American Idol

[Arles]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

the other night on my local fox televison news, they did a report about a web page trying to keep scott.

i wonder if they just decided to boot scott regardless of the votes.

As you get fewer contestants, you need more votes to stay alive. My guess is that much of the constantine vote went to Anthony and that group didn't have enough votes to keep Scott alive with just 5 left.

[Mustang]

Ok, time for my conspiracy theory.

Last week, Scott hung around because people probably felt sorry for him after what Simon said about "Packing your bags" and he got a boost.

I think this week, Simon suggested that Vonzell could be on the way out. He seemed to almost say it with a smirk. Personally, I think he knows the Vonzell and Scott probably have the same type of voting base (R&B) and I think he was trying to pull votes away from Scott by suggesting Vonzell was in trouble. I think Simon really wanted Scott off weeks ago...

I think Scott's attitude helped doom him this week. I still remember him being a dick to those 2 other guys way back when they were at the 48 people left stage.. Glad he's freakin gone. Out of the 4 left, I want Bo to win but, could deal with any of the remaining 4 winning.. even Anthony.. (god forbid though...)

[ISiddiqui]

Yay... America made the right call for once .

This season seems similar to Season 2 in that it seems that everyone knows who'll be the final two (caveat, just because it seems that way doesn't mean it'll happen ). The funny thing, however, is that American Idol is a competition to find the next 'pop' star and those two, Carrie and Bo, would probably end up releasing albums under different music genres (country and rock, respectively). Just amuses me.

Though I guess people would get tired of all the pop stars and root for (and get) people of other genres which are popular in the US.

[MizzouRah]

Yeay.. ya...yahoo...yapples...

bye Scott!

[judicial clerk]

For a second there I thought they were going to tell scott and Anthony both to get the hell out.

[EagleFan]

Finally!!!! Coincidence that it happened right after the votefortheworst.com got shut down?

He should have been gone a very long time ago. Not only isn't he that great of s singer, he is a total a##hole.

[ShaqFu]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

The funny thing, however, is that American Idol is a competition to find the next 'pop' star and those two, Carrie and Bo, would probably end up releasing albums under different music genres (country and rock, respectively). Just amuses me.

Though I guess people would get tired of all the pop stars and root for (and get) people of other genres which are popular in the US.

That's the concept, but I believe rockers have won elsewhere in the world. "Pop" is supposed to mean "popular" and many times country or rock will end up on the "pop" chart.

[Critch]

Well that was good. Anthony gets sent to the couch and you can hear him say something like 'nothing's certain yet', so he's smart enough to realize that maybe they've changed things round and he's not safe yet. Scott gets sent to the couch too, he's too busy giving 'mad props' to God (who is apparently a huge AI fan) to realize that he may not be safe, he's already in full celebration mode. If he had half a brain he should have realized that he was being sent to sit beside Anthony and thought 'Geez, I'm f***ed'. What kind of f-ed up competition would it be if Anthony and Scott were the top two?

Then the bad news bit to Anthony just made it even crueler on Scott. Which was good.

[judicial clerk]

he should have realized that he was being sent to sit beside Anthony and thought 'Geez, I'm f***ed'.

funny.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Critch

Scott gets sent to the couch too, he's too busy giving 'mad props' to God (who is apparently a huge AI fan) to realize that he may not be safe, he's already in full celebration mode.

I saw that too. The minute he sent Anthony to the sofa without saying he was safe - just, go sit on the sofa - you knew what they were doing. When he told Scott to sit down and Scott reacted the way he did, I just started laughing. What an idiot!

[Joe]

from etonline- This week the categories are Nashville and then "The Philadelphia Song," meaning songs written by the super writing team of KENNY GAMBLE and LEON HUFF.

Should be pretty tough for Carrie.

[rkmsuf]

Could this show drag out any longer?

[Ksyrup]

That's what I read elsewhere. Gamble and Huff apparently wrote a lot of Motown stuff, Lou Rawls, etc.

[Joe]

oh, and votefortheworst.com is back up and running. now they are putting their power behind Anthony.

[Easy Mac]

Carrie: Damn, she sung the shit out of that song. I hate country music, but that was very damn good. And she's so damn cute. And she actually looked to be having fun.

