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Posted on 01/15/2007 3:32:39 PM PST by silent_jonny
It's kind of like when I watch Chris, I think of the old saying, "You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy." I think he's a great singer, but is just not producing like he could or should be to make a great impression on AI.
Everytime I see "AI" in reference to American Idol, I have to chuckle--I grew up on a dairy farm and "AI" sure didn't refer to American Idol! LOL! I>
Me too. And Blake. Now that you mention it, all of the guys seem kinda arrogant this year (except for Sanjaya, maybe). But if any of them thinks they have a chance of winning next to Melinda or Lakisha--wow, are they deluded!
He was my third guess--LOL
LOL!
And Randy, Paula and Simon preach to us that "this is supposed to be a singing competition" when they are the ones that put that little twerp in the top 24.
OK, at least I see where you're coming from. I think Chris also posted being a rock musician and a Christian are not diameterically opposed, or some such philosophy. (Which, when you think about it, is a hilarious comment to make.) I don't think Chris is neccessarily arrogant more than confident in his craft. He's a good singer and song writer. I see him as actually pretty witty and sometimes a quick wit can get you in trouble and have people thinking you're arrogant because they don't understand your humor. I do notice he is not very good "live" infront of a camera and does not have a good sence about stage presence...but that will come with time.
There is only one thing that qualifies one as Christian after that, the struggle.
If you think that was kind then you must live in a box of nails! ;-)
I guess the point I'm making, as your comment just hit a nerve with me, is what is this thinking some Christians have that you can't be a Christian, and an entertainer without giving up principle? It's so convoluted and twisted.
I don't neccessarily disagree there might be a little bit of "conflict" going on inside Chris, but I don't think it has to do with anything spiritually. I think it has to do with him trying to find himself as an entertainer. Infact I think everyone blew way out of proportion his TT comment to Simon. I notice Chris has been a little timid and quite lately.
Right, and I don't understand a thought process that says God is opposed to people entertaining if they show THEIR talent!!! I know in my church the fundy-dudy personification of YOU SHOULDN'T BRING GLORY TO YOURSELF, ONLY TO GOD when you're infront of people is so misunderstood and an unwritten rule so thick you couldn't cut it with a chain saw. Good perfoming is an art, a craft, a GOD giving talent, it's supposed to breathe and have life...as God intended.
That's Entertainment!
We found something that Sanjaya is good at! Humility!
Arrogance is a cover for extreme insecurity and unhappiness.
Simon Cowell Offers Sanjaya Malakar No Chance 3/10/07
http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/march07/article031007-6.html
American Idol judge Simon Cowell has doomed a wannabe singer's chance of winning the TV talent contest by revealing he'll quit the show if he wins.
The acid-tongued British svengali admits he was stunned when contestant Sanjaya Malakar beat rocker Sundance Head for a place in the final 12 on Thursday night (08MAR07), and he'll leave the show if the Indian-American singer is crowned the next American Idol.
Brutal Cowell says, "He's not going to win. I won't be back if he does!"
Here you go! :)
Exactly! America didn't initially select him! YOU DID, SIMON!!
Then Simon will most definitely be back because the next American Idol is Melinda Doolittle. ;^)
This is kind of a good read as they summarize the remaining contestants and touch on something we have discussed about AI not wanting a repeat of last year.
http://www.fansofrealitytv.com/forums/american-idol-6/61940-idol-guy-top-16-good-bad-ghastly.html
Is repetition becoming the theme for this season of American Idol? Last week we touched upon the tendency to repeat songs from previous seasons. This week, the Idols seemed to turn back the clock to the top 24 week. Of course, we know how well that week went. For the guys, it was calamitous. For the girls, it was a lot better, with once again Lakisha and Melinda standing out. It’s déjà vu all over again.
Still, what’s more important is that we have our top 12 finalists. Just like the postseason of any major league sport, there are a few people who don’t really deserve to be there. So who’s good, who’s bad, and who’s ghastly?
The Really, Really Good
Melinda Doolittle – what’s most remarkable about her is not just that she is good; it’s that she makes being good look so effortless and natural. Like Taylor Hicks last year, her musical experience is proving to be a significant asset – excellent song choices and performance skills are all things that are best learned out in the real world. Are we gushing? Yes, but she rightly deserves it. How far will she go? See below.
Lakisha Jones – she’s received a veritable tongue bath from the judges of late. Personally, we think she’s a tad bit overrated. Make no mistake, she’s good, but not as good as you’d think if you just listened to the judges. The trouble is her performances have been somewhat one-dimensional. There’s not really a whole lot of variety to be found there.
