Queen of All Trades

Currently Listening To: Glee Cast - Fat Bottomed Girls

So we're down to six contestants, and what better way to start the show than with a medley of Queen's hits?

Oh yes, it's Queen night on the American Idol stage and guess what? It rocked!

Seriously, I can't find fault with anyone of them (okay, maybe just one) but unfortunately, someone still has to go and this week it might be the end of the road for one of my favourite contestants ever. Anyway, this week the contestants sang two songs again, one song from Queen and another song of their own choice.

Round 1:


Phillip - Fat Bottomed Girls
Shit that was so out of tune. Fat Bottomed Girls was pretty awful, in my opinion. I don't know what to say about it except...I WISH YOU HAD STOPPED SINGING AFTER THE FIRST SENTENCE PHILTIMES TWO!

Haley - Save Me
The beginning was pretty good, her voice sounded strong and there was some potential for something special but then she kinda lost her way towards the end? The title of the song is ominous though. Save Me? From the bottom 3 perhaps?

Jessica - Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody was good, but not good enough for the top six. There was something off about her voice for that song, she wasn't quite as powerful as usual. Not too good a performance Jess, we need more from you!

Elise - I Want It All
I think the theme gave Elise a great opportunity to climb right back up to the top 3. Although she sang that song well, I don't think it was quite the right song for her. On top of that, there's just something about her personality that turns me off. I don't know if it's her sulky faces, or her slightly condescending way of talking, I just don't fancy her as much as I did before...

Joshua - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Oh the Queen song was brilliant! It was fun, and it wasn't one of his gospel ballads. Very impressive, Joshua. I don't know about you, but if the Top 5 is four women against one man (Joshua), he probably deserves to win. Don't know if he'll actually win though...that might just be a challenge.

Skylar - The Show Must Go On
Well, that was very well sung! The Show Must Go On, I mean. Very powerful vocals by Miss Skylar Laine. Love her voice,  Good job girl I'm behind you 100%.

Round 2:


Phillip - The Stone by Dave Matthews
Okay so that wasn't so bad. I actually liked the song, and I'd probably listen to the studio version again and again but erm, yeah. Not for American Idol. Time to go home Phillip, you're the weakest vocalist left and this is a singing competition after all. The other 5 sang circles around this dude.

Skylar - Tattoos on this Town by Jason Aldean
Girl is a firecracker indeed. She's just so comfortable on the stage, and it shows. Not so sure about the song choice though, and she sounded a bit nasally at times, but overall still very good. Please pick better songs girl, I'd love to see you win this thing *waves Team Skylar banner*

Hollie - The Climb by Miley Cyrus
That was pretty good, a lot better than the previous weeks. Good job, she might actually have a chance of surviving with that song choice, otherwise she'd probably be gone...

Elise - Bold As Love by Jimi Hendrix
Yeah, right back into the Top 3. That was the best she had sounded in weeks. I actually liked it. Unfortunately, the unknown song choice might put her in jeopardy. Steven was right, it does matter actually. Yeah she knocked it out of the park, but that doesn't mean she'll be getting a lot of votes.

Jessica - Dance With My Father by Luther Vandross
I loved it. Much better than the first song, and yet I love the original Bohemian Rhapsody. Maybe that's the reason why I wasn't too fond of her rendition. Honestly, I love Jessica and I think she's incredibly talented, but few of the other contestants overshadowed her tonight with the first theme. Not a good thing when it's so close to the finale. Please pleeeeease vote for Jessica! *waves Team Jessica banner*

Joshua - Ready For Love by India Arie
His first few notes gave me goosies. Scratch that, the whole song gave me goosies! For real yo! He was just that good. That was absolutely incredible, totally worthy of that standing ovation. The only standing ovation I approve of. I'm as speechless as Randy was, Joshua was just plain old WOW. Very difficult to accomplish with this bunch of contestants. GOOD JOB MY BOY! *waves Team Joshua banner enthusiastically.

Overall:
1. Joshua
2. Jessica
3. Elise
4. Skylar
5. Hollie
6. Phillip (It's time to go home buddy)

Best Top 6 ever, seriously. Love them all, Phillip too even though he kinda sucked with Fat Bottomed Girls this week.

Who should go home? Phillip

Who might go home instead? Jessica =(

Tough Cuts

Currently Listening To: Phillip Phillips - Give a Little More

Welcome to another edition of American Idol, where the 7 remaining contestants fight- I mean, sing to their deaths. Okay maybe not literally, just the death of their dreams and ambitions. With last week's -almost- elimination and the save used by the judges, the top 7 contestants had to sing two songs each this week, and how well did they fare? Very well actually. Extremely well. Honestly, I think all of them more or less deserves to be in the Top 5, but five of them will eventually have to leave, no matter what.

