Finally! American Idol has begun!!!!
Most people thought Group 1 was fantastic; I was pretty 'meh' about it. Last week was a disaster. This week, we could almost have been watching the top 8 perform! I think 5 of the 6 who don't move on should automatically be brought back to the Wild Card round (but I can only think of 1 or 2 who the judges might bring back).
I was at a class and was wathing on tape delay, which affected my voting abilities, unfortunately. My notes:
Elizabeth LeTendre "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" - started out with some off-key notes, but got much better as the song went on. To me, she sounded out of breath the whole time. I agreed with Simon: a good singer, a 'cheap' performance.
Eric Yoder aka Clay Fakin "In the Still of the Night" - I really love his voice, thought he did a great job with this song. I do agree with the judges that it's hard to see his personality. I also found it odd that, after talking so much about the need to present a non-Clay personality, Eric chose to wear a black t-shirt and jeans.
Amy Adams "Power of Love" - personality to spare! This was a great arrangement of a song I normally hate. Contrary to most contestants, I thought Amy started great and ended a bit weak. Amy doesn't have a lot of power in her upper register, which this song highlighted. The "high" note she hit at the end wasn't very high, but it sounded like a stretch for her. I do really like her as a performer, however. Nice dress!
Jon Peter Lewis "Tiny Dancer" This was the big disappointment of the night for me. I really liked him in the preview shows, but this was just a weird performance. What was up with the tone in his voice? It sounded like he was singing with an air bubble in his throat. There was also no 'punch' in the arrangement. He looked defeated in the Kiss n Cry with Ryan - I think the judges comments really got to him.
Charly Lowry "Chain of Fools" Another person I've been looking forward to seeing! Yikes, what's up with the '80s prom dress? I like Charly's voice a lot, and thought this was a good performance (even though she did one of my least favorite AI tricks - entreating the audience with a "C'mon!". At least she didn't say "C'mon y'all!"). When I was wathing this, it was 10:45 - I was afraid I would miss all of the voting time, so I voted for Charly about 15 times.
Jonah - I don't know the song he sang. It was very undynamic. I thought he did an ok job singing it, I guess, and it ended stronger than it began, but compared to the rest of the performances, this one was forgettable.
Leah Labelle some Whitney song I don't know - Seattle representin'! I love the smoky tone in her voice, although I thought the song was meh. I thought she gave a very mature performance, though (as opposed to say, Diana Degarmo, only 1 year younger), and was pleased that the judges said she was a star! It was right about 11pm when I saw this, I tried to call and only got a busy signal.
Latoya London "All By Myself" - LaToya was the only one I didn't remember at all from the earlier episodes. I was kind of relieved, to be honest, because this group had so many people I was rooting for and she was someone I didn't expect anything from. Song started and immediately I was drawn in by the quiet arrangement and her great control. The she opened it up and I just wrote down HOLY ____!! Before the judges said anything, I thought that was the best performance I'd seen this season at all - better than the precious 2 weeks, better than all of the preliminary auditions, her voice was amazing and her performance quality matched it. WOW. Unfortunately it was after 11 when I saw this so I couldn't vote for her. Fortunately, I think she'll get in without me
My Rankings:
LaToya
-big gap-
Leah
Charly
Eric
Amy
Elizabeth
JP Lewis
Jonah
guinevere
! I didn't think Jonah should have made it after the first audition, let alone over scooter girl or some of the others. Who's George Huff? Was he the guy that sang the lovely rendition of "You Are So Beautiful"?
