American Idol, Episode 12: "Boys: Sudden Death, Pt. 1"
I just don't understand. These boys on American Idol this year. They are not good. Seriously, if I was one of the five elimiated girls from the girls' first sudden death round, I'd be pissed. I mean, I was harsh on some of the ladies, but after watching the first round of boys give dismal, sometimes melody free performances, I was rethinking things. Come back, Jenny Beth and bring your tutu. Kamaria Ousley, all is forgiven! Shubha, that bunk elimination last night, just a joke. Unfortunately, despite all my wishful thinking, the producers still feel that there has to be an even number of boys and girls going into the top 20. So, the judges had to sift through the trash and try to find five that didn't completely embarrass themselves.
First up is Paul Jolley. Hopefully, he can show Nicki some professionalism. He sings the first (of many) Keith Urban songs, "Tonight, I Wanna Cry." Paul has a great voice and he is probably in the top two or three boys, for me. This was not the best perfomance for Jolley though. It was the wrong song. He got behind the beat at the very beginning of the song and he spent the rest of it trying to get back to where it was. He had some nice moments with the high notes, but because of his beat issues, they were a little off pitch. I agreed with Nicki. Jolley does seem to be in his head a lot, always thinking about it and that can drag down your performance. I also agreed (ugh) with Randy, that Jolley could sing all types of music, even if he decides to go down the country road.
Returning contestant, Johnny Keyser was next. He sang Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up." I felt like Johnny's stage presence was awkward. Again, I'm not sure this was the right song for Johnny. There were lots of words and he kind of lost his breath in the middle of the song. He is cute and has an OK voice, but this vocal and performance just didn't cut it for me. The judges were lukewarm on the performance and things aren't looking good for Johnny.
JDA sashayed out next. Listen, I applaud JDA for being unabashedly who he is. I love that he comes out, full makeup, glittered from head to toe, the high heels, the palazzo pants. This is great for Idol. Typically, contestants like JDA are turned into a joke and these judges didn't do that, even though I'm sure Randy was dying inside, because he wanted to make some sort of "joke." As far as JDA's actual performance, he was very entertaining. The dancing, the dropping to the stage. I was a fan of the drama of it all. The vocal? Not so much. His voice is strong, but not strong enough for Adele. He sounded flat, all the way through. He seemed to focus way too much on the performance aspect of it all and kind of neglected the actual singing. The judges seemed to agree with me. Except for Nicki, who just thought it was a bad vocal. Whatever. JDA will sashay away.
Kevin Harris was much more subdued than JDA, but let's be real, who wouldn't be? Kevin sang "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" a song that I legit hate. That being said, Kevin made me enjoy it. I love Kevin's voice. I like him too. He is a great personality and Kevin gave the perfomance of the night for me. His voice was clear and beautiful. He didn't do a lot of show runs and kept it real simple, which I was done with. Was it perfect? No. No, vocal on the show was perfect, but Kevin did it for me. I was definitely Team Nicki on this. I loved everything about it. Shut up, Randy. You bore me and I think you're karaoke. And yes, Nicki, throw that side eye!
Chris Watson brought "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" to the Idol stage. He also brought an aggressively horrible bejeweled Elvis style jumpsuit. I love the Otis Redding original, and I was not a big fan of the sped up version. Chris also reminded me of a guy you would see every karaoke night at you local watering hole. Good for Keith, for hitting the nail on the head. This is a connection competition. It's not really a singing competition. People like to delude themselves into believing it is. If it was, Jennifer Hudson would have won her season, ya dig?
Devin Velez performed Beyoncé's "Listen." I wasn't really feeling it. I know Devin has a good voice, but this performance was not his best. Bad song choice, fer sure. He was off pitch throughout most of it. He fared better when he switched to Spanish. He seemed to locate the pitch and the second half of the song was definitely ok. Just OK though. Also, what was with the grandpa sweater. Dude is 18. Dress like it, buddy. The judges were feeling it. Devin is one of their chosen few though, so I wasn't surprised by all the gushing.
Elijah Liu brought "Talking to the Moon" by Bruno Mars to the table, Ryan. Duh. He was very similar to Devin. They both are young, good voices, very teen idolish. Elijah is all about the ladees though. Don't forget it. Elijah, I thought, was good, but not great. I agreed with Keith. Elijah definitely has the look, but that vocal was shakier than a Jenga tower that was getting ready to fall. Whoa, Nicki. Simmer down. Mariah loved that he was Mexican and Chinese? Because he had lots of control over that? What? So, Mimi loves biracial kids. Makes sense.
Oh, Charlie. You were pretty charming with Ryan and you shut down his homophobia, when he "joked" that none of the guys except him go to JDA for fashion advice. That a kid. As far as your actual vocal, I need to be honest here baby boy. You were so terrified that it's hard to even judge it. You nerves were jangling louder than the wind chimes outside my front door. You loosened up once the chorus kicked in and I was appreciating the mic stand choreography. It did get a little, ok, a lot shrill when you went up into your falsetto. Ugh and Matheus was in the audience with your family? Why? Seriously, dude. Shake that little fame whore off your ankle. So, the judges were divided. I loved how Nicki constantly shut down Randy, but I don't even know what to say. Awkward turtles?
Jimmy Smith brought his terrible perm and another Keith Urban cover to the Idol stage. Well, a cover of Keith Urban who was covering Randy Foster's "Raining On Sunday." It felt like Jimmy never really got into his groove with the song. It was not a good song for him. I bet he picked it, just because he is in love with Keith. I was not a big fan of the leather, Members Only jacket or the awkward step touching he was doing during his performance. The judges were bored and when Ryan told Jimmy to be thankful that he got to sing the song for Keith, you got the impression that maybe Ryan could see the future.
Curtis Finch, Jr. closed out the show with a done to death Idol song, "Superstar" by Luther Vandross. Curtis. He can sing, but I can't get past the fact that he seems like a giant tool. He comes off as really smug and self satisfied. Just very, very unlikable. I felt there were way too many vocal embellishments and weird faces. I just couldn't. Nothing about his performance felt genuine to me at all, starting from the beginning until he pointed to the sky at the end. The judges of course ate it up while Curtis made overly gracious faces and mouthed things like "Thank you" and "WOW." I threw up.
The results were a tension free affair even though Jimmy Iovine had to crawl out of his cave and stop fingering his precious long enough to cast the deciding vote for Paul Jolley. Besides, Paul, the other four contestants advancing to the top 20 were Curtis, Devin, Elijah and Charlie.
So we have 10 of the top 20 and next we'll get the rest. What did you guys think? Agree with the judges? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.
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