It is with a heavy heart that I begin this week’s critique of the American Idol contestants’ performances. As silly as it sounds, yes, I am quite upset by Jennifer Hudson’s ludicrously premature departure from competition. Should I blame America, though? Hardly. If anyone is at fault here, it is not the voters. I won’t believe for a minute that John Stevens has a higher number of fans than Jennifer, considering the outcry by the American public that she was robbed. I am convinced that if they both dropped albums tomorrow, Jennifer’s would outsell his by leaps and bounds. What I do believe is John Stevens may have a higher number of fans with absolutely nothing better to do with their time than power vote for two hours straight. The members of “ClubHud” (or “Jennifans”, whichever you prefer) are generally folks over the age of eighteen who have lives, families to care for and careers to occupy their extra time. Many of them TiVo the show for later viewing and may not get the chance to vote at all. The true problem is, as it has been since the inception of this nauseatingly addicting show, is the hopelessly flawed voting system. Allowing as many calls per phone as possible in a two hour period doesn’t say a thing about whose album is actually going to sell when all is said and done, as has been proven by first season’s second runner up Justin Guarini (bomb-o-rama) and last year’s winner Ruben Studdard, who narrowly beat Clay Aiken but hasn’t sold as many albums as Clay since. Who is to blame for this? Not America, no. Fox, Nigel Lithgoe, Simon Fuller, 19 Entertainment, Freemantle Media…the big cheeses and corporate conglomerates that own and produce American Idol. For Nigel Lithgoe to appear on Access Hollywood and claim “America got it wrong” was not only offensive but downright laughable, considering that he himself seems perfectly okay with the outrageous voting system set up. The teenagers of America are only doing what teenagers do - going bat guano over the young cuties on the show and unless they happen to be singers themselves have no idea what is actually talent worth buying and what is not. The same kids keeping John Stevens suffering merciless humiliation on the show and in the press week after week are the same kids keeping Britney Spears in business as well. The producers and companies who established this set up are to blame. Period.
All that said, this is my last critique for Season Three of American Idol. As long as the powers-that-be at the show continue to view it as a popularity contest rather than a serious talent competition, pushing it to the American public as if we are voting for prom king or queen, then I can’t justify wasting my precious time taking the talent seriously, either. This week was a slap in the face to the contestants and the dignity of true vocalists - both professional and amateur – everywhere. Now for my notes:
Diana DeGarmo, singing guest judge Barry Manilow’s “One Voice”, had her best performance since her first week in the top twelve. She was a little shaky at the beginning (“fishing-for-pitches” as I call it), and clearly doesn’t have the same control of her lower range as she does her chest voice. However, when she does get to the meat of her range she just soars on those power notes like none other but perhaps her own idol Celine Dion. She looked adorable and grown up (she lost the “Mary Kaye face” this week, thank God) and all in all sounded really good. I was happy to see her safe this week and hope she continues to up her own personal ante. I was also glad to hear Randy recognize what I have been saying for weeks now, that Diana consistently chooses the most difficult song on the list week after week (notice “One Voice” has quite a deceptively complicated melody…just try and hum that little ditty). Sometimes she doesn’t come out smelling like a rose, but she certainly has no fear of challenging herself. She is trying to win in her own way and she deserved Simon’s props the night of the results show, as wrong as that whole fiasco ended up turning out.
Poor George Huff. His “Trying To Get The Feeling Again” was an unfortunate disaster and I say that as his fan. Watching it for the first time it was definitely too busy with all the riffs, though I could tell he had definitely thought carefully about where he went with them (for example, riffing up the scale when he sang the word “up” and back down on the word “down”). Watching it for the second time I must say I have to agree with Simon that the arrangement was too fast. Slowed down a little bit and set in a really cool groove where George would have had the time to do those riffs in a much more carefree manner would have made it a completely different performance. He probably wouldn’t have missed as many notes as he did, either. Either way, he has a powerful fan base backing him and they kept him around another week. Sadly, being humiliated on national television the next night as he was forced to choose between two groups as to which had the highest number of votes was sickening and wrong. Something like that should never happen to a person as sweet as he seems to be. Shame on you, Fox! Sickos!
Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson. I didn’t think it possible for her to top her “Circle of Life” performance, but with “Weekend In New England” (my all time favorite Barry Manilow song) she absolutely did. I also didn’t think I would tear up in another one of her performances, but I absolutely did. Like Barry commented in the pre-taped rehearsals, “I could not do what Jennifer is doing, it goes to another place.” That place is “Jenny’s world”. She soared and became The New Whitney on this song and is the one contestant who sings her feelings so vividly that you can see them a-blazing right on her sleeve. She’s the only one that ever seems to really “get” the material she chooses. She will be sorely, sorely missed in this competition. At least she went out not only with the best performance of the night but perhaps of her life, with her dignity intact. I will be first in line for her CD one day. Excuse me while I hit rewind one more time…
Jasmine Trias also gave her best performance since she started the top twelve. It was a really strong song for her voice (“I Know I’ll Never Love This Way Again”, popularized by Dionne Warwick) and for the most part she did a great job with it. She sounded less nasally this week and it was nice to hear stretch her herself into a higher register. My complaints are that she’s still scrunching her face to hit the high notes, her riff on the big key change was sloppy and her last note was unbearably flat. All in all a very solid performance however, and losing the flower behind her ear, though cute, made her finally look like an adult. She deserved the safety she received this week.
Next up, unjustly placed in the bottom three this week was LaToya London. I have to be honest in that the song she chose, “All The Time”, is not terribly familiar to me (and I call myself a Barry connoisseur!). She was of course nearly flawless as always and that high note was KA-POW, but the same criticism I have whenever she sings is the lack of feeling and comprehension of the lyric. Here she is singing a song about wasting the best years of your life on not believing in yourself and she’s got a smile plastered on her face. It simply didn’t fit. It was absolutely an incredible vocal performance and perfectly blocked onstage, etc…but…just cold. Bring us in, LaToya. After a second undeserved time in the bottom three, you owe it to yourself to break that wall down.
Lord, have sweet mercy on John Stevens. I have said that he sings his niche style fabulously and I still believe that. I will also say that his attempt at 'Mandy' was his best performance outside of that traditional pop box he has given yet. I do feel like he really tried to express the sentiment of the song. Unfortunately, he’s too young to understand that sentiment, his voice couldn’t hold up to it and he’s now completely out of his league compared to the other singers. As John said himself to Jennifer Hudson after the results show, “It should have been me.” He was right; he should have gone home. To add insult to injury Simon just had to open his big British trap and tell him he reminded him of Stan Laurel. This poor kid can’t win for losing now and his fans are just dragging it out for him out of selfishness. Want the media to stop slamming the crap out of him? SEND THE CHILD HOME.
I was so ready for Fantasia Barrino to bring church up in the house but unfortunately 'It's A Miracle' wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I agree with Randy, not enough melody and just lots of screaming. Now, before anyone slams me for not knowing what I’m talking about in that I don’t know what true gospel music is, I have to beg to differ. I spent about five years in a Pentecostal church choir, thank you very much. I know me some foot-stompin’ gospel music and Fantasia was close, but no cigar. That’s not to say it was horrible or was deserving of the bottom two placement she received, it just wasn’t enough for me. I also found it rather offensive that her family was comfortably seated in the green room while the rest of the contestants’ families sat in the noisy audience. Adding insult to injury, playing the baby up was completely uncool. Man, just about the only thing this show got right this week was asking Barry Manilow to be a guest judge.
Next week is not only to be dreaded because the only actual competitor has gone home but because we will have to suffer through the insipid sludge Gloria Estefan wrote. Hey, I respect the icon she is to Latin artists, I certainly respect her coming back from a nearly fatal bus accident, but I have never been and never will be a fan of either her music or her terrible, terrible vocal technique. Sorry. At any rate, I sincerely thank you for reading my musings each week and I hope you all enjoy the rest of the season…that is, if you decide to continue watching at all. I’m still debating myself.
I welcome your comments at the “read/make comments” link below and your visit to my website if you so choose.
~Darci Monet Professional Vocalist, Songwriter, Vocal Coach and disappointed 'Jennifan' http://www.darcimonet.com
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