This Week on American Idol | Golden Skate

This Week on American Idol

Tonichelle

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Jun 27, 2003
TONIGHT!
Don't miss the one-hour special, "American Idol: The Final Three '04" Monday at 8/7c! Ryan will sit down with each judge to get his/her take on this season, and Diana, Fantasia and Jasmine will give one performance each!

[I guess we won't get to see them in their hometowns like last year... that would have been fun!]

TUESDAY!
The disco era didn't last forever and neither did La Toya London's run on American Idol. With three powerhouse ladies left standing, who will be the next American Idol? Well, we'll find out in another couple of weeks. Until then, tune in Tuesday at 8/7c on FOX for the most important performances yet. Fantasia, Jasmine and Diana can't afford to miss a single note right now. Will the pressure be too much for one of the girls to handle?

[If they follow last year's plot... the singers get to sing 3 songs this week... a judge picks one, they pull one out of a hat, and they pick their favorite song]

WEDNESDAY!
Then come back Wednesday at 9/8c on FOX for the live, one-hour results show when we find out who the two finalists are!

[I think Diana's got a lock on one of the top 2 spots... Fantasia will get the other one... Jazz will go home... but anything's possible]
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Did anybody see the feature on the Today show about how a consortium of professional Internet gamblers was able to block more than a million votes last week to skew the results?

Mathman
 

RealtorGal

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Jul 27, 2003
As much as I hate to admit it, we're done with that show in our house. None of us has any interest anymore. The show has totally lost its credibility.
 

Tonichelle

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how did the show lose it's creditiability?

*sigh* first it was Clay lost and so thousands of angry Clay fans vowed never to watch

now Latoya's fans do the same... poor AI...

Mathman, I didn't see it today... I love that show but I have been feeling kinda icky today... so I haven't even ventured near the TV today... how'd it happen?
 
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Jun 21, 2003
I didn't actually see the feature. I only heard the headline at the beginning of the show. I was hoping someone else could tell me more about it.

I think the "credibility" problem comes in with the voting process. People have speed dials and computer software that they can set to automatically cast thousands and thousands of votes, which shuts out the ordinary viewers who keep getting a busy signal and are able to vote only once or twice in an hour. This means that the person who wins is not necessarily who America really wants to vote for.

I would think it would be easy for CBS to address this question, like each phone can vote only once. If they had voting on the Internet you could do it by IP number. Except for AOL and other ISP that use proxies -- I don't know how that would work -- plus, then you would have to have a computer to vote.

Mathman
 

Lotta

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Jul 27, 2003
I'd still watch... except that I'm not gonna vote. Not even for Jazzy or DD. I don't know... I don't wanna Paula or Randy to start s--- again with the voting.

I will watch tonight's special. :) This'll be cool.
 

Tonichelle

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I don't think Paula and Randy were off on their opinions at all... a lot of people voted just to get fantasia off... and since LaToya's number was busy they all voted for Jazz and Diana...

then there were the sympathy votes for Jazz because *sarcastic tone here* big bad mean ol Simon made her cry.

Latoya should be in the top three... vocally she's brilliant...
 

RealtorGal

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Jul 27, 2003
Toni, the show is now under FCC investigation. It isn't just the La Toya factor, it's the Jennifer factor as well as the ridiculous Jasmine factor. Frankly, I don't want to watch a show that features two singers I can't stand (Jasmine and Diana). If I want to hear Fantasia, I can buy her CD.

Anyhow, that's my feeling at this moment. I may get weak and tune in after all! Who knows?
:eek: :D :laugh:
 

Tonichelle

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Jun 27, 2003
this is what happens when Toni does not tune in to her TV on monday mornings

help me out FCC stands for what again... and yikes about any sort of investigation!
 
