What’s the point of having a different theme each week on American Idol? In real life, entertainers find their voice…a style that works for them, and they stick with it. AI isn’t so much about finding the next big thing in music as it is about finding the world’s best karaoke decathlete. Who cares if Mandesa isn’t the next Faith Hill, or if Ace isn’t a Queen? Early in his career, everything Garth Brooks did turned to gold, until he decided to forsake his country roots to indulge his rock alter ego, Chris Gaines. The weekly Idol themes result in two or three Chris Gaines-eque performances per show and take away from the overall quality. I can’t wait for next week’s theme…charity fund raising songs. Will Taylor’s “Super Bowl Shuffle” outshine Chris’s hard rocking “We are the World”?
It was another average week. Not as bad as the last two, but there really weren’t any unbelievable performances. Although it was good to see Taylor get back to his old spastic dancing self. Going into this week, I would have said Bucky would get the boot, but he may have had the best performance of the night. He also had the most memorable line of the night, badly describing what a difficult task it was to fill Freddie Mercury’s tights…”Freddie ain’t nobody you’d want to jump up behind, but you know…take what you’re given”. Ryan’s sarcastic “You can say that again” surely went over the head of most of the core audience. Of course, Mr. Mercury was himself a queen and was very accustomed to having men jump his behind. And coincidentally, “Take What Youre Given (from behind)” was the title of Freddie’s unfinished autobiography.
I’m pretty sure Chris and Elliott wore eyeliner, which I hope was a tribute to the effeminate Queen front man and not foreshadowing of closet doors opening on future shows. Simon made a great point when he said that Chris could have had a moment tonight. But, instead, picked an obscure song that not even Queen had ever performed live. Lucky for him, he’s already connected with America and should coast into the top 3. Fellow mascara wearing fella Elliott will not be so lucky. He’ll be out within 3 weeks.
Kellie Pickler will have a similarly short lifespan. It was a little scary to watch her version of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. “Mama, I just killed a man” sounded weird coming out of her mouth. Katharine and Paris were forgettable, but good enough to move on…partly because of Ace’s situation. The AI producers set him up to fail tonight. Queen’s brand of music didn’t fit his voice to begin with. He then had to perform immediately following an awkward clip that ended with Queen being offended by a change that Ace wanted to make to their song. The judges unanimous dislike of his performance ensured that Ace will be the Idol that bites the dust tomorrow night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment