From the Archives: Season 6 Idol Gives Back Week

The dying tree stayed upright against the 60 mph winds (who says we don't have weather in California?) so I'm back with another from the archives.

It'll be interesting to see if there will be another charity week this season. Keep in mind when you read the end that at the time we didn't know that no one would be voted off this week. Of course, that did keep Ryan Seacrest from almost giving eventual winner Jordin Sparks a heart attack by making her think that she was being voted off until the announcing at the end that no one was.

I found a video of Jordin's performance, which I felt was the best of the night. I'll try and find similar clips on future posts.

From April 24, 2007:

This week promises to be very interesting. There has never been a theme quite like this one before so it's hard to say who will be in their comfort zone and who will not. It’ll also expose anyone who tries to play it safe. You can’t play it save with a song that is supposed to be inspiring.

Think the stakes are high? Ryan Seacrest starts the show by saving that the audience’s votes “will save lives.” Then there are all the big name singers who will be appearing on the results show tomorrow night. And, there’s no Sanjaya to fall back on. So no, no pressure at all.

This week’s mentor is none other than Bono from U2. If there is anybody who can encourage the contestants to be inspiring and emotional this is the guy. They've really been pulling out the big names to work the show this year. Barry Manilow and Kenny Rogers can forget about getting an invite to the finale.

So now that Sanjaya is gone and we are left with actual singers in a singing competition, how will they all fare? Let’s go to the play-by-play:

Chris: “Change the World” by Eric Clapton
This will be interesting. The kid with the light voice trying to sing something deep. No words of advice from Mr. Hewson, at least none that we got to hear. Well, it’s going to be very difficult to critique anybody this week, but I have to admit that his vocal was quite pitchy. Some good, some bad. The emotion was there, which tonight is important. It didn't really pack much oomph though, not surprising I guess. Very few Justin Timberlake songs ever do.

In between each performance we get lots of Idol Gives Back promos and appeals for donations. Reminds me a lot of Comic Relief. Now we know why we’re not hearing from Bono. Too bad, I’m interested in hearing what he has to say to these contestants. Besides, how can I bash the mentor if they don’t show him saying anything?

Melinda: “There Will Come A Day” by Faith Hill
Tonight there wasn't as much of the musical gymnastics as we’re used to hearing from Melinda, but in its place we got to see a whole lotta soul. This sounded more like an Aretha Franklin song than a Faith Hill one. She really belted this one out without getting sloppy. Amazing, powerful vocal. Not for one minute did I think she was singing someone else’s song. This woman really knows how to make a song her own, just like the Queen of Soul. What else can I say, except God I hope this woman wins?

Blake: “Imagine” by John Lennon
OK, here’s the other guy with the light voice. Let’s see if he’s got some soul. I’ll give him some points for having the guts to take on one of the most famous songs around. To be honest, it sounded rather flat to me. He stayed in tune this time, which he doesn't always do, and while there wasn't a lot of emotion in his performance it’s a difficult song to really pour a lot of emotion into without sounding hokey. Probably not the best song choice.

LaKesha: “I Believe” by Fantasia
Now this is the one person I’m looking forward to hearing, the queen of emotion coming off a week when she was this close to being eliminated. This is the third time she’s chosen a song by another Idol contestant. Risky choice in that it invites comparisons to an Idol winner, which she failed at last week doing a Carrie Underwood tune. Same thing happened here too. It was a very strong vocal, stronger than most of her others, complete with all of the emotion that I was expecting. However, her performance still suffered in comparison to the original. I don’t feel good about her chances of making it to next week.

Phil: “The Change” by Garth Brooks
Squidward sticks with the country this week after jukin’ the joint last week with Keith Urban. The cowboy approach seems to be working well for him. His vocals were a little bit pitchy but not as bad as his previous performances. It didn't sound very country, but then again neither does Garth Brooks (whatever happened to him anyway?) His performance was very powerful emotionally, a very strong vocal that he managed to keep in control, and it was an excellent song choice. He really made the song his own. He has definitely hit his stride the last two weeks.

Jordin: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel



Interesting song choice, instead of a relatively recent number she picks one that’s older than her parents; have been covered by no less than Sinatra, the 3 Tenors, Johnny Cash, and Elvis; is the song that Jerry Lewis sings at the end of his Labor Day telethon; and is the theme song for the Liverpool and Glasgow Celtic football teams. The song has a long history of inspiring people so we’ll see if it has the same affect in this setting. It’ll also be interesting to see if she can control the emotions tonight. She struggled just a little bit early on, and in the middle it looked like she was really close to an emotional breakdown but she somehow managed to hold it together. That being said, it was one hell of a powerful vocal performance, especially at the end. Not only was she holding back the tears, so was the entire audience. After hearing it I’m ready to donate money to something.

Your 3 Stars of the Night: There was a clear distinction between the top and bottom this week, more than any other show thus far this year. First the top 3, same as last week, Melinda, Jordin, and Phil. I'd have to give Jordin the edge tonight. Phil was good, Melinda was great, but Jordin's performance gave me goosebumps.

The Fearless Prediction: I’m going to break protocol and not discuss how I did last week, since I think I covered it in enough detail in an earlier post. So this time I’ll go straight to the bottom 3: Chris, Blake, and LaKesha. It’s possible that there may be a rise of support for LaKesha since she was close to elimination last week, and in terms of pure vocal ability she is much better than either of the pretty boys. However, she’s pales in comparison to both Melinda and Jordin and singing songs by former Idol winners has proven to be the kiss of death to more than one contestant, so I predict that LaKesha will be going back home tomorrow night.

From the Archives: Season 6 Country Week

I better hurry up and get the rest of Season 6 on line. The season premiere of Season 7 is 12 days away (as anyone who has been watching the Blowout Championship Series bowl games can tell you) and I still have 5 more posts to go after this one. Plus there is a big windstorm due here tomorrow and my power line runs right through a dying street tree that I can't seem to convince the city to remove. So if you don't hear from me after tonight please send a generator.

This was the week that finally did in Sanjaya and showed that at least some of voters had come to their senses. Of course that doesn't forgive these same voters for voting Melinda out before the finals. Yes I'm still bitter about that.

From April 17, 2007:

This promises to be an interesting evening. For the first time in a while, there are no country singers in this year’s competition. So everybody will be outside of their comfort zone unless they do what Chris Daughtry (hi sis) did last year when he did a rock version of Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line” to rave reviews.

This week’s mentor is Martina McBride. Well, at least the contestants will get some actual singing advice this week as opposed to how to shake their booty. Of course this provides much less of an opportunity for me to take pot shots at the mentor. Despite that I will do my best to still keep this entertaining as well as informative.

Again I’m writing this as the show airs, even though I still ended up staying awake until midnight when I tried this last week…

The evening begins on a somber note as to be expected given the events at Virginia Tech. I was wondering how they were going to address what happened.

Phil: “Where the Blacktop Ends” by Keith Urban



We discover that Phil is originally from Kansas. Interesting, I would have guessed Oregon (not sure why, though). He needs to hit a home run tonight as he’s definitely on the bubble. I don’t know if it was a home run, but it was definitely an extra base hit. You can forget what I said about how there are no country singers in the competition, it turns out Phil’s being hiding his 10 gallon hat from all of us. He kept it under control, didn't screech, and showed some passion. Far and away his best performance to date, perhaps just enough to keep him in the game.

Jordin: “Broken Wing” by Martina McBride
Takes some guts to sing a song by the mentor. Then again, who better to give advice on how to sing it? Not a big fan of the big orange dress, but the hair stylist scores some points. She tended to oversell some parts of the vocals, but man she’s got a really good voice. Simon shocks Jordin and the world by saying that he now thinks that she can win American Idol. About time he figured that out.

Sanjaya: “Something to Talk About” by Bonnie Raitt
No creative intro from Ryan this week. Good thing there’s a commercial break between his performance and Jordin's or else he would really sound weak. Not that he needs any help in that department. He picks the song because he’s been giving people something to talk about. So he does read his press clippings after all. Hard to describe this week’s performance. It wasn't horrible, but it pales in comparison not only to the previous two singers but also to his performance last week. It was very karaoke. Ryan cuts off Simon in the middle of his rant about how horrible Sanjaya's performance was, and then the two get into an argument about whether or not Simon would ever like Sanjaya no matter how well he did. Sanjaya just stands there looking goofy as usual. I was going to write about some drunk comment made by Paula but after the Simon/Ryan tête-à-tête I forgot what she said.

LaKesha: “Jesus Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood
Another gutsy call, picking a song by a former Idol contestant. Then again, her best performance on the show this far was a Jennifer Hudson song, so maybe there’s hope. Strong vocal as usual, but I agree with the other judges that she could have done better. Given how she pours so much emotion into most of her songs I was expecting more here, especially when she said that the song meant so much to her personally. Instead, it was kind of flat. She looked nice though.

Chris: “Mayberry” by Rascal Flatts
So the dude was raised in North Carolina. I knew that there had to be somebody from the Carolinas in this show. Last year I think half of the top 12 were from there. He promises to do what Phil did and reveal his hidden country. Turns out the hat he was hiding wasn't a 10 gallon one but a beanie cap. We didn't discover any hidden country here. It was a fairly weak, pitchy vocal, almost as bad as Sanjaya's. He should have tried to do a 98 Degrees version of the tune, singing it straight was just weak. Chris tries to argue that “nasally is a form of singing”, nice try Timberlake boy.

Melinda: “Trouble is a Woman” by Julie Reeves
Martina had never heard of this song before, so she’s couldn't give Melinda much advice except not to be as shy. Notice that all of the mentors are focusing on her performing skills and never give her advice about her singing? Probably because she sings better than most of the mentors. Much better than last week. She picked a country song that she could put some soul into and really sold it. Once again best vocal of the night. Just when you think somebody like Jordin might overtake her Melinda surges back out in front again.

Blake: “When the Stars Go Blue” by Tim McGraw
The girls again scream at the sound of his name. The pitchiness that plagued him early on in the competition came back this week. The judges of course ignored this. I thought it was an OK performance but kind of bland. His performance last week was much better. At least he didn't try to make it more “hip”. I've noticed he hasn't done that for a while, and I think his performances have been better for it.

Your 3 Stars for Tonight’s Game: Melinda, Jordin, and Phil. Yes, the bald squid did well this week.

The Fearless Prediction: I managed to avoid being distracted by the gams and correctly picked Haley last week, putting me at 2-3 thus far this year. I was kind of hoping that by not picking Phil he would have been voted off but no such luck. Based on this week’s performance, though, I have new hope for Phil and thus I won’t put him in the Bottom 3 this week. And no, this is not another reverse psychology thing.

I believe that this is the week we will finally see Sanjaya in the Bottom 3. The Evil Ones that want to see him win are running out of other options to distract voters. However, my guess is that he’ll survive for Idol Gives Back Week. Joining Sanjaya on the bottom will be Chris and LaKesha. LaKesha for the same reasons I thought Melinda would be in the Bottom 3 last week, Chris because he was, well, Chris. For that reason I predict Mr. Boy Band will be heading back to the land of Dixie tomorrow night.

De los archivos: Temporada 6 semana latina

Of all the posts that I did in Season 6, or for that matter Season 5, this one is my favorite and not just because I correctly predicted who would be voted off. Jennifer Lopez provided a gold mine of material to make snide comments about. The contestants' song choices proved to be another strong source of material, and of course Sanjaya was still in the competition.

I also introduced two new features. One was the "final score", which just came to me as I was writing it. It later became a regular feature to keep track of how many Chris Daughtry references I could get into each post after my sister complained that I always mentioned Chris Daughtry at least once. This was also the first post that I wrote "live", i.e. as the show was airing, rather than after the show was over. This gave me the chance to work on my improvisational skills and also allowed me to get to bed before midnight. I can't say if the former was any good but I sure enjoyed the latter.

From April 10, 2007:

I must admit that I didn't have much hope for the theme this week. There aren't too many hip Latin tunes to choose from and this week’s “mentor” was Jennifer Lopez, not exactly noted for her vocal abilities like Gwen Stefani before her. So get ready for lots of snide J-Lo comments. Indeed, J-Lo’s first piece of advice to the contestants was this pearl of wisdom: “It doesn't matter whether or not you the high note, but who makes people go “Ohh”.” Then she’ll love Sanjaya, because that's pretty much his entire act.

To try and avoid staying up past midnight typing these things I'm trying a new approach. I'll be typing this as the show goes on. So forgive me if I'm not as witty as usual since I won't have hours and hours to think of something funny to say.

Melinda: “Sway”
J-Lo wants her to show her “sexy side”. Melinda thinks it’ll be her biggest challenge. Once again she's right on the money, in more ways than one. Started out flat, I’d guess because she was trying too hard to be sexy. Once she got into the song she seemed to do much better. No goose bumps this week for me, though. It was technically proficient but kind of stiff.

LaKesha: “Conga”
Nice looking red and black dress. J-Lo showed her how to shake her booty. Well, if there is anything J-Lo knows how to do, it’s that. I wasn't sure about the song choice at first but I thought she was pretty good. Much more loose and free performance than when she did the Donna Summer song. Paula thought it was too safe, and Simon agreed with her. Will wonders never cease?

Chris: “Smooth”
You had to figure somebody would do a Santana song. Sadly for Chris that wasn't a good choice for him. It sounded somewhat karaoke. He gets points for switching to a key more suited to his voice and actually sticking to it for the entire song. Maybe that was my problem with it; I’m so used to hearing the song in the original key that I had a hard time adjusting to the Key of Timberlake.

Haley: “Turn the Beat Around”
Did either Haley or J-Lo know that this is not a Latin song? Just because Gloria Estafan covered it (very well I might add) doesn't make it Latin. These kids today. The vocals were all over the map and pretty weak. Paula complements her for “having fun”, because you know, this is a fun competition. She broke out another pair of short shorts this week. Simon actually came out and accused Haley of trying to win by showing off the most skin. Honestly, that is all that she has going for her at this point.

Phil: “Maria, Maria”
Another hip Santana tune. Haven’t any of these kids heard of “Black Magic Woman”? He struggled yet again with his range. Some of the high and low notes sounded really strained. Other parts weren't bad though. It was just kind of OK. It didn't sound like he had fun, nor did show any skin (he even wore a hat to cover his bald head). So how is he still on the show? I've only been predicting his departure since the start of the finals, so it’s not me.