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Aug 3, 2003
Tonichelle said:
this is what happens when Toni does not tune in to her TV on monday mornings

help me out FCC stands for what again... and yikes about any sort of investigation!
Federal Communications Commission, which regulates everything that is broadcast over radio or TV. I'm glad they are investigating this travesty, but the FCC about as fair and impartial investigation as Joseph McCarthy was during the HUAC (House Unamerican Activites Committee) investigations.
Tonichelle said:
Until then, tune in Tuesday at 8/7c on FOX for the most important performances yet. Fantasia, Jasmine and Diana can't afford to miss a single note right now.
What not has Jasmine not missed in weeks and here she is in the final three. Look, she certainly seems like a genuinely nice girl, is very pretty, and every so often doesn't miss a note. Seriously, as I've said before, in week one, I had high hopes for her in terms of improvement. Also, she can look gorgeous. I don't have a thing in the world against her. But she can't sing and she can't perform. On last night's show, she couldn't even get one note of the first phrase out on key. The poor girl is in totally over her head and the worst thing is, she must think it's because she's a good singer! Wouldn't you if you got to the top three out of a group with six or seven singers who were/are far better than you? Wouldn't you think, "Wow, I must have something special," or "God must want me to pursue my talent as a singer otherwise I wouldn't have gotten this far." The thing I found sad is that even Jasmine knew she should have been going home weeks ago and FOR SURE knew it should have been last week. Whether or not she gets voted off tonight or if she wins, she will be Jasmine Guarini. Justin got to #2 because of his looks and by people doing him the "favor" of voting for "that cute boy!" he got a fast, brutal lesson in, "Baby, you're a can of peaches on the shelf. If you don't sell, we don't want you. Period." This is part of why the FCC needs to investigate AI because people are being scammed.

Though I didn't hear about the vote blocking thing Mathman mentioned, it doesn't surprise me. Jasmine was a loooooooongshot from early on and no doubt people have a lot of big money on her to win, or for a favorite like LaToya NOT to win, that the mob--now thrown out of its old haunts like Las Vegas, where it belonged--are using all manner of technology to make sure AI is no longer about discovering new talent but about making a few mob gamblers a LOT of money.

Here's an interesting tidbit reported on Access Hollywood friday night. For last week's vote, the Verizon spokesman said that out of Hawaii's population of 1.2 million, 5 million calls were attempted. Out of that 5 million, 1.3 million got through, which is 15% higher than normal. I'd be curious to see the phone statistics on the other 49 states. So Simon was right. Jasmine better get started on those thank-you notes.

Rgal already explained her response, but Toni, I don't understand the "poor AI" comment. The producers are making more money on this sham of a show than they did on AI-1 or AI-2--maybe both together! Also, the producers decide on the voting process and they've got to know exactly what's going on. On last night's special, I think both Randy and Simon said that the "shocking" vote results were actually good for the show because they remind people to keep voting for their favorites and also that AI would be so dull and predictable if all the expected people got voted off that people would lose interest and not watch. Puh-lease. That's like expecting employees to tell the truth about how screwed up their managers and directors are--and do so on national TV. IMO, AI-2 was the best of the three because no one truly awful was kept on over somebody who was truly talented. If the Claymations want to keep harping on Ruben's very narrow win controversial and continue to complain about something Simon said to Clay but not to (take your pick), let them knock themselves out (and I really hope they DO knock themselves out, lol, or actually, just get a life).

When Tamyra Grey was voted off before Nikki McKibbon and Justin Guarini, I think by that time it was too late to inject any voting drama into the show or encourage people to vote for their favorite. The drama and interest in AI, IMO, comes from mainly from the surprising performances. You never know when somebody is truly going to sing in a way that is truly transcendant. Mike and JohnnyCoop are much better than I am at remembering the breakthrough performances for each season. But just to be general, what got me watching AI-1 was when Kelly sang "Natural Woman," which blew me away, and then kept getting better and better, week after week, while at the same time, Tamyra Grey was sometimes not as good as Kelly (but not by much), sometimes better, and sometimes in a dead heat. When I lost interest in AI-1 was when Tamyra got voted off. Now we get to hear either Can't Sing Nikki or Can't Sing Justin "battle it out" with Kelly Clarkson for AI-1. Whoop-dee-doo. That's real drama and suspense. I couldn't have cared less about AI-1 after Tamyra was gone because Kelly was a slam-dunk.

By contrast, I was interested in AI-2 because the final two were very different, but had huge numbers of fans. It was anybody's guess.

