Season 7 Redux – Top 12

I am so enjoying re-living this all again. Being able to go back and notice all the details that were missed the first time around. Hello was the first performance I ever voted for on Idol, in any season. This is actually the first season I have watched from beginning to end. E.R. wasn’t my favorite Cookie performance but I voted for him and Brooke. Billie Jean is where he had me hook, line and sinker.
I think David H. should have stuck around another week or two, KLC’s performance was much worse. However, I think he had some stuff out in the press that unfortunately did him in.
Brooke was my favorite this night, just a perfect song for her.

Through Brooke’s performance, I was thinking, my God, what a great episode, and thinking that it might actually be the best episode of AI ever, particularly that early in a season. Three kind of boring but not bad performances, and four that I viewed as great—Chikezie, Carly, DC, and Brooke. I would argue for Come Together, Eleanor Rigby, and Let It Be as the best three-song run on any episode of AI since I’ve been watching. Just awesome.

But I really didn’t like the remainder. MJ’s performance was blah to me. I had tired of Amanda’s schtick by then. While I didn’t like his performance, I wouldn’t have dropped David H; I would have dropped KLC. Hated her performance of Eight Days a Week (and I like country music). And she had very little goodwill with me, while I really liked David H’s Papa Was a Rolling Stone and liked his Midnight Hour. David A’s performance was awful, but he had goodwill with me (and apparently those voting), so I felt fine with him surviving for another week. I would have put him in the bottom three over Syesha—she was boring, but didn’t deserve the bottom 3 that week.

ETA: Oh, and this episode was way, way, way too much about Ryan and Simon.

This wasn’t one of my favorite episodes – it was actually sort of disappointing after all the hype (until they got to the 2nd week of the Beatles, which was even worse). Still, I agree that Chikezie and Brooke both gave incredible performances. I was ambivalent about Cook’s Eleanor Rigby (I still laugh at Father McKenzie “wearing” his socks in the night). I sort of gave him a pass because at least he didn’t look terrified to be on the big stage like so many of them did that night – that boy was way overexcited. I like the studio version he did that week, but the live performance was missing something.

David H really was horrendous, but I have to wonder how much choice got in the song selection process. Didn’t he say when he left that he was basically saddled with that song? KLC’s 8 Days a Week will never stop being funny.

David A was sort of a trainwreck, but that seemed to be A-OK with the judges. I think his semi performances definitely earned him the pass.

I am enjoying this way too much — but the good news is that it kept me entertained all weekend when I was sick! This wasn’t my favorite DC performance but… I had forgotten (or failed to notice?!) just how darn cute he is. Hehe. Brooke again was so vulnerable and just *real* – I don’t think I ever noticed how beautiful she is and I love her voice. KLC did have some seriously scary eyes… of course trying to keep up to that tempo could do that to you. I really liked Michael’s performance, and I thought Amanda’s was really good too and I was trying to remember why I didn’t like her AT ALL the first time through. And Chikezie… that just made me smile. That was awesome.

Well, if I wasn’t excited for Season 8 before… this is surely a good way to get motivated.

Wish tomorrow was Billie Jean night already . Sure, I can watch it on Youtube but this is ever so much better watching these on my TV instead!

By the way, if you watch DC”s intro video carefully, you can see one Neal Tiemann on guitar there. Not sure if that is Andy Skib on the guitar on the other side of DC, but that’s Neal. It just makes me happy that even before it was clear that DC was going to get a recording contract out of this, his friends were supporting him like that.

I don’t believe I will ever forget the train wreck that was KLC’s performance of 8 Days. If you blinked you missed it, and I was wishing I had blinked. It sounded & looked like a cross between sucking on a helium balloon & a sped up cartoon. She was the first inductee into my “WTF” category which is 20 levels below the dungeon which is 10 levels below the bottom.

David Cook. I thought was really good, but at the time he did not blow me away with this. I have since played this over many times and it is one of my favorites. I love his joy during the song and flinging his arms open wide. I also love his exuberance after the song (Where did you go David?). Woohoo indeed! I miss that David Cook.

I liked Brooke’s Let It Be, vocally not great, but I liked it all the same.
Jason, If I fell, again, loved this.
Michael Johns, this is my favorite of all of MJ’s performances. Does not hurt that I also love this song.

I fast forwarded through several of the performances because they were meh to me. DA, it was painful to me. The liplicking bothered me alot, the flubbed lyrics I felt sorry for him. I also thought he was too young maybe for the pressure that was Idol.

My Fav of the night
Brooke – One of my favorites of the season
Chikizie – Seriously blew me way
Cook – I love his energy. I agree about missing the interpretation, but I just canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t help myself. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s my fav performance of his to watch
Carly – First time I saw this I got chills. I never got chills from Carly (and I never did again, well, until the finale) My fav performance of hers

These I really liked
MJ – One of my fav Beatles’ songs. I agree it is under appreciated, but with the 4 great performance mentioned above combined with the bad performances that night, being good does not leave a lasting impression.
Castro – I really like the studio version. The performance was not as good as his previous ones, but I still like it.

Really didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t like
Hernandez – I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think it was the worst of the night, but not great.
Archie – Every contestant has a bad night, this was his.
Ramiele – I hate it whenever anybody starts on the stairs, so that did not help her. I love this song, so hearing her tear it apart made me shudder.
KLC – Just, no.

Amanda & Syesha left no lasting impression on me.

I agree that Syesha was off-putting that night, but not just during the song, but with those weird faces and reactions to the judging. Trying way too hard to “show her personality” or whatever. She lost me from that night until Top6.

Chikezie did great– so energetic and a great performance on the big stage. I felt he got proper props (heh) from the judges on his arrangement– Randy kinda went on a bit about the influences.

Rami– I was still rooting for her, but agreed with the judges that it was pretty but dull.

Jason– I enjoyed this, and agreed with Paula that he connected with the song. Not amazing, but enjoyable.