Jordin: “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You”
J-Lo thought it reminder her of Michael Jackson. Interesting comparison for Latin week. I don’t see it. I'm also surprised that Paula didn't agree with J-Lo. I’m not sure if it sounded “fun”, but it was far and away the best vocal performance so far. Simon didn't like it much, but he clearly took his grumpy pill tonight. He hasn't liked anything yet.

Blake: “I Need To Know”



Blake scored points by singing a song by J-Lo’s hubby. He scores points with me for his best performance so far in the competition. Jordin’s vocals were a little better but he did a much better performance overall. Best of the night. Even Grumpy Simon liked it. I must admit, I’m starting to warm up to this kid.

Sanjaya: “Besa Mi Mucho”
Ryan Seacrest must spend all week trying to think of a new way to introduce Sanjaya. This week it’s “the embodiment of Latin passion.” The producers try a new tactic by putting him in the coveted final spot (and at the same time put Melinda on first). Finally, somebody does a song in Spanish! It was actually a pretty good vocal! The judges were in complete shock! So am I! I guess this means we can turn the Doomsday Clock back a minute from Armageddon.

Final score: Santana 3, Gloria Estafan 3, J-Lo’s marido 1, Somebody Else 1. No surprise there. 3-1/2 snide comments about J-Lo. That kind of surprises me. I figured going in that she was good for at least 5.

Your 3 Stars for Tonight’s Game: Blake, Jordin, & I would have to say LaKesha, though the judges would probably vote for Chris instead. I can’t bring myself to list Sanjaya here.

The Fearless Prediction: There’s no way I can list Sanjaya here either. I got the Bottom 3 correct last week but once again I missed by predicting Phil to be voted off instead of Gina. I think he’ll be in the Bottom 3 again this week but I’m not about to pick him to be voted off again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, get voted off of American Idol. My guess is that Phil will be joined in the Bottom 3 by Haley and Melinda. Yes, Melinda. It wasn't nearly her best performance and some of her supporters might be taking her status for granted and voting for others assuming that she doesn't need any votes. I have a sneaky suspicion that they’ll get a wake-up call tomorrow night. If you doubt me, remember that I correctly predicted Chris Daughtry’s departure last season (I only mention it because according to my sister I mention Daughtry at least one time in each of these recaps, and I can't disappoint my own flesh and blood). However, it won’t be Melinda going home. Haley’s being flirting with departure (as well as with every male in the audience) for a while now and I think this is the week that she finally says adios.

From the Archives: Darth Sanjaya

Season 6 will likely be most remembered for the phenomenon known as Sanjaya Malakar and how his very presence on the show almost brought down the American Idol empire. With all the attention that he was getting I couldn't help but comment on it back in April. So, seeing it is the time of year when we typically reminisce and remember the year that was, let's travel back in time and revisit The American Idol story of 2007.

There are a lot of links in the story, and surprisingly they are all still active, so knock yourselves out.

From April 9, 2007:

It appears that the greatest threat to American civilization is not terrorists, global warming, or the Republican Party. No, my friends, it's become quite clear to me over these last few weeks that the greatest threat to our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar.

It started out innocent enough. Sanjaya went to the Seattle auditions for American Idol with his sister Shaymali. He started his audition by telling the judges that he thought his sister was a better singer than him. After his rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" the judges thought that he was the better singer and send them both to Hollywood. During the Hollywood tryouts Shaymali was sent home, but Sanjaya benefited from a much weaker male field of contestants this year and managed to get selected to the group of 24 contestants that would be vie for America's vote.

Early in the final 24 it became obvious that little Sanjaya did not have the vocal chops that some of the other contestants had. However, he managed to stay below the radar primarily for two reasons. One was that as bad as he was most of the other guys in the competition were about the same or only slightly better. The other was that the evil forces trying to sabotage the show were too busy trying to get Antonella Barba through to the finals to pay any attention to Sanjaya.

Who are these forces of evil? They are a small group of ner-do-wells who operate a site called Vote For the Worst.com (VFTW for short). This site started in 2004 with the expressed purpose of urging people to vote for the contestant who they thought the producers least wanted to see win. They believe that the Idol audition process is unfair and that people who are bad singers but could potentially make for good TV are invited on the show at the expense of more talented but perhaps less charismatic performers. In the past they have supported contestants such as Jasmine Trias, Scott Savol, and Kellie Pickler, who all finished higher than expected in part due to their support. However, while in years past their influence only went so far (none of their first picks has made it to the final 2) this season their evil has been amplified by the endorsement of America's shock jock, Howard Stern.

I probably don't need to explain who Howard Stern is. If I do then the rest of this blog won't make much sense to you anyway, so I'll move on.

