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.
Okay, so we have finally arrived. “American Idol” last night reached the Top 24, meaning it’s now in America’s hands to vote and out of the hands, mostly, of judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. That, of course, is good news for J-Lo, who had an extremely difficult time, and started crying as the episode ended Wednesday night, saying, “I don’t know if I can do this….” Well, that was a short cry that the producers made a bigger deal out of. She got it together in the first 30 seconds of last night’s episode, and the judges had those contestants march down a mile-long hallway one by one to learn their fate.
First up, the bubbly J-Lo wannabe, Karen Rodriguez, and she was the first one through, due in large part to her “connection” with J-Lo. Next was 17 year old Robbie Rosen, who would learn his fate from Tyler, who is horrible at delivering good news! Anyway, Robbie was in, and that’s good for America, because this kid is really awesome. Next was Tatanyisha Wilson, who was a yes. Then two people I never remember seeing sing were eliminated. Okay.
This is when it must really be hard to be Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez or Steven Tyler. The talent pool for this season’s “American Idol” is one of the best ever, thanks in part (sorry, I’m going to say it) to Simon Cowell not being there to choose good looks over vocal talent. So now, when you get 61 very talented singers and have to pare that down to 24, it’s a difficult task.
Anyway, last night’s episode began with the contestants being bused to Las Vegas to the Mirage, where a running of a Beatles show is behind shown. They were given 24 hours to learn a song and working with AI vocal coaches before performing in front of the judges. But first, they had to sing in front of industry veteran and AI exec this season, Jimmy Iovine. Iovine and his producer friends were brutally honest with the singers, which is something some of them really needed. They also were “encouraged” by “vocal coach from hell” Peggy. Ha!
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