Lakisha and Melinda are the two front-runners this season, but we think it’s unlikely that they’ll both make it into the finale. It’s worth noting that every finale has had two singers with fairly different styles and sounds. That’s not going to change this season. One of the two will end up in the finale; the other will go out before the final four, much to everyone’s shock and disbelief. Remember: you heard it here first, folks.
Blake Lewis – there’s a lot to like in Blake. He’s perhaps one of the most polished contestants in the top 12, something that shows in his performances. His singing voice is good, and he makes very good song choices. The beat-boxing, if used properly, is his ace in the hole. He’s done well against the guys, but how will he do now that it’s co-ed? We shall see.
Chris Sligh – ever since he said in his audition where he said he wanted to make David Hasselhoff cry, he’s established himself firmly in the public’s mind. That was enough to get him to the top 12, but we’re not sure how far it can get him past that. He has a big voice – the best among the guys – but against singers like Lakisha, that can get lost. Is there something more to Chris Sligh aside from his colorful personality and his powerful voice? How well will he stack up against the girls?
The (Not-so) Bad
Stephanie Edwards – Any other season she’d be a standout, but with two other big voices in the mix Stephanie gets overshadowed. There’s not much she can do, to be honest. She has to find a way to distinguish herself from Lakisha and Melinda, but is that really possible? Still, she’s good enough that she’ll survive for at least a few weeks more, but beyond that her future is cloudy. We predict howls of outrage when she’s eliminated before people think her time is up, which looks likely.
Gina Glocksen – she needed a good performance on Wednesday night to put herself safely to the top 12, and she delivered. Now that she’s in the finals, she needs a reality check. She got in the final by being alt-Gina, the rocker chick, not being glam Gina from the top 20 and 24 performances. She needs to figure out what she wants her image to be, and pick her songs accordingly. Unless she does that, she might be gone sooner rather than later. If she plays her cards right she could go pretty far, since she’ll have the rock vote all by herself.
Chris Richardson – what’s the thing we most remember about him? He (supposedly) looks like Justin Timberlake. Beyond that… not much else. He reminds us a bit of Ace Young – good eye candy, but an okay voice at best. That’s not exactly a formula for overwhelming success, is it? We don’t think he’s that good. He’ll make the tour, but not much further than that.
Brandon Rogers – the story of how he got to the top 12 is similar to Gina’s. Two subpar performances, needed something really good to make it, and he succeeded. His problem is that he seems to have trouble taking the lead when he sings – his overall tone and energy seems to be too subdued, as if he’s forgotten he’s not singing backup anymore. It’s a pity, because otherwise his singing is pretty good. He could use some tips from Melinda.
Jordin Sparks – every season has at least one teenage girl in the top 12. Usually, they have plenty of energy, a good amount of talent, but tend to be rather unpolished as performers. Jordin is no different, and is actually a fairly good example of the class. She could get lost in the mix, but her youth will boost her fan base and keep her safe – for now. More than anyone else, she needs to grow as a performer and prove that she can mix it up with the front-runners.
The Outright Ghastly
Sanjaya Malakar – The last time Sanjaya had a really, really good performance was… well, we don’t know anymore. Has he had one, anyway? So who’s voting for Sanjaya? We don’t know. The strength of his fan base has us mystified. Somebody please help us out here.
Haley Scarnato – we’ll be a little generous in our assessment. Haley isn’t that bad (read: not a total disaster), but she’s not that good either. Her song choice tends towards the ambitious – in the past three shows she’s done Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and Faith Hill – but she doesn’t have the chops to pull those off. Still, with the underwhelming guys in the top 12, she could make it to the tour. Maybe.
Phil Stacey – the main reason that Phil’s in here is because he’s doing a very good job of backing into the final 12. He started out well, had an okay top 20, but a near-disastrous top 16. I mean, come on, LeAnn Rimes? She’s a good singer, but her songs and Phil just don’t fit. It made about as much sense as Britney Spears getting a good parenting award. Phil is going from good, to bad, to terrible… and might go home sooner rather than later.
Be careful what you wish for: for the second week in a row people aren’t all that happy with the results. Last week it was AJ Tabaldo; this week it’s Sabrina Sloan. People aren’t exactly missing the three other cuts – Antonella Barba, Sundance Head, or Jared Cotter.
