This season of American Idol is, as Simon Cowell said, turning out to be a very weird one indeed. Well, every season, Simon always says (in commercials) that “we’ve got the best talent yet” and “this is the best season we’ve ever had”. Whoopee.
The contestants who really impressed me at the start of the Top 24 have since gone out – Michael Johns, Carly Smithson and Brook White. Michael Johns and Carly Smithson, though potentially front-runners in the contest, didn’t have enough breakthrough performances to sustain a fan base. I was rooting for them to come up with a heart-stopping number, but other than Johns’ “We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions” and Smithson’s “Jesus Christ Superstar”, they didn’t have many other Idol outings that proved them worthy of winning the competition. Michael Johns’ exit came as quite a surprise. I thought with a suitable song, he could have made it to the final two because he is seriously more charismatic and charming than say, David Cook or David Archuleta. But I guess America doesn’t really know what they’re voting for. Carly should have stayed longer than Brook White or Jason Castro and as I’m writing this, her “Crazy On You” and “Here We Go Again” is lingering in my mind. Her voice is so smooth and husky all at the same time. It has a great tonal quality and with the right song choice, she can be a hit. For these two contestants, I half-suspect not being American killed their chances.
Brook White impressed me with her performance of “Let It Be” but that really became the only song she sang decently well, and a number of nervous, lyric-forgetting performances made me want to strangle her for surviving so long. No offense, but she was starting to irritate me after a while. After “Let It Be”, she sang “Here Comes The Sun” and it was all downhill from then on. Sure, she has a certain likability to her, and she has the potential to sound really good on an acoustic set, but let’s face it, she wasn’t choosing the right songs and I say it again, she was starting to irritate me with her “I’m such an innocent girl who loves singing and performing from my bare heart, and I used to be a nanny!” cutesy bullshit.
Let me now talk about Syesha Mercado. I thought she was all right but I kept mixing her up with Asia’h Epperson and then, I thought there was nothing special about her. Or at least, an okay singer but with no standout quality. She got my attention when I heard her sing The Beatles’ “Got To Get You Into My Life”, which was really the first time she showed any personality and I thought “she’s not half-bad!” A slew of decent performances (Eva Cassidy’s “Yesterday”, Stephanie Mills’ “If I Was Your Woman”, Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and Fantasia’s “I Believe”) made me sit up and really believe she had something special in her. They were a string of technically en pointe performances and to give credit where credit is due, they were demanding songs to sing and she pulled them off. I felt the judges weren’t giving her due credit for the chances she was taking with these bold choices. Then came “One Rock And Roll Too Many” during Andrew Lloyd Webber week and she was the best singer and performer that week. She left many of her fellow contestants out cold (especially Castro’s butchering of “Memory”) and for the first time, I saw that she was enjoying herself immensely and singing to win. If anyone deserves to progress to the top three, it is Syesha, for being the most improved and most hardworking contestant.
Jason Castro has overstayed his welcome. Sure, he was unique at first. And “Hallelujah”, his best performance came too early in the competition because he, like Brook White, became bland and predictable. Not so predictable was his butchering (as I’ve mentioned earlier) of several songs. So, the guitar-playing hippie with the d’locks – I rest my case, you have to go. I don’t even see the qualities of a record-selling artist, let alone still have millions of votes keeping you in.
So, as many predicted early in the competition, it will be a David vs. David final. Not because this is a singing competition, but because this is a competition decided by the popular vote. And it happens that the voting audience is predominantly female, which makes me wonder really, how come better singers (than David A. and David C. and equally charming) from other seasons, like Chris Daughtry, didn’t win the competition. And then I remember that Melinda Doolittle was robbed of her title by shrieky and I’m-so-cute Jordin, and beaten to the final by talent-less Blake, who really didn’t belong in a singing competition. American Idol is such a flawed talent show.
My thoughts on David vs. David? It doesn’t matter, really. They each belong to different genres of music, and other than having female fans with raging hormones (and of course, the same first name), they have little in common. David Archuleta’s voice is excellent but every week is quickly becoming the same – pop ballads given the same silly treatment, à la Mariah Carey; melodic runs that just spoil the simple great melody of the song. He’ll have a sellout debut album but with every single sounding the same, he’s not going to last long. David Cook is unique and has the ability to change up the songs to suit today’s style. I feel that his singing is little too contrived though, that he’s trying too hard to be cool and emo at the same time and it really doesn’t work. He’s trying way too hard and it comes off as artificial, the way he sticks out his tongue slightly and his antics when rocking out a song.
Whatever the outcome of this season, it is definitely not the best season nor talent yet. Not because anyone could have won it, but rather, no one was good enough to win it.
