American Idol Top 13

American Idol Top 13

There are 13 people this week competing to get into the top 10.  Some of them were wildcards and others were voted in by the viewers.  There are a couple voted in by the viewers that have me shaking my head.

The 3 judges were introduced and sashayed to their seats.  Steven is minus the pirate puffy shirt this week, Jennifer is in an animal print dress and her lipstick is too red.  Randy of course is still wearing the ill fitting cardigans this season.  For the last 10 seasons this guy has dressed horribly.  Please help this guy out STAT!

This season the Idol wannabees are working with producers from Interscope records.  Jimmy the head big whig is creepy looking.  Each contestant is singing a song from their favorite Idol.

Shania Twain is the first idol pick.  Singing first is one of my favorites Lauren.  She is going to go the country route this season.  Luckily she can sing any kind of style.  Kind of a boring song.  Very good vocally and she is entertaining but kind of flat.  Doesn’t really blow me away.  The judges like to watch her but I don’t think they are blown away since the song is kind of unchallenging.  First up to give her news is Steven.  He agrees with me.  Jennifer wants her to kick it to high gear. Randy starts with his Yo of course.  Over under for Yo’s of the night is 30….Randy wants her to shine beyond belief.  Lauren is rattled.  She is 16 and is trying to play the Kellie Pickler card.  Could be too Kitch for us.  Hang in ther e Lauren and just let go!

Casey is inspired by Joe Cocker.  The song he sings is A little Help From My Friends.  The first time he heard it was on the Wonder Years.  Wow, that makes me feel old.  How spazzy is Casey going to be?  I like Casey.  He sings all over the place and it works.  He has the Gospel singers with him.  The judges are going to love this because he just lets go when he sings and manages to entertain us.  Jennifer is bouncing in her seat, Randy and Steven are bobbing their heads like bobbleheads.  Doesn’t Casey look like a grown up version of a cabbage patch kid?  Judges love him.  He is safe. 

Ashthon yes that is how she spells it is inspired by none else Diana Ross.  Perfect choice for her since she has the untamed hair and super diva attitude.  She really turns me off. She must have watched hours of Diana Ross tape because she is acting just like her on stage.  She sounds horrible to me.  She sounds off key.  It isn’t blowing me away and I never would have invited Berry Gordy to see this, especially since Berry used to have the real Diana Ross in his bed everynight.  That is like buying Stop and Shop Cola and trying to pass it off as Coke to guests.  It will never work.  Randy actually likes it???? Steven does too.   Jennifer just giggles and tells her she is elegant but let’s face it she didn’t like it but that is one of their wild card picks.  When they play it back and listen to it they will realize it wasn’t good.

Paul looks up to Ryan Adams not to be confused with Bryan Adams.  He is singing Come Pick Me Up.  This guy’s is hot and cold.  Sometimes he sounds good and other times not so much.  Tonight is not so much.  He sounds off key.  He is kind of creepy and this song bites.  What is up with this dancing?  He looks drunk and like he is having a seizure.  He is bouncing around the stage and is channeling Joe Cocker more than Casey did.  That bit the big one.  Bye Bye….you will be going home.  Steven likes his voice but he was pitchy.  Jen doesn’t really get the song but loves that the crowd is moving. Randy laughs and does a Yo…he loves the character that Paul is and loves him for the show.  Basically he doesn’t like the song.

Pia is up next.  She is a huge Celine Dion fan.  Hard to believe a young girl loves Celine but whatever.  She is the one to watch and will go out on a limb and pick her to be in the top 2 and could very well be our winner.  She has a beautiful voice and is beautiful to look at.  I predict that Lauren is going to be on her heels and may be the stealth Idol.  She hasn’t reached her potential. With that said tonight Pia is the one to beat.  Steven Tyler is smitten.  He wants to pounce on her.  She is singing All By Myself and is hitting all of the notes with ease.  She reminds me a lot of Kelly Clarkson.  She blew everyone away so far.  Judges love her to pieces.  This could very well be your winner people.  Jennifer is speechless and almost ready to cry.  Randy has another Yo and tells her she was able to tackle a song from one of the top singers in the world and she hits the notes with ease.  Another Yo thrown in there.  A double Yo.  Steven wishes her Happy International Woman’s day and wants to throw her over his shoulder and make her his own cave woman.

Here comes our favorite Tourette’s sufferer  James.  I love James.  I have a soft spot for him.  He is the hetero version of Adam Lambert.  They look alike and sound alike. He is singing a Paul McCartney song which happens to be my favorite Maybe I’m Amazed. He starts off slow but sounds just fine….I can’t wait for him to unleash and here it comes…boom, POW…He really gets into the song and it works.  He can sing softly and it is good, he can scream and it is good and he can just sing.  Love that.  Randy starts without a Yo, but manages to name drop and say the word “like” 5 times.  Here they are Yo Yo  this dude can do anything Yo….Steven loves him and so does Jen.  She tells him let the audience clap when they want to clap.  She loves his melodic quality.  He is a rocker that can actually sing.  The crowd loves him.  That is nice since he was made fun of when he was a kid.  A giant FU to the world.

Haley is singing Blue from Leann Rhimes.  This chick has no charisma for some reason.  She sang Alicia Keys last week and Leann this week.  All over the place.  Last week she was trying to be soulful and this week she yodels.  She is a good yodeler. Steven is snapping his fingers along with the song.  She is singing it just fine but it is just boring.  I feel like I am watching a hula dancer sing for some reason.  I am curious to hear what Randy says since last week he wasn’t a big fan.  Steven loved it but he loves her anyway.  Jennifer says she does special things with her voice, and Randy laughs which isn’t a good sign.  When he starts to laugh you know you are in trouble.  He says she has variety but the song was sleepy.  He is hard on her.  Jennifer is trying to sell her but Randy isn’t buying it.