Based mostly on tonight's performances, and with a slight consideration of their previous performances, I guess the bottom two should be:

Elise Testone and Colton Dixon

Not to say they weren't good anything, it's just that the other five contestants were way better than them. Elise sang Alicia Keys' No One and Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye. The first song was definitely better than the second, I don't even have an opinion for that one. It was just...dull and bland throughout. Vocally she wasn't half bad but with those 2 boring song choices, it's time for her to go.

As for Colton...well, honestly I think he has a lot of potential but with the 'rock' version of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance and the strange arrangement for Earth, Wind and Fire's September...to be fair, Bad Romance was interesting and quite well sung, but his poor lower register really doesn't do him any favours for that song, and also his second song choice. It's a shame, his Love the Way You Lie performance from last week was pretty awesome.

And now, to rank the remaining 5:

Hollie - Rolling in the Deep (Adele)/Son of a Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield)

If Colton stays in the competition then Hollie should go. I'll admit, she was a lot better compared to the previous weeks but her performances still lacks...soul somehow. Rolling in the Deep was quite good, Preacher Man not so much. Seriously. I'm only putting her in 5th place because of Rolling in the Deep and the improvement from last week. Otherwise, I would have placed her right at the bottom.

Phillip - U Got It Bad (Usher)/ In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
His second song saved his sorry ass for me this week. That Usher song...wow. It didn't sound anything like Usher, and definitely not in a good way. It was the usual Phillip style alt-rock kind of song, and it didn't work for me. Now, his second performance was interesting because he actually sounded different for once. That one worked for me, and that is why he's in fourth place this week. (If he hadn't sang that he would have been in sixth place)

Jessica - Fallin' (Alicia Keys)/ Try a Little Tenderness (Otis Redding)
I'm not sure if Jessica did enough to garner more votes this week. Sure, she sang two beautiful songs beautifully, but I don't know. I feel her more than I feel Hollie, but something is missing. I don't know what it is - it's definitely causing her votes (or maybe it's because she ain't sausage =_=. Anyway, Fallin' was a good song choice for her, and oh my god the second song, vocally she was stunning. Not enough WOW factor though. She really needs to have a WOW performance, and yet it is hard to WOW audiences when you're consistently good every week. Please vote for Jessica America! She deserves to be in the Top 3 at least.

Skylar - Born This Way (Lady Gaga)/ I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
I believe this girl has it in her to win the whole thing. Seriously. She's a vocal powerhouse, and she's country. Perfect for American audiences. I really liked both of her songs, I think she sang them extremely well. Very unusual arrangement for Born This Way, it actually suited the melody well. I Heard It Through the Grapevine was excellent also. Good job Skylar. I'm behind you 100%!


Joshua - I Believe (Fantasia Barrino)/ A Change is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)
I couldn't decide between Skylar and Joshua, but after careful consideration of all their performances, I think Joshua sang it better, emotionally and vocally. I Believe was very solid, and A Change is Gonna Come was absolutely fabulous! Better than Adam Lambert's version of the song. He simply outclassed all of them with those 2 performances. It doesn't mean he'll be safe though, I don't think his fanbase is very big so....PLEASE VOTE FOR JOSHUA Y'ALL! He needs your votes and he deserves to be in the finals!

Vote wisely America.

P.S: Not sure if they'll be sending 2 contestants home tomorrow, so I'm just gonna go with one.

Who should go home: Elise Testone


Who will go home: I'm gonna make a random guess here and say....Hollie?

Edit - Results:

And Colton leaves the competition...hmmm not entirely shocked. It's the song choices buddy, and he admitted it. Oh well.

And We're Almost Done...or Are We?

Currently Listening To: Adele - Rumour Has It

So it's another good week for our American Idol Season 11 contestants, which goes to show how good this year's kids are. And yes I say kids because they're all younger than me with the exception of Elise.

It's still really hard for me to rank the contestants, at any rate it's pretty much the same as last week.

Hollie - Perfect by Pink To me, Hollie was once again the weakest performer of the night. Vocally she wasn't that off, just a few pitchy moments here and there. And like Heejun, she has a problem with enunciation. She also has this nasally tone, and when she tries too hard it reaaaaaally doesn't sound good. So...yeah. I'm sorry Hollie, you're just not progressing much.

Phillip - Give a Little More by Maroon 5 You know what, J.Lo was spot on with her comments. Sure he didn't sound awful, but like Hollie, there wasn't any improvement. It's a good thing that he's excellent with song choices. Phil is definitely the weakest vocalist left in the competition, and at some point he really needs to go. I still like the guy, I just don't think he deserves to last longer than the other competitors.


