Four more eliminated in American Idol 2007; we're now down to 16.
Also, an update on that GREASE contest.
Pic of the Day
Quote of the DayOFF THE CHARTS CRAZY |
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"GREASE-You're the One That I Want"
I'd tuned into this interesting reality contest sponsored by NBC early in January 2007, LINK HERE. In this post I expressed a lack of interest in following the contest but on 2/18/07 I had a window of time and I checked in again.
First, the contest is for the purpose of finding a new "Sandy" and a new "Danny" to star in a re-make of that musical about the 50's: "Grease".
The contest roughly follows the format of "American Idol" in that the audience can phone in their preferences and on a weekly basis the lowest scorers are sent packing. I think the timing for this contest is a bad one in that right now there is Trump's "Apprentice LA" series running and "American Idol" started up right in the middle of this "Grease" contest.
But who knows? Perhaps a reality series to find Broadway stars can make it big. Already we have dancers and singers that compete for the TV audience's vote, why not a series seeking dancers AND singers?
I made a few notes as I watched. Read carefully and bear in mind I have not followed this contest all that closely.
The night I tuned in there were six couples left in the finals. While the males trying to be the new "Danny" and the females looking to be his "Sandy" often perform together, the contestants are NOT running as a couple or a team in any way. Thus the voting audience should vote for the SANDY of their preference and the same with the DANNY, no mind who danced with whom.
The show began with two couples that were in the bottom four.
As indicated in the pic above, the bottom four via audience vote consisted of Kevin, Kathleen, Jason and Julianna. Jason and Julianna ended up getting the boot off the show.
After this, the remaining candidates performed as various couples and I made a few notes.
Chad and Allie danced and sang to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and I noted that Allie had trouble negotiating those stairs. I thought that Laura, who performed with Austin, was by far the prettiest of the female contenders and had great legs.
Max and Ashley performed to "It Takes Two". A judge declared Ashley the candidate to beat and I note she is an amazingly good dancer. Derek and Kate performed to the beautiful song "From This Moment". Derek, hey, he didn't have such a good voice and I'm being nice. He's cute as a button sure but to be a stellar DANNY, you gotta SING!
The pair that came in the prior week's bottom four performed to the tune "Something to Talk About".
Not that I know anything, but I'm going with Ashley as the next SANDY and don't have a clue who might be the next DANNY.
American Idol 2007-Down to 16
The Guys
DISCLAIMER-This post was written BEFORE the eliminations. I will post the eliminations weekly and put up the post immediately after the elimination show closes on this Blog. However, my guesses as to who might be eliminated might belie who actually WAS eliminated but I'll take the brickbats for being wrong.
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This past week was "dedication" week at AI 2007. There were ten fellows left and ten fellows performed.
Phil Stacey is this year's military contestant. I'm not sure about his bald head but he sang a passable "I ain't Missing You". Paula said she can hear him on the radio already while Simon said he was not going anywhere. Next Jared Cotter sang a terrible, forgettable pitchy song. Moving on with forgettable performances, we have A.J. Talbaldo, a fellow who should be history before long.
Now we get to really bad and I've never liked Sanjaya (his first name only) as I consider him too young and generic to win the coveted Idol slot. On this night (2/27/07), Sanjaya dedicated his song to his grandfather who died when he was five. This fact alone gives me pause. How much do we remember someone we lost when we were a mere five years old? Not that it's not possible but if you had a chance to dedicate a song you'll be singing in front of millions don't you consider it would be someone closer than someone you lost at age five? But perhaps I'm nitpicking. What also made me suspicious was Sanjaya's choice of an old man's hat as prop for his song. Plus the song he sang was some kind of old-time song and I've deduced that Sanjaya's dedication was based more on his choice of song and need for a prop than most anything else. I'm still expecting Sanjaya will be out of there soon.
I predict Chris Sligh will land within the top five of this competition due to his posession of many talents beyond his magnificent voice. This fellow has a head of hair alone that should win a prize. This night the audience learned that Chris has a dedicated and beautiful wife. Performing behind Chris we had Nick Pedro and my cryptic note states "really lame".
