March 25th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
Paige Miles is the latest contestant to be eliminated from this year’s American Idol. After a lifeless performance of the Phil Collins classic Against All Odds, the American public responded by failing to vote in their thousands.
In last night’s bottom three were the weakest performers. Tim and Paige, who the judges claimed had both stopped competing to win weeks ago. Both had given singularly out-of-their-depth performances of classic songs, with Tim Urban slaughtering Queen’s classic Crazy Little Thing Called Love. They were joined in the bottom three by teenage Idol Katie Stevens, whose ability to consistently sing out of tune led me to wonder how she had managed to slip through to the Idol Top 12. Every single one of them deserved to be in the bottom.
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March 24th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
She’s one of the youngest Idol contestants this year, but Katie Stevens takes on Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry. And fails.
Look, here’s the thing. It’s a Fergie song. Therefore, it’s not that difficult to sing. But Katie is barely in tune throughout the song. The performance is middling, but the vocals are just pathetic at this stage of the competition. I know she’s young, and she’s got a lot to learn, but that’s the point: she’s outgunned by the older contestants. A lot of the younger ones are this year.
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March 24th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
It might be the end of the line for Andrew Garcia after a disappointing performance of I Heard It Through The Grapevine on American Idol last night.
This week’s mentor, Miley Cyrus, convinces Andrew to leave behind the guitar for a week and perform without it. It’s a lackluster performance. Garcia’s voice doesn’t work well with this type of song, and his stage presence is uncomfortable. Doing a Marvin Gaye cover has exposed the weaknesses in his voice. A lovable guy, but not good enough to be in the competition. The only thing in his favour is that there were far worse singers tonight.
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March 24th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
Aw, Mike, Big Mike. My American Idol favourite, Michael Lynche takes on the soul classic When A Man Loves A Woman.
He takes the stage accompanied by a string quartet and a pianist, and everything should work – it’s Big Mike, singing a soul song on American Idol! What’s not to like? Well, something’s missing. After winning us over with some excellent performances in every live show so far, Mike seems somewhat half-hearted tonight.
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March 24th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
After taking a dressing down from the judges last week, Crystal Bowersox bounces back with her version of Janis Joplin’s Me And Bobby McGee. Crystal’s drawn comparisons with Joplin since the early auditions, so it’s a high water mark for her to perform a Joplin song.
We watch her being ‘mentored’ by Miley Cyrus (you know, only 7 years younger than Crystal). I really did believe that Crystal – who comes across as a little abrasive at times – would be ready to slap Miley by the end of the session. Instead, she surprises everybody by asking Miley to sign her feminist acoustic guitar (because it’s already been signed by “powerful, beautiful women”). Yes, if Idol doesn’t work out, she can eBay the six-string for a small fortune.
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March 24th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
Aaron Kelly, the teenager with the voice of a 40 year old country singer took on the Aerosmith classic I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing for American Idol‘s Billboard #1 hits week. (Why? Because Love In An Elevator didn’t get to #1? There are better Aerosmith songs, kid.)
Yes, he gave it a country tinge. Everything Aaron touches turns to country. Next week: Aaron sings Rhythm Is A Dancer in the style of Garth Brooks.
It’s funny, but Aaron sounds better by virtual of having the twin catastrophes of Tim and Paige sing before him. We’ve been forewarned about Aaron having laryngitis and tonsillitis this week, so it’s no surprise that he fails to hit the high notes that Steven Tyler reached in the original version. Yeah, you might say he made a valiant attempt, but I almost fell asleep during that performance.
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March 24th, 2010 by Gerard McGarry.
With his model good looks and decent (not brilliant) singing voice, Tim Urban looked like a real contender on American Idol. Until last night. He chose to give a rendition of Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Video of Tim’s performance is at the end of this post.
Unfortunately, that rendition was ultimately lacking in excitement, and Simon Cowell correctly accused Tim of having stopped competing weeks ago. It was a suicidal song choice for Tim. If Paige Miles doing Mariah Carey was punching above her weight vocally-speaking, Tim trying to do Freddie Mercury was always going to be a disaster. In fact, I can’t help wonder if this recent sacrilege of Queen songs – Todrick Hall a few weeks back, Tim last night and the dreaded Jedward – might prompt Freddie to reawaken and sort out these pathetic pretenders. Even a zombie Freddie would be preferable to second-rate singers murdering his music.
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