American Idol April 20/21

Might as well start this thread now. Tonight is Barry Manilow night for the final 7. As long as no one sings Copacabana it should be a half decent show. Apparently Barry Manilow has been working with the contestants non-stop so they can get the melodies just right.

My early predictions for tonight are pretty straight forward:

Jasmine, Diana, and John in the bottom 3 with Diana going home.

Hey Mike, any predictions as to who will sing what? For some reason I just started hearing the drone of JS singing "Mandy".

Piel said:

For some reason I just started hearing the drone of JS singing "Mandy".

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Me too!!

Actually, I don't think the night should be too bad, given that we no longer have JPL or Camille to make us run screaming out of the room. I just hope LaToya stays away from "Could It Be Magic" because she has enough problem thinking about 2/3 of the way through a song she's doing Puccini arias anyway without getting involved in THAT......

No predictions for songs from my end. I don't really know much music by Barry Manilow since I'm not a fan. I do agree that I could easily see John singing 'Mandy' while snapping his fingers the whole time.

Actually, what I'm frightened of is the potential prospect of John Stevens deciding to "break out and get a little wild" and end up trying to do "Copacabana". Which would be jaw-dropping, to say the least.

Actually, I always wanted Bourne & Kraatz to do a free dance to "Copacabana" -- I think it would totally work, especially given that I've always thought that Vic had a resemblance to Barry Manilow anyway....

JonnyCoop said:

Actually, what I'm frightened of is the potential prospect of John Stevens deciding to "break out and get a little wild" and end up trying to do "Copacabana". Which would be jaw-dropping, to say the least.

Actually, I always wanted Bourne & Kraatz to do a free dance to "Copacabana" -- I think it would totally work, especially given that I've always thought that Vic had a resemblance to Barry Manilow anyway....

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I never noticed it but you're right about Barry and Victor looking alike.

I remember Brasseur and Eisler did a program to 'Copacabana' a few years ago for Stars on Ice. It was just hilarious, with Lloyd playing the role of 'Rico'!

Now I must listen to Copacabana and imagine Victor Kraatz dancing to it.

Kara Bear said:

Now I must listen to Copacabana and imagine Victor Kraatz dancing to it.

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As Tony, or as Rico? Or maybe at some point he could flip from one to the other....

Tony, Rico, AND Lola!

I actually think John would do well with Copacabanna! it'd be fun

and I could imagine Scott's routine to the song (ok so it was part of the song in "I Love Me")

OK, Diana needs Barry Manilow to help her EVERY week! I am not a a Diana fan, but she was good!

My fav, George, didn't have a good week again. But I think the strength of his earlier performances will keep him up there.

I was really disappointed in Fantasia. Last week was so incredible for me. I was hoping she would continue on that way, but to me it seemed like she went back a step with her "churchy" rendition. Not my cup of tea. But still, the competition needs her.

Whos going to go? John perhaps...but I'm thinking it will be Diana. Even though she had a good performance, I have this feeling that shes going to be saying bye tomorrow.

Tonight was definitely girl's night! Too bad Barry can't work w/ them every week!

The guys, however, were forgetable. I was not impressed w/ either of them.

I think the bottom 3 this week should be Fantasia, George, & John, w/ John going home. But w/ the way voting goes, nobody is safe...

Tonight really showed that there are two contestants who should win this competition: Latoya and Fantasia. No one can match them vocally, and they can both sing any genre of music thrown at them. Here's my rankings for tonight:

1. Fantasia: Rocked the house. This competition needs her more than she needs it. She is the one contestant who can deliver that emotional punch with a song.

2. Latoya: She is so consistent every week. As Simon said, she is the best vocalist out there at least technically.

3. Jasmine: A great comeback week for her.

4. Jennifer: Sang very well, although I found that she mumbled through the first half of her song.

5. John: Very good. Much better than I thought he would be.

6. Diana: Alright, although there were major pitch problems. She always sings with the same expression on her face and it's getting annoying.

7. George: I love George but this wasn't his week. He needed a good performance after doing poorly last week and he didn't deliver.

My predictions are now: John, Diana, and George in the bottom 3. George and Diana will be bottom 2 with Diana going home.

I missed Jennifer tonight because I had to take a phone call
My favorite George was awful IMO. I hope that with the not so great performance last week won't get him voted off. My rankings (minus Jennifer).

