Carly Smithson goes home on Idol

The bottom was made up of only two: Carly Smithson and Syesha Mercado and after both performed it was announced that after 38 million votes Carly was eliminated. Unbelievable that the Troubadour survived another week.

Leona Lewis, Simon Cowell's British discovery who is currently the largest selling artist in the world sang an awesome "Bleeding Love." It's easy to see why this girl is huge.

Neil Diamond next week.

More when this bad taste goes away.


Anne

Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber & Your Top 6

Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber mentored the Idol Wannabes this week which provided quite a challenge for the less talented who made it into the Top 6.

Syesha Mercado "One Rock & Roll Too Many" (Starlight Express)
Syesha started the evening off with an excellent song choice and a sexy, evocative performance that showed off her personality and opened the doors of Broadway for her. It should be enough for her to stick around and ultimately land her a career onstage.

Brooke White “You Must Love Me" (Evita)
It has become painful to watch this lovely blonde train wreck. With a double shot of repertoires that were too big for her (Mariah Carey & Lord Andrew) Brooke made everything worse when she stopped and restarted her song several bars in.

Her time should be up this week if http://www.votefortheworst.com/ doesn’t save her.

Jason Castro “Memories" (Cats)
Clearly the Idol Troubadour was going to have difficulty this week as Lord Andrew doesn't write songs for single key singers but his selection of one of the Broadway master's most well known power ballads sealed our horrible fate.

Castro didn't help himself in his interview when he added that he didn't know the song or that it was sung by a cat. It was quite a battle for worst this week and without the support of http://www.votefortheworst.com/ Casto may be finished tonight.

David Archuleta "Think of Me" (The Phantom of the Opera)
There is no disputing that David Archuleta can sing; I continue to question if he's got what it takes to be a successful mainstream artist.

Carly Smithson "Superstar" (Jesus Christ Superstar)
During her workshop with Lord Andrew and I consider it amazing that these young singers got a private workshop with this music icon, Lord Andrew steered Carly to a song that he thought better captured her personality and a great suggestion it was.

Carly rocks. She has a big voice, beautiful tone, excellent control, poise, style and she sells herself as an artist. She should be back.

A few weeks back I mentioned Carly Hennessy's (Smithson's maiden name) major label album Ultimate High which is now on sale at Amazon.com if you want it, I suggest that you get it now before it gets pulled.

David Cook "The Music of the Night" (The Phantom of the Opera)
Cook gave an inspired performance of what Lord Andrew referred to as "the most sensual, the most sexy song I've ever written." Cook's voice is strong, he demonstrates excellent control and he had no problem taking on one of the most iconic stage roles ever written, the Phantom or as Randy said, "Another hot molten hot lava bomb tonight!"

I've also mentioned in previous posts that David Cook's album Analog Heart is available at Amazon.com. After reaching #1 on Today's Top MP3 Albums at Amazon (beating out last week's mentor Mariah Carey) all Cook's tracks and album have been pulled from the online retailer. See an image of the page here. Note all that remain are the 79 customer reviews giving the record 5 stars.

On a separate note, though she sounded great during her duet with Chris Brown two weeks ago, last year's Idol Jordin Sparks is enduring some pretty horrible medical issues with regard to her vocal cords and has been forced to cancel as the opening act of Alicia Keys tour.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery Jordin.

Results tonight,

Anne

Mariah Carey week on American Idol

Mariah Carey was the guest mentor this week and she seemed to enjoy her time with each Idol Wannabe. Her new album E=MC2 dropped today and she’ll perform on the results show tomorrow night.

David Archuleta “When You Believe” (Mariah Carey Whitney Houston)
Josh Groban, I mean David Archuleta was on point and on pitch again tonight. He connected with the camera and the song with this emotional performance.

Randy took this week off from not being mad at anyone, but Mariah picked up the torch as she told Archuleta, “If you wanted to go up in to your falsetto for two seconds I wouldn’t be mad at you.” He did and I’m not mad at him either; it was perfect.

This kid reminds me of Clay Aiken and though not one of my favorites he’ll be back next week.

Carly Smithson “Without You” (Bad Finger, Mariah Carey)
Smithson has a great voice and she demonstrated amazing control on this Bad Finger classic. She started softly and allowed the song to build and swell in a natural way that showed off a real and emotional connection. For the most part, she nailed the soft parts and hit clean notes all the way through.

She should be back but as we saw last week at this stage of the game anything can happen and after landing in the bottom three more than once she needs every vote that she can get.

