Apr 24, 2008

American Idol, Costly Errors

Voters had a really tough decision to make last night. And I'm not talking about the Pennsylvania Primary.

I mean American Idol viewers, who had to decide who was worse -- Brooke White or Jason Castro.

After the evening's performances, they were clearly at the bottom of the bunch: Brooke for making the uncomfortable error of forgetting the lyrics to her song, Jason for a straight-up dismal performance.

This week, the contestants had to sing the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Randy called it one of the most challenging nights of the competition. I call it one of the most boring.

Sorry, I'm just not a Broadway-show-kind-of-guy. And I suspect a lot of my fellow American Idol watchers aren't either. I never saw Cats or Phantom of The Opera or any of ALW's shows, and hopefully Tuesday night will be my last exposure to them.

Frankly, everyone's performances sounded pretty much the same. All the contestants sang slow, slightly haunting ballads, with the notable exceptions of Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson. It's no accident, then, that they clearly rose above the rest. Here's my take.

TOP TWO:

Carly Smithson:
Carly wanted to sing some plodding ballad, but thankfully ALW talked her out of it and she ended up singing "Jesus Christ Superstar," one of two songs I recognized. Carly rocked it from beginning to end. It was the most upbeat song of the night and Carly had the best overall performance by a mile and a half. The whole thing reminded me a bit of Aretha Franklin, actually. I'm not sure why. Randy said it was definitely good. Paula loved it. Simon thought it was "shouty" in the middle, but one of his favorite performances of the night. After the judging, Carly grabbed a shirt that read, "Simon liked me (this week)." I hope she has the copyright. She'll make a million selling those.

Syesha Mercado:
The night's other top honors go to Syesha for her rendition of "One Rock and Roll Too Many." Wearing a slinky dress with her hair up, Syesha looked terrific. The upbeat song gave her a great chance to perform and have fun on stage, and her vocals were amazing. Randy thought it was her best performance to date. Paula said she brought the house down. Simon said she looked very sexy, and agreed with Randy that it was her strongest performance so far.

Source: film.com

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