Showing posts with label Jason Mraz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Mraz. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Top 12 boys take their first shot...

After the lackluster performances from the girls last night, the boys have hopefully learned their lesson and are ready to blow us away tonight...

Todrick Hall is 24 and he decided to sing Since U Been Gone that the Season One Miss American Idol winner took to #2 in 2005. You have to applaud Todrick's effort to mix it up and take this pop rock anthem and turn it into a hip hop jam, but his weak vocals took all the excitement away.

Aaron Kelly is 16 and he decided to sing the 2009 Rascal Flatt's hit Here Comes Goodbye. Aaron took a risk by singing a song with the word "goodbye" in it as he could be predicting what he'll be doing tomorrow night. The vocals were pretty good, but the performance was plain boring.

Jermaine Sellers is 27 and he decided to sing Get Here that went to #5 for Oleta Adams in 1991. Jermaine did his best to over sing this jazzy old person favorite and make it more exciting than it actually was.

Tim Urban is 20 and he decided to sing the 2007 hit Apologize that hit #2 by One Republic. Tim owes many people including One Republic and the entire listening audience an apology for taking up 5 minutes of our lives with this bland offering. Next time it is suggested that everyone turn the volume down and just look at his cuteness without listening.

Joe Munoz is 20 and he decided to sing the non-hit You and I by Jason Mraz. It wasn't a hit for Jason and this forgettable rendition will not be a hit for Joe either. His nice vocals did very little to leave much of a mark.

Tyler Grady is 20 and he decided to sing the classic rock anthem that hit #1 in 1970 from the Guess Who, American Woman. Tyler has the image to be an entertainer in the spotlight, but his vocals simply aren't that good.

Lee Dewyze is 23 and he decided to sing Chasing Cars that was a hit in 2006 by Snow Patrol. Lee is the raspy singer that the rock fans are going to love, but he kinda made the song almost unrecognizable with his screaming.

John Park is 21 and he decided to sing the jazz standard made famous by Billie Holiday, God Bless The Child. This song was clearly very special to John, but even his impressive vocals weren't enough to make it sound current and fresh for a new audience.

Michael Lynche is 26 and he decided to sing the 2004 top 5 hit by Maroon 5, This Love. It's most noticeable that Michael is a really big guy taking up space on the stage, but he actually has some talent in there as well.

Alex Lambert is 19 and he decided to sing a complete hot mess disaster called Wonderful World. This poor young guy was such a nervous wreck on stage that it was a huge relief when it was finally over.

Casey James is 27 and he decided to sing the lovely ballad that Bryan Adams took to #1 in 1985, Heaven. Casey has a very easy going manner and vocal style that worked well with this familiar old favorite.

Andrew Garcia is 24 and he decided to sing the 2005 top 10 hit Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy. Andrew did his best to reinvent this fun rock song and make it into a boring acoustic ballad. It showed some originality, but it went in the wrong direction.

I wouldn't have believed it could be true, but the boys actually did worse than the girls! None of them really took advantage of the opportunity to make an exciting first impression. Casey James and Michael Lynche should be safely coming back next week, but the rest of these guys better hope their moms are calling in many votes to save them. I predict that Tim Urban and Alex Lambert will not be so lucky when the votes are counted....

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Season 8 American Idol is....

We've known for a full week now that Kris Allen managed to capture the Season 8 Miss American Idol crown. It was quite the unexpected surprise, but the dust has settled and I finally have some free time to review the fun musical festivities that lead up to his coronation. It was jammed packed with ten big #1 hits!

The season 8 top 13 finalists opened the show with a preview of what they will bringing on tour this summer. They brought an exuberant version of Pink's #1 smash from earlier this year, So What, to the stage to get things started with some energetic fun. Last year at this time, the audience was surprised to hear that the Season 7 Miss American Idol crown was being awarded to David Cook. In the 12 months that have followed David has struggled to make a dent on the Billboard Hot 100. He started out strong with his winning song, The Time Of My Life peaking at 3, but none of his other singles, Light On or Come Back To Me, came close to matching that success. So he is here tonight trying again to see if donating the proceeds to finding a cure for cancer will help make a hit out of his new song, Permanent.

Season 8 finalist, Lil Rounds then took the stage and never sounded better as she belted out like the true R&B diva that she is along with Queen Latifah. If Lil had done more performances like this every week, she might have made it to the finals. This amazing performance was followed by Jason Mraz singing his recent top 10 hit, I'm Yours, with finalists Alexis Grace and Anoop Desai. It just reminded us that Alexis and Anoop never really were that good anyway.

Awesome country music superstar, Keith Urban joined Kris Allen on stage to perform his latest single, Kiss A Girl. While Keith was incredible as always, nothing about this duet indicated that Kris was about to take the title. Kris was drowned out and overshadowed by Keith the whole time. Kris simply doesn't have the voice or the stage presence to hold his own next to a truly accomplished professional.