This season, I was so hoping for a Jennifer, Fantasia, LaToya final three and any two of them in the final. When Jennifer was voted off, I figured it was a combination of the teen element and that Jennifer was AI-3's Tamyra. I was bummed, but not disheartened. But when LaToya went, any possibility of an interesting final two was gone. So I think Simon and Randy are as wrong as they can be about the top singers and performers being voted off being a "good" thing that brings excitement to the show. As I said before, what brings excitement to AI for me are amazing performances--or sometimes an uncharacteristically poor performances from a great singers and wondering if that anomaly will spell the singer's doom. Life is plenty unfair. If a show is advertising that the viewing audience has THE say in who stays and who goes, but it's really about who has the best rapid repeat dialers, phone dialing software, teenage groupies with said toys, and that the only thing you can count on is that best singer/performers will be voted off, that holds zero interest for me. I'll save my time, wait till the wheat separates from the chafe on the radio and buy who I like.

As for Jasmine, Fantasia, and Diana last night, in the interview Jasmine seemed to be herself--scared to death--except dressed up in clothes that don't match her level of sophistication. I won't rehash yet another disastrous Jasmine performance. But I will say that I take my hat off to all the 16-year-olds in AI for going through all this while also having to get in so many hours of school per day. However, I also totally agree with Simon that the minimum age should be 18. For one thing it gets rid of most of the "attack of the teens," even though I'm sure all AI needs to do is get a really hot looking 18-year-old guy who can barely sing (think Billy Ray Cyrus and "Achey Breaky Heart") into the final 12 and that phenomenon will go wild again.

Diana was actually an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, I must give Diana her due for saying she listened to Quentin Tarantino's criticism of "I feel like there's a pain of glass between us" and concentrated on connecting more by trying to sing as if she were singing to her friends at home. Good for her. But later, near the end of giggle-packed interview Seacrest asked her, "Are you really this perky and bubbly ALL the time?" Diana, who had previously responded to similar questions with answers like, "Yep, that's just me, it's just natural, I'm just like this," this time said, "[Giggle, giggle] Well, yeah, I'm always like this. At least I try to be. I mean, I think it's always good to be positive about things because then positive things will happen to you." The part that struck me was, "At least I try to be." Maybe it's just the hyperactivity of her particular personality at 16, but I found it odd that she would say she TRIES to always be something that she has always said is "just natural." You don't try to be natural, you just are.

As for Diana's song, as I said before, I never appreciated how great Gloria Estafan is until I heard other people, like Diana, try to sing her songs.

I'm now a complete Fantasia fan. I found her interview absolutely charming, relaxed, and funny. Favorite part: When Seacrest asked her what she did back in her very small home town, her response of, "I'd be sittin' around. Eatin'. Gettin' after Zion. Eatin'. Watch TV. Eatin'." etc. When she first sang "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered" on I think the first voting show, I thought, "This girl just has 'IT!' I hope she can keep it up." Fantasia hasn't disappointed me and IMO is the only AIer who (a) has moved me at all with her singing and (b) moved me twice. Last night's "Signed, Sealed, and Delievered" was even better than the first time, although feeling that initial "Wow!" can never be repeated, because I felt she was really telling the story to what most singers would treat as pop fluff with no real meaning. First, second, or gone, I just hope somebody gives Fantasia the record contract she deserves and that her producer makes best use of someone who I think is straight out of nowhere star.

One last word on LaToya. I've seen and heard her on Entertainment Tonight and other such shows a lot over the last week. At one point, some interviewer asked her what she thought of some people's comments that what hurt LaToya was that we really didn't get to see her personality. LaToya responded (doing this from memory), "I wasn't there to show off my personality. I was just there to do my business." When I heard the third or fourth rendition of the exact same not for note version of "Don't Rain on My Parade," I wish that Simon or Randy would have pushed LaToya much earlier in the competition to express her personality. Don't get me wrong, I'll take LaToya way over Jasmine any day, but I do think that in the last three or so weeks before LaToya was voted off, Diana actually had taken Quentin Tarantino's "pane of glass" critique to heart and tried to connect more with the audience, and even though Diana is almost all frosting and very little cake, IMO, I think LaToya's aloofness hurt her and will continue to hurt her if she thinks that being a performing singer means "just business" and has nothing to do with personality.