Once Barba was voted off the show and VFTW selected Sanjaya as its pick Stern started a campaign on his radio show to urge people to vote for Sanjaya. Sanjaya also revealed that he once lived in Hawaii and could do the hula, and Idol fans know from Jasmine Trias' success in Season 3 how strong the Hawaii voting contingent can be. With all these powerful forces coming together around this kid Sanjaya has managed to stay on the show for 4 weeks now with no end in sight. He hasn't been in the bottom 3 since Week 1.

The growing threat that Sanjaya might actually win has led some to stage some rather drastic measures to try and stop this from happening. There are hunger strikes documented on MySpace to convince people to vote against him, a DJ in Philadelphia is living on the roof of a Toyota dealership until Sanjaya is voted off, hackers breaking into votefortheworst.com after each show to bring down the site, lawyers threatening to sue Stern and VTFW on behalf of the American Idol producers, and judge Simon Cowell saying that he would quit the show if Sanjaya wins. This is truly morphed into an epic battle of good versus evil, all over a 17-year-old with a semi-weak singing voice.

It's obvious to most, perhaps, that Stern and VTFW are in fact deliberately trying to sabotage the show. If Sanjaya does win you can all but guarantee that Idol won't last for more than another season or two as its credibility as a singing competition would be all but shot to Hell. The Times of London is already predicting this. This would no doubt please those who have aligned themselves against the show and are using Sanjaya as the conduit to try and bring it down. However, I doubt that such actions are illegal or are legitimate grounds for a lawsuit, nor are such actions justification for hunger strikes and sit-ins on car dealership rooftops. This is only a TV show, it's not like we're electing a President here.

It would not surprise me at all if Sanjaya quit the competition sometime within the next few weeks. He seems like a good kid. I doubt he expected all this fuss to be made about him or that he would be used by some to deliberately wreck havoc on the program. He claims that he doesn't pay attention to any of that but it would be hard for him not to, and how else can you explain the mohawk hairdo? It's a question of how far does he want to go and how badly does he want to win the competition. He's become in essence a circus clown, but with Stern, VFTW, and perhaps the entire state of Hawaii on his side he's got a legitimate chance to win even though every singer left in the competition is better than him. It'll be interesting to see just how this all plays out.

And I don't even want to begin to speculate what all this says about America. Maybe it's not Sanjaya himself that is the greatest threat to American civilization, but the reaction to him that is. At least, though, he is a rich source for blog material.

From the Archives: Season 6 Tony Bennett Week

A number of my posts from Season 6 had references to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, since I was a playa in the office pool and doing rather well despite not knowing anything about college basketball except that it is basketball played by college kids. Since my tournament discussions would be difficult to understand without all the other posts on that subject (let's fact it, you had to be there, man) I've been deleting them from these recaps where it is easy to do so, but you'll still see some of them still embedded in every once in a while.

I was nice to Tony Bennett because he is, well, Tony Bennett. It's hard to trash a legend. But as you'll see in my next post I more than made up for it when I went after the mentor on the following week's show.

From April 3, 2007

This week Tony Bennett was handing out advice to the youngsters, who picked songs from The Great American Songbook. I only capitalize that since I've always see it capitalized, even though I've never actually seen this book. Last season's kids had Barry Manilow teach them how to sing these songs, and now they're probably sitting at home all jealous now that this year's group got Bennett, except perhaps for Chris Daughtry who is too busy counting his millions.

Speaking of last year and singers named Bennett, anyone else noticed that 5th place finisher Paris Bennett has all but disappeared? Everyone else from last season is putting out albums or appearing on TV shows but there's been nothing from Paris. Just thought I'd ask.

So how did today's kids do with songs their great-grandparents listened too? Let's join my Mom and find out.

Blake: sang "Mack The Knife"
For the first time in this competition Blake sang a song straight without trying to shoehorn it into his "style" and did a surprisingly good job with it. Also surprising was that the judges didn't bash him for not being "fresh", as they seem to like it when he modifies a song. God knows why. Tonight was the first time Randy Jackson used the word "pitchy", which I've only been saying about him since his audition. Still, for someone whose vocals haven't been all that impressive so far he did a good job.

Phil: sang "Night & Day"
He was more pitchy than Blake, another first. He also had a hard time finding the rhythm to the song. Simon & Randy thought it sounded like a funeral dirge, which is a little harsh but not too far off the mark. It certainly didn't sound romantic and smooth. At least once each week Paula Abdul says something that leads people to suspect that she's drunk. Tonight Phil was the lucky recipient of this comment from Paula: "You remind me of Frank Sinatra." Even Randy did a double take to that.

Melinda: sang "I Got Rhythm"



How good is this woman's vocals? This song had not one but two rhythm changes and she aced both of them. Want more proof? Simon complained that he can't find anything to criticize her about. She is clearly in a vocal class by herself and if this is a "singing competition" as Simon keeps claiming it is it would be a crime if she lost. 4 weeks now and she hasn't slipped yet. Even Tony Bennett thinks she's the best singer on the show.

