Another night of Season 7 reruns from the Fox Reality Channel, peeps. Tonight we re-visit the Top 12.
It’s Beatles’ night, and I remember being pretty excited, and a bit nervous about this. Nervous ’cause it really sucks when your favorite songs in the universe are butchered by horrible singers. But as it turned out, the kids, for the most part, don’t send me screaming from the room like I feared.
Syesha Mercado started the night off with a straight-up cover of the Earth Wind and Fire version of “Got to Get You Into My Life.” The performance came off a bit dull and cabaret and it’s a little off putting, the way she pauses before she sings the word “Life.” Next is Chikezie, and he pulled off, seriously, what I think is one of the most original performances of the entire competition. Chikezie never got enough props for re-arranging the Beatles’ “She’s A Woman” into an electrifying country-blues-rock mashup. What a revelation. Poor little Ramiele Malubay continued her slide with a snoozeworthy “In My Life.” The big Idol stage just swallowed Rami up, like the big arena stages would later on tour. Jason Castro–hm. I did appreciate some of his phrasing on “If I Fell”, but the whole effect was rather dull, particularly with bandzilla drowning him out. His vocals barely registered on the high notes. No wonder Simon frustrated Carly Smithson so much. He praised her “Come Together” effusively, but really, how was that better than her past couple performances? For me, the song was a bit cabaret–like Celine Dion covering the Beatles, but there’s no denying the power of her vocals. I have to admit that I didn’t connect with David Cook’s interpretation of “Eleanor Rigby” He presented the song with great showmanship, but I just didn’t feel like he got at the bitter lonliness in the song. And I really did not dig the big emo-screamo glory note at the end.
Brooke White, on the other hand, delivered a raw and heartfelt “Let it Be” that more than made up for less-than-stellar vocals. David Hernandez had the worst performance of the night. “I Saw Her Standing There” was the weirdest song choice ever–it did nothing to showcase his vocals, and he sang and worked the room like he was on a Disney cruise ship. *cringe* It’s no wonder he didn’t survive the week. I totally disagreed with Simon that Amanda Overmyer was better the week before when she sang Joan Jett pretty much like Joan Jett. She bluesed up “You Can’t Do That” and really made it her own. And I love that she didn’t change the pronouns. Absolutely my favorite from Amanda. One of the most underrated Idol performances of the entire season is Michael Johns’ soulful rendition of “Across the Universe.” His subtle, plaintive performance flew right over the heads of Randy and Simon, while Paula got it. I’m glad somebody did, ’cause that was just beautiful. Kristy Lee Cook’s countrified “Eight Days a Week” probably looked really good on paper. And actually, I don’t think it’s the trainwreck most people think it is. It was the combination of a breakneck tempo, Kristy Lee’s crazy eyes (which were in full force here) and a nutty high note at the end that pushed the song into WTF!?!!? territory. Watching David Archuleta fall apart on stage–blanking on the lyrics, performing like he was having an out-of-body experience–was disconcerting. At the time, I wondered if young David could handle the pressure, and thought his meltdown proved the age limit should be raised to 18. David would go on to show that he had the mettle to handle the competition, but 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.
Kristy Lee Cook made her second trip to the bottom 3, Syesha Mercado her 1st. Both would wind up in the bottom several more times. David Hernandez, though, is the one to go home. There was no overcoming that trainwreck of a performance without a strong fanbase.
Did you watch? What do you think?
