My early bet, Andrew Garcia is off the show. I'm relieved. I've kinda taken his prolonged presence in American Idol as a personal embarrassment. The same goes for Casey James. He is still very cute but his performances are just not memorable. For the record, I did not see "Jealous Guy" and, strangely, not interested in hearing it.
Lee Dewyze is Lee Deewyze. Maybe not as cute as Casey but his voice is just the sort of guy voice that I like to hear. My problem mainly with Lee is oddly the same problem I have with Crystal. I can't understand the lyrics of the songs they're singing. Lee growls the words, Crystal mumbles them. It's a shame really considering that their songs have meaningful lyrics which you can't appreciate because of the lack of proper articulation.
Tim Urban.... I hate him. I mean, not as a person. I just hate him for what he represents. He's not a good enough singer to make it this far. He's only on the show because of his rabid fan base. Or at least, that's what I believe. I just hate him on principle.
Michael Lynche. I used to like him as a contestant, not really for his singing but for his attitude. Big guy, big heart, and all that. But he strikes me as the R&B/Soul kind and that's just not my cup of tea. Buy his album? Hell, I wouldn't even download him. But I still like him though. Likeable guy, which is what I think of Aaron Kelly, too. But Aaron is one of those contestants, like David Archuleta, that I just don't see. I mean, every time they perform, I'm like, wow, what a great voice for such a small body, but then I kind of forget about them. These young boys just don't come under my radar.
And now the last but not the least, Siobhan Magnus. Le sigh. But I like her so much that I'm going to give her an entire section in this post just to rant and rave about her recent performances.
I liked the idea of it more than I did the actual performance. A problem with the execution. She lost confidence somewhere in the middle. It was a very painful experience for me listening through that whole thing. I never want to have a repeat of that again. Good thing she followed it up with
"Across the Universe" by The Beatles
IMHO, it was the perfect song choice for her. I loved the Fiona Apple version of it, not so much the version from the soundtrack of the movie of the same title, and I thought Siobhan did the song justice. It was a very mellow, and as Kara DioGuardi said, "restrained" performance. I don't understand why she (Kara) was confused by it. Siobhan has done something like it during her heydays (i.e. "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals). I also liked her outfit for that week, an improvement from the other week's odd wraparound skirt and military boots (what the hell?).
"Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley
Out of all the contestants, I thought Siobhan would benefit most from having Idol alum, Adam Lambert (also my old favorite) as celebrity mentor. But he gave her bad advice about upping the tempo in the first part of the song. It kind of left people in a difficult place. The change of tempo from fast to slow was disarming, and not in a very nice way. However, I liked the performance overall and thought that Kara and Simon Cowell were harder with her than they should have been. It was a technically good performance, just not very moving.
This week, it's inspirational songs, and I was really anxious over Siobhan's song choice more than usual. She's picked a duet by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Whaaaat? A diva song! Make that two divas. It's the Prince of Egypt one.
"When You Believe" by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston
Oh shi -
One of my favorite Disney movie songs ever (next to "A Whole New World" and "Part of That World" and "Reflections" and "Circle of Life" and "You'll be in my Heart" and "Colors of the Wind" and -- okay, I practically liked every single Disney cartoon theme songs but I'm just saying). Siobhan, no, no, no, no, no. That's basically my reaction. Big song. BIG SONG. Plus, Mariah Carey? Randy Jackson, Siobhan's only remaining judge-ally I feel, is never going to dig a cover of his Mariah Carey. But I carefully reminded myself that this is the same girl who fearlessly sang Aretha Franklin's "Think." True, "Think" wasn't my favorite performance by her (and she turned out to be pitchy after a couple of listens) but that was the performance that made her an Idol frontrunner after all. "Wicked Games" is actually my favorite performance, followed up by a tie between "Across the Universe" and "House of the Rising Sun." "Paint It Black," considered her best by most people, comes at a distant fourth. Are you sensing a pattern? I like it when she's all dark and moody and bloody
So Siobhan's "When You Believe" had some really sweet soprano moments and I don't have to say that I adore her lower register (nasally and all), the problem is the in-between notes. They're just not remarkable at a time when Siobhan needed to have every single note ring. With this less-than stellar performance, I'm afraid Siobhan is going to see the bottom three for the first time this week. I think Tim's gonna go but if Siobhan ends up at the bottom three, I don't think she can recover from that slide. She seems fragile (low self-esteem? her quirkiness seems to be a cover for an undecided nature) and is young enough to react to this challenge the wrong way. My only advice? Don't whine. Stick to your guns. If you must go, go spectacularly with fireworks and explosions. STAY FEARLESS.
p.s. Woodland nymph!!!! lolz Normally, I hate butterfly designs on anything and this outfit just came out of nowhere but it's just so...Siobhan that I just had to laugh, not in a derogatory way. Last week, she wore construction materials. She is awesome XD
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