The Top 4 finalists are singing songs in the theme California Dreamin along with a second song that they wish they had written themselves.
Phillip Phillips got the show off to a less than dreamy start with his dreary rendition of Have You Ever Seen The Rain that Credence Clearwater Revival took to #8 in 1971. John Fogerty has a strong and distinctive voice, but Phillip's vocals were completely weak and forgettable.
Journey climbed all the way up to #11 with Faithfully in 1983. Hollie Cavanagh performed this romantic power ballad with grace and confidence. Her vocals were just as outstanding as always belting out the big notes with complete purity.
You Raise Me Up delivers a climatic punch when originally performed in 2004 by Josh Groban. Even with a gospel choir backing him up, though, Joshua Ledet wasn't really able to get the song off the ground. His lead vocals were simply lacking the power and range that is necessary to really sock it to us.
The legendary blues/jazz/R&B singer Etta James was known for her honest and true interpretations of heartfelt lyrics on songs like Steal Away. Jessica Sanchez has the mature vocal range to effortless do justice to an Etta James classic.
Maroon 5 went to #5 in 2004 with This Love, but as a duet with Joshua and Phillip it felt forced and out of whack. Neither of them has the personality or vocal range to get close to the character found in the original. Then compare it to the artful vocal blending and harmonizing found when Jessica and Hollie take on the 1989 #1 smash Eternal Flame by the Bangles. They are both so talented and this song really highlighted their strengths and skills. It was beautiful. All four of the remaining finalists ended up sounding pretty good on the huge mega hit Waiting For A Girl Like You that spent 10 weeks at #2 in 1981. In a nut shell, the strength of the girls voices helped to cover up and compensate for the vocal shortcomings of the boys.
Volcano by Damien Rice is the kind of song and the kind of music that Phillip Phillips likes best. This explains a lot. It was boring and vocally flat. The musicians on stage with him and the girl singing background vocals with him were more interesting and entertaining than he was by leaps and bounds.
I Can't Make You Love Me is a #18 hit for Bonnie Raitt in 1992. Hollie Cavanagh shared a more vulnerable side of herself with this tender and expressive performance of the song. Her voice is so crystal clear and she wears her emotions all over her face for everyone to see.
It's a Man's Man's Man's World hit #8 in 1966 for the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Joshua Ledet provided a very straightforward and predictable version of the song. It was very true to what James Brown is famous for, but there was nothing exceptional added to it.
The Season 3 Miss American Idol finalist, Jennifer Hudson, went on to win an Oscar for her earth shattering performance of And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from the film DreamGirls. Jessica Sanchez simply has the vocal gift necessary to do this song justice. She stood still center stage and yet was able to blow the roof off the place with her voice alone.
The duet tonight between Hollie and Jessica was a sample of how exciting and entertaining the finals of Season 11 could be. They are both very talented and likeable young women and hopefully will have impressive careers ahead of them. I am very hopeful that this final face off could become a reality, so the prediction this week for the bottom two has to be Phillip and Joshua. After weeks of lackluster performances, it's finally time for Phillip to leave the competition.
Showing posts with label Journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Journey. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Top 4 - Lady Gaga
The top 4 finalists are once again singing twice. The first time they are selecting a song that inspires them and for the second song they will get guidance from mega-pop performance art superstar, Lady Gaga.
Journey created a timeless classic when they first charted with Don't Stop Believin' at #9 in 1981. The song was already a consistent top download on itunes 30 years later, but then the cast of Glee performed it and breathed even more life into it. Now that James Durbin has done a fantastic job singing it, Don't Stop Believin' isn't going to stop being a fan favorite for a long time.
Michael Jackson had the ability to take a lyric about respect for our fragile planet and make it into a sweet and powerful anthem. Haley Reinhart has no similar capacity whatsoever. Her vocal ability is weak and once again she was more of a caricature than an artist. The screaming was completely unpleasant and her look and style was cartoonish.