And I have one more point of confusion, Toni, as usual, lol. You said, "A lot of people voted just to get Fantasia off... and since LaToya's number was busy they all voted for Jazz and Diana..." I assume you're saying that people were voting like crazy for Diana, Jasmine, and LaToya so they could get rid of Fantasia. First of all, what's your source for the information that "a lot of people voted just to get Fantasia off?" Yes, I'm a fan, but no matter who you would have said, I would have wondered, "How does she know that?" I'm aware of and have looked at the various AI websites and I haven't seen any statistics about anybody. The only poll I saw was on Access Hollywood last week that found that 91% of those polled felt AI had lost it's credibility. Anyway, why would LaToya be the one to get voted off if her line was always busy? Just :confused:
Rgirl
 

mike79

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Jul 27, 2003
Instead of starting a new thread I'll just comment on tonight's performances in this one.

Jasmine and Diana: GO HOME!!!

Fantasia blew everyone out of the water tonight. Simon said it all when he looked at Fantasia and said "What does that sign behind you say?" Of course he was talking about the American Idol sign.

My Rankings:

Song 1:

Fantasia: Amazing, although it did remind me a tad too much of her rendition of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine".

Jasmine: Poor song choice, but not that bad.

Diana: I said it during her performance, and Simon said it after--she shouted that song.

Song 2:

Fantasia: Very good, solid and consistent.

Jasmine: I think it might have been the worst song I've ever heard lyrics-wise, but she actually hit most of the notes.

Diana: Boring and dull. I love that even Randy criticized it even though it was his song choice.

Song 3:

Fantasia: Although it was not her best performance of the competition I think that this song won Fantasia the title of American Idol. It really drew the fans in emotionally, once again showing Fantasia to be a down-to-earth, emotionally driven artist.

Diana: Excellent song choice by Clive Davis, although she was WAY off pitch for the first thirty seconds. She saved it by being able to belt out all of her glory notes at the end.

Jasmine: So wrong on so many levels. First, Latoya already did this song better than Jasmine could ever hope to. Second, Jasmine sang it horribly.

Predictions: There will be no upset like last week. Fantasia is guaranteed a spot in the final two. I'm not quite sure what will happen with Diana and Jasmine. Based on the last few weeks Diana probably deserves to advance a little more; however, I think that Simon might have brought out the Jasmine fans to save her again. We shall see tomorrow.
 

show 42

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Mike, I read a few reviews on a couple of other websites and they were very much different from your review. I guess I will wait and decide myself when I watch tonight.........42
 

RealtorGal

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Jul 27, 2003
Oh, all right! I cave. I'll watch it tonight if only to watch Fantasia bring down the house!

Twinnie and Sarahmistral and others: wonderful posts! Thank you for taking the time to post your amazing analyses and thoughts! I actually do have comments to add, just no time to do it right now--later!
:love:
 

Tonichelle

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Jun 27, 2003
poor AI was more for the show itself... personally I don't care much about how it affects Simon Fuller... I'm a fan of the SHOW not the production crew behind the scenes

if this show becomes questionable I'm sure the last two shows will also get the "did they deserve" media crap... and I can't see why it needs to happen like that...

I agreed with Randy when he said without these shocking results it wouldn't have a shock factor and the "reality tv fanatics" might not watch AND it wouldn't have so much talk about it... but I think it did just fine last year without a huge upset(Ruben, while surprising, was not a huge shock you out of your seat bottom 2 singer... sorry, but I wasn't overly surprised, much less outraged [I was just glad to hear "Clay Aiken, you're safe" LOL]) and while Tamyra's booting shouldn't have happened when it did... it still wasn't all that bad. And it was a new show... this year has been bad all the way around... and I think one of the reasons was because the judges let go of some pretty awesome talent... namely Lauren Enswiler, and that Army Girl from New York... and some of the call back singers for the wildcard should have made it before *cough*Leah*cough*
 

mike79

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Jul 27, 2003
Apparently Tamyra is back tomorrow to perform two songs during the results show, which will be an hour long. Aahhh, another AI contestant who could have won this year...but I digress.

