Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Crazy and Wonderful Blooper Night on American Idol



A night that could have been quite predictable with guest artist Neil Diamond actually turned into quite weird and wonderful TV when one of the judges (Paula) got discombobulated and started talking about things that the viewers had not seen yet. Yes Virgina, there really is a Santa Claus. But no, America, this program really is not live as we could see tonight if we were paying attention. The five finalists each had to do two songs; the judges were to review them after all songs were done towards the end. Paula jumped the gun and reviewed both songs for one of the contestants, before they had even sung their second round. I thought it was charming, and loved seeing the 4th wall broken on event television. Obviously FOX loved it too, because it was not edited out.

So what happened? Here is my ranking after tonight:

#5--Jason. Pretty and nice but not enough to compete as a finalist
#4--Brooke. Renditions of Neil Simon songs were surreal in their inappropriateness for a major TV competition. Brooke would be perfect at a children's birthday party singing "I'm a Believer". But Barney the Dinosaur would be better. And the Monkees would be best of all.
#3--Syesha-I don't care what Simon says (and I am usually lock-step in agreement) but he is all wrong about this lady. She has major Broadway star quality. Send her straight to Times Square and the Tony's about 2 years from now.
#2--David A.--The kid really pulled it out of the fire tonight with "Going to America". Beautiful, patriotic, and the audience loved it. He's got something. I'm still not quite sure what, and it's getting down to the wire. Keeps me coming back for more.
#1--David Cook, of course--What a surprise. Just when you think he can't possibly take it up a notch again, he does it. His rendition of little known Neil Diamond song, "All I Really Need is You", was stunning and I've posted it above. Ready to become a hit right this moment. Neil, get ready to get some residuals from a song you thought was dead. Note to Jane, head over to iTunes and get this song on your iPod immediately so help soften the commute into L.A. tomorrow morning.

That's all, folks! Well done, for a wild and unexpected night, American Idol!

5 comments:

Scott said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott said...

Oh, Jane, where do I begin (as if my post that immediatley followed yours isn't long enough). I so agree with you on tonight's performances and the remaining contestants. Then again we usually agree. But I'm not quite as generous about Jason Castro anymore. I really haven't enjoyed anything he's done for 3 weeks now, and I hope he's booted tomorrow. I did a little web surfing this afternoon to see what critics and fans predicted for tonight, and many said Archie would pick "America," and he did! Patriotism bought Kristie Lee Cook three more weeks, but in Archie's case I think his fans are his fans and not much will change. You know how I feel about Cookie. I went back and listed several times and quickly came to the conclusion that both of his songs weren't just excellent, they were off the charts amazing. I now have 9 itunes downloads from him.. it's a whole album! Every song he's cut so far could be a hit today. His studio versions are perfect, and hats off to the AI musicians and producers on these singles. They're superb.
As for Paula, read my post for a different theory. I believe it was live, and that she's just as confused as ever, and simply missred her notes. She doesn't respond well to "frenzied!" I dont' really think she thought she heard another song, she was just parroting her notes so that she would have something to say! I think Ryan threw them a curve ball by going to them. They were supposed to wait until the second performances were done.
Either way, flake city for Paula!

BTW, I deleted my first version of this because I caught too many typos and I'm OCD and anal retentive, so that's what was deleted!

Scott said...

Now it's morning. Time to check itunes to see check your theory and lo & behold, Neil Diamond's "All I Need is Your" is a "most popular" download! You're right, it works everytime... Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and Chris Cornell all got a big boost in downloads after AI covers of their songs.

Jane said...

Cool! I am not a research maven for nothing! I just knew the numbers for that song would get a huge boost. Amazing and well deserved.

Scott said...

Does anyone think Cookie might perform "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" on the final night? I think they get to pick their own song at least once, right? It would be a risky move... some might think he's pandering... but if he knocked our socks off with it, as I'm confident he would, tears and all, with his brother back in the audience, I think it could be a powerful "secret weapon" against Archie. It doesn't seem like Cook is the type to play dirty... and may not need to... I'm starting to see a lot of people turn away from Archie... acknowledging that this year, he's really not THE best, and that he needs to work on his performance skills. In fact, many fans on line seem to think Syesha has done so well in the past two weeks, she could knock Archie out. That would really spice things up!!