Jasmine - so much better
LaToya - still very good but would like to see her be a little less predictable
Fantasia- not as good as last week, I don't mind being taken to church, in fact I usually enjoy that, but the last part of her performance was like let's see what all I can throw in here. I'm glad that she's enthusiastic but is it necessary to display every vocal trick in one song?

So more restraint from Fantasia and less from LaToya.

Diane - better but still the Stepford wife of AI
George - why, why, why?
John - much better than I anticipated

If Diane and John get enough of the teen/tween vote George could very well be sent home. I hope not!

John brought my best friend to tears... I loved his song... I'm not a Barry Manilow fan so I don't know how the song goes... it was really good

last season's finale had Clay, Kelly, and Ruben singing "One Voice" a hoarse/almost out of tune Kelly hits those power/glory notes way better than Diana... and I missed Clay and Ruben's harmonies... was not impressed with Diana... however my friend Aaron, he told me today, is his number one pick... so whatever


if john goes tomorrow night I will cry... he deserves a top 6 spot...


and I'm sick of Fantasia's yeah yeah yeah's.... she did is last week in a beautiful song that DIDN'T NEED the 'Tasia effect

and I think her kid being on stage during the voting is just mean... hello! not everyone has a kid... don't sway the votes like a presidential nominee, yo!

Have to say that while her daugther is cute... nothing beats seeing Josh Gracin last year holding his baby girl as he sang his way home... still gets me teared up... he so wanted to go home to his girls.

WOW - I really did not expect Barry Manilow to raise the game so high for (almost) everybody!

My rankings:

1. LaToya
2. Fantasia

LaToya was astounding I enjoyed Fantasia, and it was fun to see her sing in her comfort zone - but she did screech at the end, and there was no way I'd name her performance the best with a "C'mon Y'all" right off the bat, and the obligatory "yeah yeah yea" at the end. Plus, although it wasn't her doing, bringing the kid out seemed like a cheap ploy for votes. She doesn't need it!

3. Jennifer
4. Jasmine

I love that Jennifer is really in this now. Beautiful, measured performance! And I was amazed by Jasmine. I really didn't think I'd ever like a performance of hers so much!

5. JOHN STEVENS

I disagreed with the judges. Not only was this John's best performance, I really liked it (Toni, get up off the floor!). I did still hear some pitch problems, but they didn't stand out, and John looked/sounded confident, and the song went well with his voice. I even "felt" this performance. This was WAY better than his Casablanca song last week. Whatever Manilow told him about singing has given me hope that John can become a better singer. I didn't vote for him, and at his best, I still think 5 of the singers left are way better than he is, but this was great.

6. George
7. Diana

I liked the R&B arrangement of "Tryin to Get the Feeling Again", but the beginning sounded too low for George, and I agreed with Randy that there were too many runs packed in there. Thought the end was good though. Plus George got the only negative comment from Barry, and it was along the lines of "we talked about that and you did it anyway" OUCH. This was the best I have heard from Diana, I liked that it wasn't perky, and I finally heard in the middle of the song some of Diana's "great voice" people keep talking about. But it still sounded like it belonged on an episode of the Love Boat. I just don't care for her voice - I would rather hear George's mediocre performance than Diana's best one.

I would like to see Diana gone tomorrow - but I'm really worried about George. This isn't what I think is right, but I think we will see Diana, George and Jennifer in the bottom 3 tomorrow with either Diana or George getting the boot (pleez make it Diana!)

guinevere

I don't know -- maybe it was me, maybe it was because some of the arrangements were so strange, maybe it was because out of all the Barry Manilow songs I do like, everyone picked one that I could well do without anyway (which may have been just as well), maybe it was because with JPL and Camille gone I was expecting a much better show -- but IMO EVERYONE was off tonight in some way or other. I'm not even going to bother to rank them because with all the pros and cons of just about every performance, to me it was pretty much a toss-up; even performances I would rank in the top 3 didn't exactly do a lot for me.

Dianna -- However, if I were going to rank, she'd be last. This was Teen Beauty Pageant Talent Competition at best, and at worst -- well, I wonder how many people in North America got their hair permed for free during those high notes?? Tho I will give her credit, as Randy did, for not being afraid of a difficult song. I do think this is a talented young lady, she just needs a few more years under her belt.

