We’re down to the final 7 on “American Idol” and this week, in the spirit of tonight’s special “Idol Gives Back” episode, the contestants were mentored by Alicia Keys and sang inspirational songs. Here is the recap as we saw it…
THE REALLY GOOD
Crystal Bowersox remains about three cuts above everyone else, and last night she hit a grand slam out of the pimp slot. She sang The Impressions’ “People Get Ready” and punctuated a fantastic performance with real tears as she looked out at her dad in the audience. At this point, if Crystal does not win or at least make it to the finale, something is afoot in the universe. Randy said he’s been a fan since Day 1 and gave Crystal a standing ovation….Ellen said she looked beautiful and sounded awesome and keeps evolving….Kara said Crystal took a risk, reached yet another level and schooled everyone else last night….and Simon said “now THAT was inspirational” and that she’s in a different class than everyone else. Yep, pretty much.
As guest blogger, I will open in the only way I should: by offering my sincerest apologies for not getting the blog for last night’s “American Idol” completed in a more timely fashion. I’ve been battling an allergy attack since yesterday (the result, I feel certain, of all the dust I kicked up in my office while scouring the joint for tax receipts), and, quite frankly, I feel like crap. But I know Mike’s got a lot going on these days, what with his big move and all, so I was always going to do this for him. I just had to build up my strength, which I have now done, so with my cup of hot lemon tea with honey sitting by the keyboard, let’s get to talking about who got the boot.
Things kicked off last night with a medley of Elvis Presley songs – “Burning Love,” “Teddy Bear,” “Return to Sender,” and “Viva Last Vegas” – which neither did damage to the reputation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll nor did it any favors. The best part about “Burning Love” was the cute moment where we saw Katie working her knees for all they were worth, and Lee’s vocals on “Teddy Bear” sounded like those of a lounge singer, but I actually kind of dug it. Otherwise, though, I was pretty underwhelmed by the performances, and when “Viva Las Vegas” kicked off, all I could think of was how much better the Dead Kennedys did the song.
From there, the program went green for a minute or so as we were treated to a Ford-sponsored commercial with several of the contestants performing a version of…wait for it…the Polyphonic Spree’s “Light and Day / Reach for the Sun.” How completely and utterly surreal, but it sounded a damned sight better than any of those Elvis covers.
Moving on to the first of the night’s departures, Cap’n Seacrest narrowed down the playing field to three contestants:
* Casey, whose version of “Lawdy Miss Claudy” Mike described as “not bad at all vocally, but just a so-so rating on the entertainment meter.” * Aaron, who offered a take on “Blue Suede Shoes,” which Mike called “cheesy but not horrible.” * Andrew, who Mike buried in the Not So Good column last night, saying, “It wasn’t awful, but not at all star quality and easily the worst of the night.”
So long, Andrew…and, really, was there ever any doubt that you’d be one of the two players leaving the game tonight? But, hey, at least we got your version of James Morrison’s “You Give Me Something” as a farewell, which served to remind us that, all things considered, America probably made the right decision.
Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” showed the workings of karma, but not the way you would think. It started out with Alison Sweeney giving the contestants a pop challenge, in which they had to balance a tray of quarters with one hand, and for each quarter they would get 10 bucks. The person still holding their tray won that amount of quarters times 10. They all showed that it was much harder than it looked, and after a grueling 45 minutes, Michael won the challenge and with 100 quarters won $1000. Total cereal, the sponsor, doubled that money and also gave runner-up Sunshine $650 for having 65 quarters on the tray. Then CNBC’s Suze Orman, a financial whiz, tutored the contestants on how financial health parallels physical health in many ways. She said how she predicted Danny to win last season and that this season she was predicting Sunshine to win. Then Danny made an appearance and worked out with everyone, and he looks great still!
Last night’s episode of “American Idol” was mercifully 90 minutes instead of the usual 120, meaning the judges’ snarky comments and Ryan Seacrest’s annoying banter were kept to a manageable minimum. After Crystal led off, it all kind of was just, as Simon would suggest, like bad karaoke. Of course, they propped up a few that didn’t deserve it, but really, this is still Crystal’s competition to lose now. And the guest mentor? Adam Lambert. Remember him? Here is the recap:
I’m not going to hide the fact that I like “American Idol” or that I watch it religiously–of course, enough to blog about it. But I’m getting tired of how predictable it is sometimes. Last night’s results show was proof of that. As the show began, and Ryan Seacrest mentioned the “judge’s save” again, I turned to Mrs. Mike and said that tonight was the night they were going to save someone. When Seacrest announced that the producers had told him the results were “shocking”…well then, we all knew for sure the judges would use their save, without even knowing who had the lowest number of votes.
After all that, Seacrest introduced the Top 9 and they sang a Beatles medley, pre-recorded and auto-tuned for our listening pleasure.
