Aside from Christmas and my birthday month, the period from March to around May is another time of year that I look forward to because it's American Idol season. I started watching the show since the first season, got interested in the third season because of Jasmine Trias and Camille Velasco but really got hooked into it in the fourth season (where I cheered for Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood and daydreamed about Constantine Maroulis). My favorite season would have to be season 5 where I was practically nuts about more than two contestants namely, Kevin Covais (yes, I found him irresistible), Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, eventual king Taylor Hicks and my season favorite Elliott Yamin. Last season started off rather slow for me as I found David Cook and David Archuleta way too talented for the other people in the competition so I did not mind missing a couple of weeks of the show. In the end though, I did rejoice when David Cook was proclaimed winner and it was only recently that I replaced "Always Be My Baby" as my phone's call alert.
Tonight was the second batch of performances for the Top 11 contestants in the show's eigth season. This season is fast climbing my own charts as a favorite because of the vast amount of talent which was conspicuously absent last season (and the season before that) along with season eight's huge dose of diversity. In the past, when I download MP3 performances of my favorites, it usually involves four singers tops. Now my regular download list consists of eight people, in my order of preference - Danny Gokey, Adam Lambert, Anoop Desai, Allison Iraheta, Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds, Alexis Grace and Megan Joy. But then I download more than eight files when there are good performances from the others who are not in my list.
Take Grand Opry Night for instance. I actually downloaded the MP3s of all the performances because aside from my regular list, I loved the remaining three. After all, the performances were not as bad as Michael Jackson week which saw Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nunez bid the show farewell. What I find more interesting is that my favorites did not shine tonight as much as the ones I usually ignored did.
I was fairly disappointed with Lil Rounds for starters because I really felt like she was holding back and it really affected the way she sang "Independence Day". And the comparison with Carrie Underwood's performance of the Martina McBride song in season 4 was inevitable. She unfortunately fell flat.
Another disappointment was Alexis Grace's rendition of "Jolene." For some reason, I liked Brooke White's version last season better because it was more relaxed and laid back and it seemed to me that Alexis did not look as comfortable as she did when she sang "Never Loved a Man" about four weeks ago.
Allison Iraheta did not disappoint as usual but she was not all "wow" for me tonight. The same comment goes for Scott MacIntyre with his rendition of "Wild Angels". However I am a huge fan of both their voices, especially Scott who has this ability to establish a connection with his audience despite the fact that he cannot do "goo goo eyes" with the camera ala Jason Castro (sorry Joey!). Megan Joy was still unique and interesting when she sang "Walking After Midnight" and I think her bluesy sound will carry her through this week.
My top two favorites did not shine so much tonight as they did last week. After all when the Grand Opry theme was announced, I wondered how these two would hold up. Adam Lambert was...well, he rendered me tongue-tied. The entire Middle Eastern, sitar-infused, Muse-meets-Nine Inch Nails version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" was verging on that little grey area between strange, funny and creepy. I sat on the couch with one half of my body cringing/recoiling and the other half suffering from seizure because of endless fits of laughter. After his performance, my mother called me to ask what I liked in the guy "with a manicure." Very funny, mom. No matter what Adam does though, he is still very entertaining and his range is unbelievable. He was not as manic when it came to his vocals this week when compared to his almost screamfest version of "Black and White" and his theatrics did work out for me to some extent.
Danny Gokey also proved he was not superhuman tonight. The army of Danny haters are probably celebrating with cheese and champagne tonight so I let them be. "Jesus, Take the Wheel" is one of my favorite songs but is signature Carrie Underwood so that anyone else who sings it usually pales in comparison to the original. Danny did not actually go cyanotic but the first half of the song made me realize how much he needs to work on his low notes, especially in terms of the fluidity and support. But when the chorus swelled, I knew I had the guy I loved back even if he did resemble a polar bear tonight. To all the people who think he was screaming the chorus to smithereens, maybe the volume of your TV sets are set too high. It is called swelling and soul, ladies and gentlemen. So I call out to Joey and Kiyo, if ever you guys read this, I am not biased when it comes to Danny Gokey even if you think so.
I admit though that my real bias rests in Anoop Desai, the college student from Chapel Hill who physically resembles Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Pattel. This bias I share with my fellow Idol freak Joey. Anoop totally crashed big time in Michael Jackson week and I wanted to pull him offstage while he was dancing about with his collar raised. In class today, I told Mini I was hoping Anoop makes it and she answered something like "But he's so bad." I replied "I know but he's so cute." But tonight, he certainly proved he deserved his place in the Top 11 with his beautiful, soulful, soaring rendition of "Always On My Mind." I actually couldn't stop myself from swooning!
Matt Giraud and Kris Allen do not really rank among my favorites. I dismiss Kris as this year's Jason Castro or Ace Young with loads more talent and I love to tease his fans in my class that he sings with his jaw unhinged. But tonight, I loved his vulnerability as he sang "To Make You Feel My Love" sans his guitar. To my surprise, I realized he actually has a very nice, soothing voice and I concede that my comparisons to Jason Castro and Ace Young are misplaced.
Matt was also a pleasant surprise. He took on another Carrie Underwood song and I have to say, his slower version scored more points for me than the original. He stripped the song down to its very core with his beautiful voice and brought it to new heights at just the right point. I am not sure if he did outsing Danny as Simon claimed but I sure cannot wait to hear the studio version.
Who do I think is going home, as if my opinion matters? But then let me pretend I could control "Idol" for a moment now. I think roughneck Michael Sarver is going home...even if I like him also and he seems like a really nice guy and a cool dad at that. He gave the weakest performance tonight and he did not really stand out. But to his credit, I really love replaying his R&B, full-bodied version of "You Are Not Alone" for some reason, especially when I'm stuck in traffic.
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