From the Archives, Season 5 Country Week

Here was my first attempt at being an American Idol judge. From Season 5, which was already 3 weeks into the final 12. Many of the features of future posts were not in place yet, as I was just starting out and making it up as I went. Note my prediction at the end of this post though, which was spot on and thus inspired me to keep on predicting. Sadly my later guesses weren't so accurate until they got close to the end of the season.

From Tuesday, April 04, 2006
The Armchair Idol Judge Evaluates Country Week

Each week until the season finale, time permitting, I'm going to offer up my comments as a "fourth" judge of my new third favorite TV show, American Idol. See you if agree or disagree with these comments, though no booing please.

Taylor: I have a question for you, do you want to win this competition or not? You have a unique talent, a unique singing voice, but you didn't really show us that tonight, or last week for that matter. It was an OK performance, but not something to write home about. Once again instead of picking a song that only you can sing, you picked a song that everyone can sing. I think if you want to win this competition you need to start selecting songs that highlight your unique style, not John Denver songs.

Mandisa: I thought it was a good performance. A little subdued for you, but I think in this case that's a good thing since it shows us some versatility.

Elliott: It really looked like you were fighting it tonight. For a minute there I thought you were going to choke that microphone. I know that it was a really tough song for you since it's so far removed from your comfort zone, but you handled it OK. It wasn't a home run, but it wasn't a strike out either. The singing was just OK; I’d give you a C for that, but an A for effort.

Paris: I didn't think that the singing was very good, but you performed it well. You are a very dynamic performer, which you showed again tonight, and I think to some degree it does make up for what I thought was very average singing.

Ace: I must confess, I thought you had no chance this week since country is so far removed from what you usually excel at, but I think you did a very good job this week. It was good to see you work that falsetto in at the end. I think it was an excellent song choice and you made it work. I was pleasantly surprised.

Kellie: I figured that you would do well tonight and you did. A much better performance than what you did last week. You are a dynamite performer when you are in your comfort zone and you were clearly there tonight.

Chris: I was wondering if you were going to try and do a rock version of a country song this week or try something new, and I'm glad to hear that you tried something new. I think you did a very good job with that and showed us all something we hadn't seen before from you. It bodes well for your potential for success in this competition.

Katherine: Once again your vocals were all over the map, not as bad as last week but not as good as what you have done before. Some parts were excellent and some were not so good. I admire you for taking something of a risk with the song choice, but I think you can and have done a better job with the vocals.

Bucky: It was OK, not great, but OK. I was expecting something a little more 'twangy' from you this week given your country roots so I commend you for not falling too deep into your comfort level and instead try something a little bit different.

My predictions for the bottom 3 are: Mandisa, Katherine, and Elliott, though it wouldn't surprise me to see Ace up there again given that he's been in the bottom 3 two out of the last 3 weeks. I think Mandisa will be voted off this time, but it's a tough call this week as no one really stood out on the bad side. Chris is still the man to beat in my opinion, even more so now that he's shown he can sing something else besides hard rock songs.