George -- I actually liked what he did with a song I'm not overly crazy about to begin with. But it seems to me he's getting raspier every week, and I don't mean in a good way -- I mean as in if he gets to the Final 3, I wonder if he's even going to have a voice left. The first half of this, a couple of times it sounded like he was on the verge of coughing up hairballs. Once he got that out of the way, though, he was quite good.

Jasmine -- She gets better every week, overall. The problem I had here was with her phrasing. Her performance was fairly good, but could have been much better if the phrasing hadn't been off.

Jennifer -- There is no doubt that this woman is extremely talented. However -- she has got WAY TOO MUCH VOICE for most of the songs that she chooses to sing, and this was another one of those cases. I guess since LaToya actually toned it down a notch tonight, Jennifer decided to take it upon herself to do the evening's Metropolitan Opera Auditon. WAY TOO MUCH. Some subtlety would be nice from her, for a change.

LaToya -- Nice job, but nothing thrilling.

John -- This wasn't bad, and I think it was a lot better than a lot of people may have been expecting. The problem here, however, IMO, is not his youth, lack of emotion, or limited vocal range -- it's his overly precise, nearly to the point of fussy, diction and enunciation. Slurring words and having a little bit of a mush mouth at certain points is not a bad thing in popular music. His diction is way too precise and if he had either the emotion or the vocal range, like with Clay Aiken (who also has rather precise diction) it wouldn't matter as much.

Fantasia -- Off night. Not sure why, but something wasn't quite working for me and I can't put my finger on what. In part, it was because she went a little overboard, but it was something else, too.

And, really, so what if John looks like Stan Laurel? And so what if Amy Adams looked like Jay Leno? And what's wrong with Jasmine having a flower in her hair every week? What's that got to do with how they sang? Simon, who last year was correct about 95% of the time with his assesments, I think has officially flipped into the zone where he's quibbling just for the sake of quibbling. If I were Jasmine, I would have said something along the line of "I'll stop putting flowers in my hair week after week if you stop wearing those everlasting T-shirts week after week" Then again, if I were Jasmine, she wouldn't be the nice girl that she is.

Jonny........Your whole post took the words right out of my mouth. I totally agree.
.......I missed the first three minutes, what happened to Paula's hand? Anyway.....here are my picks...
1. LaToya......Beautiful, well rounded voice and the reason she looks so reserved when she sings is she "acts" like a lady all the time, unlike Fantasia and Jennifer who sometimes don't...
2. Jasmine........she stepped outside of her comfort zone tonight and proved that she can take comments and work them into her performance. I voted for her off and on for an hour and only got through three times........her lines were jammed.
3. Jennifer.......love her voice, but she over-powers her songs
4.Diane........I thought she was great tonight and will be sad if she's eliminated.
5. Fantasia........off tonight, not worthy of a top finish at all. I actually think the "holding the baby" thing didn't help her at all. Kind of "cheesy".
6.John........not bad, he actually is starting to look more comfortible in his singing role.
7.George.....I love ya guy, but this was not your night.........42

oh what the heck, lemme try this

Diana I thought she did a decent job. Her best yet.

Jasmine She did a decent job too, but then I have always liked her. But I really think she nailed it this time.

Jennifer Sorry, she just doesn't do it for me. She has a powerful voice, but I'd rather see her on Broadway, or perhaps in a gospel choir. The songs don't seem flow out of her, they're forced out, as if her lungs were bellows.

George I wonder if he caught that flu. The music was louder than he was, and I think he just tried too hard. Probably his worst so far, but not enough to send him home.

John I doubt we'll ever see John "belt it out" so-to-speak. His last note should have been a higher one, but apparently he can't. I loved Mandy (oh my poor poor boyfriend back then ), and at first I thought "wow, finally John does it right. But rather than build it up, he got worse.

lets see...who else...
ah yes...

Fantasia and Latoya I think these 2 have total control of their voices and they are a joy to watch and hear. I much prefer Latoya's style and presentation though. I hope she ends up winning.

I think John should go home. (sorry Toni)

Its scary, but 9 times outta 10 I agree with Simon. I just wish he could be nicer about it. But then he wouldn't be Simon so...

As always, JMO