American Idol 5: Mandisa.....

Sorry it took me quite long to post my own review, cause I woke up late today and I had breakfast at McDonalds' and spent some time there =p Ah, song choice, song choice, it can boost your popularity but it can also be the start of your doom. The latter is the case if the genre of the song choice doesn't fit your vocal characteristic. When I found out last week, that this week American Idol's theme was gonna be "country music", I knew right away that this is gonna be a problem to Paris Bennet, Mandisa Hundley, and Elliott Yamin. These three are soul singers! But I never thought that it was gonna be a very serious problem to the three of them.....

I remember what Budi wrote the other day, when some of my friends were confused of my new obsession with American Idol. He wrote that, this is a competition show, you can compare this to sports events where fans will become overly obsessive with those shows that fans will finally develop a strong bond with their favorites, who are completely strangers to those fans. The same thing goes to American Idol, which is a show that also packs reality show in it. Let's face the fact, reality shows have boomed lately in this 21st century, everybody loves reality show. American Idol is a combination of talent show and reality show. And for someone who is an excessive music craze like me (I can't pass a single day without listening to my iPod and sing it out. Before I owned an iPod, I used to do this in front of my laptop, listening to my collection of 3000 mp3 files!), this soon becomes my favorite show, before that I used to like sitcoms. Besides that, I have never watched American Idol or any Idol (or top-rated talent show) show before, due to my evening classes back in St. Louis, Missouri. Watching American Idol has become one of my rituals after coming back from work and wushu practice.

Okay, back to the review, we all know that this week's theme is "country music". Personally, I have nothing against with country music, I treat all genre besides soul and smooth jazz the same. If I think it's a high quality music with intelligent lyrics, I will fall in love with that song. This goes to the likes of genre such as country music, hip-hop and rap, heavy metal, rocks, pop, alternative, underground, hard-core jazz, etc. Soul, funk, smooth jazz, groove, and R&B have their special places in my heart. Hey, why am I again babbling something out of AI's review? =p Anyway, I will concentrate my review on last night's bottom three performers and Katharine McPhee.

Back in Tuesday, April 4, I have to agree that some, if not most, of the contestants were kinda struggling with the songs they performed. Mandisa, I'm so sorry for her and I'm also sad of the fact that she won't be in the show anymore, was actually doing okay. She sang Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine". I did feel a weird poppish kind of thing at the beginning of the song, but she did great in the middle of it and the refrain part of the song. Actually, Simon Cowell praised her by saying that her rendition was "fun" and "cutesy", but the song choice was horrible. Well, I did realize that she did not show the best of her that night, but she struggled in the middle of the song and she did okay! At least that's what I think. I know that choosing a genre apart from someone's style is stressing, but the logic behind this is that every singer should be able to sing any kind of song. I just never thought that America would be that harsh on her. AI judge Simon Cowell, "No matter how good the singer you are, you're always going to be tied to the song you sing. If I have to guess based on the song you sang, I think Elliott, you'll stay." *sigh*

Another extreme shock to me, Elliott Yamin joined the gang of the bottom three list! When AI host Ryan Seacrest divided the contestants into three groups, I thought the group that had Bucky Covington and Ace Young would be the bottom-three-performers one. Although I was a little bit sad that one of my favorites stood there again for the second time. I thought that the first group on the right, "Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, and Kellie Pickler" was the group with the top three performers, the middle group, "Mandisa, Elliott Yamin, and Paris Bennet" was the second best group, and the last group, the one on the left, "Bucky Covington, Katharine McPhee, and Ace Young" would be those with the lowest votes. Don't get me wrong, I was dead wrong. I got chocked by popcorn chicken nugget when Ryan Seacrest announced that the middle group was the performers with the lowest votes! (I was having dinner when I watched AI's result show last night and literally got chocked out of shock. And I am not joking! Luckily I managed to swallow my food instead to spit it out. Imagine if that happened =p) The three best singers, the soul singers, were voted worst performers for the April4's show! About Elliott's performance, I kinda had a feeling that he might not shine as he did before cause it was a "country music" theme. When I found out that he was gonna perform "If Tomorrow Never Comes" a couple of minutes before the show started last Tuesday night, I was excited about this though the fact that I've never known that "If Tomorrow Never Comes" is actually a country song and was originally performed by Garth Brook. All a long, I always thought that "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was originally performed by Joose (click Joose to find out who they are and you'll see that their biggest hit was "If Tomorrow Never Comes"), a gospel soul group consists of Jay Farmer, Trell Lewis, Rocky McKaufman and Leonardo Pettis from Oklahoma City. The other version that I know was performed by none other than Ronan Keating of Irish boyband, Boyzone! I have both versions in my iPod and although Ronan Keating's version was the first one I heard, I hate his version and fell instantly in love with Joose's version later on. My thought on Ronan Keating's version is that, the song sounds weird and the melody in the refrain part is terribly flat. And since I'm a huge fan of soul music, I think that the melody in Joose's version is more harmonious and has more variation. They harmoniously reach a high tune during the refrain part, compared to the flat melody on Ronan Keating's version. Conclusion? Of course, I would expect Elliott to perform Joose's version, converting a country ballad into a soul ballad, his style like he did last week when he performed "I Don't Wanna Be". To my surprise, Elliott's rendition was more like Ronan Keating's version, which made me conclude that Ronan Keating's version was actually the one close to the original version. I wasn't that disappointed though as I think he still did a good job, but I realized from other AI reviews that he looked sorta nervous and looked like he was holding back something (and some people are getting tired of his vibrato, which I think it's what makes him unique compared to other contestants!). Some said it was because he was influenced by Kenny Roger's suggestion, not to show off the power of his voice to impress audience since the song is to make audience cry. Though I agree that that night wasn't his best performance and that he has to do better than that, but to be on the bottom three list at this moment? Not in a million years..... But look at the bright side, he'll come back next week.