Carly– I thought it was good, but not a Kelly Clarkson moment. She was starting to seem a bit too desperate for Simon’s approval.

DC– I love that song, and I remember liking what he did with it, but didn’t really understand why Simon thought it was that good, and found the praise OTT. But the funny thing with me until he did Billie Jean was that DC would alternate between someone who intrigued me, and someone I forgot about. He caught my eye in his audition, but then I didn’t notice him for HT. He caught my attention again with the weird combo of the wordnerd vid/Simon spat/apologetic reaction, before really hooking me in with Hello. But he kinda lost me again the 2 Beatles weeks, even though in hindsight, he was pretty good. I remember enjoying his visible exuberance though.

Brooke– I think her performance was the only one I remembered the next day. I didn’t even care about/notice the vocal imperfections, because I was so taken by her performance. I loved her reaction to the judges, too.

David H– horribly cheesy, with gross dancing. Goner.

Amanda– good, in her wheelhouse, but I wasn’t sure how much longer she would stay in the competition cuz she’s not for everyone. I loved how much she enjoyed performing to the big crowd and fed off their energy. Unlike Syesha who claimed to like the big stage but was still getting her bearings, she showed that she loved it, which was cool. I felt like Amanda, DC, Chikezie, and Carly were the most excited about the big stage and audience that week. Oh, and Brooke too, though in a different way.

MJ– I love that song, and I thought MJ connected with it beautifully, and it was actually really a good song for his voice. But it wasn’t perhaps the “moment” that Simon felt MJ needed, particularly after being so mediocre in the semi’s. Funny this is, in retrospect, this reminds me of Simon’s reaction to DC’s The World I Know on Final2 night, which was a similar type of emotional, simple performance that Simon didn’t “get”.

KLC– I agree with MJ’s comments.

Archie– I remember feeling bad for the kid, but impressed he kept going… and then I wondered afterwards if he intentionally threw that week to humanize himself and convince America he wasn’t “perfect” or a robot or whatever the media had been saying about him up to that point. Haha, I was a bit cynical, I guess.

David Hernandez had the worst performance of the night.

Although I didn’t consider it the worse, I thought to myself, “You are so talented and had so many other songs to choose from. Why this one?” Then again, I don’t know what was available to him. I also feel he was stressed from the ‘scandal’ burning the websites. TPTB knew about his job but withheld the information as the leaks were coming out..

It was this week that I didn’t want Carly to be there. I never warmed up to her, possibly because I knew she was a plant. It was a bit better when I saw her on the tour. She may be a very nice young lady, but she did not belong on AI. I have a feeling we will be seeing a few more Carly’s this season.

While I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t like his performance, I wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have dropped David H; I would have dropped KLC.

I really thought KLC or Amanda would be going home. My crush for Jason continued, as did my voting for him. Brooke won me over completely.

Brooke singing Let It Be will probably be one of my favorite moments of AI, always. My favorite performance from her would be YSV , coz she was so cute and bouncy there, and the vocals were better but her studio version of Let It Be is one of my most favorite things in the world.

DC’s Eleanor Rigby was great, one of my favorites from him.

You know, I get what people have said about not liking DC’s interpretation of Eleanor Rigby, but I personally think that it’s a valid interpretation. It’s this big powerful, angsty interpretation—less one of almost being one of the lonely people, but seeing them and almost exploding with the feeling of it. A different take from the original, but I personally thought that it was a fine vision of the song. Mileage and all that good stuff.

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“You are so talented and had so many other songs to choose from. Why this one?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  Then again, I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know what was available to him

I believe in his exit interview he said this wasn’t his first choice (I think it was Let It Be, but I can’t remember) and They only had 25 songs to choose from.

The Judges place such an emphasis on song choice, but when someone else gets your song or the song you want to sing doesn’t get cleared, you make do with what you’ve got.

Folkfan, I can’t help but agree. You don’t have to be one of them to “feel” for them.

Also, his vocals weren’t on target this night, but OMG the Talent!

His excitement that night was awesome!

Oh, the slaughter of the Beatles’ 8 Days a Week. KLC seemed to be riding a fast pony to that tune. Her vocals, better than I remembered, just a ridiculous arrangement.

Brooke was amazing – her personal best. Love the imperfections in her voice. She and the piano were one.

Loved DC’s arrangement of Eleanor Rigby, one of my favorite Beatles songs. He could hardly contain his elation singing on the big stage.

Chikeze’s personal best here, too. I’m liking him more on this second watch of AI7. And I loved him on tour – great energy, vocals and stage presence. I believe he was underrated on the show.

Ohhhh, David A, I still love you even though you cracked under pressure. You pushed through to the end of the song with that amazing voice, trying to make up for the forgotten lyrics.

The other performances don’t stick with me.

I was thinking that Chikezie was already showing that he would be perfect to open up the Concert Tour show – which he was.

I really liked Chikezie the best that night. His arrangement was amazing and he totally nailed it. I also loved Brooke. It was the only time I connected with her. I didn’t love DC’s Eleanor Rigby until he started what looked like flying with his arms flung open wide. By the time he let out his gleeful squee at the end, it didn’t matter one bit that he was horribly off pitch for the first few lines of the song. I hadn’t really cared one way or another about Syesha until this night…I really hated her performance and demeanor. I don’t know what Carly did here that she hadn’t done before but I don’t get Simon. Michael was again just ok for me, singing ok but being awkward to watch. Poor Rami and Jason were just boring. David H., Kristy Lee and Amanda were just painful to watch for various reasons. David A was rather painful to watch too.

I can remember thinking there’d be so many better song choices. Some contestants got great songs for themselves…some got horrible choices. I can remember thinking Jason would kill with Norwegian Wood or Michael with Don’t Let Me Down. I’m sure they contestants didn’t have a wide range of songs to choose from. It does bother me that Ryan makes it sound like they could have sung any Beatles song they choose.

At the time, I would have been fine with any in that bottom 3 going home. Thinking about it now, I probably still would.

