American Idol "Mariah Carey Songs" 4/15/08 *spoilers*

[Kamakzie]

Here is the official thread.

David Archuleta -1-866-IDOLS-01 - "When You Believe" - I thought he did really quite good. Mariah songs might be a bit hard for the guys tonight.. Simon thinks it will actually be easier for the guys. Interesting..

Carly Smithson -1-866-IDOLS-02 - "Without You" - I thought it was a bit yelly. Overall okay.

Syesha Mercado - 1-866-IDOLS-03 - "Vanishing" - Wasn't sure I liked the Mariah imitation or not...

Brooke White -1-866-IDOLS-04 - "Hero" - Overall I thought she was probably 2nd best of the night so far. Shutup Brooke and let the judges speak!

Kristy Lee Cook - 1-866-IDOLS-05 - "Forever" - Bare legs finally!!! Performance wise I thought she did pretty good.

David Cook - 1-866-IDOLS-06 - "Always Be My Baby" - Was a bit concerned with this song choice but I think he pulled it off pretty nicely.

Jason Castro - 1-866-IDOLS-07 - "I Don't Wanna Cry" - I just wasn't feeling it dawg, sorry!

My personal bottom 3 are Carly, Syesha and Castro.

[jpwoof]

little David is all grown-up now... red shirt and leather pants... and a great rendition of the song! well done.

[LoadStar]

Ahh, Paula's on her special meds again...

[gossamer88]

Castro was my favorite and D. Cook my least...but what do I know.

[Odds Bodkins]

Mariah Carey songs... this show was dead to me once that brutalized version of Nilsson's classic hit the airwaves. You suck, Carly!

[Mr. Soze]

David Cook channeling Eddie Vedder. It worked.

Bottom 3 - Brooke, Carly, Jason. Carly goes. I wish it was Brooke though.
Mrs. S. thinks Syesha will go, though.

[thudtrain]

I gotta say Mariah has seemed really professional and not insane. She seemed like she was really trying to give them ideas to help their performance.

This has definitely not been the disaster I thought it was going to be.

Oh, and David Cook is awesome.

[firerose818]

I think Carly goes home tomorrow. I like her, but she has been singing on borrowed time, and I think that time is up.

I loved David Cook, as usual. I totally did not get Castro's performance - I was surprised to see Simon liked it.

[LoadStar]

I haven't been a big fan of David Archuleta, but I thought he did really good tonight. When he hit the high note, I was rather impressed - he has RANGE, dawg!

There was something about Carly's performance that just bugged me... the beginning part just sort of sounded like a Mariah recording being listened to on an old walkman with dying batteries.... sort of all stretched out and warbly... then the crescendo was rather shouty, like Kamakazie said.

Syesha: meh. It was OK. I hated, hated, HATED the song (not the performance, the song) so it was rather hard to really get into the performance. It was OK, but I wasn't blown away.

With Brooke, I liked the unplugged aspect, and it suited her strength, I think it needed something else to fill it out, some other acoustic instrument to help it out a bit. I don't think it was Brooke that was the problem, it was just something missing in the instrumentation. If there was something wrong with the performance, it seemed like Brooke rushed the ending of the song a little bit.

Kristy Lee did another song I wasn't particularly fond of. (Hint to the contestants: there might be a reason that certain songs aren't as well known - they're not as good.) It was just OK for me... probably a good song choice for Kristy Lee, but I wasn't jumping up and down about it.

Wow. I so didn't get David Cook's performance at all. Sorry, but that is probably one of Mariah's "girlier" songs, and I just didn't think it worked at all, not one moment of it from beginning to end. Plus, the background singers were HORRIBLE on that one. They were about 3 keys away from the key that David was singing. I actually thought he was the worst of the night by far, and I'm shocked that everyone loved it.

I actually think Jason Castro did better than David tonight. Not saying I loved it, I didn't, but it was right in his laid back coffeehouse vibe, so from that it was OK.

