WHY, in terms of looking at just last night’s performances, but not happy with that.
I do agree that Taylor’s choices were smarter in that they were earlier in the season, when people were still skeptical about him, and they made such an impression. You’re right, Augie…his “Glory note” showed his limitations tremendously. But at that point, does anyone really care??
For Kat, I thought “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” was fantastic last night, but again, too recent to be as “fresh” as “Living for the City.” I actually would have liked to see maybe “Come Rain or Come Shine” last night, or “Think”, which I thought were two of her other great performances. Even “Someone to Watch over me” might have given her more of a showcase moment - but then that would have been two slow songs.
I also feel that the judges were much kinder to Taylor throughout the season overall (again, not that he’s not good) than they were to Kat overall.
With Kat, it’s like they wanted her to stick to the power ballads, but then every time she did, she got critiqued up and down for not being as good as the originals. Then she does the more bluesy numbers (which I felt she was even better at), and they’re all “but that’s not your strenghth.” I felt she got a raw deal in that sense. This is not a statement about overall quality of performances, but more of how the judges chose to perceive her during those performances.
Had a HARD time voting for Kat last night up until midnight - I got through maybe 5 times in a 3 hour span. After midnight, though, I got through 2 out of every 3 times.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:29 am
I was underwhelmed by Katharine’s overwrought performance of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” last week, and thought she was much more fluid this week. Otherwise, her performaces were pretty rote and passionless, and even though I was glad to see she stood up on “Black Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper” (or whatever that song’s called), her frenetic movements on stage clarified what my problem has been with Kat these past few weeks: she’s confusing “excessive movement” with “energy.”
Still … very good voice and a nice pair of … lungs. (And oh, that last dress.)
Taylor won the night because he looked completely in command when he was on stage … something I wasn’t sure he could pull off earlier in the season. Before he began singing his crappy Idol song, I turned to my wife and said,, “This will be the first song he’s sung where he can’t imitate anybody else,” and I was impressed that he made it a “Taylor” song. (Though I couldn’t help wondering of the “Did I Make You Proud” bit was meant for Elliot and his sickly mom.)
But please … enough with the g**d**n gospel choirs! It’s a cliche both musically and visually, and there’s something faintly, unitentionally racist about it. (Need a dose of “authenticity?” Hire a faceless mob of black people in robes to clap their hands while you seen about how great thou art. Hallelujah.)
May 24th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Well. Might as well hand the trophy to Taylor right now. His song was performed A LOT better than Katharine’s and I don’t think his fans will let him down. Katharine’s song started out great and then it just got worse and worse as it went on. When I say IT I meant the song…not her.
Jeeez. What’s up with the choir in both the songs???? I felt like I was watching an R.Kelly video.
But I think somehow, someway the vote will be a lot closer than I would expect. I want Katharine to win but I think Taylor needs the win more than she does. And IF she wins tonight…I’ll be shocked. Not “Chris Daughtry Gets Eliminated Shocked” or anything.
May 24th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Jeff/Noel,
I was thinking the same thing last night as soon as I saw the choir come out. Why, why, why do they always have to use a gospel choir every season?
Don’t get me wrong, I sing in a gospel choir and love gospel music, but If the show is going to use a choir at least make sure the song is worthy of having a choir in the background. Neither song inspired me to think they were gospel songs, matter of fact I thought both songs were boring and not even worthy as pop songs and did both Katharine and Taylor an injustice.
With a choir most people feel the song should be sung with great power and emotion and when the contestant doesn’t deliver its a big let down. Even though both songs weren’t that great, I wonder would people have thought differently about the songs if the choir had not come out.
May 24th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Patricia: After “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” I thought Kat’s best performance this season was “Until You Come Back to Me.” It was her second Aretha song in a row, and she was even better than on the first, “Think.” And since she revisited “Think” last Wednesday, and “Black Horse” was so fresh in people’s minds, “Until You Come Back” would have been a better choice last night. (It’s also a better vocal showcase than “Black Horse.”)
I didn’t bother to vote for Kat last night, btw. I don’t mind voting if I think she has a shot, but I simply gave up. Plus, honestly, I now think Taylor deserves to win, and he certainly didn’t need my help.
HARMONICA!!!