Toni, I agree that the show could have been completely different with a better top 32. So many were left out who truly deserved it, ie Scooter Girl, Army Girl, Kara Masters, the list goes on and on. Who did we get stuck with? Matt.
 

show 42

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Jul 26, 2003
I think I'm done with this show. I'll finish the season, but that's it. After watching, I realized that I should have put on my hip-boots, it was so thick tonight. I made the mistake of actually listening to the judges after each performance, no more. There wasn't even any attempt to make fair, impartial critiques. The worst part of this show isn't the contestants, it isn't the voting, it's the nonsense that comes out of their mouths (the judges)each week. I know Simon is suppose to be controversial (I guess it helps to be the one everyone loves to hate), but he was too much tonight.

The gals were fine, about even to me. They each had at least one strong song and one that wasn't their best. Any one of the three can win at this point and that's okay. The three ladies were class acts tonight, as well as Ryan. They were the only classy ones...........that's it for me and AI...........42
 

JonnyCoop

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Dec 28, 2003
I'm not even going to weigh in on the pre-existing stuff as what's done is pretty much done and I have no longer anything to add (at least not until after the results show tomorrow, anyway). So I'll just go with my thoughts on tonight's performances.

JASMINE:
(Major improvement over last week, but she was still outclassed)

"Savin All My Love For You" -- Getting past the fact that (a) I don't like that song (b) Jasmine has no business going near Whitney Houston [tho I am NOT one of those people who thinks Whitney is one of the greatest vocallists of all time], and (c) I think it was completely inappropriate for any 17-year-old girl to be singing THAT song -- she did OK. Nothing spectacular, but just OK.

"Mr. Melody Man" -- this was a fun song and I liked it. Once again, tho, just OK. OK, maybe a little better than that. A little.

"All By Myself" -- given the fact that LaToya sang this several weeks ago and got rave reviews, and given the fact that Jasmine bumped LaToya out of the top 3, I think this was the worst possible song they could have handed her to do. Once again -- just OK. A little bit overly perky given the song, but not a vocal nightmare.

FANTASIA:
(ITA'd with Paula; she doesn't even need this competition anymore. She's been discovered and that's all that matters)

"Chain of Fools" -- vocally OK, HATED the arrangement. Tho I give her credit for "mixing it up" in that area, because that takes guts. Nice job, but didn't blow me away.

"Fool in Love" -- Her vocals were fantastic. BUT IMO the overall song just didn't work because this is a girl-group song and however strong the lead vocals may be (and they were indeed strong), the overall effect is thrown off by using canned karaoke background vocals instead of an actual harmony trio. Simon, being so brilliant:sheesh: :rolleye: should have KNOWN this. And given the fact that Fantasia has pretty much proven that she can sing just about ANYTHING, Simon had HUNDREDS of songs to choose from for her to do, and he chose this one. I give Fantasia an 8.5, Simon a 1.

"Greatest Love of All" -- Don't like the song, but liked this version of it a lot. Terrific.

DIANA:
(Off night for her, IMO. She wasn't TERRIBLE, but it was the weakest she's been in weeks, perhaps even the whole competition)

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" -- just OK. Better than Jasmine, tho not by a particularly huge margin.

"Because You Loved Me" -- I hate this song to begin with, and this didn't make me like it any more. A lot of singing out the nose, forcing the notes, and relying too much on the "aria diva shriek" thing". Still, it wasn't TOO bad. Passable for this point in the competition, anyway.

"Don't Cry Out Loud" -- This was yet another one of those cases where the judges must have been hearing an entirely different song than I was, because I thought this was (a) the worst Diana's sang in the entire competition, and (b) the worst of the night. Again -- too many "out the nose" vocals, OFF KEY, pitchy, too many forced notes. Not very good at all IMO.
--------------------

I think at this point we have a pretty good idea of what the first CDs are going to be titled -- Diana's is going to be called "All Right Get Up Y'All" (or some variation thereof) and Fantasia's is gonna be called "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah". As for Jasmine's -- well, I think I'm in serious denial over the fact that she might actually get a recording contract that I can't even come up with anything.