Chris: sang "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"
He wore a strange ensemble, a grey vest complete with a fedora, very apropos given the theme, but his bottom half consisted of torn jeans and sneakers. These kids today... He struggled with the rhythm but his performance had a lot of energy to it. Following the wonder girl isn't easy but he did OK for himself. For once I couldn't picture Justin Timberlake while listening to him sing, which might actually hurt his chances.

Jordin: "On A Clear Day"
Tony Bennett said that Jordin "sang in tune, which is really rare these days." So he really has been watching the show. This girl is really good. Lots of energy, spark, and emotion. She's really learned to keep her emotions under control as the competition has gone on. If there is anyone who can challenge Melinda for the title it's this teenager. Again Simon had to work really hard to find something negative to say.

Gina: "Smile"
It was probably her best vocal performance. That's the good news. The bad news is that it was in a song style that was the same as Melinda and Jordin and she just can't compete with that. She's better off being the rocker chick, which is hard to do with these types of songs. Chris Daughtry had the same problem, which is what eventually doomed him.

Sanjaya: "Cheek to Cheek"
Pretty much everybody now has figured out that Sanjaya's vocal ability is so much worse than everyone else's that the judges are not even bothering to comment on that anymore. Yes, even Paula. Still, his performance, as weak as it was vocally, was still entertaining and had a lot of style. He even pulled out a Taylor Hicks move and danced with Paula. He's still essentially a circus clown, but at least he didn't embarrass himself this week.

Haley: "Ain't Misbehavin'"
Pretty much the same thing we see from Haley every week. Listless vocal, great legs. Simon finally acknowledged what every man in the audience already noticed (the judges had a lot of revelations this week: Blake is pitchy, Sanjaya can't sing, Haley has nice legs, & Randy thinks Paula is drunk, just what was in those Coke glasses?). Haley opted for a sleeveless dress with a little bit lower cut than what we've seen her wear before. I'm starting to like this girl even though she has no chance of winning. I've written 4 reviews of her so far and I think in total I've only used 2 or 3 sentences to talk about her singing.

LaKesha: "Stormy Weather"
You may have heard this before, "slow start, big finish." I do love how she pours on the emotion, this week more than most others. You get the sense that she really feels the song, especially when she pulls out that Force of Nature voice of hers like she did this week. I would have liked to have heard her sing Bennett's signature tune "I Left My Heart In San Francisco", she's probably the only one who could have pulled it off.

Your 3 Stars of Tonight's Game: You may have heard this before too, Melinda, Jordin, and LaKesha. A shout out to Blake, though, for finally showing that he can actually sing without being Mr. Fresh.

The Fearless Prediction: Even though I was off on who would get voted off last week, picking Haley instead of Chris Sligh, I did a little better than the week before in getting two out of the bottom three correct. This week two really stood out in a bad way: Phil and Haley. Yes, even Sanjaya was better than them this week, which means he'll probably get voted off since he wasn't the worst one. But I don't think America, or at least the part of America with a twisted sense of humor, is ready to see Sanjaya go so I think he stays another week. Instead, I see Gina as the third Bottom 3 contestant based on comparisons to the other girls. That's what got Stephanie voted off so there is some merit to this train of thought. I get the feeling it'll be Phil who will be shipping out tomorrow night. Gina has done better in previous weeks and Haley's legs should buy her another week. This is the second time, though, that I've predicted Phil would be going home so my confidence isn't that high on this one, especially now that I'm below .500 overall on these picks. Perhaps I'll do better if I stop watching. It seems to work with college basketball.

From the Archives: Season 6 Gwen Stefani Week

The themes for Season 6 were much more mentor oriented than those in Season 5, at least it seemed that way to me. Thus my comments were also much more mentor oriented, as you'll no doubt see here. (pun intended). The songs were either ones that Gwen Stefani liked or sang, which led to some interesting song selections that said a lot about the contestants and about Gwen Stefani. Exactly what it said I'm not sure, but if you or I thought about long enough we might come up with something.

I also kept my comments relatively short this particular week since it was about 1 am when I wrote this.

From March 27, 2007

Gwen Stefani is this week's "mentor", though how much mentoring she can really provide is anyone's guess. It's not like she's known for her vocal abilities. Then again, maybe there is something that she can mentor the contestants on, how to be a really successful singer without being a really good singer.

I know, I know, I shouldn't be trashing a fellow O.C. homey like that, but it was just too easy.

LaKesha: Last Dance by Donna Summer
The judges loved it but I didn't think that much of it. The vocal was decent but I didn't think it fit her voice well. Although, it did sound better during the recap at the end of the show.

Chris S.: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police
Probably his worst performance to date, and that's saying something considering how much he butchered "Endless Love" a couple weeks ago. The vocal was kind of flat and his timing was off. He has the best voice of any of the male contestants but we've yet to hear it in the finals.

