The contestant I'm most disappointed in is Michael Johns. When he first auditioned, he seemed like he could be something really special. Sadly, now that we've seen him for awhile, it's become obvious why, at 29, he's never broken through to stardom. There seems to be a threshhold beyond which his performances simply cannot rise.
Hetty_Fauxvert observed last night that Johns has no top notes. I think that may be true, and would take it a step further to say he's a very one-dimensional singer/performer. There's no texture, color or dimension to his singing, if you know what I'm trying to get at.
BTW, Lucky, re your comments about Kelly Clarkson, I'm a fan of hers, but know what you mean. She hurt herself badly with how she handled her third album, and with her utterly stupid public argument with Clive Davis. Kelly is fundamentally a good person, so I'm willing to chalk up her mistakes on 'My December' to the kind of youthful "no old fart knows anything" arrogance and stupidity we all displayed to some extent in our early 20's. She's working on her 4th album now, so we'll see if she's learned any lesson from the relative failure of MD. (It's sold under 800,00 in the U.S. Not horrible, but nowhere near the success that was expected after 'Breakaway.')
Oh, and a week with Mariah Carey????? Blecch!!!!!!
David Cook is establishing himself as a top 3 finisher. He holds the stage well and his vocals have been good. Screw Simon when he whines about him being smug, Cook was the best of the lot the past few weeks. Very, very current, good performer and he can work a crowd. Simon is too mercurial to try and please on a week to week basis and I always find it odd that he cracks on contestants who have the crowd rocking and rolling and cheering loudly.
I do find this bunch rather likable although I do think that Monchichi deserves a wedgie for trying to work the cuteness angle too much.
Do you think some of these contestants 'don't break out' or 'do something memorable' because they just pick the wrong songs, for whatever reason? It's unfortunate that they wait so late in the season to have the judges pick and to have Clive's pick. I think Clive usually picks well for the contestants and would like to see more of the contestants get songs chosen for them by Clive. I know that probably seems odd, but, I'd like to see what kind of a difference it would make for a lot of them.