It seems that the past few weeks have gone by so quickly, and the show, even more hurriedly.
Last night felt like a fast-forward race, with judges and Ryan speaking in quick tongue just to get through to the next artist.
No more guest muse or backstories–just the singing and judges commets. Even the Disco theme was more like a
cheesy wedding circa 1980, when Disco was dying, than a blazing Studio 54 Saturday, in all its glory.
Last night's performances seemed to be good all across the board, with major faults keeping intensity levels capped.
Lil Rounds started the night off a bit shaky with her version of "Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman." Lil was treading unstable ground between pitchy, and trying too hard.
These are the types of performances that simply cannot happen at this point.
Lil even defended herself saying "I didn't think that was karaoke," yet none of the judges used that word this week. It's seemed as if Lil's defensive stance lingered from the judges confusing and disappointing comments from previous weeks. Lil Rounds has a great voice, but it's evident she may be leaving tonight, despite what we're seeing in some of the polls. After so many weeks of loyal "Idoling," it would be great if they were all winners on some level. But, we all know we can only have one.
The best performance of the night was indeed Adam Lambert's. Just when you think you're going to get sick of him, he does something that takes everyone for a joyous vocal ride. While the version was almost too much of a departure for my own disco-loving taste, Adam understands music and entertainment, temper, and timing and emotion like no other on that stage, and it's obvious to many he's already won. His version of "If I Can't Have You" was original, and we cant deny that whether we love it or not. Many here at the Audition Portal offices have been rooting for Adam and Danny since day one.
But where is Danny been the last 2 weeks? Are we feeling the same level of enthusiasm we all had in the early stages of the competition?The consensus here is that Danny's magic has worn off, and his general appeal, including his clumsy dancing, has taken a slight derailment off the path to second place. Our group of opinionated actors and singers that work here have pegged Allison as the second place contestant for the last 2 weeks. Who can nudge her?
It's quite possible Danny can regain footing. It's also possible Kris could slip in there if he keeps up his consistently good performances, and heartthrob appeal.
Kris Allen's stripped down, and Santana-ish version of Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money" was more like a Jack Johnson channeling session with his own mark of of acoustic swagger. If you paid close attention to the band, sitting up there with Kris, they were genuinely in love with that arrangement and really grooving with alongside Kris, as if they'd been playing together for a lifetime– especially, the musician playing the cardboard box. Nice to see Kris holding his own for the last several weeks.
Overall, disco night was a hurried trip down memory lane with very little to rememebr. In fact we struggled for minutes trying to remember who did what song. And, was there a disco ball somewhere on that stage? See, we don't remember, and that's not good.
Now we all had to remember last night set list strictly from memory, no Googling was allowed. That was a rule!
These were the most memorable songs in order and according to our illustrious java-amped staff at Audition Portal's New York office.
1. Adam: "If I Can't Have You"
2. Kris: "She Works Hard for the Money"
3. Allison: "Hot Stuff"
4. Danny: We actually forgot for ten minutes, and then someone remembered! "September" it was simply okay. Strong vocals but again something missing.
5. Anoop: Again, hands in the air, minds twisting, faces contorting, we couldn't remember between 6 of us. We knew it was good, but we just couldn't remember the song!
6. Oh Matt. Yes, Matt. Good vocal performance of "Stayin Alive," and quite prophetic, but the Timberland hat and the overdone, falsetto trills are not the Matt we fell in love with at the beginning.
Let's see what tonight bring us on American Idol. Check back with us here tomorrow for our original, not "scraped" Blog follow-up story!
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