American Idol 5: Our McFever Almost Gone?!?

This week's shows have been quite a shock to me. AI judge Randy Jackson suddenly became as critical as Simon Cowell. Almost all the contestants lost their wow-factor that night. While the theme of that night was "the music of the 21st century", all the contestants picked songs that did not show-off their vocal abilities. This is odd, since this is our era, and their era. However, only two stood up brilliantly, of course, Paris Bennet and Elliott Yamin. And surprise, surprise, one of the bottom three performers last night was Katharine McPhee!

Paris Bennet, uhmm, I kinda agree with Simon on her stage act (Simon Cowell said that Paris is just a little girl pretending to be Beyonce.). But overall, her performance was fabulous. She sang Beyonce's "Work It Out" without any flaw, and to all of you novice or amateur performers (that includes me of course =p), do take note on how to move or shake your body while singing difficult notes without loosing your breath. I tried this once when I performed Alicia Keys' "Diary" and I learned that doing Michael Jackson's spin and moonwalk in the middle of singing can be tough! Although I got praised from the crowd (of course, some of them are my close friends), I was not satisfied at all with my performance. But I admire Paris for being able to control her vocal while shaking her butt like Beyonce =p

Elliott Yamin's stage act was goofy! =p The way he bounced, trying to be black, ooouuhh gawd, not in a million years!!! =p He looked like a seventh-grader trying to bounce himself in a prom party =p Not to mention his outfit =p But I do admire how he could turn a country-ballad Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be" into an R&B song (despite the fact that I don't like this song, even in any kind of version.), sorta like his version. I can see his confindence grows stronger on every performance. He started to express himself, that he owns the stage, not the other way around. Compare this to his earlier performances, in which he looked awfully nervous and shy (but at least he wasn't trembling like me whenever I was about to perform =p). That's why, I agree with all the AI judges' comments, even Simon said it was fantastic =) And Mandisa, I think she did okay. She sang a gospel song, Mary Mary's "Wanna Praise You". Once again, she showed off her vocal, but I just can't understand why Simon disliked her performance.

My apology to all Ace Young's fans, but I think he has gotta be in the bottom three list and I was right. First of all, I don't like the song that he picked, "Drops of Jupiter". Second, he sang it terribly, especially during the "ehehe..ehehe..ehehe.." part, which was repeated couple of times. It sounded horribly funny, I couldn't help myself from not laughing or giggling while working in my office yesterday (I had to muffle my mouth =p). The third flaw, he thought showing off the scar on his chest during the lyric that mentioned about scar was sexy, but to me, that was hideous! Judge Paula Abdul was asking how he got the scar, hoping that the scar would be caused by something tragic or dramatic like the theme of the song. It turned out to be a basketball play accident! I got completely turned off when he showed his scar and couldn't help myself from laughing everytime I remember that ridiculous "ehehe..ehehe..ehehe.." thingy (he got the guts to sing that part! Even Sekar, one of Ace's fans, was laughing during that part and thought it was ridiculous.) Well, Bucky Covington, uhmm, I think he did better yesterday, but his vocal got drowned by the background music, so I couldn't hear his pronunciation clearly.

Lisa Tucker, tsk..tsk..tsk..., two weeks in a row in the bottom three list, and she got the guts to sing a song by the past winner of AI, Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You". I actually didn't watch her performance though, as she was put as the first performer that night. I was late cause I was practicing wushu and the cab arrived late. But from most of the AI news that I read, many reviewers said that she "successfully" ruined the song. All the judges agreed that she had made a bad choice of song. And after two weeks being in the bottom three, I was right, she has to go home. Bye-bye Lisa, I did enjoy your performance though. And, hee..hee..hee...., Taylor Hicks, this time he tried hard to stand still while performing. Like always, his souly voice was so soothing, but his effort to stand still made him looked like he was constipated =p

Now this is a shock! I love the way Katharine McPhee sang Christina Aguilera's "The Voice Within" and all the AI judges thought that she did a good job too! And then how come she ended up in the bottom three list last night? Come on peeps (especially those of you who live in the U.S.), help me vote for her, do you wanna recover from the McFever too soon? Or you just can't stand from "suffering" (enjoying) the McFever no more? Just because the previous performers did awful, that doesn't mean that the latter ones would do the same thing! All the reviews that I read showed a sign of shocked too, and the audience on the stage was also on shock. This is what happened if you don't dial her number! A Tylenol or Advil won't kill her, but not dialing her number will surely do! Well, at least there was a little entertainment last night. I enjoyed Shakira's and Wyclef Jean's performance, singing their new hit "Hips Don't Lie". Anyway, I will post a new review below once I get the theme for next week's show. Keep on voting your idol peeps!

STOP PRESS (March 31, 2006): The next week's theme is "country music". If I were the contestant, I would personally pick B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head" (B.J. Thomas also sang the theme song of the 1980s' famous sitcom "Growing Pains" starring Kirk Cameron and later on would introduce Leonardo DiCaprio.). But again, I can't seem to suggest any of those country songs to each of those contestants cause country music isn't actually my thing.