[Cearbhaill]

Story on what it took to get David Cook's brother Adam, into tonights audience despite his battle with brain cancer
http://www.tribstar.com/news/local_story_104225908.html

All I can say is kudos to the Cook family for not letting American Idol exploit the story to the max. David could have had sympathy votes out the yahoo, but chose not to go that route.

[bluebird-mom]

Shocked by the hatin' on David Cook tonight. I couldn't disagree more! I thought the whole evening was very bland until he performed. I thought Simon was right on with the whole karaoke comment and then Cook was a breath of fresh air. He had to change it up, and I thought it was outstanding. I will definitely be downloading it from iTunes this week.

I still believe it will come down to the two Davids. Which will be an interesting finale because they couldn't be more different. IMHO, Baby David is not "pop" star material. His style of music doesn't feel like "pop". I don't think you are going to see Baby David on VH1, MTV or CMT with his style music. Not that that is the only indicator of pop success. But I can't see him doing a duet with Chris Brown, Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, or the like.

I think I may have the only 14 year old girl in America who can't stand Baby David. She's a big David Cook fan, and can't even stand watching David A.

Bottom 3: Carly, Syesha, Kristy Lee

Home: Syesha

[aindik]

David Cook will win the whole damn thing. The fact that "always be my baby" is a light poppy girly song is why Cook's thing worked with it. He turned it into a completely different song.

David A. I thought was terrible. It seems like he sings the same song every week. Whatever song he picks, he just sings the same melody with the same runs at the same time. Can't stand him.

Everyone else was kind of in the middle tonight. All right, but not great.

I had no idea Mariah covered that song Carly sang.

Kristy Lee Cook probably goes home.

[ewilts]

Top 3: Jason, David Cooke, Brooke
Bottom 3: Syesha, Carly, David A.
Middle: Kristy Lee

Going home: Syesha. Finally! I wish they would make an exception and send 2 home though - both Syesha and Carly should have been punted by now. Quit the ^&*()! screaming already and learn how to sing without shouting!

[LoadStar]

Originally Posted by aindik

David Cook will win the whole damn thing. The fact that "always be my baby" is a light poppy girly song is why Cook's thing worked with it. He turned it into a completely different song.

Yeah, I know why it was SUPPOSED to have worked, but for me, it didn't at all.

I went back and listened to it again just now, and I'm having trouble putting my finger on precisely what fell short for me. The first thing that jumps out is the background singers, I think, which I know isn't David's fault, but to me they didn't match the feel of the rearranged song. (Could this be the fault of the horrible sound mixing on this show that was talked about very recently here? Possibly.)

I also don't think it deviated enough from the original melody. Yeah, it was in a different key, and a slightly slower tempo, but it was still very recognizable as the same song, which is another thing that kind of ruined it for me.

Now, all that aside, I do have to say that if I look PAST that and strictly pay attention to the singing, David did a really, really good job singing a really bad song. And I think more than anyone else, he's the only one left that really stands out as having true star power. He'll easily make some records after this competition is done, no matter what.

[AJRitz]

My reaction to a week I've been dreading - first, it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be. And now, the specifics:

1. David Cook - I say it every week, but he's the only one of these contestants with the depth of skill and talent to actually have a long-term professional career in popular music.

2. David Archuleta - I hate to admit it, but he was good this week. He can sing. He's just extremely limited in his tempo, pace, and rhythm. As long as he can continue to pick songs and arrangements that work for him, he can hide his deficiencies and get by on "cute".

3. Brooke White - unplugged was a nice touch. It could have been great, but her voice couldn't quite handle it.

4. Syesha - She's at her best when she cuts loose. She was in a tough position, because her style is somewhat similar to Mariah's to start with. The result was that her performance was pretty karaoke-ish.

5. Kristy Lee Cook - I thought she did a really nice job. She showed a stronger voice than she has just about all season.

6. Carly Smithson - This should have been a home run week for her. Instead she was weak for the entire first third of the song or so, and by the time she hit her stride, she was still in karaoke-land.

7. Jason Castro - I found his performance annoyingly mumbly and "muddy". The week showed the overall weakness of his voice - he didn't have the chops to handle a "power ballad".

