AI: 4/12 - the Top 8
Ok, this was a much better week than last week, both in theme and in overall performances.
Theme: A song from the year you were born — an interesting concept, that gave the contestants either the opportunity to shine, or more than enough rope to hang themselves.
The Judges: Not a bad week for them, overall. Randy wasn’t as cranky. Paula was right up on the border of being unbearably perky & positive (honestly, that girl can blow more sunshine up into certain places…). Simon had a week where I felt he was wrong more than he was right — this is odd, because I tend to find his comments to be accurate & insightful far more often than not.
The Performances: In order of performance –
- Nadia - Horrible song & fashion choices. Her performance was better vocally than in past weeks, but that’s not good enough, especially when paired with a snoozer of a generally unknown song. BOTTOM 3.
- Bo - Freebird seemed like an inspired choice when I first saw that he chose it, and I have no real problems with how he sang it. It wasn’t, however, until I heard Constantine’s performance of an equally iconic song that I was able to pin down why Bo didn’t blow me away like I thought he would. (More on this later…) SAFE.
- Anwar - I didn’t particularly like the song choice, and the performance solidified in my mind what it is about Anwar that I think should/will keep him from winning. More specifically, while he is outstanding on the power/money notes, he’s inexplicably weak on the notes that get him to the power/money sections (Simon & Randy made a great observation about this a week or two ago…). BOTTOM 3.
- Anthony - A reasonably good song choice, and he sounded much better throughout the whole song than he has in quite a while. That said, he still paled in comparison to Paul Young’s original. I think he might have bought himself another week, but I honestly don’t think he’s good enough to be in the final 3 or 4. SAFE.
- Vonzell - Great song choice & very strong performance. She’s improving every week. She’s picking great songs, she’s singing them flawlessly, and she’s looking good while she’s doing it. Not only that, she looks like she’s having fun, and he makes the audience a part of that fun so that they’ll remember both her and the fun. If she keeps it up, she could be the darkhorse Top 3 finalist. SAFE.
- Scott - I like Scott, but I still think he’s getting to the end of his run in this competition, if only because he really doesn’t have the overall look/package that the winner needs to have. (While both Ruben & Fantasia had their quirks, neither of them had the, for lack of a better word, menacing quality that Scott has…) This week, though, Scott did a great job with a Hall & Oates song (She’s Gone), singing the crap out of the up-tempo parts in front of not only the national TV audience, but also in front of Hall & Oates themselves! The lower, more spoken parts of the song were a little rough, but the more emotion-laden up-tempo parts were tremendous. SAFE.
- Carrie - Umm… Yeah… That was bad. Horrid song choice. Carrie has a good voice, but it’s not good enough to handle a Pat Benetar song (Love is a Battlefield) without sounding like she’s yelling/shouting instead of singing. Add her wooden stage presence & rhythm-free attempts at dancing/hip-shaking to the mix, and you have a train wreck of a performance. In fact, if the voting were based only on this week’s performances (i.e., the audience didn’t know about her other performances), I think Carrie would be eliminated. BOTTOM 3.
- Constantine - Ok, dude’s not a rocker — he’s a performer, and a good one. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was the night’s other iconic song (along with Skynyrd’s Free Bird), and Constantine sang the you-know-what out of it. It was the performance of the night, and one of those AI live performances that almost transcend the show (e.g., Clay’s Solitaire, Kelly’s Stuff Like That There, Tamyra’s A House is not a Home, Ruben’s Superstar, George Huff’s Ain’t to Proud to Beg, and Fantasia’s Summertime) and merit continued/repeated listening & enjoyment. SAFE.
Now, why did Constantine & Bo have such differing results with such iconic songs? Why was my initial reaction to the song choices wrong? (I thought Bo’s was great & Constantine’s was trouble, only to be shown that the opposite was true…) While both Freebird & Bohemian Rhapsody are long (6+ minute) & involved songs, the minor difference is that Bohemian Rhapsody lends itself to a better/easier condensed arrangement than does Freebird.
The major difference, however, is this: Freebird is a song where the band stars & is supported by the vocals in making the song great, whereas Bohemian Rhapsody is a song where the vocalist is the star that is supported by band. When I think of Freebird, I think of the strings, drums, & dueling guitars, and only then about Ronnie VanZant’s vocals. When I think of Bohemian Rhapsody I think of Freddie Mercury’s unbelievable vocal tour-de-force, and then only about the rest of Queen’s instrumentals.
In other words, Bo did himself a disservice by selecting a band song where the arrangement wouldn’t (couldn’t!) allow him to be carried along by the band (if he released it as a full-length single with a good band, it’d be awesome!), and which didn’t allow him to truly shine vocally. Constantine, on the other hand, hit a home run by choosing a song that is very much tailor made for a theatrical vocalist, as well as not being adversely effected by the condensed arrangement — in fact, this condensed arrangement actually worked to Constantine’s advantage by allowing him to more fully indulge his theatrical jones. I also think the production/camera shots helped make Constantine look better (much like they did with Clay when he sang Solitaire during Season 2’s Neil Sedaka week…).
Anyway, enough of that. The Bottom 3 should be Nadia, Anwar, & Carrie — and while Carrie most deserves the boot based on last night, I think that Nadia will be going home, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Anwar were to go (and I’d rather see him go than Nadia at this point…).
-ghp
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