We’re not going to imitate Randy and Paula who expressed surprise at losing Sabrina and Sundance, respectively. The Idol voting audience is fairly diverse, and one should expect that the contestant mix will reflect that. For example, country music fans probably won’t reward a rocker with many votes even if that rocker is the best singer left. With half of the six slots for the girls already occupied by “big voices” (Lakisha, Melinda, and Stephanie) it wasn’t likely that a similar voice, Sabrina, would get through.
Sundance, meanwhile, wasn’t consistent. His best performance was one that didn’t count – the one from the results show. At his best, he was top 12 material, but he could never do it regularly. More often than not he laid on a performance that had good spots, but just as many bad ones. That’s not a formula for Idol success. Still, we’ll give him credit for the best line said after getting eliminated – although we suspect he won’t have too much of a hard time finding work.
As for Antonella and Jared, the less said, the better. Neither had the vocals to stay for much longer. Jared’s hand over his face had us slapping our foreheads at its utter cheesiness. As for Antonella, Photogate may have energized her fans, but it also made it difficult to get new ones. A small number of people voting like mad only gets you so far.
Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as too much information: the whole tell-us-a-secret gimmick this week left us with far too many too-much-information moments. However, that was topped by Ryan Seacrest giving us the mental image of Randy Jackson nude wrestling with Borat. Hand us some bleach, please!
Worst attempt at Idol manipulation ever: even though we’re generally skeptical of producer manipulation, we have to admit that this season has the feel of very ham-handed tinkering. The top 24 was loaded with female power singers; now they constitute fully a third of the top 12. It’s clear that the powers that be are stacking the deck and wants to influence what kind of singer wins.
There’s nothing good that can come out of this. We’ve seen what the effects have been – the top 12 is not as good as other seasons. It lacks the diversity that we’ve had before, and even taking that into consideration we’re not convinced this group is, collectively, as good as previous seasons.
We can’t be sure why this is being done, but we have to wonder how much of it is because Taylor won last year. Given that it hasn’t been easy to market him to a wider audience, we can’t help but wonder if someone said, “We can’t allow this to happen, we have to make sure someone commercial wins next time.” It’s as good an explanation as any.
Whatever the reasoning may be, it’s a remarkably short-sighted one. Something that has been discussed here on the FORT has been how being an Idol finalist is no longer “a career drag”. It is true that on a critical and commercial level, American Idol finalists have never been more successful. Carrie Underwood sold millions and walked off with quite a few awards in 2006. Chris Daughtry is on top of the charts right now. Even contestants who finished relatively poorly have come out with surprisingly good albums (see Kellie Pickler). True, Taylor hasn’t sold nearly as well as they hoped, and some in the music industry might never fully accept Idol finalists (ask LeAnn Rimes and Faith Hill what they really think about Carrie), but overall the picture has never been better.
It seems to be that the American Idol empire has chosen to fix something that isn’t all that broke. That rarely works well, unfortunately.
Idol Q&A
12 To Go
Chatting with the new ''American Idol'' finalists -- learn which past Idols inspire them, what each wants to sing, and how they think they could be helped by a makeover
''I think if we ever get the perfect Top 12, it won't be American Idol, will it?'' —Simon Cowell
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20007164_20008533_20014688,00.html
Perfect or not, EW.com caught up with all the Idol finalists at the Top 12 party Thursday night at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. We learned the songs they still want to sing, the parts they'd most like to make over, and their past Idol inspirations. But which musical heavyweight does Simon most wish would be Idol-ized? ''Well, we'll just make it really difficult for the bad singers,'' he grins. ''We'll do Pavarotti night, and they'll have to deal with that.''
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There are a lot of theme nights coming up. Any you're looking forward to? Any you're not looking forward to?
CHRIS SLIGH : I'm looking forward to Bon Jovi week, if I can make it that far. Diana Ross is going to be tough, because she had this weird range, about seven or eight notes, and that's about it. So it's really hard to, like, rock out to Diana Ross, you know what I'm sayin'?
STEPHANIE EDWARDS : Diana Ross. I love ''Baby Love, ''Ain't No Mountain High Enough,'' and ''You Are So Beautiful.''
MELINDA DOOLITTLE: Tony Bennett. I love classics and standards. I'm also looking forward to Diana Ross. I'd take almost any song that the Supremes have done, as long as I can do the movements — probably ''Stop in the Name of Love.''
PHIL STACEY: I'm looking forward to the Tony Bennett night. I remember hearing him sing ''I Left My Heart in San Francisco'' when I was a kid and thinking, ''Man, I want to be Tony Bennett.''