Syesha Mercado “Vanishing” (Mariah Carey)
Again this week Mercado chose an extremely difficult song and sang it very well. She worked out the soft parts that plagued her in early weeks and knocked the big notes out of the park. She was smoldering in gold and her performance matched her outfit. If this truly is a singing competition, she should be back.

Brooke White “Hero” (Mariah Carey)
It was clearly a tough week for Brooke White not only because her voice isn’t strong enough for this repertoire but because she missed her sister’s wedding on Saturday. She played piano and unfortunately it started poorly and never recovered; White never connected with the sensitive ballad and seemed to know it as she rushed through the song.

Kristi Lee Cook “Forever” (Mariah Carey)
Kristi Lee said that her goal this week was to connect with this song and she did just that. She hit several big notes and though not even close to the best of the night, it may have been have been her best performance yet as she chose well with a country version of “Forever”.

It wasn’t great but it was very good and with the help of www.votefortheworst.com she has a good shot at sticking around.

David Cook “Always Be My Baby” (Mariah Carey)
HOT! Mariah said she thought that his version was pretty and haunting but I thought that it was hot and sultry. He looked like a seasoned rocker in his necktie and vest and commanded the stage with aplomb.

“It was original, it was daring, it stood out by a mile.” Simon Cowell said of Cook’s performance and I agree 100%.

Cook then shed a few tears and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was Simon’s kind words or something that Ryan Seacrest didn’t mention: David’s brother Adam Cook, a lawyer from Terra Haute, Indiana who is fighting his second bout with brain cancer was in the audience after special arrangements were made by Cook supporters to bring him to California.

Best wishes for good health Adam.

Jason Castro “I Don’t Want to Cry” (Mariah Carey)
The AI Troubador went Latin this week with a successful version of “I Don’t Want to Cry” that was evocative and original. I see his niche; I just don’t see it as that of an American Idol.

This kid has gotten tremendous mileage out of his hair, teeth and expressive eyebrows and they should carry him another week.


Simon keeps saying that this is a singing competition but I don’t believe him. The name of the show is the American Idol not American Singer and they are looking for a complete package that goes far beyond singing to include personality, looks, and style.

If it really were a singing competition they wouldn’t let America vote; instead they would let Simon, a singing teacher and a critic decide but they’re looking to see which artist America responds to the most. Why can’t they just admit it?

If all’s right in the world White will get to go home and watch her sister’s wedding video tonight.


More Later,

Anne

Dolly Parton week on American Idol

It's Dolly Parton week on American Idol and someone sang what may be her best song “I Will Always Love You” popularized by Whitney Houston in the film The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner but no one sang “9 to 5” and I can’t tell if that was a good thing. I love Dolly Parton; she is a legend and a sweetheart of a lady but unfortunately this week on American Idol just wasn’t very exciting. I don’t know if the contestants just didn’t connect with her music or if they just chose conservatively from her 3,000 song repertoire but here they are in order:

Brooke White “Jolene”
She comes off nice, sweet, pretty, has great hair and overall a wholesome appearance but her performance wasn’t very inspired and I think that she would have done better without the guitar. She didn’t demonstrate much range or reach and once again stayed well inside her confirmed comfort zone. It’s not that I dislike her it’s just that she’s not doing anything performance wise that is setting her apart. The clock is ticking for Brooke.

David Cook “Little Sparrow”
In a word: awesome. Cook arranged this one himself and he did an incredible job. It wasn’t quite as good as some of his other performances (“Billie Jean” Chris Cornell arrangement or “Hello” his own arrangement) but it was stellar and he continues to lead the way.

On a side note, David Cook was taken to the hospital after the show for an undisclosed reason but he was released and back at the hotel last night. I expect that we’ll hear details tonight.

Ramiele Malubay “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?”
I spaced out in the middle of her performance and my attention wasn’t recaptured until I heard Randy Jackson saying, “I wasn’t jumping up and down but I wasn’t mad at you either.” Randy Jackson finding new and wackier ways to say it was ok but nothing special. No one should underestimate this man’s entertainment value. After replaying his comment 3-4 times I rewound and forced myself to pay attention to Ramiele’s performance and ultimately agreed with Randy. Ramiele is a good performer and at 20 she’s got a decent shot at a career in music but she doesn’t stand out in this crowd.

Jason Castro “Traveling Along”
The AI Troubadour was back at it with a peppy but uninspired little ditty that showed no vocal reach, nothing new and at this point he has just grown tiresome. Unfortunately the dreaded one will stick around for another week.

Carly Smithson “Here You Come Again”
It was a really beautiful performance but could have been better. She did smile this week and you could hear it in her voice; there’s just a different quality that comes through the song, hard to describe but real. Carly should be back next week.