The string of #1 hits went into high gear when the top 5 girls then had some fun singing the song that Fergie took to #1 for 2 weeks in 2007, Glamorous. They followed it, along with Fergie herself, on her other #1 song from 2007, Big Girls Don't Cry. After such a hot solo album, Fergie has gone back to the Black Eyed Peas and now they are currently in their 7th big week at #1 on the Billboard HOT 100 with party anthem Boom Boom Pow.

The party then went back to 1984 for a some classic #1 hit duets with the original artists! Season 8 Miss American Idol 3rd Runner Up, Alison Iraheta, gave a heartfelt rendition of Cyndi Lauper's #1 song (2 weeks) Time After Time. The time warp continued as Season 8 Miss American Idol 2nd Runner Up Danny Gokey butchered Lionel Richie's classic ballad, Hello (2 weeks). Lionel then joined him on stage to prevent his tropical dance jam All Night Long that spent 4 weeks at the top of the charts from falling victim to Danny's inability to sing.

The crowd then got their money's worth when Adam Lambert took the mic and showed off his vocal skills with the 1976 top 10 hit power ballad from Kiss, Beth. The stage then erupted in an explosion of high energy fire and power as the classic glam rockers themselves showed up in full make-up to back up Adam singing Detroit Rock City and Rock and Roll All Night. Everything that Adam did on stage exclaimed WINNER and hit maker, but we all know how that ended up turning out....

There was then this weird banjo collaboration that put finalists Michael Sarver and Megan Joy along with comedian Steve Martin. Thankfully it was followed by more #1 hits courtesy of guitar legend, Carlos Santana. Finalist Matt Giraud didn't completely destroy Black Magic Woman, but knowing that it was inevitable if he kept singing solo, the rest of the top 13 joined him on the mega huge smash from 1999 that spent 12 weeks at the top, Smooth. The top 8 boys had some fun with the song that Rod Stewart took to #1 for 4 weeks in 1978, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy. Rod then performed his very first chart topper that spent 5 weeks at #1 in 1971, Maggie May.

Kris Allen and Adam Lambert then took the stage together to declare that We Are The Champions. This outstanding song by Queen went all the way up to #4 in 1977 and the band joined the top two finalists for an exceptional rendition. Seriously, though, Adam completely owned this song while Kris almost disappeared into the background. This is a fact that Kris openly admitted just after Ryan read his name as the winner of the Season 8 Miss American Idol crown. Kris stated, "Adam deserves this" while he was in disbelief with the rest of the audience.

Kris then struggled his way with his limited vocal abilities through the winning single, No Boundaries. For the first 5 seasons of American Idol, they were able to generate a #1 chart topper on the Billboard HOT 100, but that changed with seasons 6 and 7. Does Kris or Adam have what it takes to turn things around and have Season 8 hit the top again? We'll know soon....

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The lucky three....

Results Night is known for stretching out a one minute announcement for an entire hour, but in addition to that we can't forget the exciting GROUP Performances!!!

Tonight the show opened with the song that is #10 on the Billboard HOT 100 this week, I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. All of the 12 finalists did their best to shine as they shared the stage with each other, but the votes have already been counted...

Casey Carlson was the first to hear the news that she did not get enough votes to make it into the Top 12, followed by Stephen Fowler. Alexis Grace then got the good news that she has made the cut to move on to the next round. She once again sang I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You).

Ricky Braddy and Jackie Tohn were next to hear that they are going to be left out. Anoop Desai and Michael Sarver got called to center stage next and while Anoop had to face the disappointment on not making it, Michael learned that he is still in the game. He treated the crowd to his version of I Don't Want To Be one more time.

Does anybody really remember Carly Smithson and Michael Johns? They both made the top 12 last season, but neither has had any impact in the music world since then. Nonetheless, they were invited back to the American Idol stage to entertain us with their version of the #1 smash from 1967 by the Boxtops, The Letter. Hopefully this appearance will serve its intended purpose and help make their new releases multi-platinum best sellers.

Ann Marie Boskovich, Brent Keith and Stevie Wright all heard the bad news that they are not moving forward. That left only Danny Gokey and Tatiana Del Toro to learn which one of them got enough votes to come back again for more. The person going through to the top 12 is Danny Gokey which means we get to hear his inspirational version of Mariah Carey's Hero one more time.

I only got two of my three predictions right. I really thought Tatiana would generate enough buzz to get people to vote for her. Oh well, there's now just one more chance with the wild card round. From the remaining nine from this group here's who I predict the judges will ask to see again: Ricky Braddy, Anoop Desai and Tatiana Del Toro.