Unlike a certain curvaceous diva who is touted as a great songstress yet chose to lip-synch on Oscar night, at least last night’s contestants actually sang live.
You’d never have known it.
As the judges continue to stress, with only three people from each group moving forward, now is the time for these would-be’s to bring out the showstopping numbers. Apparently most of them didn’t get the memo.
The night got off to a bumpy start with the first three -- and their incredibly wrong song choices:
Jasmine Murray: Started off with Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song.” While she valiantly tried to squeeze the tune into her R&B style, all we got was a repetitive hippie-chic tune with a slew of inappropriate vocal runs.
Matt Giraud: The dueling piano player, a strong contender during Hollywood Week, fared little better, trying to change Coldplay’s ubiquitous unofficial anthem of 2008, “Viva La Vida,” into something more soulful. If he chooses to keep singing this crap, he could at least divert us with one of these “duels” he keeps talking about. Is it a piano-to-the-death kind of thing?
Jeanine Vailes: Hmm. She's apparently been around the whole time -- but, uh, who knew? It seems that she watched the audition shows at home, too, and wasn’t very happy with her lack of camera time. This, she explains, is the reason why she oversang Maroon 5’s “This Love.” She acknowledged that perhaps she was overcompensating for flying “under the radar.” (Read: “I’m pissed that the producers have spent more time on showboaters like Norman Gentle than me.”) Personally, I prefer the roller-coaster craziness that was Tatiana to this blandness. (Come on, you know you miss her.)
Others falling to the curse of forgetability:
Kris Allen: OK, he's a good looking guy with a lovely musical theater-quality voice, but there was nothing about him or his performance of “Man in the Mirror” that stood out.
Kai Kalama: The Sideshow Bob-haired Kalama has the voice and looks, but his choice of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” was, as the judges noted, old fashioned.
Mishavonna Henson: She got cut during Hollywood Week last year, found yet another odd song choice in “Drops of Jupiter,” didn’t quite present her as the crazy, fun-loving 18-year-old she claims to be.
Matt Breitzke: Perhaps most surprising was the welder contestant, who sang a one-note version of “If You Could Only See.” But don’t count Breitzke out yet. America voted through oil roughneck Michael Sarver last week with his “just OK” performance of Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Want To Be.” The audience may want to see these two blue collar workers go head to head in a duel. With … pianos perhaps?
Yes, there were some vocal standouts:
Allison Iraheta: The magenta-haired 16-year-old, who was not featured much during the initial rounds, blew the judges away with her interpretation of Heart’s “Alone.” If you recall, this was the very same song that signified Carrie Underwood’s coming out party on “Idol” a few years back.