Much as I ADORE Fantasia, and have from the second she stepped into that audition room and sang her first note, I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish SOMEONE over the course of the last several weeks had taken her aside and said, "You are overdoing the yeah yeah yeah card and you need to take it out of the deck now. You are not going to be able to record a CD and end every single song like that. I'm sorry, but you're just not."
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Thanks, Toni. I'll give the question of mine you answered a 7 out of a 10--and that's a compliment:)

Still am curious about where *facts* such as "A lot of people voted just to get Fantasia off...and since LaToya's number was busy they all voted for Jazz and Diana..." come from. I don't mean to sound accusatory. We all know how *facts* get started on forums. I'm just genuinely perplexed. Are such things the consensus on some heavy duty Idol thread? Help!
Mike, I read a few reviews on a couple of other websites and they were very much different from your review. I guess I will wait and decide myself when I watch tonight.........42
Show, I'm very curious to know what the reviews you read that were very different from Mike's said. I've got a friend coming in from out of town tomorrow (dang these 25-year friendships; couldn't she have waited another day or two around my AI schedule?!) so my web surfing is limited to boogie boarding.

Oh, Twinnie, PLEASE watch if only to give us the quintessential Rgal analysis!

JMO. First of all, the choice of Clive Davis as guest judge/one song chooser was BRILLIANT! Davis said more with just his song choices than almost all the other guest judges combined this season, with only Quentin Tarentino coming close. But in every one of Davis's choices or comments was all those years of pop music experience at the highest levels--and I'm sure some tough learning experiences too. I saw "The E True Hollywood Story" about AI and I couldn't believe (thought of course I could) that Kim Locke was still complaining about how Simon never told her she had an incredible voice and how obviously he didn't want her to win. I was disappointed in hearing her whine that way. Kim got a great song for her first single "Eight Wonder," she does a great job with it, and she deserves the success she's getting. But if she things she isn't going to get her butt kicked in ways to make Simon's criticisms feel like love taps, well, she's got some learning experiences coming her way. It was also interesting to hear Nikki McKibbon's take on being AI-1's Jasmine Trias. She said the thing she kept foremost in her mind was that her daughter would be seeing her behavior on TV and that more than anything she wanted to set a good example in how she comported herself. So +1 for Nikki; -1 for Kim, at least in terms of behavior.

One thing that annoyed me was the way Seacrest talked about, or was scripted to talk about, LaToya being voted off. Earlier on Entertainment Tonight, one of the AI producers reinforced how the voting was perfectly fair, etc. Why they persist in this "If LaToya got voted off, you wanted it that way" line and "Maybe you thought, 'Oh she'll be safe'" crap when AI is being investigated by the FCC? Plus this, "Just keep trying, you'll get through." Yeah, once in two hours even with auto-redial. It just annoys me when the AI producers treat the public as if it doesn't know about the technology for block dialing and blocking calls. I can forgive the producers for not anticipating the extent of the gambling money involved and therefore the misuse of technology, but I think they should just shut up about it at this point. Encourage voting as usual, but to have Seacrest take this parental, "Well, if you wanted LaToya on the show, you should have tried harder to voted for ehr. How many times have I told you, so don't blame me. Tch, tch, tch."

Okay, kvetch over.

And what were Simon and Clive whispering about so intently at the end of the show?

Mike,
I loved your review! Quick, to the point, great insights.
Song 1:
Fantasia: "Chain of Fools." Referring to Mike's comment "although it did remind me a tad too much of her rendition of 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine,'" I think a lot of Motown songs from a certain era are similar in structure, like true blues, and are tough to make sound different--unless you're comparing Marvin Gaye's version with Creedence Clearwater Revival's of "Grapevine.";) I agree that Fantasia was amazing and I hadn't realized how much I'd been missing great Motown music as sung by today's youth. Whatever the outcome, I just hope they don't try to turn Fantasia into another Janet, Brittany, Christina, L'il Kim, or another anybody. I know time is money, but let her find who she really is. Clive and Simon both emphasized the difference between copying someone and infusing a song with your own originality. Fantasia definitely got it on this one.

Jasmine: "I'm Saving All My Love for You." As I said before, Jasmine seems like a genuinely nice girl and has something, but tonight was literally painful for me to both hear and watch her. This was her best performance of the night, IMO, because I think it was the only one right smack in the middle of her range and also because it suited her personality.

Diana: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"...to keep Diana from shouting across the Himalayas.