MJ – your recap is spot on IMO – ditto the entire thing, especially Chekezie and Amanda

Just want to add my thoughts on one person and that is Amanda. I thought she was great this week.

MJ – I agree about the other MJ. That was hands down my favorite performance of his all season and my jaw hit the floor when Randy and Simon panned it. I thought it was really heartfelt and lovely – one of the only times I felt he connected with a song.

Loved Brooke, loved Chikezie – and that’s about it. First time around I had to leave the room when DA started forgetting his lyrics – I couldn’t bear the look on his face. I fast forwarded it this time (haha) but watched the intro and judging. I’d forgotten that he had expressed in the intro that he was stressed about singing the song. Anyway, that trainwreck led to my favorite DA moment of the season, which was LAWR, so I can look forward to that tonight.

Some contestants got great songs for themselvesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦some got horrible choices. I can remember thinking Jason would kill with Norwegian Wood or Michael with Donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t Let Me Down. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure they contestants didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have a wide range of songs to choose from. It does bother me that Ryan makes it sound like they could have sung any Beatles song they choose.

ITA. I would add that I couldn’t believe no one grabbed up “Hey Jude” – DA might have fared better with this – but maybe it wasn’t available. There were a couple of other songs that, at the time, I thought would have been better choices, but now I can’t remember what they were.

I had forgotten just how much I liked Chikeze and how bad Archie was in this episode. I was always so busy enjoying Cooks enjoyment that I guess I missed everything else.
It was also the night that I finally dismissed Michael Johns as worth anything. I never did like his attitude and although his early audition stuff was very good he just never measured up in the long run.

I did not hate 8 Days a Week- minority opinion, to be sure. And again, to me, Carly makes singing look difficult. I don’t like that.

One thing I did notice in DC’s performance- we all remember the wide spread arms in the big “Ohhh look at all the loney people” (that unfortunately the boneheaded camera missed- they should have pulled back and captured it for us, thank God we have stills)?? Well he almost did it too soon, in an earlier verse. You can see him clip the mic to the stand to free his hands and get ready to spread his arms, then an “uh-oh” moment, then he grabs the mic stand again.
This leads me to believe that he had worked the whole thing out ahead of time, which I see nothing wrong with. It’s smart. But I do think a bit too much of his head was worried about getting the moves right on the big stage and it took something away from the performance as a whole.

And ditto on the Ryan/Simon show. It was a little egocentric of Ryan to keep doing it- I feel sure he had a bone to pick that night over something.

Favorites of the night:

Chikezie’s, best one he did all season. I always loved his energy.

Brooke, my favorite performance from her. Loved how excited she was to be there.

David Cook, not his best performance but it was still good. He was so full of energy. Loved how he was jumping around after the song. He was really starting to show his star quality at this point.

Carly, I actually thought this was one of her best performances. She definitely has some great vocals. I just hate the look on her face when she is singing.

MJ, I loved this song, he was my favorite from the start. The bad thing is he always looked awkward up on stage.

Worst performances:

Archie, this one was even worse than I remembered, the whole thing was a trainwreck. His worst performance. I knew his fan base would pull him through another week though. I remember thinking this proves he is too young to be on AI, thank goodness he pulled it together after this.

Amanda, I never did like her. She always looked good up on stage but hated her voice. I wanted her to go this week.

KLC, this one actually wasn’t as bad as I remembered. But it was still really bad. And I didn’t like her strange dancing.

This episode made me believe that success on AI really is all about momentum. I had been a fan of Michael John’s since I saw him sing Queen during Hollywood Week. But I had to agree with the judges during the semis that he never quite seemed to deliver, although it was hard for me to pinpoint why, because I liked all of his song choices. I thought his version of Across the Universe was fabulous (and in fact was the first AI song I bought on iTunes!) and was exactly the turnaround he had been looking for. But when the judges panned it, I realized that they had already painted a picture of him as the “talented, but not quite living up to expectations” character, and that they were not critiquing the actual performance. Carly received much the same treatment, and I feel like the judges were extra hard on them to dispel the notion that they were “plants”.

And I completely agree that at this point I was sick and tired of watching the Ryan/Simon shenanigans play out on live TV – was this third grade, or a national TV show?

I loved Beatles Night Part 1. Lots of surprises, some solid performances, interesting drama in the “who can hack the big stage and who can’t” category, and one very entertaining, glorious trainwreck for the ages.

Brooke White made me cry, one of the few times that has ever happened to me watching idol, other than Fantasia’s Summertime. I actually felt her through the screen. Chiekeze had my jaw on the floor and then on my feet giving him a standing ovation. Even the hubby was impressed. I loved MJ that night, I thought the judges were nuts. I really liked Carly. It was the first time she didn’t seem scared. DC was so unbelievably happy to be there – his exuberance was all wrong for the song but incredibly fun to watch. He, Brooke and Chiekeze really made me feel like I was watching someone’s dream come true.

I was shocked by Syesha’s performance – I was so sure that girl lives for a big stage, and she would come alive once she got there. I was wrong. Instead, she got deadly dull. Ramiele had no experience and it showed. Jason treaded water, and it was pleasant. Archie, the kid with the beautiful voice who had done the TV talent show thing before, completely crumbled. WTF?

But the trainwrecks of the night – Hernandez and Kristy – were EPIC. Just as I had remembered them. Hernandez look so out of his league compared to everyone else. Straight off a float in the Disney Parade. He’s pure cheese, there was no hiding it anymore. He really should have been singing Clay Aiken type songs all along, he would have gone over much better. LOL. And Kristy? OMG! I bet it sounded fine in rehearsal. She looked so confident on stage. But it was awful. Way too fast, manic, crazy eyes, just wrong. And it was hilarious. HILARIOUS! That was the best thing to happen to idol since Sanjaya’s “Bathwater”. HA!