Bo: A nice performance. It sounded like he started notes a little flat on occasion. This song presented a few times where he could really get the audience off their feet, and he didn't seem like he felt like making the effort. "Its a... GREAT DAY....", he should have put more effort into it, it would have paid off.

Vonzell: A nice job of singing. Nothing spectacular. She still seems to have some problems moving from note to note. Since its down to four, its becoming harder to knit pick each contestant, as we're finally down to people who can sing (so far). Weird slipup for a second, like she had to swallow. That last long note really wasn't good. She totally missed it. You can't control everything going on in your life, but now isn't the time to let emotion get control.

Anthony: This didn't start out well. He just sounds 1-2 notes off on every note. I'm content saying he's placing himself firmly in last. I really think I didn't listen to the same thing as the judges. I thought he sounded like shit.


So far:
Carrie
Bo
Vonzell
Anthony

[Joe]

i thought anthony was quite good.

[Easy Mac]

It must just be a Fantasia thing, where the voice annoys me so much that it always sounds like shit.

[Eaglesfan27]

During that second song, Carrie actually seemed to be smoldering. Huge change from the vacant eye look.

[Easy Mac]

That was the only thing smouldering after that rendition.

[Joe]

hahaha they showed john stevens in the audience.

[Easy Mac]

Carrie: I didn't really like her performance this time around. Her long "good" notes weren't really that good. It seemed she had a pitch problem or something like that. Meh. I'll concur with Simon.

Bo: As usual, Bo goes with the rug first, then the glasses. Nice little porn guitar going. Not a lot of singing going on for Bo. Much better "performance" right now. Stepped it up in the last minute or so. There we go. Brilliant performance. The singing was far secondary, but it doesn't really seem to matter right now.

Vonzell: Sounds flat at the start. She seems to be running out of steam. Her dressing up of the end seems to win people over, but it really wasn't a good performance at all.

Anthony: He does the same song as Carrie? OK... And he starts it out about as well... or poorly. Finally starting to do something with the song. Actually doing it better than Carrie. GOod song for a 9th rate crooner.

2nd batch:
Bo
Anthony
Vonzell
Carrie

[Easy Mac]

For the night:
Bo - He overcame a plodding first song with a great performance with his 2nd song. Never really felt good vocally, but a great performance.
Carrie - A great first rendition, the worst 3nd rendition, but I think the other 2 were inconsistent enough to be no better or equal.
Anthony - A horrible first song (in my opinion). A much better rendition of the 2nd than Carrie. A nice night.
Vonzell - She sounded off all night. The big notes at the end wins her votes, but the rest of her songs she has trouble with. I don't know if it was the emotion of the night, but she was off the whole time.

Overall:
Bo - Should win
Carrie - She's hot
Vonzell - She's cute
Anthony - He's the worst

Anthony should go, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Vonzell go. Stranger things have happened.

[Swaggs]

Sadly enough, I thought Anthony was pretty good tonight. I thought he and Bo did the best.

Carrie was just okay, but will probably be safe since the judges laid into her a little bit.

I think Vonzell might go this week.

[Solecismic]

Tonight's version of the Solecismic Ratings is presented live from Amherst, New Hampshire. Now, American Idol was all set up to have the contestants sing songs written in Amherst, but no amount of research could produce any.

So, they had to turn to Philadelphia and Nashville. A Tale of Two Cities. Remembering the Dickens classic, there were a lot of beheadings and stories of class conflict. Standard Dickens stuff. We all had to read it in high school, because it's accessible and vastly overrated.

Much like tonight's caderie of performances. Just not all that impressive, not living up to the hype. The contestants knew it. The judges knew it. The audience didn't know it, but they're never let in on anything - Paula passes out her happy pills as they come in the door.

1A. Vonzell. Her first song started out in a disasterous manner. She was off-tempo, unhappy about something. Not sure what was going on, but it may have been just home-sickness. She picked it up a bit in the closing bars, but it was still an unmemorable performance. Her second song was one of the precious few highlights of the evening. She sang with energy, and hit a much higher percentage of her notes than usual. Scores of 65 and 87.

1B. Bo. He picked a safe first song, and sung it passably. It was a snooze-fest with a degree of difficulty approaching a rousing round of Frere Jacques. Bo's grandmother responded by showing him the bottom of her daughter's shoes. In Alabama, that means your very soul is in danger. Bo responded by singing a tribute to Donald Trump in the second song. I think he's a Kendra fan myself. It wasn't great, but it had energy and Bo's usual professionalism. Scores of 70 and 82.

