AI7 - Round of 7 - Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey night. UGH. This could be tedious. Poor Syesha will get killed by the judges. Let me just say this up front: Vocal gymnastics a la Carey are about my least favorite form of music in the last 20 years. This could be ugly tonight.
Speaking of Mariah: Did she borrow the high-waisted pants from Ramiele? And where did she order up orange skin?
David Archuleta - “When You Believe” - Are those pants pleather?!? Ah, yes, the fine art of screaming around a song, of making every syllable take up ten notes. He did good for this kind of song. Very strong. I just hate these songs. It’s going to be a long night, you’ve been warned.
Carly Smithson - “Without You” - I’m very happy Mariah is naming these songs as they go along. Though I do like this one. And there’s room in this song for her to arrange it. I want Latoya London to sing this, though. That’s a HUGE song. She didn’t try to scream it at the start, which is a good thing. When she got to the second half, she powered right through it.
Paula liked her “restraint,” which I think is the perfect description of what I just spent four dozen words describing.
Syesha Mercado - “Vanishing” - Syesha can, as Randy might put it, blow. She’s amazing. She has a healthy set of lungs. It’s awful as a song, but she kicked the song’s butt. She can sing, and the judges will NEVER give her the credit for it. She made “whoa oh oh oh oh” sound good, technically.
Brooke White - “Hero” - She did the right thing in sticking with the piano and not bringing in the band. She truly made the song her own by NOT trying to ape Mariah at any point at all in the song. Even as she was visibly shaking and crying in the last half, she kept it up. I liked it.
Simon’s analogy about a hamburger without a slab of beef is all wrong.
Kristy Lee Cook - “Forever” - Wow, she sounds great tonight. She can hit those notes I never would have given her credit for. That was impressive, possibly the best song for her of the series so far. I didn’t think she’d go after the Mariah notes on that song, but she did.
Boy, the piano guy is keeping busy tonight.
David Cooke - “Always Be My Baby” - As Mariah said, it was “haunting” in the beginning part, and it could be a hit single for him easily. I liked it a lot. Not much more to say than that. This kid is goooooood.
Jason Castro - “I Don’t Want To Cry” - Poor sap has to follow David Cooke AND close out the show? This can’t possibly be good. Well, it’s not bad. But I’m not inspired. Eh. I’m done with him, honestly. Randy called it a “Weird beach luau” and I know exactly what he means. Must be the drums. Eh.
From best to worst for the night: David Cooke, Syesha Mercado, David Archuleta, Kristy Lee Cook, Carly Smithson tied with Brooke White, then Jason Castro.
Who will be the bottom three? Syesha, Brooke, and Jason. Dark Horse: Carly.
Syesha goes home. She doesn’t deserve it, though.
On the other hand, there’s no reason to play out the rest of the season. Give the crown to David Cooke today and let’s be done with it. He’s running away with the show this season. He’s the only one you can’t wait to see each week, just to see what he pulls out of his hat next. More often than not, it’s gold. The others have skill and personality, but Cooke has the musical power. Even if he doesn’t win, he’ll have a hit album on his hand.
De Blieck Out!
April 16th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I’ve got a weird scenario in my head that we might see play out in the next few weeks, and it’s nothing I would have predicted early on. Based on my own observations of recent bottom threes and dialidol voting patterns, Syesha and Carly don’t have a whole lot of support out there, regardless of how well they perform. As much as I like Brooke, she’s clearly becoming a bit of an emotional wreck, and her nerves are hampering her performances. On the other hand, Kristy Lee has been gaining in confidence and votes, and her performances keep improving. The three guys, on the other hand, generally either have rock solid fanbases (David A and Jason) or just keep nailing it week after week (David C).
So, if this pattern continues…
Brooke, Syesha, and Carly could go home (in pretty much any order) the next three weeks, leaving Kristy Lee and the boys as the top 4. At some point, this has to result in some vote splitting among the guys (with her as the only girl left in the competition…)
I can actually see Kristy Lee making the top 2 or 3 right now.
Weird. Never would have guessed that after the first two or three weeks…
April 16th, 2008 at 8:40 am
AI needs to go ahead and allow me to pre-order David Cooke’s album because I will be buying it Day 1. He is who I look forward to every week and I was very curious how he would handle a Mariah song. I was blown away. He is miles ahead of everyone this season. He could definitely have a hit with that version of the song.
I do agree with you about Brooke. Simon was completely wrong about her. I thought she did a great version of the song and I thought it was very heartfelt. You can feel the emotion coming out of her singing.
As for the bottom three, I predict Carly, Brooke and Syesha. I think this may finally be Syesha’s week to go home though. She can sing, but she does not have the fanbase to take her much farther.
And Jeff, I agree, I would never have thought Kristy would have made it this far. Have we seen all she can do? Will she keep improving or will she hit a roadblock? Should be interesting to see.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Okay. Seriously. Maybe someone can explain this to me. Why do the judges keep slamming Carly? Her performance last night was brilliant, she looked fabulous, she DID have restraint and then unleashed at the end, it was all perfect. So why did it seem like they were struggling to find something positive to say?
and how did she go from having so much positive buzz around her at the beginning of the season to continually getting predicted to go home?
April 16th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I think I’m the only one who hated the David Cook version of that song…but it wasn’t bad enough for me to want him to go home.
I think the guys will be safe for Bottom 3. So I’ll pick Carly, Syesha and Brooke with another stunner this week: Carly goes home.
And to @Patricia, I think the reason the judges are so hard on her is because they expect a lot more from her as she IS definitely one of the best singers since the season started.