Paris Bennet joined the group of the bottom three performers. Yes, all the three soul singers. Somehow it disturbs me that I come up to realize that country music is probably the polar opposite of soul music! America just doesn't seem to like hearing soul singers singing country songs! Anyway, Paris sang "How Do I Live", which was originally performed by either LeAnn Rimes or Trisha Yearwood (Trisha Yearwood's version was for the original soundtrack of the 1997 movie Con Air.). Yes, she did sound like she was struggling with the song, she really showed that country music is not her thing at all! The result, obviously AI judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson disliked her performance as Randy Jackson said it was a tough song for her, but surprisingly AI judge Simon Cowell praised her by saying excellent! But still, she had the third lowest vote last night.

Katharine McPhee, woohoo, she was hot that night! I've never heard "Bringing Out the Elvis" by Faith Hill before, but I fall in love with this song because of Katharine! =) I love it when she "screamed" the refrain part and the way she walked on the stage like a supermodel, it was HOT!!! =) Although she's not the best singer in this season's contest, she worked the stage as she owned it, I just love her unique voice and her body language on the stage =) The funny thing is that, although she earned praises from the judges, Simon said the song was peculiar =p I agree, but that's what makes it unique don't you think?

Anyway, a short review on the other stuffs, yes, country music is the safe element for both Bucky Covington and Kellie Pickler. That's why Bucky is not on the bottom three list last night. I think people are getting sick of Kellie Pickler's attitude, her naivety that earlier I found cute until AI host Ryan Seacrest asked her whether it was natural or it was just her "marketing strategy", and she answered it with a calamari story! It sorta turned me off actually, as to me she then looked like another dumb blonde, whether she was faking it or she was behaving naturally (which is sad if it were a natural behaviour cause that would mean she's really dumb! Even the calamari thingy just went too far if it were to be her "marketing strategy".). Chris Daughtry surprisingly sang differently last night, more like in a ballad mode after last week's harsh critic on his heavy-metal's style. Taylor Hicks sang John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Road" and it was a very lame performance. It seemed as if he lost the spirit to sing and was uninterested in performing at all! Ace Young once again showed off his selling point, his "signature" falsetto, which surely saved him from being voted off this week. But please America, why does it have to be Mandisa? Putting her on the bottom three list was already enough to make me chocked my dinner. And Kenny Roger's performance on last night's result show, uhmm, I'm never his fan actually and I think his biggest hit "Lady" is just a so-so song to me. And I think last night, he wasn't "the Gambler" America used to know when he sang his new single "I Can't Unlove You". Just my 2-cent, I think American Idol isn't just a reality-talent show anymore, but is a marketing tool, or a marketing medium, for famous artists or legendary artists to boost their newest hits and the selling of their newest albums. Well, forgive me if I just realized this since I've just watched this show this year now. I heard, and heard, that Prince who reportedly hates American Idol, might surprisingly appear as a guest star and coach the remaining contestants on the future episode. It was said that this is an attempt to boost the selling of his newest album 3121. And BTW, next week's theme is "the QUEEN's songs". Ouh, I hate QUEEN so much! Listening to their songs, especially "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Will Rock You", and "We are the Champions", brings back those dreadful and horrible memories during my time in middle school, around 1991 - 1994 (I won't tell you what happened during these years, just not now =p). Not to mention that sissy, effeminate, lead singer Freddie Mercury! If I were one of this season's remaining contestants, I would be the first one (or probably the only one =p) to stand up and protest the theme! =p I would rather be forced to rap, to sing heavy-metal songs, or to sing dangdut songs (dangdut, pronounced dunk-doot, is the notorious Indonesian music genre that is, unfortunately, considered the most unclassy and hideous genre that ever exists by most Indonesians.) rather than to sing one of QUEEN's songs. Well, anyway, stay tune for more Idol on Fox. Thank you.