3. Carrie. Her opener was the best peformance of the night. She clearly enjoyed herself, and while she seemed a bit tired in the late innings, it was a solid double into the gap. Everything fell apart for her with the second song. She was uncharacteristically off-key throughout the performance, and it was without a doubt her worst job to date. Scores of 88 and 56.

4. Anthony. Tonight, he seemed to like holding his notes a little too long. And tonight, many of those notes were embarrassingly wrong. Seeing him up there with the other three was a lot like one of those old Sesame Street puzzles, "which one of these things just doesn't belong." Well, if you guessed it's Anthony, you'd be dead on. Strangely enough, both he and Carrie chose the same "Philadelphia" song. Just after they bragged that one of their songs is on the radio once every few minutes. Neither rendition was worth a damn. Scores of 55 and 56.

To date:

1. Carrie 83
2. Bo 80
3. Vonzell 74
4. Anthony 62

At this point, I have to think the Anthony craze has just about run its course. I didn't mind seeing Scott go last week, but if he stays another week, it's at the expense of a much more deserving singer. And that shouldn't happen.

[RPI-Fan]

That 14 minute stat didn't do anything for me... there are probably 50 radio stations per state, so 2500 in the U.S. that play that kind of music.

So that's 2500 stations, playing 8 songs per hour, 24 hours a day, or 480,000 songs per day, or 333 songs per minute. That means it takes these radio stations 4,667 songs to get to ONE from those artists. Not all that impressive, IMO.

[FBPro]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

It must just be a Fantasia thing, where the voice annoys me so much that it always sounds like shit.

Classic..

[Ksyrup]

It's a good thing the wife and I missed the live performances at 8pm, because we wouldn't have been able to fast forward through them if we hadn't. Ugh, what a bad night of performances. When Anthony gives the only two consistently good performances from one contestant, you know it's a bad night (though Simon nailed the "soul" thing perfectly - I just got through saying the same thing to my wife).

I thought Carrie was awful on both songs. IIRC, the pink-haired chick from last year sang Sin Wagon, and it was far better than Carrie's version. Vonzell was bad - I've come to the conclusion she is only good at singing up-tempo disco and 80's pop songs, where the music, the backup singers, and her energy can overcome her lackof technical vocal ability. Bo's first song was another horrible choice, like last week's, but he gave a great performance the second time around. Anthony clearly has the best voice in the competition; it's just too bad he is a blank slate as a singer/performer. To think he actually outdid Carrie on the same song...wow.

Just like last year, this competition has dragged on way too long, and everyone is just on cruise control, with Anthony desperately trying to save himself. They should cut 2 people per episode from 12 to 2. Maybe that would help.

[Cuckoo]

I hate country music so everyone was horrible the first way through in my opinion. I thought Carrie was much better than everyone else did in the second batch, and I only thought Bo was decent.

Overall for me:

Bo
Carrie
Vonzell
Anthony

Tonight:

Carrie
Bo
Vonzell
Anthony

Federov has to go; I just don't think he's in the same league as the other three.

[Rizon]

What the hell is with the timing on Carries second song? It sounds like either she or the band is way off.

[Joe]

if it was based on just this week, Carrie would be going home.

[Critch]

Carrie was horrible, Bo was same as usual but his ok voice will be ignored cos he's a showman, Vonzell was ok but the tears will get votes, Anthony was pretty good considering he's Anthony, but he's still going home this week.

[FBPro]

Originally Posted by Rizon

What the hell is with the timing on Carries second song? It sounds like either she or the band is way off.

Simon seemed to think it was the band, based on his comments.

[Daimyo]

I can't stand Anthony and he's pretty much been in my bottom 2 or 3 the whole competition... however, I thought he was somehow pretty easily the best tonight. Vonzell was probably the worst overall, but Carrie's second song was easily the worst of the night for me. I really hope Anthony goes home, but I think it will be Vonzell. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it is Carrie.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Daimyo

I can't stand Anthony and he's pretty much been in my bottom 2 or 3 the whole competition... however, I thought he was somehow pretty easily the best tonight. Vonzell was probably the worst overall, but Carrie's second song was easily the worst of the night for me. I really hope Anthony goes home, but I think it will be Vonzell. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it is Carrie.