Song 2:

Fantasia: "Fool in Love." Although it's a similar Motown song to "Chain of Fools," this actually is kind of a rap and really let Fantasia strut it and live it large. It's right in her sweet spot, not a stretch for her, but it was so great to see and hear her revel in it. It was like a giant musical bubble bath for me, but a genius of a bath. Plus, it did exactly what Simon wanted the song to do: Allow Fantasia to show off her personality, which is the only one of the group that's funny in a funky, ironic way. This also had my absolute favorite shot of the night. After Fantasia finished singing down in the audience, with everybody up on their feet, applauding and making a ruckus, they get a shot of Fantasia's daughter, who is sound asleep on her grandmother's shoulder. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: That'll bring you back down to earth.

Jasmine: "Mr. Melody." I'd never heard this song before and I hope I never have to hear it again. It was in her range, which is slightly high, but there are so many other upbeat simply songs like that. I don't think Paula did Jasmine any favors. And the attempt at scattin' was, OMG...what were they thinking? But I agree with Mike that Jazz hit more notes in this song than any other tonight. In fact, more than she's hit in a loooooong time.

Diana: "Because You Loved Me." UGG. It was going to take a lot to be worse than "Mr. Melody," and I think I understand what Randy was hoping for, ie, a gentler, less one-man-band version of Diana, something that showed her emotions. During one line of "because you loved me" Diana pointed upwards, which is fine. But I think that you're going to have a better chance at this age of finding and conveying the emotion in a song if the love concerns a person--mother, grandparent, whomever. I just think it's tough to "keep it real" as Randy would say if the love one is singing about in a situation like this is religious, spiritual, or whatever you want to call it. As the song says, "It's called agapé love..." and that kind of love is very abstract and IMO, takes more maturity and experience in order to express it to others unless you're in a church or worship situation and everybody is there for the same reasons.

Song 3:

Fantasia: "The Greatest Love of All." Definitely one of the songs I hate the most. However, I am very glad she was challenged to sing it. This is not at all her style and during the first half of the song I thought, "Wow, she's really going to tank." But somewhere around halfway through, right after she hit the first really bad notes I've ever heard her sing, my guess is she got over her fear of messing up the song or something, because she completely turned it around. I can't say it any better than Mike, whichi is, "It really drew the fans in emotionally, once again showing Fantasia to be a down-to-earth, emotionally driven artist." ITA with that and ITA that if she wins, it will have been this song that put her over the top. However, Paula finally said something I completely agree with: I don't think Fantasia needs the contest anymore.

Diana: "Don't Cry Out Loud." Another great song choice by Clive Davis. Even though Diana was all over the place with the vocals, she refrained from shouting (except one spot near the end), which she resorts to a lot on songs like these. Oddly, she couldn't hit a note to save her life early on, which is not one of Diana's usual problems. But she brought it home in the second half, got the emotion into it, and got the equivalent of a "high five" from Davis. Diana is a good learner and if she got with the right vocal teacher (Twinnie, could you stand it?;)), she could be really something. But if somebody doesn't teach her what *real* even is, she'll just be another girl born with a set of great pipes who only knows how to sing loud and hold notes long.

Jasmine: "All By Myself." Too bad Jasmine wasn't all by herself for this performance. I could hardly bear this. Besides the usual off-pitch notes, I think Clive Davis got to the center of it. There was nothing about loneliness in her performance. It's the classic mistakes of so many young singers, whether they be young in experience or age. They sing the notes, not the heart of the song. I also blame the voice coach, because that person should have arranged it better and TOLD Jasmine this is NOT the song to go for the rafters at the end.

I won't make any predictions, but I really don't care at this point. Fantasia will get a record deal, probably the best record deal, no matter who "wins" and then it's up to her and her producers to put those thoroughbred lips to great use. And up to the US music-buying public to open its ears and its wallets.


The worst thing about watching this was thinking about what could have, should have been, IMO. A Jennifer, LaToya, Fantasia final three. Oh, man. I wish I had the money to produce "AI-3 Final 3 II" with LaFannifer. Different songs of course. But really. I'm PO'd. When else do we ever have the opportunity to watch the three best singer/performers out of 70,000 auditioners, after about 10 or 12 weeks of intense training try to out sing each other. The other thing I've been watching a lot this week is where school integration is 60 years after Brown vs. Board of Education. We've got a very, very long way to go. Man, just think of what we might have heard tonight.:sheesh:
Rgirl
 
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