Jacob is up next.  He is the Luther Vandross Idol but chose to go with R. Kelly as his idol.  Wasn’t R.Kelly the guy arrested for dating underage girls?  He is singing I Believe I Can Fly….straight out of Space jam.  I have a feeling James is going to over sing this song and shout it.  He has one trick and it is his high pitched high note choruses and riffs….he starts slow and soulful but when he starts to hit the chorus he is way out of tune….he has a chorus of gospel singers with him.  He is trying to sing and shout over them and it is on the verge of screeching….he does stuff with his voice that gets into the song like a gospel singer but it is over the top.  Not one of my favorites of the night.  The judges love him.  I think they got caught up in the whole visual part of the performance.  It really didn’t sound that good.  Smoke and mirrors.  Randy made sense, when he hit the B verse it was shakey and it definitely was.

Thia is singing Michael Jackson.  She is singing Smile.  They tell her it is originally based on Charlie Chaplin and she thinks it is Charlie Chapman.  It shows us her age….she doesn’t know who Charlie Chaplin is.  Too funny.  She sings a quiet song and then tries to jazz it up.  She has a nice and clear voice but like some of the others, there is just no spark.  I wonder if being one of the younger idols is wearing on her like it is with Lauren.  They seem to be kind of intimidated to take a big chance to let go.  Almost like they are afraid they are going to be made fun of in homeroom if the mess up.  The judges were a mixed bag on this one and Thia is in tears back stage.  She is starting to crack under the pressure.  She is safe, but she need to ramp it up in future weeks.  She can’t always sing with just the guitar, she has to sing with a band eventually.  The beginning was better than the ending.

Stefano who was the other wild card contestant is singing a Stevie Wonder song.  He is singing Lately.  Jennifer loves this guy.  This could be her Cougar conquest if allowed.  She is mesmerized by him.  He starts off singing it like he should be on Broadway.  He sounds like a lounge singer.  He has a good voice but it is a bit too theatrical.  It starts off loungey…then builds up to drag queenish….then soul man….then back to Broadway.  They will like him because he is a wild card.  It is good but I really don’t love it.  The judges on the other hand love it.  I think they like to say his name.  Jennifer calls him baby and just giggles and gushes.  Randy has a laugh and a Yo, then another Yo, and finally gets to a sentence and says Stevie would be proud, he sleighed it.  What did I miss?  Is this show tunes idol?

Here is the contestant that has me scratching my head as to how she got voted in, Karen.  She is singing a Selena song.  Remember Jennifer Lopez played Selena in a movie.  She says her mother used to dress her up as Selena as a kid….did she wear an enormous Butt pad too?  She is singing When I fall In Love.  She sounds crappy from the start.  She is trying to impersonate Selena. I wonder if she is having throat problems because she isn’t singing with any power what so ever.  She may be joining Paul in the bottom 3.  This isn’t working on any level.  She can’t hit the notes and when she struggles, she pulls the microphone away from her voice so you can’t really catch it….sorry Selena wannabe we caught it.  Jennifer is being extra nice to the Latina but says, I hope you make it through to next week.  When the judges use the word Hope you are screwed.  Even Steven agrees she was lacking.  She did mention she designed her outfit, it was Selena and Jennifer inspired.

Scotty is singing a Garth Brooks song.  I enjoy impersonating Scotty.  When he sings, his voice gets stuck in my head and I am not a country music listener.  He is singing the River and they even have a tacky River in the background.  A black and white River.  He sings the song spot on.  It is a boring song, but here is an example of how a good voice can make a boring song tolerable.  He did a good job.  He is unique.  Like they said, he is a story teller.  We don’t expect Scotty to move around the stage and entertain us with dance moves so this works for us.  The judges agree.  They love Scotty.   I am so thankful he didn’t come out in a big 10 gallon Cowboy hat.  Randy starts with a yo…then a yo yo….he is happy that he stays true to himself and tells him not to change.  Steven loves it, quotes an obscure Elton John Song Roy Rogers is Riding tonight, which I knew right off the bat and that is scary to me.  Jennifer loves that he opened up.  Scotty is bummed he doesn’t have 12 fingers to hold up to remind us he is #12.

Last but not least is our final wild card is Naima.  She is covering a Rhianna song and of course the Give Kris Harris an Umbrella Theme Song on FB, Umbrella.  The stage is electric.  Her outfit is lacking.  She sounds off because she is dancing too much.  She can’t sing and dance at the same time, but then again most performers lip sync and that is why she can dot it.  She is almost sounding like she is singing karaoke.  She does go into Regae and it sounds fun but the song is a bit too big for her.  She had all the effects going but the song itself was lacking.  Steven loves Naima.  He tells her she is pitchy but she has flavor.  Jennifer says she doesn’t care about the pitchy because she is DOING IT.  She needs to work on her control with the dancing and singing.  Randy laughs, disagrees with Jennifer and says she needs to work on the control and she should make a whole regae version of this song.  Her toilet cleaning background will keep her around, because we are suckers for a success story. 

I predict Karen is going home or very possibly Paul.  They were the worst 2 of the night.  Ashthon is probably the other person to land in the bottom.  Remember she was a wild card and didn’t have the original fan base to get her into the original top 10.  Pia was the shining star of the night.  Can’t wait to see what America thinks.  Can’t wait for the top 10 to give them all nicknames.