Showing posts with label Seal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seal. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Top 4 sing Movie Music

Tonight, Jamie Foxx, the Oscar winning star of Ray and DreamGirls (in which he co-starred with Season Three Miss American Idol finalist and also an Oscar winner, Jennifer Hudson) is here to work with the Top 4 as they attempt to interpret songs from the silver screen.

Seal won the 1996 Grammy for Record of the Year with his smash that hit #1 on the Billboard HOT 100 for one week in 1995, Kiss From A Rose. It was featured in the movie Batman Forever and Lee DeWyze sounded completely off-key and flat during this dreary performance. He is still completely lacking any personality so this was just sleep inducing instead of energizing.

Michael Jackson took Will You Be There up to #7 on the Billboard HOT 100 in 1993. This inspirational gospel choir ballad is from the film Free Willy, but it didn't really give Michael Lynche a chance to truly shine. His voice is very good, but with the songs arrangement having so many layers the voice ended up getting a little buried within it all.

Falling Slowly won the 2008 Oscar for Best Original Song from the movie Once and tonight Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox joined forces to introduce it to the American Idol audience. They both faced each other as they played their guitars, but where her vocals were pristine and flawless, his were mumbled and unintelligible. Crystal did a wonderful job saving this duet from being a total disaster.

Simon and Garfunkle spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard HOT 100 in 1968 with Mrs. Robinson from the movie The Graduate. Casey James sat on the edge of the stage with a ukulele and proceeded to tragically drain the life out of this fantastic song. His vocals were bland and laid back and the energy was totally lacking.

Kenny Loggins hit #7 in 1980 with I'm Alright, the theme from Caddyshack. Crystal Bowersox put on her own Lilith Fair music festival with this rousing acoustic rendition that was highlighted by her exceptional vocal range and talent. It had a fun and high energy vibe that was completely entertaining and infectious.

Bryan Adams spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard HOT 100 in 1995 with Have You Ever really Loved A Woman? from the film Don Juan DeMarco. It was a dreary song back then and it was even more dreary with Casey James and Michael Lynche trying to make something of it. They also stood there with their guitars, but the song didn't allow them to really show off their voices. Casey just fumbled and once again the material let Michael down.

This is it - the night of my big and bold prediction! I see Casey and Lee being in the bottom two and the shock of the season will be that Lee is going home.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

And the Season 7 American Idol is....

Here we are: Two hours of fun and entertainment until the crowning of the Season 7 Miss American Idol. It all started out with a preview of this year's American Idol tour as the top 12 finalists were reunited in a high energy performance of the top 5 smash from 1970 by Rare Earth, Get Ready. Then those other 10 finalists were dismissed so the fans could see the Davids come together for a great duet. You wouldn't think that their distinct styles would blend well together, but it turned out to be quite harmonious.

Mike Myers has officially crossed the line into being totally weird as his shameless promotion for the Love Guru was just plain creepy. Thankfully it was followed a very cool performance with Seal and this year's second runner up, Syesha Mercado of his hit Waiting For You. As we have come to expect, Syesha looked and sounded great. Then, on the other side of the coin, we were forced to endure Jason Castro mumble his way through Hallelujah again. Honestly, once was enough.

The top 6 girls: Kristy Lee Cook, Amanda Overmyer, Ramiele Malubay, Carly Smithson, Brooke White and Syesha Mercado joined together to bring to life an exciting Donna Summer medley including She Works Hard For The Money and the #1 smash, Hot Stuff. It was fun to see the Queen of Disco herself take the stage and sing her latest release before launching into the Oscar winning Best Original Song, Last Dance.

At the beginning of this season when we first saw the top 24, it is quite likely that many fans selected Carly Smithson and Michael Johns as front-runners to make it here to the finals. It was quite a surprise when they both got sent home way too early. For a a nice little consolation prize these two very talented singers had the chance to sing a duet in front of this huge audience. They gave a bouncy big band arrangement of a song by the Box Tops that spent four weeks at #1 in 1967, The Letter. Just a taste of what could have been....

The top 6 guys: David Hernandez, Chikezie, Michael Johns, Jason Castro and our top finalists, David Cook and David Archuleta joined forces to give us a Bryan Adams medley consisting of Summer of '69 and his #1 hit Heaven. This Canadian rocker came out to sing his latest jam and then wrapped things up with his hit Somebody.

This may come as a surprise to you, but one of the most recognized hits from ZZ Top, Sharp Dressed Man, was never released as a single and therefore, it never hit the Billboard HOT 100. Even so, it was still a nice sizzling opportunity for David Cook to rock out with the bearded guitar heroes. Much less sizzling was Brooke White sitting barefoot and strumming her guitar with Graham Nash. While the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young top 20 hit from 1970, Teach Your Children is a classic song, this duet was just as drab as everything else Brooke gave us all season. The show needed a huge injection of youthful exuberance after this and no one does it better than THE JONAHS BROTHERS!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! They were right there singing their hit SOS!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

One Republic recently peaked at #2 earlier this year with their smooth synth pop song, Apologize. It was the perfect contemporary hit to match with David Archuleta's pure, sweet, sincere and earnest voice. The show is more than half over and there have been no appearances by any former American Idols! How can that be? Just when we thought Ruben's (Season 2 Miss American Idol) song last night was all we were going to get, the reigning queen, Season 6 Miss American Jordin Sparks came out on stage in glittering high heels and a spangled gold dress to sing her newest single, One Step At A Time. Her first single, Tattoo peaked at #8 and her latest, No Air is still in the the top 5 after peaking at #3. Who says the Idols aren't as successful as they used to be!

As if Jordin wasn't enough, the Idol alumni doesn't get any better than the Supreme Miss American Idol from Season Four, Carrie Underwood. She looked absolutely stunning as she belted out her new single, Last Name. Her stylist deserves an award. I mean seriously, her hair, that dress, her legs, her shoes - FLAWLESS! Carrie is just plain HOT! And the song is the catchiest thing ever. It started out, "hey cutie where are you from?" then in turned into - Oh NO what have I done!

The top 12 gave us one last medley of George Michael hits including, Faith, Father Figure and Freedom 90 before George graced the stage to sing his #1 smash that Carrie Underwood did so well on Idol Gives Back, Praying For Time.

Two hours of great entertainment flew by and it was finally time to give the Season 7 Miss American Idol crown to one of the Davids. The envelope was opened and David Archuleta had to step aside and give congratulations to this years winner - DAVID COOK! The rocker was brought to tears as he thanked his brother for encouraging him to give this a shot. He made it all the way to this night of having the glitter fall around him as he sang The Time Of My Life.