To me KLC looked, from the moment she opened her mouth to sing, like she knew it was a bad idea. It seemed like she couldn’t get through that song fast enough. Or maybe that’s just how I felt … lol

I actually loved the Ryan/Simon thing going on. Funniest thing ever. I even love Paula. That was one thing I had forgotten was how much they were always fighting or doing stupid things. (This was the first season I have watched) My husband and I were cracking up last night at them. You just never know what they are going to do next and I love that about the show.

“You know, I get what people have said about not liking DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s interpretation of Eleanor Rigby, but I personally think that ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a valid interpretation. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s this big powerful, angsty interpretationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ less one of almost being one of the lonely people, but seeing them and almost exploding with the feeling of it. A different take from the original, but I personally thought that it was a fine vision of the song. Mileage and all that good stuff”

I understand what you are saying here…I loved this version becuase it seemed to build to a kind of anger that there were so many lonely people out and eplored us to see them.
Joy is so contagious–his joy after the song was just so infectious.

I loved Eleanor Rigby and thought it was a choice DC made to sing it as a full-blown rock song. He sang in a vulnerable mode the week before with Hello, so maybe didn’t want to do that again the very next week. So he didn’t emphasize the loneliness of the song, but he made it his and that’s what I found exciting about his performances. Whether or not he got some ideas from other people’s arrangements, didn’t matter to me. He sometimes found 2-3 arrangements and then came up with his own blend. The thing was, he didn’t copy the originals, he always did something different with them, and that was intriguing.

David H – so glad to see him go that night. Brooke had another amazing week. DA had another weak performance. “If I Fell” was too high for Jason’s vocals, so that was a disappointing performance. I wonder why he didn’t notice in rehearsals that he couldn’t reach the high notes, and do something to rectify the problem.

The judges act like first-graders, I usually end up fast forwarding through them, especially Paula and Simon. I think Randy and Paula know more about music than Simon does, he is all about the money and has a limited knowledge of music, but the self-indulgent playing around is appalling. Randy’s the only one who doesn’t act like a child.

I remember noticing DC’s pitchy lower register for the first time with “Eleanor Rigby.” I looooved the arrangement, but I didn’t quite get the “you could win the whole thing” from the judges as a result of it. Nevertheless, I was uber-excited that he got that comment. And the studio version just…rocks.

Also, wasn’t this is first experience with cover-gate, or do we count “Hello”?

I haven’t had the opportunity to comment since the competition rounds “began”, so indulge me as I whip through a couple comments on each week before I get to F12:

S24:

I’m surprised that most people didn’t seem to get what David Cook was going for with his look that night. Watch Nirvana’s “In Bloom” video and you’ll understand. It’s the sixties band-nerd look, especially as such an individual would have looked when appearing on a variety show. Weezer has appropriated this look at times also. Anyway, theatrically, I thought it was very clever. Strategically, it obviously wasn’t, though, as it made many viewers ignore his singing and just want him off their TV screens so they didn’t have to look at him anymore.

I thought Michael Johns was the one to beat after this week, though. I also liked Jason, Amanda’s scat peformance, and DC. Everybody else bored me.

S20:

This week sucked apart from David Hernandez on “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and, obviously, David Archuleta. David Cook’s vocals were strong, but the performance was too sleazy for me.

S16:

Here’s where I’m going to start to rant again about how the show stopped promoting the phenomenal depth in the field to relentlessly pimp DA and later DA/ DC. Because Jason Castro’s “Hallelujah” surpassed “Imagine” only one week later, but it was mostly skimmed over by the judges (and the press). It was so good that I didn’t even notice the missed end note that every one mentioned until this time around.

Brooke White’s LIAB was also outstanding. In fact, Brooke and Jason should have songs on the radio right now and albums in stores. They both have a sound that could be very popular. Carly, MJ, and Syesha could possibly be in the same position also as they are even better singers, but somewhat less marketable– Carly because she’s frontwoman-material and not a solo artist type, MJ because the white soul stuff doesn’t get that much play, and Syesha because the R&B market is already saturated with singers like her.

But, none of them got signed because they never received any buzz because Idol decided to forget about all that “best group ever” stuff and that only the Davids were worth pushing. Rant over (for now).

As far as the actual performances, those two and Cook were great. I also enjoyed Amanda’s “I Love Rock and Roll” and Carly’s “I Drove All Night”. Nobody else impressed me.

I went on longer, then I intended to (what else is new?), so I’ll write the review that is actually on-topic in a followup post….

F12:

One of the best if not the best overall performance nights of the season. Chikieze was the best. Carly, Cook, and Brooke were in the same class. Amanda and MJ were a half-notch below. There was a big dropoff after those six, however.

This was also the night that I decided, even if he didn’t win, David Cook was the only one ready to be a star at that point (even though I wasn’t a “fan” until Billie Jean). I remember telling my girlfriend, “Don’t even listen to him for a second. Just look at him.” His stage presence was just well-beyond that of everyone else. He just clearly belonged up there.

I also found Simon’s statement to DC humorous in retrospect that “If this remains a talent competition and not a popularity competition, you actually could win.” He should have added, “Of course, we all know it’s a popularity competition, so we’ll have our stylists give you a haircut, clean you up, and you’ll be all set….”

Something else that came out of this night, of course, was the “controversy” about DC lifting the arrangement of ER from Doxology (which would, hilariously, be repeated after Billie Jean even though that time the credit to the original arranger actually did make it to air). I’m bringing this up because in the S24 thread, there were a lot of “points” being made about how the “stage dad” stories may have hurt Archie’s image and his chances on AI. Well, for every point there is a counter-point. So let’s itemize the “stories” that each David had to confront this year:

Archuleta:

“stage dad”: (bad/ good)

I deemed it “bad/ good” because it easily could have gained him as much sympathy/ support as it cost him.