Bottom 3: Kristy, Carly, Jason. Carly probably goes home. If you have told me a month ago that Kristy Lee was going to last longer than Carly, I'd have said you were crazy.

[LoadStar]

^^ I agree with everything AJ said.

[MickeS]

David Archuleta - "When You Believe" - It was OK, nothing particularly bad or great about it IMO. Felt like the melody was lost.

Carly Smithson - "Without You" - Worst performance of the evening, and I think voters will agree with me. Felt forced and as usual more aggressive than emotional. Maybe she should try heavy metal.

Syesha Mercado - "Vanishing" - I like her a lot, and she did the evening's only straight-up Mariah interpretation/version. I think she pulled it off, with a melody I had never heard before.

Brooke White - "Hero" - Another very good performance. Like Simon said, she had to do it this way, but she did a great job, and infused the song with emotion.

Kristy Lee Cook - "Forever" - She has been getting better and better every week, and I thought she was GREAT tonight. She's corrected the mistakes with her voice, and found just the right country twang to it. This sounded like pop/country/ballad at its best.

David Cook - "Always Be My Baby" - EASILY the best performance of the night. Made it fit his style, while retaining the strong parts of the melody. The Eddie Vedder comparison above was apt. I wonder whose arrangement this was?

Jason Castro - "I Don't Wanna Cry" - It was about the same level as Archuleta. Nothing great, nothing awful.


So I think and hope that Carly will go home tonight, as all the others did much better. I also have to commend David Cook for picking a more up/mid-tempo/not-as-ballady song than the others did. Mariah has several songs like that ("Fantasy", "Dreamlover", "Heartbreaker" off the top of my head), and I wish someone would have picked one of those instead of these sappy ballads.

[Jesda]

Carly. Nice top on her.

[scottjf8]

Originally Posted by firerose818

I think Carly goes home tomorrow. I like her, but she has been singing on borrowed time, and I think that time is up.

I'm rooting for Carly to win Idol.. she or D. Cook are the only 2 that I could see being "stars." Tonight the wife and I cringed when thinking about an entire album of Archuleta songs. Yuck.

Tonight sucked all around, mostly because I don't know any Mariah Carey songs, and I hate them having to only do one artists songs. 2 weeks of Beatles, then Dolly, now Mariah? What happened to Country or 60's weeks?

[bruinfan]

Originally Posted by LoadStar

Wow. I so didn't get David Cook's performance at all. Sorry, but that is probably one of Mariah's "girlier" songs, and I just didn't think it worked at all, not one moment of it from beginning to end. Plus, the background singers were HORRIBLE on that one. They were about 3 keys away from the key that David was singing. I actually thought he was the worst of the night by far, and I'm shocked that everyone loved it.

Originally Posted by aindik

David Cook will win the whole damn thing. The fact that "always be my baby" is a light poppy girly song is why Cook's thing worked with it. He turned it into a completely different song.

+1... i thought that song would've been one of the least likely he would've chosen... but i thought it was really good.
of course, someone will have pointed out by tomorrow morning who originally covered it like that

Originally Posted by LoadStar

Now, all that aside, I do have to say that if I look PAST that and strictly pay attention to the singing, David did a really, really good job singing a really bad song.

hey, i like that song....

Originally Posted by scottjf8

Tonight sucked all around, mostly because I don't know any Mariah Carey songs,

mariah was awesome her first 3 or 4 albums, before the meltdown... and her last few hits, i've liked, including the latest.

She has an amazing voice with incredible range... like 3 octave range, or something like that. it was apparent with the girls... they had to start the songs really low so they could hit the upper range, and aside from syesha, none of them pulled it off IMO.

Brooke butchered the piano the last 1/3 of the song.

[JohnB1000]

My only thing with Cook, who is my favorite, is that I can't see him as a solo star that winning AI seems to imply. He needs to be in a band singing songs in the style he has on this show (Please don't say Daughtry cause apart from the fact that I can't stand him that really isn't a band whatever anyone else says).