I'd be shocked if it was Carrie. All indications are that she has been consistently getting the most or 2nd most votes most weeks. I think Vonzell might be the surprise departure, however I agree that the crying may get her some sympathy votes. However, Anthony is the one who deserves to go home based on the entire competition.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, but it's pretty obvious that under normal voting circumstances, the current weeks' performances seem to carry the most weight. Like when Bo was put in the bottom 3. Not saying I think Carrie is going home, but it wouldn't shock me. Simon was clearly agitated that the band screwed up Carrie's song, and certainly, the people who arrange the songs for them probably have a lot more input than the performers themselves, but I've never seen one of the judges come right out and blame an arrangement like that. It's clear who they want to win. At most, they'll usually just say it was the wrong song choice and/or not a compelling performance - not point to the band and say, "It's their fault."

Vonzell will obviously get sympathy votes for her mental breakdown for unknown reasons. She still has limited ability as a singer/performer, IMO - she's only been really good doing dancy disco/80's songs. And Anthony, of course, is only good at non-descript ballads. In fact, none of the remaining 4 has any crossover appeal whatsoever, but then, I guess the same could be said of Fantasia and Rueben. Only Kelly Clarkson appears to be truly legit so far. And that's just because she's gone from singing AI ballads to impersonating Avril Lavigne (at least that's my take after hearing a minute or so of her single).

I really enjoy this show, except I hate the entire idea of it and what it produces. That's kinda weird, isn't it?

[Critch]

critch Rule of Diminishing AI Talent:

Kelly > (Rueben + Clay)/2 > Fantasia > (Anthony + Vonzell + Carrie + Bo)

Been pretty underwhelming for me this season. Last season wasn't too good either, but this season has been distinctly middling for me. Nobody really good, nobody really bad.

And I agree with Daimyo that Anthony somehow put out the best performance this week, he's got a good voice if you like the kind of stuff he does.

[Thomkal]

Here's my rankings of each round:

Country:

1. Carrie-I should dock her for song choice. I never thought I'd hear Sin Wagon again after Amy Adams sang it last year. With all those country songs out there and she chose that one? Good thing she sang it well and gave it personality and performance.

2. Anthony-He seems to have a bad week/good week with me. This was a good week. Song choice was a bit odd since it was another group song, but he's at his best (such as it is) with ballads. I love it when he does that thing where he goes up or down a note in mid-word or whatever that is.

3. Bo-He seemed embarassed to be singing country or just very uncomfortable with it. Who cares how he's done in the past, judges should have nailed him on this one because it was bad.

4. Vonzell-Always the emotionally fragile, she finally let it affect her performance. Should have been a good song for her despite it being country, but was just awful. No pity points from me for the tears.

Philly Songwriters:

1. Anthony-Did a much better job of the song than Carrie and deserves credit for that. It did sound a lot like the Simply Red version.

2. Bo-surprising choice that Fox would let the theme song for an NBC show be sung. Vocals were blah, performance is what keeps him in the game and likely winning it for him.

3. Vonzell-I give her credit for coming back strong from the first performance, and it was a good job overall. Still had some vocal problems with it.

4. Carrie-Ugh. That was butchery. And she was back to more of a robotic performance too. I did like the end part of it better than the beginning of it though.

Overall Anthony had the most consistently good vocal performances, so he gets my vote for tonight. It'll be interesting to see where all the Scott votes go. Anthony has been in the bottom 3 a lot, so he's probably going to go tonight, but it wouldn't surprise me if Vonzell went based on her performances last night. Carrie and Bo have too much momentum behind them to be eliminated yet.

[Ksyrup]

Carrie singing a song called Sin Wagon was about as believable as Paris Hilton singing Like a Virgin. I didn't think she pulled it off at all - the vocals were singy/talky and didn't sound all that great. She could have gone with a better uptempo choice with lyrics that fit her better or were just neutral.

I didn't even know Simply Red sang that song, but I told my wife that's what Anthony sounded like in the middle of the song. Pretty weird.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Here's my rankings of each round:

Country:

1. Carrie-I should dock her for song choice. I never thought I'd hear Sin Wagon again after Amy Adams sang it last year. With all those country songs out there and she chose that one? Good thing she sang it well and gave it personality and performance.