Cook:

1. plagiarist (very bad)
2. professional artist pretending to be an amateur, aka “ringer” (even worse)

Unlike Archie, Cook’s “scandals” could only refelct very negatively on him. And if we want to talk about how the timing of the stories coming out may have affected the competition, it certainly seemed like every time he started to gain momentum, Cook had to deal with a new “controversy”. I believe it was entirely coincidental and not a conspiracy, but I’m just pointing out that DA is not the only one who had to deal with this.

I will comment on other knollishness from the season on the performance weeks they became relevant, but I would finally just like to add one more thing. For all the behind-the-scenes tales about song clearance issues and song-switching incidences, be glad if your favorite was not Garrett Haley.

Because poor Garrett, on the week he went home, was given a grand total of three songs to choose from. So he chose one. But, then two days before he had to sing, he was informed that he couldn’t do that song or ANY of the three songs he was originally presented with. Instead he was informed that he would be singing “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”, a song he had never heard before. We saw how that turned out.

Watching this made me remember what a great season S7 was. So many great moments and performances. To me, watching David Cook 1) talk back to Simon in week 2, then clearly have a silent panic attack as Simon gets pissed off at him; 2) tear up when Simon praises “Hello” in Week 3; did you guys see that? and 3) feeling redeemed after “Eleanor Rigby.”

It will be hard to top Season 7.

It just goes to show that circumstances beyond the 100 seconds of the performance itself really do not matter to the public at all, even if they come out. DA had strep throat; David H said that the song he sang was his third or fourth choice–he’d wanted Let It Be very much. The voice coaches had been telling Kristy Lee Cook that her arrangement sounded great all week. They were definitely the bottom three of the night. Syesha had done well, I thought–better than Ramiele, for instance, who sang well but showed no ingenuity at all. Being first must have hurt her.

You guys have pretty much covered how I felt about this episode.

Amanda looked like Beetlejuice.
Michael Johns may have sang okay but it reminded me of Kady Malloy’s funeral dirgelike performance from the night before.
KLC – watching her now. It was like she wasn’t remotely nervous about getting voted off.
Syesha – with the baby cry from the night before and the me, me, me intro package and bland performance, cemented my annoyance/dislike of her.
Rami – the pouty lip thing at critiquing time and then subsequent baby voice. Argh.
DC – Sort of off at the beginning but to paraphrase Randy – once he hit that chorus – awesome. The glee was infectious.
DA – a trainwreck. Had forgotten how bad it was.

Paula intermittently reminds the viewers during the past few episodes that “this is the most talented season EVUH!@!”. To bad they didn’t give Simon and Randy the same memo.

2) tear up when Simon praises à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Helloà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  in Week 3; did you guys see that?

I did notice this first time watching it. Everytime the judges give him a great compliment, you will notice he holds his hands to his face, and that is when he gets teary eyed. I thought I may have been imagining it until I saw him after ABMB.

I can’t make myself go back and watch these again (especially KLC) but remember it well. I remember shaking my head when Randy & Simon panned Michael’s wonderful performance. I don’t think they intended it but it was the beginning of the end for him on the show. DC’s performance didn’t impress me at all. I loved what he did with “Hello” but not “Eleanor Rigby” or “Billie Jean”. David Hernandes wasn’t good but nowhere near the trainwreck that “8 days a week” was. That is the worst performance ever for me from a finalist in AI. She should have gone home that week but agree that the rumors could have played into his ouster.

I remember noticing DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pitchy lower register for the first time with à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Eleanor Rigby.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  I looooved the arrangement, but I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t quite get the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“you could win the whole thingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  from the judges as a result of it. Nevertheless, I was uber-excited that he got that comment. And the studio version justà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦rocks.

I agree with this– and I’ve had this somewhat knollish theory that the judges are more predisposed to love a performance when they hear from the staff/coaches that the contestant rocked in the studio recording and/or the rehearsals. And I think that’s what happened– DC’s Eleanor Rigby recording was incredible, probably my second favorite recording next to Billie Jean. He must have been stellar in dress rehearsals too, cuz the vocal imperfections that the audience heard, Simon apparently didn’t care.

ETA: staff, not stuff

Suzanne, I think the majority of the audience doesn’t know circumstances though and really I don’t fell that badly for some. I don’t think Archie’s problem was totally the strep since as usual I didn’t have much a problem with his vocal. He had a bad week. They all did at times and the important part is that we all know he bounced back. More than anything I think he was feeling the pressure at that point.

As for KLC, I don’t think the vocal people/musical staff are allowed to tell the Idols if their arrangements are good or bad so I think KLC is full of crap personally–that is if she did indeed say that. Just because I swear I’ve seen numerous interviews with Orland or Byrd where they basically say as much.

As for song choice, I think most of them didn’t get their first choices at times or had to struggle to find something that worked for them. First Beatles week was okay, but the second one was even worse. Then again didn’t they all have like 12-15 songs to fight over or something like that. No wonder that week was awful, but I’m sure we’ll hear more about that tonight.

To me this was the best week of the season and one of my favorite episodes ever on AI.
I think 5 of them were really fantastic, the other 5 were good, one was a bit of a mess and the other one was a disaster.
One thing I loved about this night was to see how thrilled they were to be there. Especially Chikezie and David Cook. They were so excited after their performances, it was great to see, cause as the season goes I think the contestants lose some of that excitement.

Chikezie, David Cook, Amanda, Brooke and Carly were awesome. They blew me away.
Chikezie should just do upbeat songs. No slow songs for him. It was a great moment this one.
Brooke was honest, beautiful. I wanted more of that.
David Cook’s Eleanor Rigby is one of my fav performances by him. I love how he performed it, the stage presence was pretty fantastic and I love the glory note at the end. It was all very Emo, but pretty cool.

Syesha, Jason, Michael, Hernandez and Ramiele did ok, imo, but weren’t as memorable as the others. Jason picked one of my fav songs, and I loved him for that.

