American Idol’s Top 10 grooved to 50 years’ worth of Motown hits with Smokey Robinson mentoring tonight’s show.
Matt Giraud started off the night with Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” I loved his falsetto and soulful licks. The judges are now official fans and he joins the front-runner club.
Kris Allen impresses Smokey and the judges with his unique and easygoing “How Sweet It Is.” Simon thinks he needs Simon lessons in swagger.
Scott MacIntyre sang Diana Ross’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.” He chose to stick with the piano and go against Paula’s advice from last week. Simon has finally turned on him with a classic “rubbish” review and has now given America permission to say what they have really been thinking about his performances.
Megan Joy sang in her standard style “For Once In My Life.” This really didn’t have any great standout moments, and she seemed to drown in the song. It really was not good.
Anoop Desai stayed with his serious sensitive side singing “Oooo Baby Baby.” He continued his return to favor with a clean solid performance. I agree that now he has found his vocal sweet spot, he needs to start bringing his showmanship back into his performances. If he can merge the last two weeks of great vocals with his first couple of weeks of energy then he is in the running for Top 5 or higher.
Michael Sarver attempted “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” He just didn’t hit his stride, and it felt as if he was fighting with the song the entire time. He admitted as much to Simon … sometimes we as performers just know it isn’t going to work as we walk on the stage. I thought he handled the judges well.
Lil Rounds sings “Heat Wave” in the classic Motown way. She obviously can sing, but I was hoping she would do something a little more relevant, more reflective of something that could be on her album. I think she really lost an opportunity to jump back in the front of the pack by not giving America a “moment.”
Adam Lambert reigned in the craziness and tenderly sang Smokey’s own, “Tracks of my Tears.” He cleaned up his image, literally taking off the black nail polish, and sang the entire song in his great falsetto. This is one of the first times that I not only appreciated his talent, but enjoyed it.
Danny Gokey used his Michael McDonald voice to give America “Get Ready.” I liked it – but no secret that I really love his voice. The judges didn’t think it was his best of the season but for the most part thought it was solid.
Allison Iraheta wailed out “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” I really love this girl’s voice. She came out and used her pipes to SING! She was by far the best of the night.
Scott MacIntyre, Megan Joy and Michael Sarver should be nervous about continuing on to next week. We only have three females so I don’t think Megan is in real trouble and despite his lackluster performances, I really think America has a spot for Scott so my prediction is that Michael will be sent packing … I’m sure the “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and Judges’ Save Jokes are being written right now.
What do you all think? Who do you think will be sent home?
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24 Comments
Megan and Michael are showing their lack of performance experience and perhaps their lack of musical knowledge in their song choices and in their performances. Michael insists on singing up tempo songs when he performs best on ballads so it sounds like he is shouting and for some reason those songs don’t match his persona. Megan chose one of the most common Holiday Inn Lounge songs in the Motown repertoire and I like her but she really really botched it tonight. I felt the pain in my face for her as she sang. I agree that one of them is going home.
I’m now sure Adam is reading my comments because for the first time he actually made his performance about the music and not about him (tongue-in-cheek). A little too falsetto for me but he did not ruin the song thank goodness and I liked it just fine.
I’m glad Alison got the pimp spot tonight. She really did not deserve to be in the botton 3 last week.
Chris is an enigma to me. I keep forgetting him and then when he performs I like him.
I liked the other guys too and particularly liked Matt better tonight than I have before although I have never hated him. But for goodness sake…can Kara quit the sexual innuendos? It just makes her look like a sad old woman and embarasses everyone else!
Phil, I thought you nailed it on your analysis of the night and on your bottom 3 pick. I really hope that you are wrong about them keeping Megan around just because there are so few women left. The lack of females in the competition does not justify keeping someone who is not “pulling her weight”, so to speak. Get her out of there and bring on the talent. As far as I’m concerned her pretty face is the only thing that got her there in the first place. I really appreciated how all the contestants seemed to really be in awe of Barry and Smokey. I felt they showed alot of respect for what those men have done for music. Overall, I enjoyed tonights show 100 times more than last week.
I too agree with you Phil on your thoughts on the contestants tonight. Megan confirmed that she needs to go and really should not have made it to the top 10, especially above Alexis, whose jazzy voice I now miss. I loved Matt as always, hated that he went first, didn’t want people to forget his performance when it came time to vote. Allison proved she should be in the final three at the very least. I did like Adam’s performance tonight better than his others. It was nice to hear him do something with less screaming.
I loved the show tonight. Matt, Kris, Danny, Anoop, Adam….all the guys except Michael and Scott were quite good. Adam redeemed himself this week and showed himself to be a versatile musician and not just theatrical. I can’t vote for him though. Last week settled that.
Allison is simply beyond her years in amazing talent. Wow was she ever good!!! The other females just are not even close to her. Megan should have gone before this week and I seriously hope she goes tomorrow. What a pitiful excuse for a performance. Lil is a good singer but not tonight. Icky stuff really. But she did find a dress to minimize the derriere. Didn’t make her sing well, sadly.
It’s a guys contest for sure, but Allison belongs in the top 5 IMHO.
Looks like Adam is heading for the finale and Megan is heading for home.
14 words for Kara: “You are one of the best singers of the night” is not six words.
Signed, Team Adam
Tonight’s top vote getter is obviously Adam. This thing has been over for weeks.
In second place will be Paula’s moustache. Just curious: How fried must you be to have a moustache drawn on your grill, on national tv, live, and be oblivious to it? I mean really?
Tonight it’s “Megan Joy To The World You’re Going Home”.
And Phil, Can we change the picture? You’re scaring me dude. It looks like a jail in the background. I don’t mean to be rude, but a bird has left a couple droppings on your shoulder.
