American Idol - Top 6 Perform - 4/25/12

[photoshopgrl]

Apparently Ryan is super sick and was this close to not being able to host for the first time ever. TMZ said they have puke buckets side stage. LOL poor Ryan.

Jessica - Okay it's official. I'm annoyed by Jessica. She used to be one of my favorites too. As soon as they said she was singing that I rolled my eyes and said "of course she is because the obvious Queen song for a 16 yr old is about killing a man".
Skylar - I actually liked this. I find I appreciate her performances when she's stationary. She didn't country it up too much like I feared.
Joshua - and the Joshua ball washing continues. I. Cannot. Stand. It.
Elise - Now that was her style. I knew she, of all of them, would have a good week. I just feel like she's always hanging by a thread. She, IMO, has no chance to win but she just refuses to go.
Phillip - HAHA! He did not do that song. I kinda loved it. It was humorous seeing his innocent, wholesome face grinning while singing the words "fat bottom girls you make the rockin world go round". I liked that he made very slight alterations of the song but not all that much. It was vocally/musically the perfect song for his voice though.
Hollie - I think this was the wrong song for her. I don't think it's that well known. I honestly barely remember it and I'm an 80s girl. (maybe I'm totally off on that though) She sounded good though. Stage presence was again this week, better.

Round 2!

Jessica - That package with the others talking about her was hilarious. Phillip IS weird in the best way possible. She looked really great for this song but I don't connect with this song. Call me stone heart but it just doesn't tug at my strings so I can't appreciate it. She did sound good but I didn't hear anything special on this one.
Skylar - Skylar talking about Hollie calling her fat wasn't really a good idea. She's not exactly skinny minnie is she? Hollywood standards, she probably is fat. I can hear all the haters having a field day with that. Oh well, I don't care. She did her country thing. At least she was again stationary. Have no idea what she was wearing but it was kinda cool (minus the boots).
Joshua - Sorry I can't give an opinion on this because I ended up FFW on it. I can't help it. I honestly tried tonight to sit through his performance and it just goes right through me. Of course they gave him a standing ovation. It's become expected from them now so it's not a special thing.

OH NO! Did Ryan just say Dave Matthews track coming up? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't do it Phillip!!!

Elise - Okay first. Does she have a scarf hanging from her ring??? WTF. And she's singing Mayer (yes, I realize she means to be singing the Hendrix version but it didn't come off as such to me) No. This did not work for me at all. Wasn't rocker enough for me. Ummm I'm pretty sure that song is familiar from one of them, Tyler. Get it together.
Phillip - I love his sarcasm. OH Hell yes. Of any song by DMB to do, The Stone is perfect. But not well known outside DMB circles, I don't think. I'm not sure this is gonna go over well with the general audience. I personally loved it but that pretty much went without me saying it, no? No? Yes.
Hollie - Miley. hmm.. I didn't hate it but I can't say I think either of her songs were pimp spot deserving either.

Overall, this week is tough. I know who I'd like to GTFO but I know I'll just be disappointed again. I have to honestly say Elise or Hollie have to go this week.

And I just realized everyone left but Phillip has been in the bottom before.

[Kamakzie]

Judges going crazy over Joshua?? Really?? I guess I don't get it.

[photoshopgrl]

Originally Posted by Kamakzie

Judges going crazy over Joshua?? Really?? I guess I don't get it.

I don't get him ever ugh

[TomK]

I'd much rather prefer songs with no backup singers so all that is heard is the AI wannabe's voice.

[Cainebj]

Freddy Mercury
Grave
Rolling Over

[TomK]

Dave Matthews Jr eh?

[snowjay]

Phil nailed the Stone, but it is an obscure song for the general public.

[photoshopgrl]

Originally Posted by snowjay

Phil nailed the Stone, but it is an obscure song for the general public.

Thanks for the smeek.

It's true though.

[Kamakzie]

Originally Posted by Cainebj

Freddy Mercury
Grave
Rolling Over

Is it wrong of me to call groups like Queen sellouts for doing Idol?

[snowjay]

Originally Posted by photoshopgrl

Thanks for the smeek.

It's true though.

[Cainebj]

Originally Posted by Kamakzie

Is it wrong of me to call groups like Queen sellouts for doing Idol?

No.

[photoshopgrl]

Okay my P2 voting be done.

[LoadStar]

If it was me, I'd put Hollie and Joshua in the bottom two, strictly based on this week.

Hollie's first performance was pretty bad. Her second one was better, but it was one of those songs that does no favors for anyone who tries to perform it (up to and including Miley Cyrus).