So, I have my favs from the show but am going to do my best to be objective based just on the performances:
#1 Chikezie: I hate it when people rework Beatles songs because I love them so much as is, but he really did an amazing job with it. This performance was really incredible–great energy on stage, and really interesting reworking of the song.
#2 Brooke: Based entirely on the connection she brought forward with the music.
#3 Carly: I am a Carly fan and I think she did an amazing job with the song. I didn’t like the desperate need for approval after the performance but she worked the stage, rocked out to the song and did a great job.
#4 David Cook: No, not a great vocal performance IMO, and I did not love the arrangement (it’s a haunting sad song, he should have kept with that vibe) but his actual performance of the song was really stirring–he made me ignore the fact he was off key for more than half the song and that’s impressive!
#5 Michael Johns: He’s my fav of the season but I will admit this wasn’t my fav performance. I wish he played the guitar (which he has done since leaving Idol with this song). I felt his connection but I also felt his nerves a little. I think Simon and Randy’s comments were a little tough because he did a good job, but Michael could do much better (as he showed previously and in the future).
#6 Amanda: She reworked the song which was great…but every song really sounds the same.
#7 Jason: Simon was right, sounds like he is sitting in his dorm room and the song was way out of Jason’s range. Whoever said Norwegian Wood earlier was exactly right, that would have been such a great song choice.
#8 Syesha: She has vocal skills but I agree with many that she isn’t my fav (seriously, how did she get to top 3? where are her fans?!). I didn’t like the arrangement, if I was her I would have stuck with the original.
#9 Ramielle: Yeah, just really boring
#10 David H: Very cheezy but he’s a good singer
#11 David A: Was anyone else unconvinced that he knew the Stevie Wonder version instead of The Beatles…He was 17 at the time. I’m guessing he knew neither. He flubbed the lyrics multiple times and for that I can’t forgive this performance even though he is a young one. He can sing though.
#12 KLC: Just offensive. Crazy eyes, crazy interpretation, just terrible! How did she make it past this week? I don’t get it.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s problem was totally the strep since as usual I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have much a problem with his vocal. He had a bad week.

I swear, I *SWEAR* I am not making excuses when I say this. But having watched the show again last night with the knowledge of DA’s having strep, I would say it affected his performance quite a bit even if it didn’t affect his voice. That boy looked like he was only about 50% there to me. I’ve had strep as an adult more than once and it ain’t pretty. It was the sickest I’ve ever felt – could not even think straight. It’s very different from having it as a child. (Of course this begs the question as to whether 17 years old qualifies as adult or child when it comes to these things … lol.) My point is, he probably felt like crap.

Of course most of the contestants had to sing at one time or another while feeling like crap, having fevers, the flu, or in DC’s case, a pending trip to the ER. Obviously no one fell apart quite to the degree that DA did on this night. I’d say in DA’s case it was a combination of the strep, uncertainty about the song, first time on the big stage, etc. He just never could pull the song together again after he goofed in the beginning.

Was anyone else unconvinced that he knew the Stevie Wonder version instead of The Beatlesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦He was 17 at the time. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m guessing he knew neither.

You could be right, but by all accounts he is very musically knowledgable, and he cites Stevie Wonder as one of his musical influences. I would bet he had heard it at least once or twice.

Also, I ff’d through KLC’s trainwreck, but do I recall Paula mentioning Martina McBride or something? Was KLC borrowing someone else’s arrangement?

Paula said Laurie Morgan.

My parents go to bed at like 9:30 each night. so … I usually miss the majority of the performance show. And once each performance show gets to an hour long, I’ll be missing that entire show, and half the results most times (can only get fox reality channel out in thel living room)

I don’t think Syesha was bad enough to be in the bottom 3. I really don’t. And it puzzles me everytime Simon says the bottom 3 was spot on because ok what about Ramiele, or ….Jason… or David A.? Not that he’d ever be in the bottom.

MJ- are we really going to hear you diss syesha the rest of the competiton?! i already saw you say after her Top 20 performance that you enjoyed her laid back rendition, but ever since she just belted out glory notes… so that means you didn’t like it…and we’re gonna have to hear that day…

Kristy’s singing really wasn’t horrible except the pitchy parts. just the performance was terrible.

david a. wasn’t bad except the missed lyrics.

and david h. wasn’t bad either so though it was predicted, he should not have left.

Paula said Laurie Morgan.

That’s it … thanks.

Kristy did use someone elseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s arrangement, and part of it should also be credited to one of The Clark Brothers. No idea which one, but that would explain it…

Chikezie’s performance was my fave this week, I just FLOVED that. Everyone else was whatever in comparison.

MJ- are we really going to hear you diss syesha the rest of the competiton?!

I didn’t like many of her performances. No, I’m not going to whitewash that.

hgzaj, When Simon sometimes comments on whether or not it is the right B3, I don’t always think he bases it fully on that week’s performances. Or at least not at that point. Sy being in the B3 at that point and Simon thinking it was spot on–my guess is it was more Simon assuming that Sy wasn’t connecting with the audience. Archie screwed up that week, but had been on the other weeks and he was a known frontrunner and Simon was still on the Jason train in the early weeks. He didn’t jump ship there until Fragile week (Songs From Birth Year) and then jumped back on for a few weeks until ALW.

If anything, I think Simon knew to some extent that both Archie and Jason had the fanbases to withstand a bad (Archie) and mediocre (Jason) performance.

lefty, I don’t doubt that Strep would have derailed Archie to some extent.

Oh ok

I also want to add that Katharine McPhee was my favorite part of results night, and that last night reminded me just how stuuuuuupid the question and answer part is lol.

I am excited for the rest of the season recap though because…. even though I truly believe Cook deserved to win, Syesha was my personal favorite since the very beginning… and “Yesterday” was her turning point. She stood out after that, even if her performances were not the best song choices, at least they were memorable… so I’m excited for that.

^^^ You’ll notice everyone gets a bad review from me at one point or another, even my favorites. See my review of Eleanor Rigby, above. There are two other performances from DC I didn’t care for much. Actually, I thought he peaked with Mariah Carey night…until the final. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t like many of her performances. No, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m not going to whitewash that.