David Archuleta “Smokey Mountain Memories”
I’m having a hard time getting past all the hoopla surrounding Archuleta. He’s seventeen, cute, bashful and has a killer tone to his voice; but his song choices and style are putting him in a category with Josh Groban and I don’t think that style fits an American Idol but he’ll be back next week.

Kristi Lee Cook “Coat of Many Colors”
Not challenging, safe, boring, uninteresting and even though country is her thing it was only ok. This was likely her swan song.

Syesha Mercado “I Will Always Love You”
Strong but some pitch problems, once again we know that she can belt but on the softer parts her flaws are quite apparent. Overall it was a good performance of a very difficult song.

Michael Johns “It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright”
Johns brought Rock and Soul to the stage when he ripped this one up. It was a very good performance and should be more than enough for him to stick around. Check out the video of his performance below.

Another side note: Johns fronted Film, an Atlanta based group that was showcased for labels but not signed. Johns left Film and joined The Rising which was subsequently signed to Maverick Records. Before being dropped by Maverick, The Rising recorded Future Unknown which was scheduled to be released in September 2003 but did not drop until recently when it appeared on Itunes. Looks like Carly isn't the only one with label experience.



Overall the show was not as exciting this week which is unfortunate because Dolly is a great artist and highly accomplished songwriter.

Results tonight.

Anne

American Idol Top 10

David Cook was amazing tonight. Chris Cornell’s version of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” had an even likelihood of bombing horrifically or being even more powerful than Cook’s performance of Lionel Richie’s “Hello” a few weeks ago. Cook masterfully worked the arrangement and stole the show and possibly the competition with his performance. Here’s the video, turn it up if you can.





Michael Johns also had an incredibly strong performance but he may have peaked. I've been waiting for him to sing “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions” as it so clearly suits him and I don’t know what he can perform that will be better but I am interested in seeing if he can out do himself. He also gave an outstanding performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" during Hollywood Week so maybe he'd like to be Queen's lead singer but I believe that they turned down RockStar: Queen.

Syesha Mercado (Stephanie Mills “If I Were Your Woman”) was much improved this week. She was much better at hitting the softer notes as she’s got a big voice and can really belt but has demonstrated some control issues in previous performances. If she keeps it up she’ll do well and could have a career in music.

Carly Smithson (Bonnie Tyler “Total Eclipse of the Heart”) wasn't in top form tonight but she's a performer through and through. She’s poised onstage, has excellent vocal control and should advance unless the American Idol popularity contest is now in full swing (she was in the bottom three last week). As a side note for those of you who haven’t heard, Carly was signed to MCA under her maiden name Carly Hennessy for four years and released the album Ultimate High in 2001. Despite two million dollars in label support the record bombed and Hennesy was released from MCA. She tried out for season 5 of American Idol and made it to Hollywood but because her visa had expired she was unable to compete. She has since married and resides in San Diego, California. Clearly all this experience seems contributing to her success.

David Archuleta (Jeff Pescetto “You’re the Voice”) started poorly and though he carried it off, he's becoming boring because of his song choices; he may be too immature to navigate a win (he's 17). He offered a brilliant “Imagine” but that was three weeks ago and he’s failing to connect with both the audience and another knockout performance.

Case in point, compare tonight's performances by David Cook and David Archuleta; there's no contest, David Cook wins by a mile. Additionally Cook’s “Hello” was a brilliant interpretation of Lionel Richie’s classic and his performance of “Eleanor Rigby” two weeks ago was also a standout. Week in and week out it’s Cook who’s leading the way.

Still around:
Kristy Lee Cook (Lee Greenwood “God Bless the USA”) Much better this week with a completely unexpected but successful song choice but she should go soon for destroying The Beatles “Eight Days a Week”. I may never recover from that performance.

Ramiele Malubay (Heart “Alone”) She gave a good performance but not great.

Jason Castro (Sting “Fragile”) I’m really not impressed. Yes he’s got pretty eyes, a big toothy smile and comes off bashful and a little goofy but he consistently shows limited range and style. His performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was touching but he reminds me more of a wandering troubadour than an American Idol.

Brooke White (The Police “Every Breath You Take”) She’s middle of the pack but stumbled this week after bombing in yellow last week with “Here Comes the Sun”. She’s got a lot of potential but really needs to step it up to get back into this competition.

Chikezie (Luther Vandross “If Only for One Night”) This may be his swan song.

Rock is reborn, on American Idol!?! Who ever would have thought?

More later,
Anne