Next another of my favorites, Blake Lewis. Blake could win this thing handily. This night he sang a rap type of song, a musical genre I don't especially like particularly when performed by white guys. Blake, however, did a pretty good job and showed the audience he can sing AND dance.
The judges liked Blake and gave him praise. All except Simon, of course. The way I figure, Simon's curmudgeon personna is designed to smack down those who might get too smug. For Blake Lewis is a very confident contender and I'd consider him in danger of getting cocky and blowing it for lack of humility. Maybe Simon's smack-downs will keep him humble.
Brandon Rogers sang "Time After Time" and I saw no originality at all in this performance or this contender. The judges entertained us as much as Brandon on his song. The judges concensus was that Brandon "didn't do it" with his performance. Brandon defended himself by saying he was trying to convey the "feeling" to the audience. Then Randy launched into a lecture that was so very true. He told Brandon that this was a SINGING competition and such as conveying feelings would not win the prize.
All three of our well-known judges launched into an impromptu routine that had Randy declaring he liked dogs whilst Simon pledged loyalty to puppies. The more telling of the judges banter is how well the three very diverse personalities have blended through the years of this competition and how the trio can entertain as well as the singers from time to time.
The big surprise of the evening, at least for me, was Chris Richardson. In my mind I've narrowed this year's guys down to Chris Sligh, Blake Lewis and Sundance Head. All of the others are karoake, high school musical types as I saw it. But Chris Richardson, a contender I'd paid no mind to, gave a great performance which Simon declared the "best tonight". Chris sang a rap type of song sprinkled with falsetto that Chris pulled off perfectly. All I can say is that I was impressed all to hell.
Finally we had Sundance Head and I was surprised to learn this very talented fellow has an infant son. The show flashed a pic of Sundance's son on the overhead monitor, pic included in this post.
Go to hell Sundance performed "Mustang Sally" as well as anyone on this planet has ever performed that song. He didn't hold anything back and if I were Blake Lewis I'd be watching this guy. I can see Sundance winning this thing. All of the judges loved Sundance as well.
The Girls
Couple of items of note as regards the females of this competition. At least two of the top ten girls are from mixed marriages. They would be Sabrina Sloan and Jordin Sparks. Not that, heh, there's anything wrong with this. This fact does pique my genetic curiousity as both of these young ladies are not only exceptionally pretty, they truly have gorgeous curly hair. In fact, children of black and white parents are almost always, at least in my admittedly anecdotal experience, prettier than average. There may be a moral in that factoid somewhere, take from it what you will.
Also, there was a bit of a scandal with one of the female contenders- Antonella Barba. This contestant was allegedly featured scantily clad on some web site or another. Later a denial was issued that the pic was actually of Antonella. Such scandalous pics must be illegal per the American Idol contract.
While on the subject of Antonella, let us discuss her performance on the evening of 2/28/07. Antonella sang Celine's "Because You Loved Me". While this is a song I like, I don't believe early on in this competition that's such a good choice of a song. There's too many other competitors just yet and the singer that belts out a smashing rendition of, say, "Midnight Train to Georgia" is going to attract the audience votes more than this rather limpid Celine tune.
Beyond the song choice, however, Antonella didn't give a performance that I'd want to write home about. In fact all of the judges intensely disliked Antonella's performance and I shall be surprised if she moves on after this week's elimination round.
Speaking of the midnight train to Georgia, one of this year's singer-darlings would be Lakisha Jones. She's the big-voiced gal that belted out this tune and she is a great singer, no doubt about it. In fact, Simon informed Lakisha that she's going to be a big star from now on and goodness how nice that must be for a talented singer such as Lakisha to hear.
Gina Glockson began the show on 2/28/07. Just as Gina began her song I had to leave the room. From where I was I listened to Glockson sing, just my ears with no prejudice from outfits, looks or such things. I thought Gina sounded perfectly horrible to my distant ears. She's another one I predict won't be around long. There's no comparing a Gina to a Lakisha. The judges didn't think much of Gina's performance either.
