American Idol, Episode 16: "Top Ten Boys Perform"
So, last night, the top ten boys performed for America's votes. I am pretty flabbergasted. We saw a lot last night you guys. A lot of things that I drank a lot of liquor to forget. I think we can all agree that we never want to see Ryan playing therapist to an obviously troubled contestant. I mean, Ryan is barely a human being. I'm not sure he feels emotion like the rest of us do. It was bad. Really bad. Ok, here we go, let's take a look at each of the ten performances.
Ladies boy, er man, Elijah Liu was up first, singing Rihanna's current hit "Stay." I was a fan of the song choice. I'm all for the contestants singing current radio hits. Unfortunately, Elijah did not sing the song very well. He was flat and basically completely off pitch the entire time. It was interesting how the judges basically avoided all talk of his vocals. They were really focused on his marketability, which, in my opinion, turns off the public. I think, people really want to vote for someone like them, not for someone who already seems like a star. Elijah may be in trouble tonight.
Cortez Shaw was up next giving us Bruno Mars' "Locked Out of Heaven." Like I said with Elijah, I like a current song, but this song was not a good fit for Cortez. Cortez has a huge voice, but this did not show it off. Randy kind of hit it on the head when he said it sounded like the song was pitched too high for his voice. I thought that last week as well. Also, Cortez said he was inspired to sing the song when he heard eliminated contestant Big Nick sing it during Hollywood week. Dude. That was a spectacular fail. Why would that inspire you to sing it? Cortez may be in trouble tonight.
Then it was Charlie Askew's turn to take the stage and be super creepy and make us all feel really uncomfortable. Charlie re-interpreted Phil Collins' "Mama." It was... intense. It was like if the person who had been stalking you for years showed up at your crib and sang you this song... before he murdered you. There was nothing good about that performance. You could tell that Charlie was still really nervous and it really hindered him. Nicki and I were completely on the same page. I don't want to see any of that either Nicki. I don't want to see the 'stache, the angry arms, the one feather earring. No, no, no. Then, Charlie had his mini breakdown and Ryan had to switch settings to Dr. Phil mode and offer him empty platitudes. All kidding aside, Charlie seems like a good kid, but he has issues. Issues that need to be worked out off the Idol stage. Charlie is in trouble, period.
I'm a huge fan of Nick Boddington's voice. I remember his Hollywood rendition of "Stars" very fondly. It was gorgeous. I think Nick has one of the top male voices in the competition, but you wouldn't know it if the first you'd heard him sing was his joyless cover of "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls. Nick was at the piano and I think the song would have served him better if he had done it alone with the piano. The band kind of swallowed him up. Nick also seemed very defeated the whole time he was performing. The whole thing was just super sad. I also agreed with Nicki when she said that she wished Nick would have stuck with the melody a little bit more. Nick may be in trouble tonight.
Burnell Taylor reprised his audition song "I'm Here" from the musical The Color Purple. Listen, I think it is a little cheap when contestants bring back songs they have sang in the past. It is a ploy to get votes and it is shameless. That being said, Burnell brought the house down with it. I loved it. His glory note soared and he was serving shades of John Legend. I have a feeling that Burnell may not be in trouble tonight, but he will have to come with the original song choices from now on.
Paul Jolley was up next singing the Christina Aguilera/Blake Shelton duet, "Just a Fool." Jolley was giving me flashbacks to Nick's performance from earlier. Jolley has a great pure voice and it is a thousand times better than Gary LeVox's aka the big, fat turd from Rascal Flats. Seriously, Keith. Enough with those comparisons. I appreciate that Jolley has designs to be the male Taylor Swift and I think he could accomplish that. He needs to work on his confidence though. He is another sad panda, for sure. Jolley may be in trouble tonight.
I have been rough on Lazaro Arbos since his audition and I think rightly so. I feel like he has been kind of cruising by on his stuttering backstory. It tears at your heartstings for sure, but does that mean he should sail through to Idol's top ten based on that alone? I don't think so. Luckily, Lazaro brought some acutal musicianship and vocal ability to his done to death on Idol cover of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good." Lazaro started off a tad shaky, picked up in the middle, and soared at the end. I was feeling good and I'll be cool if Lazaro makes it in to the top 10 based on that performance.
This brings us to the most over wraught, over hyped, over sold performance of the night. You guessed it, next to the stage is Curtis Finch, Jr!!! Curtis continued his string of uninspired, unoriginal song choices with R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly." Man, this dude loves himself, doesn't he? The whole thing was very insipid and pandering and I hated it. No doubt Curtis has a great voice, but the sooner he is off my television the better. Let's not even talk about the judges ridiculous reactions, shall we?
Devin Velez was up next. He sang Perry Como's "Somos Novios (It's Impossible)." Devin has talent and he is growing more and more each time I see him on the Idol stage. He has toned down the unnecessary runs and when he switches to Spanish he may have the most beautiful tone of any of the season 12 guys. I got legit chills a couple of times. I'm having a premonition of Devin being in the top 10. I'm pretty confident in my psychic skills.
Vincent Powell closed out the show with Boyz II Men's "End of the Road." Vincent was kind of all over the place. His voice kind of got lost in the quieter moments of the song, but he sounded good when he sang full voice. The super high notes were a little screechy. Sorry, Papa Smurf, you are not Maxwell. Vincent could be in trouble.
So, that's it. I can't even speculate on who America will send through. We'll find out tomorrow thought. What did you guys think? Who was your favorite? Hit me up in the comments.
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