BLAKE LEWIS: Tony Bennett. I have a [music] improv background, so if I can work with that man, that'll be just, man, awesome.
CHRIS RICHARDSON: I would love to make it to the inspirational week. For me, Diana Ross week is strenuous because Diana Ross is a woman and the Supremes were all women, and it's hard to make a woman's song a man's song, but you can do it.
JORDIN SPARKS: Being so young, J.Lo, Gwen Stefani, they're current, but everybody else [coming on] my parents knew growing up — they're idols to them. I can't wait; I'm excited! I can't wait to meet them!
LAKISHA JONES: It's going to be a challenge for me, because I'm used to just listening to only the music that I like. I'm like [after hearing there will be a British Invasion week], I've never listened to British music in my life. I was like, black girl singing British, oh my God, hold on — how am I gonna pull that off? How am I gonna feel that? I've just got to grab it and get a good song.
Any song you haven't sung yet, or haven't gotten cleared yet, that you really want to perform?
HALEY SCARNATO: '' Songbird'' by Eva Cassidy.
BRANDON ROGERS: ''Crazy'' by Gnarls Barkley.
MELINDA DOOLITTLE: Donnie Lane's ''It's Not Over,'' Vivian Green's ''Keep On Going,'' and a James Brown song called ''Bewildered.''
BLAKE LEWIS: ''Hide and Seek'' by Imogen Heap, I kind of want to do that, with strings or maybe a capella.
SANJAYA MALAKAR: ''Are You Going To Be My Girl'' [by Jet] — I really wanted to sing that song because it would be really fun to just rock out, but I doubt it'll ever get cleared.
LAKISHA JONES: ''I Will Always Love You'' by Whitney Houston. Yes, definitely. Man, I want to do that one a cappella.
JORDIN SPARKS: ''Harder to Breathe'' by Maroon 5.
GINA GLOCKSEN: ''Who Knew'' by Pink, but she doesn't clear her songs.
CHRIS SLIGH: I actually tried to do one of my own songs, and they felt like the show wasn't ready for it yet. When we get down to, I think, the final three, you get to sing your own choice. I'd love to be able to do my own song at that point. Hopefully America will love me enough to be ready for it. I also wanted to do ''Hysteria'' by Muse and ''City of Blinding Lights'' by U2, but neither one of those got cleared.
PHIL STACEY: Whatever song it is that wins the competition for the winner [of American Idol].
Is there something about your appearance you'd like to make over, or definitely don't want to touch?
STEPHANIE EDWARDS: I want to cut my hair even shorter than it is. And color it red. Do something radical.
GINA GLOCKSEN: I want to chop off my hair. I said that from Day One. I've always wanted short hair.
SANJAYA MALAKAR: [Gesturing to his hair, with a huge grin] I think it would be really fun to just shave it off! I don't know if it's smart, but I think it would be really, really fun to just see people's reactions.
HALEY SCARNATO: I'm up for anything, but I don't want any crazy colors. [Laughs] So nothing, like, too drastic.
BLAKE LEWIS: Definitely not. I came here with my own style, just being me. No one's telling me what to do. Everything you see here are all my own clothes.
CHRIS RICHARDSON: I don't want to change anything, I am who I am and they might want to change something but I just want to stay true to myself.
BRANDON ROGERS: I like me just the way I am... and nobody's changing my hair.
CHRIS SLIGH: I've lost about 30 pounds since Hollywood. So I'm trying to look better. Obviously, TV is a visual medium, and I understand that. I'd want to keep [my hair] a little longer. I don't want to go in the same direction that Justin Guarini did, but I think we're going to look at making it fall a little bit more and making it a little more rock star.
PHIL STACEY: I'd pretty much be down for whatever, if they start putting wigs on my head, that kind of thing. It's fun. We'll see. You never know.
JORDIN SPARKS: [Takes hold of a ringlet of hair] I think they're going to straighten it, and they might do some extensions with different colors. Like, Gina — I love her hair! I don't want to be Gina, but I want hair like that. Maybe some pink and some red, and I might throw some green or blue in there if I'm feeling like it! [Laughs.]
The judges all agreed that, at most, four guys deserved to be in the Top 12, and yet the show kept its six guys, six girls split. What do you think about that?
PHIL STACEY: The girls have been roasting us to date. I may be the only guy that acknowledges that. What I do see is that we're a bunch of guys who want to step up. We've got the talent, and I think that the audience has seen that in us — that's why they come out disappointed every week, because they know we've got it inside us. We're going to show it next week; we're bringing it.