Gina: I'll Stand By You by The Pretenders
Went away from trying to be the rocker chick and picked a more demanding vocal song, and it worked really well. Her best performance to date. No screaming this time and stayed in tune throughout. Nice outfit too. I think Chrissie Hynde works much better for her than Mick Jagger.

Sanjaya: Bath Water by No Doubt



One writer I read said that Sanjaya has morphed into a circus clown, and sure enough the dude comes out with a Mohawk hairdo that I can't do justice to by trying to describe it here. His vocal was decent but uninspiring. Whether intentional or not he's really making a mockery of the competition, and that alone will probably get him enough votes to stay on the show.

Haley: True Colors by Cyndi Lauper
Man, this girl has some really nice, supermodel style legs. Last week it was the short shorts, this week it's a short skirt. She's clearly realized what her best asset is in this competition. I can't think of anything to say about her vocal performance. I was too distracted.

Phil: Every Breath You Take by The Police
I thought it was his best effort in quite a while. It was a very well textured vocal, and this time he managed to keep it under control. Nice performance.

Melinda: Heaven Knows by Donna Summer
Usual stuff: started kind of shaky, finished very strong, professional vocal. It sounded like something from an actual record instead of a karaoke act. Not her best but still the class of the field.

Blake: Love Song by The Cure
Kind of flat but OK. Less pitchy than usual. The judges loved the hip arrangement but I thought it paled in comparison to the original. Maybe they just don't appreciate New Wave. Paula Abdul thinks he'll be in the final two. The rest of America wonders if there really is booze in Paula's Coke glass. Randy and Simon think he's the best of the boys. If so, it's only because the other boys look so creepy and sing so crappy.

Jordin: Hey Baby by No Doubt
I thought it was pretty good. She made it much more musical than the original. I'm not sure if that's a compliment for Jordin or another cruel insult at Gwen Stefani.

Chris R.: Don't Speak by No Doubt
Stefani thinks the Justin Timberlake imitator is a "vocal Olympian", though one wonders which Olympic sport Gwen had in mind. Synchronized swimming perhaps? (I've spent 10 minutes trying to think of a really cool Olympic metaphor and just can't do it, sorry about that). I didn't think much of his performance. He went back to being more like a Justin Timberlake imitator, though considering he was in the bottom 2 last week after straying away from the boy band sound perhaps going back to it isn't a bad thing.

Your 3 Stars of Tonight's Game: Melinda and Jordin as usual. I think Gina stepped up this week to claim the third star, I'm really starting to like her. Though not Top 3 material Phil earned a shout out.

The Fearless Prediction: I was way off last week, though I did think that Stephanie could be in the bottom 3. Bottom line on the Beyonce' imitator is that she was the 4th best African American girl with a big voice in the competition, and when the other 3 African American girls with big voices are arguably the top 3 favorites to win it all (Paula Abdul's opinion of Blake not withstanding) Stephanie was doomed. Maybe she can take comfort in the fact that the same thing happened to Jennifer Hudson in Season 3, and she's managed to do pretty well for herself since then.

On to this week, it's the hardest one to predict so far since no one really stood out as being really bad except the usual suspect, and there are too many people out there that want to see Sanjaya stay on to see him leave now. So, I think the bottom 3 will be Haley and the 2 Chrises. I'm tempted to go with Chris R. because he was in the bottom 2 last week, but I'm going to go with Haley this week despite the nice leg shows she's been feeding everyone the last two weeks.

Now watch, Phil or Gina will probably get voted off even though their vocals were 100 times better than last week.

From the Archives: Season 6 British Invasion Week

Here's where I started to realize that there was a gold mine of material available by focusing my poison pen on the mentors. We also learned many things about the competitors. For example, we learned that Jordin and Melinda were the best singers, that Phil was the best shouter, that Blake was the favorite of the pre-teen girl set, that Haley had great legs and not much else, that Stephanie didn't know that she sounded just like Beyonce, that Chris Richardson did know that he sounded like Justin Timberlake, that Gina was selected as the designated rocker, that LaKesha was destined to duplicate what happened to Chris Daughtry in Season 5, that Chris Sligh was trying to duplicate what happened to Taylor Hicks in Season 5, and that Sanjaya not only made little girls cry but posed a threat to all of Western civilization. And to think there were 10 weeks of this still to come. I also learned that this season was going to be hard to predict who would be voted off.

From March 20, 2007:

Here we are in Week 2 and everybody will be singing songs from the 60's British Invasion. One interesting note: while The Beatles were mentioned in the opening monologue not one of the contestants dared to sing a Beatles song. Actually most of the songs chosen were ones that were among the least popular from that era, though a few did dare to take on some more familiar material. Our guest mentors this week are Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits and Lulu from, I guess Lulu. It's obvious from their comments that Noone and Lulu have been watching the show. It was also obvious from the contestants' comments that most of them had no clue who these two were before meeting them.