For me everyone else gets the same comments every week.

David A. Good singer, creepy, ballads only
Carly: Definitely seems scared to death, shouty
Brooke: Flimsy weak unappealing
Syesha: Fine but forgettable
KLC: Just not as a good a singer but did OK
Castro: Fine if you like that Jack Johnson thing.

[Roadblock]

Originally Posted by bruinfan

She has an amazing voice with incredible range... like 3 octave range, or something like that. it was apparent with the girls... they had to start the songs really low so they could hit the upper range, and aside from syesha, none of them pulled it off IMO.

Personally, that's what I didn't like about Cook's performance. A lot of it was way down in his range again and I thought it sounded like crap in those parts. But it was still more interesting than most of that snoozefest.

I think Syesha or Carly is going home.

[jlb]

Originally Posted by Jesda

Carly. Nice top on her.

Yeah, agreed. Flashin the boobies to get votes!


I said to my wife when the show started that David Cook will be the bets tonight given that he will completely change up whatever song he chose. I was right.

I was surprised none of the judges "called out" Carly for a "clever" song choice.......

[Lori]

Originally Posted by ewilts

Bottom 3: ...David A.

You guys keep on hoping.

Never gonna happen.

Understand that

Spoiler:

DialIdol has had him in first or second place EVERY SINGLE WEEK since the top 12. Even the bad weeks, Baby David doesn't fall below second. Even on the disastrous Beatles week, Baby David didn't fall below second. Don't underestimate the depth and breadth of his fan base.

Frankly, those of you who want David Cook to have a career should be ROOTING for David A.

[Mr. Soze]

Originally Posted by scottjf8

Tonight the wife and I cringed when thinking about an entire album of Archuleta songs. Yuck.

We said the exact same thing except about Castro. We'll pass.

[scooterboy]

I've always thought that in terms of singing ability, Carly was the best of the lot.

But she hasn't been playing the game well for a lot of weeks. I agree with Simon that she's overthinking everything.

I'd hate to see her go before Kristy does.

[scooterboy]

Oh, and I really wish a producer or someone would tell the "audience" that between the beginning and end of each performance they should STFU.

Every time they start whooping and clapping in the middle of a song I want to punch each of them in the face 4 or 5 times.

[Jebberwocky!]

all girl bottom three and one of them will not be Christy Lee.

I listened to D Cook's performance and I thought it was one of if not the worst of the night and the the judges gush all over it

I agree with Simon, the boys ruled the roost last night over all.

I like David A (the next American Idol! ) but I will not be buying his musinc any time
soon

[stevieleej]

Carley - Toward the end of her song, she looked up to the band leader like she was thinking - "I can't find the pitch! Let's end this thing fast!"

Syesha - Although I haven't like most the songs she has sung, I think her singing is really good and I wouldn't mind at all if she won.

Brooke - After her playing mistakes last night and the mis-start on 80's night, I hope she learned she should let someone else play the piano. I can't believe that they didn't jump on her more for the restart on the Police song. It came across as some who is 'trying' but is not 'good' at what they do.

Jason, Brooke - I really wish these two would tie for the lowest votes and both go home.

Kristy - She'll never win, but she'll probably have a great career as a country singer and her first album will probably be very popular. I also think that she and Ryan would make a nice looking couple.

David A. - As said before, everything he's done sounds the same. He could easily make a living as a singer - but those would be some boring albums.

David Cook - If that version was his, he is showing some great talent. Not just in singing but in arranging songs to fit is style, character, and voice. When it comes to money, would it be better for him to lose AI so his first album wouldn't be under their label?

[SoldOnTiVo]

Originally Posted by bruinfan

She has an amazing voice with incredible range... like 3 octave range, or something like that.

They said in the intro yesterday that her range is actually 5 octaves!! No matter what you think of her, that's pretty darn impressive.

imo, David C. is the best *artist* of the bunch. The others are pretty good performers, but Cook is really the only one that stands out as a an artist to me. Taking that very popular song, turning it around and twisting it on its head was a pretty big gamble but I do think he made it work.