AI7 - Round of 8 - Results
“Expect a shocking dismissal this week.” -Me, yesterday
Well. I very nearly got it right. Two of my three Bottom Three picks landed there. My dark horse candidate rounded things out and was the one to eventually go home.
Shocking. And not shocking.
Simply put, the three best singers in the competition were in the bottom three this week: Syesha, Carly, and Michael. (Shades of that Fantasia/Latoya/Jennifer week, so many years ago, but minus Elton John’s “racist America” component that I harp on so frequently.)
Please note that I didn’t call them the best Idol contestants. I think, though, that those three have the best vocal abilities. They just have other problems that prevent them from being effective contestants. All three picked bad songs this week. Syesha keeps falling into the trap of picking songs by divas that she WILL be compared to, unfavorably. (Wanna bet she goes with a Mariah song next week?) Carly picks songs that don’t help to define who she is as a singer. She’s a very good singer, but does she have a style? A niche? Anything? And Michael picked a song that he couldn’t possibly do anything with, aside from a decent karaoke performance/imitation of Steven Tyler.
All three picked the worst week possible to trip up — this was a week in which nobody shined and nobody faltered in a major way. Even David Cooke’s disaster wasn’t a crash and burn. It was a very poor song selection. And while IDOL still had a season high voter turnout, I bet it was fairly widespread. No single contestant likely brought out their voters, either to save them from themselves or to boost them for a job very very well done. (Kristy likely benefitted from extremely good song selection.)
When that situation happens, it’s all up for grabs. Anyone could go home. And someone out of left field did. (::ahem:: As I predicted.) Unless Michael defined himself more clearly, he was never going to win this competition. David Cooke outsings him more consistently from week to week in a defined rocker way. Michael could do that well, but he also veered off into other styles that prevented easy encapsulation.
One last thing: I’m glad Brooke was safe. She’s adorable.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Yeah, I thought for sure Michael Johns would make it to the final four. Oh well.
Despite your words to the contrary, Augie, I’m going to go out on a limb here — like I did two years ago with Taylor Hicks — and predict that Kristy Lee Cook will win this season. I think the fact that she was one of the first three contestants pulled aside last night — and that the other two were Archuleta and David Cooke — means she’s the top female vote-getter right now. And if she keeps improving like she has lately, she can pull off the upset at the end. We’ll see.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Ooops. Someone at work just pointed out to me that it was Brooke who was safe with Archuleta and David Cook, which probably means Brooke got more votes than Kristy Lee. I’m still sticking with my prediction, though.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I’m wondering if there’s some strange male / female contestant dynamics going on. Haven’t the contestants voted off in the last few weeks alternated from male to female? It’s almost as if, for example, with Ramiele gone, there were a bunch of people who needed a new female contestant to vote for. This meant that the male contestants were in trouble this week. The week before, Chikezie was voted off, freeing up some “male” votes the following week–which led to a female contestant (Ramiele) losing out.
If this keeps up, expect a girl to go next week. And if we keep alternating between girls and guys, we’ll have a female winner at the end of the road!
Also, you’re right: Brooke is adorable.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Dave wrote: “And if we keep alternating between girls and guys, we’ll have a female winner at the end of the road!”
Kristy Lee Cook? ;-)
April 14th, 2008 at 4:01 am
I just watched the performances then the results show back to back. I’m shocked…Well more like Augie said, “Shocking. And not shocking.” I knew it’d be one of the big ones (Carly) but not the one I picked at the start to win the whole thing. The more shocking thing to me is that if someone told me that Kristy Lee Cook would outlast Michael Johns, I’d tell em they’re crazy.
Ugh. David Archuleta’s road to winning just got a little bit easier…This DOES NOT make me happy at all.
April 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Don’t worry, Jeff. It’s not going to be Archuleta at the end. It’s going to be Cooke vs. Cook. And Cook’s gonna win!