BLAKE LEWIS Honestly, I think we've been doing a good balance. They've been bashing us, but we go first and then the girls follow the next night. Now that we're all together, it's going to be a whole different story.
CHRIS SLIGH: I think [the judges] say a lot of things for ratings. Cracking on the guys all the time. It's tough to hear because I felt a lot of those guys went out, put their butts in gear, and sang their hearts out. It's just different; we're not LaKisha. We're not Melinda. We're not going to go out there and do the same things that they do. I think it's an unfair comparison.
BRANDON ROGERS: I think that the guys are getting a bad rap. No disrespect to any previous season, but I think that this is the best set of guys as a whole that have ever been on the show. I'm biased of course; I'm one of them.
STEPHANIE EDWARDS: I think that a lot of really good girls went home because they unfortunately had to cut two girls, two guys a week. It's just how the show is set up, those are the rules. I know they can't change it, but they need to work on that. They really do.
GINA GLOCKSEN: I guess it's fair, but I personally think that if it [didn't have to be] six guys and six girls, that the girls would override the guys this year. There are a lot of girls that went home this year that I think should still be here.
Do you remember the first song you sang in front of an audience?
JORDIN SPARKS: Oh Lord have mercy! My mom just found a video of me singing ''April Showers'' at my school when I was 9.
LAKISHA JONES: Probably ''Amazing Grace,'' at church.
PHIL STACEY: I'm a pastor's kid. I learned the children's church songs really early. I've actually got pictures — American Idol might even show them — where I'm singing ''Jesus Loves the Little Children'' or one of those songs in front of a big church when I was like two or three years old.
GINA GLOCKSEN: When I was 7 years old I sang ''I Just Can't Wait to Be King'' in my garage. My uncle's an entertainer and he started playing and he said, ''Gina come over here and sing this.'' He recorded it and played it back and every one was like, that's really good.
CHRIS SLIGH Yeah, I sang ''His Eyes On A Sparrow'' when I was 8 years old for my dad in church. I forgot the words, and my dad told me I shouldn't sing anymore. [Laughs]
Which contestants from Idols past would you most like to emulate?
GINA GLOCKSEN: Kelly Clarkson, I don't think that anyone thought she could win until week five, and she just brought it. She's a rocker girl, but still the girl next door; she's beautiful and really grounded. That's what I really hope doesn't change for me. I really want to stay the person that I am.
LAKISHA JONES: I think I relate more to Fantasia , because she is a single mom, she has probably been through a lot of struggles that I have been through.
SANJAYA MALAKAR: I think Fantasia is amazing . I think she puts her soul into her performance, and I would love to be able to do that.
CHRIS RICHARDSON: Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, I'm a big fan of Elliott [Yamin]. But for me I still listen to Kelly Clarkson in the car, I roll down the windows and blast it! I'm a man, I can admit it.
BRANDON ROGERS: Elliot has a beautiful voice, a phenomenal sounding voice, and Chris Daughtry has got that great voice and was always himself.
JORDIN SPARKS: George Huff, because I loved him and he smiles all the time and was so excited! I love that about him! I love Mandisa because she was so comfortable in her own skin, along with Jennifer Hudson because she's so amazing and she's risen to the top.
All true. Sometimes people don't "get" off-the-wall humor. I know, from being derided here on FR for nutty humor.
I'm willing to give Chris the benefit of the doubt. He can be both Christian, and a damn good singer and songwriter. He's got to unload a lot of baggage first.
I know from which I speak, with grandkids raised in this ultra-conservative "Christian" stuff. TG, as they mature, they break with the extreme stuff.
These grandkids, when they came to visit (as little ones) would tell my wife ahe was going to "eternal hellfire" for wearing bluejeans. We lived on a farm, fer Gosh sakes!!!
I can really empathize with Chris and his struggle to break away.
I love Sanjaya, although I tease him. Remember, he is only a kid compared with the other contestants. He is rather sweet. That's his appeal.
CHRIS SLIGH: I actually tried to do one of my own songs, and they felt like the show wasn't ready for it yet. When we get down to, I think, the final three, you get to sing your own choice. I'd love to be able to do my own song at that point. Hopefully America will love me enough to be ready for it. I also wanted to do ''Hysteria'' by Muse and ''City of Blinding Lights'' by U2, but neither one of those got cleared.
Imagine that, Bono wants to use AI as a stage to further his pet projects but doesn't want to let AI use his songs!
Just another reason for me not to watch that week.
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