Nowhere NEAR as good as Amy Adams' version IMO, despite Amy's getting the boot after singing it.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Nowhere NEAR as good as Amy Adams' version IMO, despite Amy's getting the boot after singing it.

That was my take as well. I wouldn't call Amy's "memorable," although I guess I did remember that she sang it and that it was better. I remembered the song and the hair, but not her name.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Nowhere NEAR as good as Amy Adams' version IMO, despite Amy's getting the boot after singing it.

I agree. Lets hope that's an omen for tonight.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

Tonight's version of the Solecismic Ratings is presented live from Amherst, New Hampshire. Now, American Idol was all set up to have the contestants sing songs written in Amherst, but no amount of research could produce any.

So, they had to turn to Philadelphia and Nashville. A Tale of Two Cities. Remembering the Dickens classic, there were a lot of beheadings and stories of class conflict. Standard Dickens stuff. We all had to read it in high school, because it's accessible and vastly overrated.

Much like tonight's caderie of performances. Just not all that impressive, not living up to the hype. The contestants knew it. The judges knew it. The audience didn't know it, but they're never let in on anything - Paula passes out her happy pills as they come in the door.

1A. Vonzell. Her first song started out in a disasterous manner. She was off-tempo, unhappy about something. Not sure what was going on, but it may have been just home-sickness. She picked it up a bit in the closing bars, but it was still an unmemorable performance. Her second song was one of the precious few highlights of the evening. She sang with energy, and hit a much higher percentage of her notes than usual. Scores of 65 and 87.

1B. Bo. He picked a safe first song, and sung it passably. It was a snooze-fest with a degree of difficulty approaching a rousing round of Frere Jacques. Bo's grandmother responded by showing him the bottom of her daughter's shoes. In Alabama, that means your very soul is in danger. Bo responded by singing a tribute to Donald Trump in the second song. I think he's a Kendra fan myself. It wasn't great, but it had energy and Bo's usual professionalism. Scores of 70 and 82.

3. Carrie. Her opener was the best peformance of the night. She clearly enjoyed herself, and while she seemed a bit tired in the late innings, it was a solid double into the gap. Everything fell apart for her with the second song. She was uncharacteristically off-key throughout the performance, and it was without a doubt her worst job to date. Scores of 88 and 56.

4. Anthony. Tonight, he seemed to like holding his notes a little too long. And tonight, many of those notes were embarrassingly wrong. Seeing him up there with the other three was a lot like one of those old Sesame Street puzzles, "which one of these things just doesn't belong." Well, if you guessed it's Anthony, you'd be dead on. Strangely enough, both he and Carrie chose the same "Philadelphia" song. Just after they bragged that one of their songs is on the radio once every few minutes. Neither rendition was worth a damn. Scores of 55 and 56.

To date:

1. Carrie 83
2. Bo 80
3. Vonzell 74
4. Anthony 62

At this point, I have to think the Anthony craze has just about run its course. I didn't mind seeing Scott go last week, but if he stays another week, it's at the expense of a much more deserving singer. And that shouldn't happen.

Jim, I love your games, but your taste in music sucks cow-balls. Bo kicked ass. I had goosebumps. Maybe that's partly because my wife is head-over-heels for him, but still. Come on man, he was AT LEAST as good as Carrie (who was great too). I just think you're totally biased toward Carrie, which is all good I guess.

[Schmidty]

By the way, I just watched it again on Tivo, and I really think Bo is amazing. Carrie is as well. Either of them could win it all and deserve it. I just think that Bo is a MUCH better performer.

[finkenst]

and vonzell was just horrible last night.

almost as bad as ... Janae(?)'s performance in the first final 12 show.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by finkenst

and vonzell was just horrible last night.

almost as bad as ... Janae(?)'s performance in the first final 12 show.

just in the first one? they all sucked.

[Ksyrup]

Do they go out of their way to pick the lamest music they can find for these ensemble songs? Islands in the Stream?! Run for the hills!!!

[TLK]

The Ford commercial-song was a bust too....

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Do they go out of their way to pick the lamest music they can find for these ensemble songs? Islands in the Stream?! Run for the hills!!!

What do you call Dolly Pardon laying down in a river?

Thanks to my 4th grade shop class!!!!!!!!!!

[Easy Mac]

All right america!!! 2 for 2... The V goes next week.

[Joe]

anthony is gone... I'm kinda sad.