Joshua... was Joshua. Screaming and runs all over the place, even on what was supposed to be a softer, more gentle song.

Elise was pretty good on her first song. Her second song was again not enough of a rock piece for my taste. (I still would like to see her do a Florence + The Machine song... or perhaps something by Joss Stone.)

I surprisingly didn't hate Phillip on his first song... it really forced him NOT to be Dave Matthews Jr. Unfortunately, he chose unwisely on his second song, and it just reinforced the opinion that he is nothing but Dave Matthews Jr. Of course his second song was performed well... it wasn't what you might call a stretch.

Skylar is Skylar. If you like very nasally sounding screaming with an overdone country twang, you'll like her.

And Jessica was again a technically proficient but ultimately not all that interesting singer on both songs.

[Maui]

First things first - Big props to Skylar for calling out the fact, on camera, that Joshua has received a ridiculous number of Standing Ovations from the judges. He is good but he is not that good.

Round One Rankings

Skylar - The Show must go on - I actually rewound the recorder and watched this one twice. I loved it.
Elise - I Want it All - Great performance! She stuck with the melody and did not over embellish like she did on the second song
Jessica - Bohemian Rhapsody - Weird song choice but she actually sang it well. Whether you like her or not it is hard to deny that she has a tremendous voice.
Hollie - Save Me - I actually did not know the song. She sang it well but it did not excite me
Joshua - Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Not a fan of the song + not a fan of Joshua's Screechy vocals = not great.
Phillip - Did not like this. I actually thought they used the backup singers in the beginning acapella part to mask the fact that he probably had issues with some of those high notes

Round Two Rankings

Hollie - Quite possibly the strongest vocal of the night. Great job. After Hollie it gets really hard to rank the others
Skylar - Actually a step back for her. It was a little pedestrian for me but she still sang it well
Jessica - Extremely Well sung but a little boring
Joshua - a more restrained performance that was actually pretty good.
Elise - Good job choosing a rock song but, as one of the judges said, She over did the vocal runs in it.
Phillip - Wow, I did not like that. For once even the judges did not gush over him. The fiddle player was burning it up though.


Right now I think the only one truly safe from the bottom 3 is Skylar. Normally, I would also begrudgingly say Phillip but that second song may have lost him some votes. But, I also see him as the only guy who will pull any teen female votes so he may slide by on those.

Who do I want to leave? Joshua!!!!! I am tired of the ridiculous standing ovations for every song. I actually FF past the "critique"/gushing session by the judges

Who do I think will probably go? Elise. She needed to nail the second song more than she did.

[scottjf8]

Originally Posted by Maui

Who do I want to leave? Joshua!!!!! I am tired of the ridiculous standing ovations for every song. I actually FF past the "critique"/gushing session by the judges

THIS! Ugh, we can't stand Joshua and they keep standing up for him.... Please go home

[JLucPicard]

Before I read what others have posted....

I watched tonight just to enjoy things and didn't take notes to critique or anything like that, but I come away with just a couple of things:

I almost want to take a poll - A standing ovation on Season 11 of American Idol means:

1 - That boy can really, REALLY sing - unbelievable - like nothing we've ever seen before

or

2 - (Judges speaking) - do you all find it funny that every time our legs are in need of a stretch, it just happens to be after Joshua sings???

or

3 - We are so, so, SO desperate for a black guy to win this thing this season!!!


Personally, in such a poll, I'd have to vote (3), because I have no other reasonable explanation (based on my taste alone, I might add).


Speaking of my taste alone, I find Elise to be an incredibly beautiful woman. So much so that I would wish she'd put out an album on vinyl just so the head-shot album cover would be portrait-sized! I think it would be incredible!!!

I threw 30 votes to Skylar (still my favorite), 20 to Elise and 10 to Hollie, based on the fact that I felt she had a really good night (and congrats to her on the standing O from the judges, which just kind of undermines my whole 'poll' thing, but oh well! )

Just based on past voting by "America", I'm guessing Joshua, Hollie and Elise are in the bottom three. I'd love to see Joshua go home. However, at this point in the 'competition' and with the group that remains, anything could happen.

.

[Maui]

Originally Posted by JLucPicard

Speaking of my taste alone, I find Elise to be an incredibly beautiful woman. So much so that I would wish she'd put out an album on vinyl just so the head-shot album cover would be portrait-sized! I think it would be incredible!!!

When Elise sings I find her all kinds of Sexy. She just lights up

And are you purposely calling Hollie Heidi?

