Thursday, March 3. One of the main questions in watching this year’s “American Idol” is, how much will the voters be swayed by the comments of the judges, and if they are, whose opinion will they trust the most? In the past, they generally agreed with the feedback from the panel and trusted Simon Cowell’s judgment the most. Yesterday, I based my prediction of which of the 24 finalists would be voted into the Top 10 and which would be offered second chances as “wild card” choices on a combination of performance and judge comments.
Well, I guessed all of the women correctly: Karen Rodriguez, Lauren Turner, Thia Megia, Lauren Alaina, and Pia Toscano got in. And I got four out of the five guys correctly: James Durbin, Scotty McCreery, Jacob Lusk, and Casey Abrams. The viewers were smarter than I gave them credit for as they rejected judges favorite Brett Loewenstern, replacing him with Paul McDonald, who I’d predicted the judges might save as a “wild card” choice.
I’d forgotten that the judges would give several contestants a second chance to perform tonight before choosing three additional candidates to add to the Top 10. But in true “American Idol” fashion, they did a terrible job of explaining what was going to happen at the top of the hour. Even after the Top 10 was chosen and before the “second chance” auditions began, it didn’t get much clearer: Randy Jackson explained that the judges would choose six contestants—three guys and three gals. Host Ryan Seacrest said they could do any song they’ve performed in the past, but then looked at the judges table to confirm that they still hadn’t made up their minds how many would be picked from those six (even when it had already been announced in the press that it would be three).
Given the performances of those six, I was hoping they wouldn’t stretch it to four because only two really earned it.
1. Ashton Jones, who’d done an OK job on Wednesday, deserved a second chance, and she was chosen first. This time, she picked a better song in Jennifer Holliday’s “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” But she didn’t overwhelm me with this classic which is supposed to overwhelm you. In the end, I felt she was just a competent R&B singer.
2. Stefano Langone, whom I’d picked as a possible “wild card” choice yesterday, performed the unknown Smokey Robinson song “I Need You Now.” It didn’t do much for me at first until he got to the chorus, which allowed him to repetitiously get emotional. Then, he gained some traction.
3. Kendra Chantelle, another one of my predicted “wild card” choices, offered a weak version of “Georgia On My Mind,” once again demonstrating what’s plagued the average “Idol” finalists since 2002: The ability to belt on choruses but inability to sing the low notes of quieter verses.
4. Jovany Barreto was a surprise pick. The Cuban American followed Tuesday night’s “I’ll Be” with another boring ballad—Jon Secada’s “Angel.” Perhaps figuring what worked for Karen Rodriguez (she did Mariah Carey’s “Hero” in English and Spanish) might also work for him, Baretto performed it bilingually, starting off in Spanish and moving into English. Emotional song as it is, his performance still didn’t do much for me.
5. The wrinkles in Naima Adedapo’s forehead returned as she sang Donny Hathaway’s “For All We Know,” almost crying in parts (I’m going to have to leave the room when she sings in the future—she’s too painful to watch). There was too much melisma from the start, and she didn’t ride tightly enough to the melody, but she did have a strong voice and seemed to impress the audience with… what else? A looong held note.
I really wanted Clint Jun Gamboa to be given a shot (and genuinely felt for him earlier when he stood on the stage awaiting the results of the Top 10, the tension proved to be too much, and broke down into sobs) but feared the judges would give it to this year’s Justin Guarini—Brett Loewenstern. Instead, they picked…
6. Robbie Rosen, who proceeded to do a too wispy version of “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” by Elton John. Arrrghgh.
I was also surprised “mini-Bette Midler” Lauren Turner didn’t get a second chance.
Based on tonight’s performances, the only two who deserved to be saved were Stefano Langone and Naima Adedapo. I hoped for Kendra Chantelle because—well, she’s nice to look at, OK? The judges agreed with me and picked the first two, but they went with Ashton Jones over Chantelle. Just watch: Jones will be “voted out” by the audience within two weeks anyway. She’s simply too ordinary.
According to Fox 11’s Jane Yamamoto, next week, the Top 13 will perform songs first done by their personal idols—the singers who inspired them. Stay tuned.
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