If you didn’t come away from last night’s episode of “American Idol” feeling like this field has no clear-cut winner, you weren’t paying attention. I truly can’t remember a more talented group of finalists, about half of who have a shot to win it all. Of course, I didn’t agree with all of the judges’ comments last night, but I do appreciate the field of talent that they have given us. Here is our recap of the episode of the contestants singing songs from the year they were born in:
Last week I wrote that I thought the judges on “American Idol” were making a big mistake by making Ashton Jones a wild card, and not sending Robbie Rosen through. Was my point made loud and clear? Yes. More on that in a minute.
Last night’s results show was thankfully only an hour, unlike last week’s two-hour marathon. They showed footage of the contestants living in their Hollywood mansion, and then showed their awful group number, a Michael Jackson medley. Blech.
Well, almost. Randy Jackson made reference to the fact that, “Hey, these 13 are here because we picked them.” And he would be correct. I think this is one of the best jobs of judging to get us a field of great singers to choose from ever on “American Idol.” And I credit the exit of Simon Cowell for that. I loved the guy, but he always had that “who can be a star?” question in his head rather than judging who the best vocalists were. This batch of judges is looking for that best singer first and foremost. Which brings us to last night’s performances. The Top 13 chose songs by their own idols, and had the help of Jimmy Iovine and producers such as Don Was to help them with arrangements. Some of them were beyond good, even beyond great. A few were just okay, and just okay in this field will get you sent home fast. Let’s go to the videotape, as it were…..
THE REALLY, REALLY GOOD
Casey Abrams sang Joe Cocker’s version of “A Little Help From My Friends,” and this guy is tailor made to take on Cocker’s music. But he took it up a notch, and showed why he is already a strong contender to win this thing. J-Lo said at one point, she grabbed Randy and said “Wow,” Randy said he’s always excited to watch Casey sing and that it was unbelievable, and Steven said Casey is a “rainbow of talent.” Indeed.
So who saw this coming on “American Idol?” It’s not so much the results that were shocking, but how fast they eliminated semi-finalists to reach the Top 12, which was actually at Top 13. It was truly one of the most exciting episodes I can remember, and as always, there were some good choices and bad choices by both America and the judges.
It went down like this….there were ten seats to the left of Ryan Seacrest, and they would be filled from the 24 seats to Seacrest’s right based on America’s 40 million votes. The Top 5 guys and Top 5 ladies would fill those seats. But after that, the judges would choose three guys and three gals to sing for their lives in order to fill the remaining two chairs as wild cards. Really? They were going to do all of that in two hours? Well, yes they were, and yes they did.
Look, it’s not like these ladies in the Top 24 of “American Idol” suck. But I think there was a distinct difference in the quality of performances from the guys Tuesday night to the girls Wednesday. I think the judges turned in a lousy performance last night as well, propping up several of the singers who just plain sucked, and doling out unnecessary criticism of others who were pretty good. So with that, I’m going to give you the recap based on my own thoughts, and add what the judges said……
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