Season 7 Redux – Top 8 – Idol Gives Back

The Fox Reality Channel is re-running Idol Gives Back week tonight. And you know what? There’s no way in hell I’m watching the whole thing.

I watched the performance episode, and may catch the results show. I’ll post a few thoughts later.

In the meantime, start without me!

Recap:

  • Michael John’s performance of “Dream On” was solid, and I don’t think he was off-key.   It hurt him that he performed first, and I think maybe there wasn’t as much vote-splitting that week as in prior weeks.   I remember losing a lot of points to Carly in the pool. I was so sure she was going home.
  • I think I laughed out loud when I heard Syesha Mercado was singing “I Believe”, Fantasia Barrino’s coronation song.   First, I can’t believe anyone would willingly sing one of those crappy songs, and second, I can’t believe Syesha didn’t learn her lesson when she was unfavorably compared to Whitney the week before.   And boy, did her version pale by comparison to Fanty’s.   The performance was a disconnected screechfest.   I found it really unpleasant to listen to.
  • This was the week Jason Castro sang the sublime “Over the Rainbow”, with his ukulele.   What more can I say about this performance?   It was hands down, the best of the night.
  • Kristy Lee Cook’s performance of “Anyway” was probably her best of the entire season.   If she had sucked, she might have been shown the door instead of Michael.

  • I’m a David Cook fan, but sorry, “Innocent” was a big ole’ mess. David’s worst performance of the competition, and it ties for worst performance of the night. I’ll say that the end was better than the disjointed, pitchy beginning.   At least the studio version, which is very good, made up for it.   It all worked out. Cook had amassed such a big fan base by this point, that he could have taken a giant dump on the stage and still have made it through to the next week.
  • Cook tied with Carly Smithson, whose angry, shrill, incomprehensible performance of “The Show Must Go On” seemed to come from a very dark place.   Carly would plaster this big passive-aggressive smile on her face, anytime she was critcizized. And blaming Simon for her bad performance was lame. At this point, I was ready for her to go.
  • It’s funny to re-hear David Archuleta sing “Angels” for the first time on the Idol stage.   I have to agree with Simon, his vocals weren’t perfect.   I heard him sing this song so much better, and with a ton more confidence on the Idol tour.
  • Brooke White closes the show with “You’ve Got a Friend”.   Sure, she doesn’t change it up all that much, but I think the performance showed off the type of singer she’d be in the real world.   I liked it.

Michael Johns abrupt elimination was pretty crazy that week.   Frankly, I’m not sure how many more weeks he had in him.   If he had gotten through to the next week, and had a good performance, he might have made it to 6.   But still, at the time, I was not expecting him to leave.   His singout was fantastic, better than his performance.   Folks at home were probably watching that and thinking, “OMG. What did we do???” Heh.

About mj santilli 35105 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!