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A rather sombre beginning, with Ryan sending thoughts and prayers out to the people affected by the mass casualty incident in Virginia yesterday.
It’s country night. I grew up on country music. I performed country music all over the midwest, and as you know, had my hands on a record contract in Nashville.
Martina McBride is the guest tonight. She’s a little woman with a gigantic voice. When I met her, she was at the height of the “Independence Day” madness, and she was one of the nicest and most down to earth stars I’d been around. That’s saying something as there are an inordinate number of very nice stars in the country music world. She’s absolutely correct in that the genre of music should not matter. It’s all about selling the story of the song. Country songs are three minute stories.
Phil Stacey is up first doing a Keith Urban song, “Where the Blacktop Ends.” He gets more and more unattractive every week. I half expect his teeth to begin sharpening into points at any time. His performance tonight, however may be the best he’s done this season. It was entertaining, he wasn’t pushing his voice, his pitch was good. The judges were very positive. Simon isn’t sure it’s enough to save him, but he has finally found his niche.
Jordin Sparks is singing Martina’s song “Broken Wing.” She’s starting out a bit rough, the lower register is a bit shaky. She must be a bit nervous about the Country Week Kiss of Death that has befallen many talented singers in past seasons. When she got to the money shot of the song, where it soars into the chorus she of course sounded amazing. Simon just announced that he believes Jordin could win American Idol based on that performance. I don’t usually find myself disagreeing with the judges, but they were too dazzled by how pretty Jordin looked tonight to notice the flaws.
Dear God, Sanjaya Malakar is wearing a bright red bandanna a la some weird tranny Latino gang member. I think he intends to sing “Something To Talk About” by Bonnie Raitt. He should just stop before he gets started.
In fact, instead of even listening to Sanjaya’s version, maybe I’ll listen to Lisa’s recording of the song with my band, Total Eclipse. Here:
That’s how it should be done.
Sanjaya is like a train wreck. I couldn’t help but listen and stare. It was even more awful than I imagined. Simon called it “utterly horrendous.” It was “as bad as anything we’ve ever seen since the beginning of American Idol.” I’ve been saying that since the beginning of this whole Sanjaya nightmare.
LaKisha Jones chose “Jesus Take The Wheel” by previous winner Carrie Underwood. Martina didn’t give her any advice for her to ignore, so I guess that’s good. I really enjoyed the first part of the song, it was intense and restrained. When the chorus came in though, LaKisha went way sharp and oversang it. It was like a shotgun blast to the head. Paula nailed it by saying she sounded like she was shouting.
Chris Richardson is singing Rascal Flatts “Mayberry.” Martina called him an extremely “versatile” singer. I loved that. He was really smart to pick a Rascal Flatts song. His voice is quite similar to Gary LeVox. Chris didn’t really sell this song to me. It was a little odd seeing his hipster look with the country song going on… it wasn’t great. Simon called it “insignificant.” He looked on the verge of tears, whether from his connection with Virginia Tech (he has friends there) or from the criticism, I can’t tell. I’m afraid he’s in trouble tonight.
Melinda Doolittle is up next. “Trouble is a Woman” by Julie Reeves is her choice. A song I’m not familiar with. I don’t feel so bad since Martina isn’t either. I still love Melinda. She embodies everything that is great about this show. She connects to the songs, she sells the song, she is perfectly comfortable singing absolutely anything. Her personality shows through every week, and her vocals are always flawless. I absolutely loved this bluesy uptempo sassy number. She’s fantastic. Simon said, “it was fantastic.” Stop stealing my words, Simon.
Blake Lewis is last tonight. He’s singing “When the Stars Go Blue” by Tim McGraw. While I just can’t buy Blake as a country performer, I love his voice and his style. He reminds me a lot of Adam Levine from Maroon 5. He did a great job of making this song his own.
There must be something we the audience at home doesn’t know about the VA Tech incident and how it relates to the contestants. Simon interrupted his critique of Blake to mention it yet again. He said it was a particularly tricky week for everyone. Curious.
So here’s the wrap up:
Safe:
- Melinda Doolittle
- Blake Lewis
Probably Safe:
- Jordin Sparks
- LaKisha Jones
Danger! Danger!:
- Sanjaya Malakar - Please let it end this week!
- Phil Stacey
- Chris Richardson