Scotty McCreery knows how to appeal to his fans as he selected Alan Jackson's Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning. He did exactly what he had to do to make them happy.
Lauren Alaina finally selected the perfect song to showcase her voice at its best. Martina McBride's Any Way allowed her to have an emotional connection to both the song and the audience. It's a little late in the game, but she finally found herself.
Lady Gaga encouraged Haley to give in to her crazy drama and give the audience an over the top dramatic interpretation of I Who Have Nothing. Lady Gaga could easily see that Haley doesn't really have the vocal skills to pull this song off. It's a fantastic power ballad if you've heard a talented artist sing it, so all Haley could provide was a painfully comical parody.
Lady Gaga really pushed hard to get Scotty to express a sense of humor and have some personality with his rendition of Young Blood. Once he got on stage it was clear that he had taken her advice but still stayed true to his bland and conservative self.
Lady Gaga had the difficult challenge of getting Lauren to transform into the "good girl gone bad" performer for her performance of Trouble. But after all these weeks, Lauren has finally gotten comfortable on stage with her genuine good girl persona that this was all a little too much too soon.
James Durbin was actually pretty apprehensive about getting face to face with Lady Gaga, but in the end she was even able to help him take it up a notch. His arena rock extravaganza of Love Potion #9 was nothing short of amazing. He truly knows what he is doing on stage and his vocal range is simply outstanding.
America has got to get a clue and not allow Haley to make it into the top three. If there is any basis of reality and respect for talent my prediction of the bottom two will be accurate: Haley and Lauren should be in the bottom two and Haley should seriously, finally go home. I mean, Haley was truly awful tonight.
Journey created a timeless classic when they first charted with Don't Stop Believin' at #9 in 1981. The song was already a consistent top download on itunes 30 years later, but then the cast of Glee performed it and breathed even more life into it. Now that James Durbin has done a fantastic job singing it, Don't Stop Believin' isn't going to stop being a fan favorite for a long time.
Michael Jackson had the ability to take a lyric about respect for our fragile planet and make it into a sweet and powerful anthem. Haley Reinhart has no similar capacity whatsoever. Her vocal ability is weak and once again she was more of a caricature than an artist. The screaming was completely unpleasant and her look and style was cartoonish.
Scotty McCreery knows how to appeal to his fans as he selected Alan Jackson's Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning. He did exactly what he had to do to make them happy.
Lauren Alaina finally selected the perfect song to showcase her voice at its best. Martina McBride's Any Way allowed her to have an emotional connection to both the song and the audience. It's a little late in the game, but she finally found herself.
Lady Gaga encouraged Haley to give in to her crazy drama and give the audience an over the top dramatic interpretation of I Who Have Nothing. Lady Gaga could easily see that Haley doesn't really have the vocal skills to pull this song off. It's a fantastic power ballad if you've heard a talented artist sing it, so all Haley could provide was a painfully comical parody.
Lady Gaga really pushed hard to get Scotty to express a sense of humor and have some personality with his rendition of Young Blood. Once he got on stage it was clear that he had taken her advice but still stayed true to his bland and conservative self.
Lady Gaga had the difficult challenge of getting Lauren to transform into the "good girl gone bad" performer for her performance of Trouble. But after all these weeks, Lauren has finally gotten comfortable on stage with her genuine good girl persona that this was all a little too much too soon.
James Durbin was actually pretty apprehensive about getting face to face with Lady Gaga, but in the end she was even able to help him take it up a notch. His arena rock extravaganza of Love Potion #9 was nothing short of amazing. He truly knows what he is doing on stage and his vocal range is simply outstanding.