Melinda Doolittle gave just the weirdest dedication. Melinda dedicated her song to, of all the people in her life, her stylist and her vocal coach. I thought, as an audience member and voter, that this was so dumb. First, we like to think that these young singers are fresh and un-jaded by such as the plastic world of Hollywood. When we hear words like stylist and vocal coach it tends to take away our perhaps naive notion that these singers are untouched by the sins of spin. Further, I just gotta feel sorry for someone that has no one else to dedicate such an important event in their lives than people that she PAYS to be her friends.
That being said, Melinda sang "My Funny Valentine", a song I don't especially like. I understand the tune is a classic and everything but it kind of turned me off. Surprising the judges like it and Simon pronounced Melinda's performance as "incredible".
We move on to Alaina Alexander and already she got on my bad side. For the child sang the Dixie Chicks' silly tune about "not making nice" and hey, I really don't like the Dixie Chicks. So I know I shouldn't take it out on contestant Alaina so okay, how about I thought she was pitchy all over the place and further, every judge did not like her performance. Alaina is, however, the prettiest female contender this year, with beautiful hair and great fashion sense. For a while I think this fact might carry her on for a few more rounds.
My favorite in this year's competition, Jordin Sparks, sang a tune I didn't especially like but Jordin did have to sing soft and high and this is the mark of a great singer says I who is, after all, in my church choir. Ask me to sing soft and high and I gotta shut up.
Jordin dedicated her song to her brother and goodness the child must have been sincere as she was actually crying after singing the tune she'd chosen for her brother. Which made me like Jordin even more because hey, dedicating a song to your brother is way more on the level of the American audience than naming your stylist and vocal coach for God's sake. Randy agreed with my first assessment, that it wasn't Jordin's best performance. But for a young girl of 17, Jordin Sparks does have it all.
Stephanie Edwards sang a ho-hum song which I later learned was a Beyonce song. Well I don't like Beyonce and even Randy suggested this wasn't such a good idea. I note that Stephanie seemed to be awkward in her movements on stage. She needs to work on that. Beyond that...ho-hum to Stephanie.
Jazz type singer Leslie Hunt is a most intriguing contestant in this year's American Idol. She's hip, cute and certainly can sing. Her forte seems to be jazzy/blues types of song which is a great musical genre but can such a song category carry a popular vote across the nation? Simon said that Leslie is lost in this competition and I think he may be right. Still I think Leslie will stay in there for a few more rounds.
Sabrina Sloan sang a Whitney tune and my notes give her a "so-so". Paula thought Sabrina would be a "big contender" this year but then Paula likes everybody. I don't see Sabrina in the top five this year.
Finally, Hailey Scarnatta performed and Hailey did something really stupid. First, however, Hailey did dedicate her song to her fiance and he is a good looking guy, lucky you Hailey girl! Hailey sang a Whitney tune as well, "Queen of the Night". I didn't think her performance was outstanding and neither did the judges.
Hailey, however, cried because of Simon's comments. Hey, Hailey, if you aren't voted out of there, DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!
Crying over the judge's comments is a really dumb thing to do. It cements in the viewing audience's mind that the judge's criticism must be spot on if it makes the contestant cry. The best reaction to a sharp criticism by a judge is a polite "thank you". Don't let those millions of people watching think that any criticism is nothing more but one judge's opinion.
The elimination round came of the AI group of 20 left to be whittled down to 16 premiered on 3/1/07 featuring one of my fave former American Idols-Carrie Underwood.
Two boys were eliminated:
Nick Pedro
AJ Tabaldo
Two girls were eliminated:
Alaina Alexander
Leslie Hunt
Be sure to click back in next week as this Blog will post like this immediately after each elimination round. You get the scoop on who got cut right away plus my excellent commentary and pics you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
AMERICAN IDOL 2007 LINKS
Seattle and Minneapolis 1/16/07 and 1/17/07
Birmingham 1/30/07
San Antonio 2/6/07
The Top 24 2/12/2007
First Four Eliminated
3/1/07-Down to 16
More TV Reviews HERE
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