Idol Thoughts

American Idol is down to the final 6, and tonite's theme is Andrew Lloyd Weber's broadway musical songs. As the contestants come out onstage, my first impression is "Yes! Syesha is not doing "Memories"!!" If she does another one of those bland ballads, I'll kill her! I assume "Memories" is out cause she is dressed in a skin tight sexy, cocktail dress with her hair snazzily done. I am also taken aback by Brooke. She looks really ethereal in a long flowing dress. The guys are..well...guys. Nothing special about any of em.

My happiness about Syesha Mercado not singing "Memories" is quickly doused when they call her name as first to perform. If you know anything about Idol, you know people who go first are the most liable to get evicted..(ooops, watching Big Brother as I blog)..I meant to be voted out. But she sings "One Rock & Roll Too Many" which is indeed a sassy number! And she finally sounds good AND gives us some personality!! I am ecstatic. It is still not the performance I wish she could deliver. There's just something about her that's a bit lacking. I think it's the overall superstar quality that she doesn't have. But she looks hot! There are a couple times where she goes sharp, but her overall performance is awesome. The judges agree with me. They give her stellar comments. I give her an A-. Maybe the show opening spot won't be a jinx this time!

Second up is Jason Castro, and he's the one who gets "blessed" with the song "Memories". He starts, and at first I think his voice is so pure and vulnerable and then I start thinking "wait, does he have to go to the hospital?". The guy is really unique, though, in his style and sound. And he's very good-looking. His performance was good, but a little bit morose. Pleasant, but boring. Sensitive, but a bit unpleasant. The juges don't offer good comments. Simon says he was off the mark and gives him a sympathetic look. I give him a B.

At the midway mark, we get Brooke White. She gets stuck with "You Must Love Me", and I say stuck because my goodness it doesn't look like she wants to sing this song at all. She does another one of her, as of this airing, patented false starts and actually says something like "Can we take that again?" to the band. Arg. When she finally gets going, I don't like it. Sounds bad, but it improves as the song goes on. She's sharp on a couple parts, and after she's done, I'm left thinking this is her worst performance for me. Paula surprisingly stings her, saying "Don't ever stop and start". Simon comes to her rescue (a little bit) saying he would have stopped and started too if he woulda messed up and forgot the words as she did. But it doesn't stop Randy and him from giving her relatively bad comments. I give her a C+.

Next up: The golden child, David Archuleta. And he again, singing "Think of Me", steals the show. This kid's voice is butta. His vocals are always awesome, but sometimes, I wish he had more going on for him in the way of performance. That right hand is annoying in it's consistency to just stay propped at his side like a kick-stood appendage. If the boy didn't have the voice of an angel, I would so be like "get him off my stage!", but ya boy is bad! His album, I predict will be awesome. Randy gives us his patented "if you can sing, you can sing anything!" God, dawg, give it a rest!! The judges are pretty unanimous in giving him the praise, and I give him an A.

In the 5th spot, we get Carly Smithson, and her overly tattoo-ed self! (I wonder if she regrets that at night in the Idol loft). She goes to ALW trying to sell him on "All I Ask of You" and he practically laughs in her face. He says she should sing "Jesus Christ, Superstar" and I initially agree. When she takes the stage, however, she starts off strong, but then goes all shrieky. She was having a lil' too much fun, I take it, and was shouting too much for me. She sounds good in some places, but really flat in others. I think about Amanda Overmeyer for the first time in weeks. Not my favorite performance. I'm thinking maybe the first choice woulda been the better. But, alas, I'm alone in my judgement. The judges give all around good comments, and Simon offers "One of my favorite's of the night". I offer a B-.

Anchoring the night is, of course, David Cook, the anti-David Archuleta. He's chosen a doozy: "The Music of the Night" from the Phantom of the Opera. I quickly try to figure out how that goes. Is there a way to rock that out? Hmmmmm.........I don't know. He starts singing and I immediately doze off. At one point, I snap to when he hits one particularly strong note somewhere in the middle. So, at this point I'm trying to get into it. He sounds pleasant, clear, and overall clean. But I'm thinking, "this guy should not do Broadway tunes ever again". Simon, for once, agrees with me, saying it wasn't his thing, but that he made the most of it. Randy and Paula for some reason, slobber all over David, saying how awesome he was. As they're giving him kudos, I'm giving him a B.

So, let's all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" that Syesha is spared from the opening-position elimination jinx. She did really well, right? If anybody should go home, it should be Jason or Brook, hunh? Hunh?! We'll see tomorrow nite! Have a great evenin, my peep(s)! (Is there more than one of you out there yet?) :)