America has got to get a clue and not allow Haley to make it into the top three. If there is any basis of reality and respect for talent my prediction of the bottom two will be accurate: Haley and Lauren should be in the bottom two and Haley should seriously, finally go home. I mean, Haley was truly awful tonight.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Results - itunes
After peaking at #9 in 1981, Journey's Don't Stop Believing really has become one of the most downloaded songs of all time. Here we are 27 years later and this classic song is currently #83 on the itunes Top Songs list this week. So tonight the finalists actually gave a literal interpretation of this week's theme and performed this favorite song.
Ryan put the finalists into three groups of three:
Group One: Kris Allen, Meagan Joy, Matt Giraud
Group Two: Lil Rounds, Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta
Group Three: Scott MacIntyre, Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai
While the finalists had to wait to find out which group was the bottom three, The Season Seven Miss American Idol winner, David Cook, came back to the American Idol stage hoping to finally have a hit. His first single, Light On, never really managed to get enough airplay or sales to reach the upper portion of the charts so he's hoping the exposure of this live performance of Come Back To Me will ignite some significant action. The good news is that in just three months his debut album has gone Platinum (sales of 1 Million copies) and he was presented with a shiny plaque.
Breaking the finalists into three groups is just as much of a sloppy mess as the lame "itunes top downloads" theme was. In group One, both Kris and Matt are safe while while Meagan is in the bottom three. In group Two, both Lil and Adam are safe while Allison had to join Meagan. In group Three, both Danny and Scott are safe while Anoop rounded out the bottom three.
Lady GaGa spent three weeks at #1 in January on the Billboard HOT 100 with her debut single, Just Dance. This week she has accomplished the rare feat of having her second single, Poker Face, also reach #1. Only artists like Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera have managed to do this in the past. Mariah and Christina also went on to win the Grammy for Best New Artist. Lady GaGa brought her exciting and entertaining performance art to the American Idol stage and brought the house down. Could she be on her way to a Grammy?
Allison Iraheta and Anoop Desai were sent back to safety leaving Meagan to perform for the last time. The judges even went so far as to say that they had no plans of using their Judges Save tonight before she sang.
This week I got two out of my three predictions correct. While I thought Anoop would be going home, I'm not surprised that it ended up being Meagan. Do you realize that Season 8 is now left with 6 boy contestants and only 2 girls!?
Ryan put the finalists into three groups of three:
Group One: Kris Allen, Meagan Joy, Matt Giraud
Group Two: Lil Rounds, Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta
Group Three: Scott MacIntyre, Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai
While the finalists had to wait to find out which group was the bottom three, The Season Seven Miss American Idol winner, David Cook, came back to the American Idol stage hoping to finally have a hit. His first single, Light On, never really managed to get enough airplay or sales to reach the upper portion of the charts so he's hoping the exposure of this live performance of Come Back To Me will ignite some significant action. The good news is that in just three months his debut album has gone Platinum (sales of 1 Million copies) and he was presented with a shiny plaque.
Breaking the finalists into three groups is just as much of a sloppy mess as the lame "itunes top downloads" theme was. In group One, both Kris and Matt are safe while while Meagan is in the bottom three. In group Two, both Lil and Adam are safe while Allison had to join Meagan. In group Three, both Danny and Scott are safe while Anoop rounded out the bottom three.
Lady GaGa spent three weeks at #1 in January on the Billboard HOT 100 with her debut single, Just Dance. This week she has accomplished the rare feat of having her second single, Poker Face, also reach #1. Only artists like Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera have managed to do this in the past. Mariah and Christina also went on to win the Grammy for Best New Artist. Lady GaGa brought her exciting and entertaining performance art to the American Idol stage and brought the house down. Could she be on her way to a Grammy?
Allison Iraheta and Anoop Desai were sent back to safety leaving Meagan to perform for the last time. The judges even went so far as to say that they had no plans of using their Judges Save tonight before she sang.
This week I got two out of my three predictions correct. While I thought Anoop would be going home, I'm not surprised that it ended up being Meagan. Do you realize that Season 8 is now left with 6 boy contestants and only 2 girls!?
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