I didn’t like ANY of her performances. :innocent1_tb: She’s just not my bag, baby.

Anyway, this was one of my favorite nights of AI, like, ever. It was the first season where I found myself really enjoying a bunch of different singers for different reasons, even though I did of course have a personal fave. Maybe it’s because it was so diverse across various genres, and the first season they went for the talented musician/singers on a large scale rather than big voices, big voices, and fodder. I dunno. It’s too bad that throughout the rest of the season they started with those oh so narrow themes, because a songbook as diverse as L/Mc really allowed a lot of people to find perfect songs for their styles and it made it so much more fun to watch.

My favorites of the night (and also of the competition, eventually)….

1) Cook…I get the interpretitive issue that MJ brought up. But I so loved that he was really the one one who took advantage of the switch to that brand new bigass set and played it like a stadium concert….acknowledging the swaybots, acknowledging the cheap seats, giving it a bit of a Bono feel with the arms outstretched…. And maybe the interpretation wasn’t so off, for the setting. Maybe you know it’s about all those loney people who have kind of come together for the concert…and are better off than poor Eleanor. Or not.

2) Michael….to this day, feel this performance was vastly underrated. My favorite Beatles song, and one of my favorite songs ever, and I dunno….i think for once Michael left the cheeky-ness (which can be endearing, depending on who you talk to) at the door and felt it. And you know the three AI studio versions that I still bother to play occasionally on my iPod are Cook’s Innocent and Billie Jean, and Michael’s ATU. I don’t think he’ll be this good again until Dolly week.

3) Chikeze….Nailed. It. He’s not necessarily an amazing singer, but he’s a hell of a performer when he’s in the zone, which goes a long way for me. Another one I think left before his time.

4) Brooke…..beautiful, just shoots straight to the heart of the song and captures it and it’s real and perfect.

5) Carly….girlfriend’s got pipes, and props for picking a song with nonsense lyrics. I love that song but it could have gone very bad in the hands of another singer.

6) Jason…not his best, but it was in his wheelhouse. I think he “got” the song, and unlike Simon, I do like the Phoebe from Friends coffeehouse vibe.

7) AManda…I dug the uniqueness of her voice, and the word slurring, and the badass thing she had going with this performance. I also liked those Beatlegeuse pants. I dunno, I dug it, I guess, is what I’m saying.

Everyone else…trainwreck, cheesy, meh, meh, trainwreck.

One of the most underrated Idol performances of the entire season is Michael Johnsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ soulful rendition of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Across the Universe.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  His subtle, plaintive performance flew right over the heads of Randy and Simon, while Paula got it. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m glad somebody did, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢cause that was just beautiful.

MJ – I was so glad to see you write this about the other MJ – and also delighted to see the other responses in support. I don’t remember this much support for it when it was a first-run, but I echo your sentiments exactly!

This was the week I think the votes messed up the competition. Kristy Lee deserved to leave and, if she hadn’t been around to do her cheesy version of God Bless America, I believe Michael would have joined the David’s in the top 3. And, as much as I enjoyed his ATU, Come Together would have been a better Idol song for him. Check out the youtube videos of him singing this and imagine Paula’s reaction!

Chikeze did absolutely win the best performance for the evening and deserved to join the tour based on this nite alone. Shame he didn’t have a chance to do more of this – boring ballads didn’t work for him.

Amanda lost me as a fan on this one – realized she spent her time on stage looking at the stage, no eye contact, no change up and really, really scary outfit.

Brooke was the only female that made it to my “great job” list this nite – Chikeze, Michael, Brooke,DC.

Totally agree about Michael’s performance of “Across the Universe” Absolutely Beautiful…… Stunning , I must say…..Everything else was just Ok..I really did enjoy them all.

I absolutely loved Chikezie’s performance this week. If he had done more like this, I believe he would have stayed around quite a bit longer. Fantastic.

Brooke’s performance was mesmerizing. Her vocals may not have been perfect, but they were heartfelt and goose-bump inducing. Beautiful performance.

Eleanor Rigby was very good, but definitely not my favorite DC performance. His reaction at the end of the song, however, was so endearing. I absolutely loved it and wish that we could have seen more enthusiasm towards the end. I guess the pressure takes it out of everyone to some degree.

And poor Archie … I felt so bad for the kid. Fortunately, his great performances from the semis and his strong fan base were there to support him this week.

The results show was, well, the results show. I must admit that I had to leave the room when David Foster came on. The man is no doubt phenomenally talented but his massive ego and holier than thou attitude make him quite unbearable as far as I’m concerned.

I just remember this night as being the first on the Big Stage and there was definitely a difference in how well the kids coped with the change. Plus maybe they were feeling added pressure from wanting to make top 10 and go on tour. DC caught my attention this week not really cause of ER, though that is one of my favorite Beatles songs, but cause instead of melting down or merely coping with the stage he seemed to absolutely be having a blast performing.

Chikezie and Brooke also turned in great performances. Unfortunately I think KLC’s 8 Days A Week just sucked all the air out of the room. It was hilariously bad then and it still is now…though I have a little more sympathy for KLC cause it does seem the song got away from her and was played faster than she expected.

I must admit that I had to leave the room when David Foster came on. The man is no doubt phenomenally talented but his massive ego and holier than thou attitude make him quite unbearable as far as Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m concerned.

Yeah, I agree, and I thought Kat McPhee’s performance was really wooden. Too bad because I love the original.