[JLucPicard]

LOL - OK, so I just read photoshopgrl's comment about Joshua and almost had to clean Mt Dew off my monitor!!! Apparently I'm not the only one that's getting sick of all that!

And I really, really enjoyed the comments they each had for each other. Too many funny things to mention, but I enjoyed these much more than I have in past seasons.

[danielhart]

Originally Posted by Cainebj

Freddy Mercury
Grave
Rolling Over

Thank you for returning this thread to sanity. And the worst was Phillip Phillips. I will never forgive him for what he did to my favorite Queen song (and one of my all time favorite rock songs). It was seriously painful.

[Cearbhaill]

LOVED Joshua's second number.... just loved it.

Actually, I thought Queen must have sprinkled some sort of magic dust on everyone as I thought the whole lot of them did well. Fans of every contestant can be happy with their pick's performances- nearly everyone chose songs very well suited to them. The second round song choices were particularly spot on all the way around.
MY ranking on the night is Joshua, a four way tie for second in Phillip, Elise, Hollie, and Skylar and then Jessica last.

I don't see Queen as selling out- IMO they are using the platform to introduce Queen Extravaganza to the masses on results night and showing up to do this is the price of the advertising. It's moving with the times and and I love that they have adapted the way they have.

[Jesda]

I liked Elise.

Jessica's voice continues to bug me. The vibrato is overused, just like Joshua. She sounds like she has something pent up that's dying to burst out but isn't. I can't adequately describe it.

It's also odd that they would let a song be performed twice in one season. Jermaine Jones did "Dance With My Father" a few weeks ago during the top 13.
http://www.americanidol.com/videos/s...ith_my_father/

Hollie ditched the prom dress in favor of a pant suit. I think its an upgrade?
She and Philip tend to cave in to their nervousness and revert to their quirks. Hollie clams up and turns into a robot. Philip does strange things with his left shoulder and makes bizarre, angry-looking expressions as a strange way of conveying emotion.


The problem with covering a DMB song is that the brilliance of DMB is in the lush instrumentation, not the vocals. The AI band didn't sound anywhere near as good as DMB does live (they were out of tune at times) which was too bad, because Philip actually sounded pretty good. You can't cover a song like that without more practice and rehearsal.


I LOL'd at "thick boned" -- Skylar sounded pleasing on both songs. She reminds me of Miranda Lambert who I saw in Oklahoma two years ago.



None of them were bad, but Jessica and Joshua were my least favorite.

[Mr. Soze]

I agree with Maui.

I thought PP stank, especially in #2. Time to flush him.

[photoshopgrl]

Originally Posted by JLucPicard

LOL - OK, so I just read photoshopgrl's comment about Joshua and almost had to clean Mt Dew off my monitor!!! Apparently I'm not the only one that's getting sick of all that!

Originally Posted by Jesda

The problem with covering a DMB song is that the brilliance of DMB is in the lush instrumentation, not the vocals.

So much this, especially if you've ever heard them perform towards the end of a tour. Dave's voice is so done that if not for the amazing music alone you'd hate to be there.

[Jebberwocky!]

I think the FF was used for this show more than any other in the history of AI at my house.

I want to see Joshua's taillights tonight. The standing ovations are a running joke right??

One thing for certain, if we do not like a performance the judges will lavish praise on he singer.

[tiams]

Any thoughts on Jessica's shoes?

[photoshopgrl]

Originally Posted by tiams

Any thoughts on Jessica's shoes?

You mean the sneakers? Nah, better than her wearing Louboutins.

[tiams]

Originally Posted by photoshopgrl

You mean the sneakers? Nah, better than her wearing Louboutins.

I was wondering if they were some crazy expensive special shoes by some famous designer.

[Maui]

A couple thoughts this morning....

I was pleasantly surprised how well they all pulled off the Queen songs. I really had low expectations going in.

I hope they let Jimmy critique the performances from last night. At this stage of the game I trust him more than I do the judges. I also wonder if he mentored at all this week. After stating a few weeks ago that Jessica needed to sing more age appropriate songs I think he would have rebelled against Bohemian Rhapsody.

If the vignettes where they talked about their fellow contestants sway voters at all then I think Skylar and Hollie came out as winners based on their playful personalities. I thought Phil came off the worst, not to mention that Joshua said that Phil brings the drama and Hollie stating that he bails on some of their shoots.

[photoshopgrl]

Originally Posted by tiams

I was wondering if they were some crazy expensive special shoes by some famous designer.

Why do I get the feeling you are poking at me?

[tiams]

I'm glad they have given up the pretense that Tommy Hilfiger is in any way influential in their style choices.