Haley, "Tell Him" by Billie Davis
She showed a much better stage presence this week compared to last, when she looked like a freight train was about to hit her. She showed off some nice moves and some nice legs, thanks to some really short shorts. The backless blouse didn't hurt either. Some of her words were slurred, but at least she remembered them all this time. Upbeat and happy suits her much better than frightened, especially when she's showing lots of skin.

Chris R., "Don't Let the Sun Get You Cryin'" by Gerry & The Pacemakers
The (other) judges loved it but I thought it was a little flat. Still, it is a difficult song to sing well and he didn't do a bad job with it. It was the first time he demonstrated a distinctive sound instead of channeling Justin Timberlake again, so he should get bonus points for that. He also kept in tune and more or less on pitch. A decent performance.

Stephanie, "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" by Dusty Springfield
During the intro Lulu tells Stephanie that she sounds just like Beyonce'. Stephanie is surprised to hear this but the rest of America is not. This wasn't a very good song choice for her. Try to imagine Beyonce' singing it and you'd have a good idea how it came out. The song was too big for her voice and you could hear her strain to hit some of the big notes.

Blake, "Time of the Season" by The Zombies
You can tell he's getting the preteen girl vote by all the high pitched screams every time his name is mentioned. Unlike last week when he bastardized "You Keep Me Hangin' On" Blake played it pretty straight this week, though he did add some modernizing touches to it. His vocals were strained at times but much less pitchy than usual. Overall not a bad performance for him.

LaKesha, "Diamonds Are Forever" by Shirley Bassey
How successful is Idol? So successful that they were able to outfit LaKesha with a million dollars worth of diamonds just for this performance. It was a good song choice for her, and it was her usual performance, a little shaky at first but packing a wallop at the end once she gets into the song. Still, not her best. She may be suffering from Chris Daughtry syndrome. Like Daughtry last year, she did so well in her first performance (when she outdid Jennifer Hudson singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going") that she'll always be held to that standard, and when she falls short of that it'll be seen as poor even though it was still better than many others.

Phil, "Tobacco Road" by The Nashville Teens
It was a spirited performance but he shouted pretty much the entire song, and he had pitch problems on the parts that he did actually sing. He's demonstrated good vocals before but not tonight. It just didn't work for me, Dog. Plus, I didn't think The Nashville Teens were even from England.

Jordin, "I, Who Have Nothing" by Shirley Bassey



Best vocal of the night so far. It was a surprising song choice given that she's only 17, way too young to get into a song about a lost love, but she pulled it off very well. She seems to be getting better and better every week.

Sanjaya, "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks
It was either this song or Peter Noone's own "Something Good." Noone was encouraging him to sing the Kinks song, probably because he didn't want Sanjaya to butcher his own song. Even though he went with The Kinks Sanjaya didn't disappoint, it was still a vocal disaster. Ray Davies is probably calling his agent now, trying to get on Idol to encourage Sanjaya to sing someone else's song. Sanjaya also acknowledged that he's not the best singer in the competition, to which 90% of America uttered a collective "duh!" He does get some style points, though, for showing some enthusiasm in his performance. He even made a young girl in the audience cry tears of joy, though we found out later that she was crying for all the contestants.

Gina, "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones
What an interesting song choice this was. She got the look and the mannerisms down, but we never got to hear the big rocker chick voice that she's displayed before because the song didn't really allow for it. It was actually rather weak. Her vocals didn't even come close to Mick Jagger's nor did she try to do something different to avoid the comparison.

Chris S., "She's Not There" by The Zombies
Excellent song choice, maybe the best pairing of song and singer all night. This time he didn't mess with the arrangement and it worked out much better. It was a full-on Taylor Hicks-esque performance, complete with the dance moves, the roaming through the crowd, and the goofy nickname (the "Fro Patrol"). Considering that those types of performances got Hicks a record contract and a boat load of cash it's probably not much of a bad thing to try and do something similar.

Melinda, "As Long As He Needs Me" from "Oliver"
As usual, the best is saved for the coveted final slot. She had some odd facial expressions and her neck seems to have disappeared below her shoulders, but once again her vocals were spot on. She is clearly in another league vocally. Phrasing, pitch, tone, once again it was all there. Even though most of the others upped their games this week compared to last Melinda is still the front runner, and may have opened up her lead just a little bit on her main competition.

Your 3 Stars of the Night: Melinda & Jordin again are the top two. I'd say it's a tie for third between Chris S. and Blake.

The Fearless Prediction: My guess for the Bottom 3 are Phil, Gina, and Sanjaya, though it wouldn't surprise me if Stephanie ended up there instead. If there is a God then Sanjaya will be shown the door, but there's still too many people voting for him just to torment the rest of America and relatively speaking he did better this week than last. So, my guess is that Phil will be headed back out to sea with the Navy tomorrow night.