I loved Brooke and Carly’s performances. Brooke had her magic moment and Carly had her strongest of the season IMO. I don’t quite dig Chikezie’s as much as everyone else seems to. He always just seemed so corny too me, I couldn’t take it. Cook’s performance was good. It cracks me up that says “wearing his socks in the night” instead of “darning his socks in the night” there’s a little stumble where he realizes he mixed it up but he just goes with it, haha. David H. was a total freaky mess. Kristy Lee – yikes. I think it was the trainwreck everyone said. Syesha and Rami and Jason – snoozers. Michael had a good performance. Amanda – not really my thing, but I appreciate that it was in the top half for the evening. And Archie…definitely really rough, but fortunately he had a super fanbase by then that was determined to save him. Dean Kaelin mentioned that top 12 night Archie supposedly had 50% of the total vote, with the other 50% being split among the 11 – not sure how accurate that is, but it wouldn’t surprise me because he was definitely running away the most popular at that point.

I think maybe the pressure of being the front runner, and the stress of singing an unfamiliar song just got to him that night. It happens.

I agree totally MJ. I recall hearing too that there was issues with the arrangement being wrong initially giving him hardly any time to rehearse with the band. So things added up definitely. I think he proved that coming back from that bad week showed his character much more than the mistakes did. Actually as the weeks went on, I became rather impressed that he seemed to handle the pressure much better than the others who were much older than him. I actually think it would’ve been a good performance without the missed lyrics. There were moments of good stage presence but the dropped lyrics three times really overshadowed anything good that might have been there. I was so bummed because from that point on, no one thought he could handle anything that wasn’t a ballad. He really needed an uptempo number that week after Simon’s previous “gloomy” comments…bummer that it didn’t go well for him.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t quite dig Chikezieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s as much as everyone else seems to. He always just seemed so corny too me, I couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t take it.

Me too. I didn’t get it.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t quite dig Chikezieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s as much as everyone else seems to. He always just seemed so corny too me, I couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t take it.

Me too. I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get it.

To me he was good only when NOT singing a ballad. His ballads always seemed to come off as very old-fashioned. I loved the performances that showcased his energy.

I may be kinda alone here (as in like 1 of 7 in the whole world.) But I wasn’t looking forward to Beatles week simply because I really don’t like the Beatles and find their songs to be boring and overrated at best. But I was pleasantly surprised with this week.

(in order of rate according to the judges)

Chikezie: Awesome.

Carly: Only Beatles song that was performed in those two weeks that I did like. It was great.

Brooke: I liked LIAB better, but it was a great performance and very Brooke.

Cook: many people have said that the verse section of this performance was out of tune. After watching it yet again I still don’t see it (er, hear it). So either A) My tunelessness hides the lack of tune in others from me, or B) love is deaf as well as blind. Also, my dislike of the Beatle’s helps me like this better than the average person, because I don’t have the original to compare it to (and when I did hear the original I didn’t like it).

Amanda: fun performance, I think she should have stayed in, but her refusal to play the game got her eliminated. Too bad.

Jason and Michael were a little underwhelming. And I actually kinda liked Kristy’s, she maybe should have slowed it down a little. Simon can be a real jerk some times (a lot of it, actually)

Brooke’s Let It Be still brings tears to my eyes…absolutely incredible.

Dean Kaelin mentioned that top 12 night Archie supposedly had 50% of the total vote, with the other 50% being split among the 11 – not sure how accurate that is, but it wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t surprise me because he was definitely running away the most popular at that point.

How did he know this? I was under the impression only the producers knew each week’s vote totals. Do the contestants know?

Dean Kaelin LOL :lol_tb:

Here’s a couple more excerpts from David’s interviews with Life Story magazine on the pressures of ending up with songs that don’t work for you and how he felt about bombing on “We Can Work It Out.” I think he has a healthy perspective on the experience.

Life Story — p. 27

LIFE STORY: How does that process work in terms of choosing songs?
DAVID: That was really rough [laughs], just because most of the time there’s a list to pick from, and so it’s not like you can sing any song in the world. There were probably like half of the songs that I was maybe planning on singing that I couldn’t sing. So I was like, “Okay, there goes half my repertoire!”
LIFE STORY: Was that because you weren’t allowed to sing them or because somebody already picked them?
DAVID: It was because they weren’t on the list. Sometimes if more than one person picked the song, you’d draw, and then whoever won the draw could sing it. It happened to me a couple of times, but I never won. But my feeling was that if I didn’t get the song that means I wasn’t supposed to sing that. I was meant to find another one and sing that one on the show. I may have wanted to do it, but sometimes the guy upstairs knows what’s better for you than what you’d want. Sometimes you’re not going to be happy with the result, but I think it’s always for experience. That’s how you learn in life. You need to have those experiences. You need to have the ups and downs to know what it feels like. It’s kind of like you appreciate having a house so much more when you’ve lived on the streets.

I always enjoy David’s metaphors.

It’s also interesting to learn that David thought he deserved to go home for the disastrous We Can Work Out. Dean Kaelin says David was sick (with strep throat) and stressed that week for other reasons but David makes no excuses for himself in this interview.

Life Story – p. 28

LIFE STORY: So basically you’re always learning from the experience of doing these things.
DAVID: Yes. Something like “We Can Work It Out” was embarrassing [laughs] but it wasn’t like I was so bummed out from it. I definitely thought I was going home that week, because compared to everyone else, I deserved it.
LIFE STORY: To go home, you mean?
DAVID: It would have been understandable. I still did my best. It’s not like I did it on purpose because I was lazy. I messed up. I was embarrassed but I wasn’t beating myself up over it. I was fortunate enough to stay longer and continue to work on the show and try to show people what I could do. It was rough sometimes because sometimes you had a song, but you couldn’t do the song, so you had to look for another song, and sometimes there weren’t really any other songs that could work for you. But I just think it always worked out in the end during the other weeks.

From Scifisam: “Cook: many people have said that the verse section of this performance was out of tune. After watching it yet again I still donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t see it (er, hear it). So either A) My tunelessness hides the lack of tune in others from me, or B) love is deaf as well as blind. ”

I am glad someone brought this up. I was once tested and told I had a perfect sense of pitch. I don’t hear the out of tune singing here at all. That is a common statement about David, but, with one or two exceptions (both brief, and one prior to AI), I have just not heard him be off key. It puzzles me that it keeps coming up.