Elise - You and I by Lady Gaga Well. Haley sang it a lot better, so I don't think that was such a wise song choice for Elise. Once again, she wasn't quite in tune, and it didn't sound very um, smooth. Didn't like her performance much, it's just that she sounded slightly better than Phillip and Hollie.

Joshua - Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars Now that was an interesting performance by Joshua. Different than his usual song choices, and also from the other song choices of the night. At least it proves that he can sing more than ballads?

Colton - Love the Way You Lie by Skylar Gray For once I actually liked his performance in spite of his whiny tone. That's a good thing though, it's the perfect time to peak on idol and I think he did just that. Excellent song choice for his voice, and some excellent singing to go with it.

Skylar - Didn’t You Know How Much I Love You by Kellie Pickler Skylar went first, and I can still remember her performance. Shows how good she is eh? She sang the song beautifully, and I think she was pretty much pitch perfect, as mentioned by J.Lo (at least I think it's J.LO? Or was it Steven?)

Jessica - Stuttering by Jazmine Sullivan I've never heard that song before, but Jessica made me love it. In my opinion, it was an excellent song choice and as usual she sang it perfectly. Go Jessica! And with that out of the way...

Who should be going home...Hollie

Who will be going home? SERIOUSLY I DON'T KNOW. All the best to all of them.

EDIT - Results:

Believe or not the lowest vote-getter was Jessica. I'm not sure if I truly believe that though, the way they 'saved' her was a bit too fishy. But any rate, she's still in the competition and that's a good thing. Keep it up Jess, don't let them get you down!

80's Night

Currently Listening To: MBLAQ - Mona Lisa

I haven't been this excited about an 80s theme since...forever? But anyway, 80s music is the theme this week on Idol and I must say, once again the contestants did not disappoint. Not that much anyway. It's still difficult to put someone at the bottom, and this week I have no choice but to place...

Hollie at the bottom of the pack. She sang What a Feeling from Flashdance, I really have no idea what to say...I had such high hopes for her. Sure she didn't sound bad but that song choice, coupled with some pitch problems...I don't know about Hollie any more. She said she was gonna 'have fun' with the song - instead she turned into something dull and not fun. She's falling fast, and if she continues to be clueless about it, she'll be gone before we know it (like maybe this week!). A waste of talent.

Elise didn't sound too good either, that song choice (I Want To Know What Love Is) was just...weak. It didn't suit her voice, so it made the whole thing too restless and pretty unimpressive. Not a good week for Elise, after last week's vibrant performance.

Unfortunately I didn't quite like Phillip's song choice this week either. The song itself was okay, the big problem was that he didn't do anything fun with it. Like I said last week, I don't really mind that he sounds the same each week, but for that to work he absolutely has to nail every single performance. He didn't quite nail it this week so...yeah. Not impressed.

Deandre took a few steps forward this time, and sounded pretty solid after 3 bum weeks. No falsetto from start to finish, which is a good thing, and his song choice was quite okay. A big improvement indeed, and that might actually save him from the gallows this week.

Moving on. Colton, as usual, delivers a bland but somewhat convincing performance. Time After Time was a good choice for him as it fits him perfectly. I just can't get used to his whine though, it didn't sound too prominent this week but it still haunts me. Not my cup of tea, but good enough.

I'm also really happy that Skylar chose to sing a ballad this week. It's a good way for her to show off her big voice, and her decision definitely paid off. Great vocals, she looked gorgeous, the dress she was wearing was gorgeous - a perfect package. And to top it off, the song didn't make her sound too country. Or is it the other way round?

I would have placed Skylar second this week, if not for Jessica's excellent duet with Joshua, who takes the 2nd and 1st place respectively this week. Their duet together was absolutely brilliant! Their voices actually blended well and that's a really good thing cause they're both vocal powerhouses and either one of them might have overpowered the other.

Jessica's solo song choice was a bit strange in my opinion, Whitney Houston's How Will I Know, but at least she sang it well. Solid vocals (as usual), a little a bit awkward on stage though. Girl needs to learn to work the stage more for uptempo songs, and to loosen up a bit more.

That leaves us with Joshua, who definitely gave the best vocal performance of the night. Good job Joshua, and good job on the duet as well.

Speaking of duets, Elise and Phillip's was not too bad either. Can't say much about the remaining 2, didn't do much for any of them. Except maybe Deandre, he sounded pretty good on his duet with Hollie. And as for Hollie...sigh. I give up on her.