Tonight Andrew Lloyd Webber helped the Top 6 bring Broadway to American Idol. But were the performances music to our ears or a heartbreaking tragedy?
While I personally love musicals, I’m not sure that their songs are appropriate fodder for Idol competitors. These songs are made for a certain type of voice that clearly does not include all the contenders. But I guess you can say the same thing of most of the themes.
Either way, I’m glad that they waited until this late in the competition to bring in Lord Andrew as a mentor. As expected, the result of his work with the contestants was a mixed bag.
Lord Andrew predicted that Syesha Mercado would bring down the house and I have to agree that she topped the night. She finally showed us some personality. She was delightful, entertaining and captivating. Her performance of “One Rock & Roll Too Many” was by far her best. And if this was Broadway Idol, Syesha would be the clear winner.
Give Lord Andrew another point for convincing Carly Smithson to pick “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It was definitely a better song choice for her. During a couple points in the song, Carly sounded like she was shouting. Otherwise, she sounded good and actually looked like she was enjoying the performance.
On the other hand, it was nice to see a softer side of David Cook tonight. I liked his version of “The Music of the Night.” Sure, it doesn’t stand out as his most memorable or most original performance. But considering that I in no way expected musicals to be Cook’s forte, I was impressed with his effort.
Conversely, David Archuleta did not impress me. I’ve never been a big Archuleta fan. Unfortunately his rendition of the traditionally female-sung “Think of Me” did nothing to change that opinion. I agree with Simon that the performance was pleasant but easily forgotten. However, despite my criticisms I won’t be surprised to see him sail through to the next week.
Then there was Brooke White. I liked that we got to see her emotionally connect to “You Must Love Me,” but I thought the performance itself was average. I’m concerned about her restarting the song. This week is the second time that Brooke has stopped and restarted a song. It clearly shows her lack of experience. And this late in the game, forgetting the lyrics is going to hurt her.
Finally, I never expected Jason Castro to blow me away on Broadway night and he most definitely lived up to that expectation. I was not surprised to learn that he wasn’t familiar with musicals, but the fact that he didn’t realize that “Memory” was sung by a cat (a hard guess considering the name of the musical is Cats) only added to the pure torture of my ears. Jason should be voted off on this performance alone.
My picks for the bottom three are Archuleta (I know it’s a vain hope), Brooke and Jason with Jason going home.
What are your bottom three?
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Related articles:
Top 7 Perform and Results
Top 8 Perform and Results
Top 9 Perform and Results
How Big of an Idol Fan are You?
Seed Newsvine
April 23, 2008 at 1:48 pm |
If I had to pick the top 3, I would have to say that they would be Syesha, David Cook and David Archuleta. But not necessarily in that order.
Carly is close and if she were to become one of the top 3, I think it would be Syesha, David A and Carly.
Brooke doesn’t have what it takes to be an Idol in the finals. I am surprised she went this far.
I think this week either Brooke or Jason will be going. I feel that they both had the weakest performances this week.
My BOTTOM 3 picks are, Jason Castro, Brooke White and its a toss up for Carly Smithston or David Cooke. I LIKE both Davids but this weeks performance was a little weaker in my opinion.
Daily meanderings of Kelvin Nikkel. Covering a wide variety of topics from A to Z and every possible thing inbetween. From Travel to home DIY projects. K Nikkel dot Com
April 23, 2008 at 2:01 pm |
K, I agree with your top 2 and your bottom 2. The two Davids can fight it out for the middle.
As for Brooke, I think Simon and Randy are right. She did the right thing by starting over. But, that said, that fact that she made this error — twice now — is not going to bode well for her. I think stage fright is getting the better of her.
April 23, 2008 at 5:56 pm |
Jason had better go home this week – I’m so tired of listening to him. I don’t think he’s very good, and I don’t think he’s challenging himself very much. One judge rightly asked him a couple weeks ago if he was even taking this seriously.
I don’t think either Davids will be in the bottom three -they both have a very strong fan base. I think it will be Brooke and Jason at least. Carly could go either way, depending on what people think of her in general.
April 23, 2008 at 6:12 pm |
Jen, I don’t really think Archuleta will be in the bottom 3, but it is my hope. I find him boring and do not understand his appeal to everyone else.
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