I am sad! My boy Michael is on his way down. I really like him, but i don’t understand why he keeps picking crappy songs. He essentially is shooting himself in the foot.
Kris and Matt I think are improving. I find that I almost enjoy them now.
Next, I am going to say something that i may never ever say again…I liked Adam’s performance. It was fabulous. And the best thing was that he finally looked like a guy for once. No guy liner no nail polish… It was enjoyable. I still don’t want to like him though.
Anoop…poor boy. He was doing so well and then i am not sure what happened. He got too sure of himself or something. And will someone please take care of his unibrow? It scares me!
Lil….losing interest fast. She just seems very one sided..nothing new from her week to week.
Megan…she needs to go away!!!! I can only hope that Michael is safe and that she will leave. Her warble and crazy shimmy shake is getting hard to tolerate.
Overall, I still love Danny! He’s just too cute.
I agree with Phil. Tonight I think Megan, Scott and Michael will be on the chopping block.
This was the first time I actually thought Adam didn’t totally stink!! Although I did think he looked a little “Kurt Russell”. LOL! Top 3 – Allison, Matt, Kris (in that order). Bottom 3 – Megan (very bottom – I really wish she would just go home), Scott, and then Michael. Everyone else just fell into the middle somewhere for me (Adam, Lil, Danny, Anoop).
I was really disappointed by waht Danny did. In the mentoring session, Smokey suggested that he change the way he was planning to sing the song. He indicated to Smokey that he was right, and that he would change it. Then he walked out on stage and did it his way. How arrogant do you have to be to do that with Smokey sitting on the front row? I love his voice, but he certainly lost my respect!
After looking at a pic of Adam again, maybe he was looking a little more “Wayne Newton” than Kurt Russell…
I agree with everyone on the bottom three. I think of them Megan maybe gone. She was just awful. I didn’t think Michael was that bad to deserve the bashing that he got. I think the judges were hard on him because of what happened last week.
Adam was so much better this week. I think personally he was channeling Elvis.
Still a Danny fan.
I wished Lil would have done a Diana Ross or Gladys Knight song. She was a little disappointing.
Have they checked a birth certificate or drivers license on Allison. She was the best last night. Hard to believe she is only 16.
Phil….I agree with Jerry – you are such a handsome individual, but that pictures does nothing for you. Looks like a bit of bird doo on you too. You just look so somber.
While I didn’t get to watch all of A.I. last night I did see Adam, Michael, Lil, Allison and Danny.
Loved Adam (still) hated Michael and Lil’s choice of songs AND the way they performed. Allison & Danny again did well. From the replay clips I have to agree that Michael, Scott and Megan will be bottom 3 tonight. I just don’t see Michael being able to hang on another week. That was just a horrible performance but since I didn’t see Megan’s her’s might of been worse!
So last night was the first time I could stand to watch Adam. Although I am still not a fan, he did do a much better job of appealing to me.
My favorite of the night was Matt. Talk about a performance. That is how I hope every show starts!
I still love Megan’s voice, but she picks the strangest songs every week. But I hope Michael goes home before she does. He’s a cheese ball and while he may have talent, it’s not on this stage.
I’m 62 & I have liked Adam all the way thru. At first on his Ring of Fire, I thought what the heck???, but it grew on me, I actually liked it. The judges keep saying you need to take a song and make it yours well he did that. I think he or Allison will win this whole thing.
OK so we all agree who the bottom 3 are, but I just LOVE Meghans voice, it is just differant! I hope she isn’t gone because really Scott shouldn’t even be in the top 10…I voted and voted for her last night like I have NEVER done before 7 redials a minute for 30 minutes while watching the news, but only ONCE did it say it was busy….that is so not a good sign. Adam cracked me up, last week he sings Johnny Cash, this week he LOOKS like Johnny Cash! Hard to pick a fave as this year is starting to really shape up.
Just a quick comment about Danny not heeding Smokeys advice during his performance. I read this on another blog and then it did sort of jog my memory…When Smokey was telling him to sing that part of the song along with or instead of letting the backup singers do it, they were at the end of the song. I’m pretty sure the last few times he sang that part of the chorus or whatever, he did sort of sing that part with the girls. Right near the end. I don’t have it recorded so I can’t go back and look at it. Maybe some of you can look at that and let us know if that seemed to be how it happened. In Dannys defense, I really dont think he blatently was ignoring Smokey. If anything, maybe he just didn’t have the “wind” for it. He was sorta movin around alot and maybe he just didn’t think he could pull it off without getting too winded to sound good. (I’m not a great singer but I know if I was running around the stage trying to sing and dance I’d lose my breath easily) One more thing…I thought Allison rocked. That was my favorite performance of her so far. I hope she maintains.
Megan’s voice is definitely different, and because of that, I kept expecting her to use it to her advantage, but she just doesn’t know how to use it. And Memaw, trust me, Megan’s was worse than Michael’s. If you get the chance to hear it, you’ll cringe.
Phil, love your photo, the white is clearly graphics… I would leave it alone.
Adam was the surprise of the evening! He FINALLY showed he can sing and not scream! Good job! I agree with the blogger who said he channeled Elvis……moreso in appearance than stage presence. Anyway, he did justice to Smokey’s song. I also agree with Phil…Megan Joy, Michael and Scott will definitely be in the bottom three…and all three should be sent home. They are no where near the vocal talent of the remaining seven of the Top 10 contestants – and song choice doesn’t matter. They just don’t have “it”.
Adam reminded me of Kurt Russel playing “Elvis”…and sorta had that Chris Issac (sp) look goin.
KsKitty..nooo I said the exact same thing. Kurt Russell!
Me toooo! Kurt Russel