Katie Stevens: That was not soundin' or "Feelin' Good"
The first night of American Idol‘s semi-finals round got off to a bumpy start. Save for three contestants, all the other girls vying for six spots on the Top 12 performed pretty poorly. Basically it all came down to song choice, and some wildly overestimating their vocal abilities. The sad part is that, like Simon Cowell has correctly said about this season, the girls are stronger vocally than the guys, so if the girls had a bad night, it’s not difficult to predict a not-so-good night for the guys.
The worst:
3) Lacey Brown’s “Landslide.” – It was tough seeing Brown, who last week I deemed a frontrunner, trying hard to sing the Fleetwood Mac song and fail. She wasn’t in-sync with the music, she was singing ahead and then tried to let the music catch up, but it didn’t work. There may have been some technical malfunction, Kara said as much to another singer, but it was still a mess.
2) Ashley Rodriguez’s “Happy.” At this point in American Idol‘s run, everybody who watches the show knows that choosing to sing a song by Mariah or Whitney is a pretty dumb move if you don’t have the voice. Rodriguez made the same no-no, except she made it worse by picking a song by Leona Lewis, Simon Cowell’s protege. Needless to say, Rodriguez’s vocal chops are no where near to those of Lewis’s.
1) Katie Steven’s “Feelin’ Good.” There were so many things wrong with this performance. First of all, why would anyone sing this song knowing that Adam Lambert gave a pretty memorable performance of it last April? It’s just begging for comparisons, which (of course) the judges didn’t make. Second, why would a 17 year old pick this song for Billboard hits theme week? Two things that made this bad performance a tiny bit worse: A) Fox’s giving her the “Jordin Sparx” edit; and B) Her getting the “pimp spot,” i.e. the last spot on the show.
The best:
3) Katelyn Epperly’s “Oh! Darling.” She may not be all that likable–she has an icy personality to her–but she can sing. Her performance showed she has excellent vocal control. She gets points for being technically on point (maybe a little too much). It’s too bad there was no emotional connection to the song.
2) Crystal Bowersox’s “Hand in my pocket.” I guess it may have been an oversight of me to leave Bowersox out of the list of frontrunner’s because she does have an amazing voice. Technically, her performance was great. However, Bowersox should be careful of trying to soundalike. Bowersox’s tone is part of what makes her appealing, she’s not trying to sound diva-esque. Here, she started to mimic Alanis’s tone and intonation to the point where it was kinda eerie. Nevertheless, never underestimate anyone who can sing and play two instruments at once on stage.
1) Lilly Scott’s “Fixing a Hole.” After all the wedding singer performances, diva-wannabe performances, WTF? performances, Scott’s reworking of the Beatles song was refreshing. You couldn’t even tell it was a Beatles song. She was on key, and didn’t try to do any ridiculous vocal acrobatics. Her voice was understated but not underwhelming. It was easily the best performance of the night.
That being said, no one gal delivered a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark performance like Allison Iraheta did last year:
Predictions:
Bottom four: Paige Miles, Siobhan Magnus, Didi Benami, Ashley Rodriguez.
Going home: Paige Miles*, Ashley Rodriguez
Paige Miles performed first, and history shows that’s the Idol spot of doom, especially when, like Miles, you have a so-so, forgettable performance.
Tags: Top 24
