Real Kato Blog: Television: Idol Update, Week 4

The final twelve perform.

It's Stevie Wonder night, something that will surely challenge the contestants, especially in terms of proper song selection. For most of them, if they try to do a straight-up Stevie impersonation, they'll sound horribly karaoke-ish.

Taylor Hicks: 10/10. Overall=9.3.
Geez, this guy is good. He sings "Livin' for the City" and he absolutely nails it. It's fun and energetic. He feels it. It's perhaps his best performance this year, and that's saying a lot.

Katharine McPhee: 9/10. Overall=8.5.
She is rapidly improving her look and her singing. She's on-key, the song is engaging. This is easily her best performance so far. Simon compares her to Kelly Clarkson. Suddenly she's looking like a favorite.

Chris Daughtry: 9/10. Overall=8.2.
Sings "Higher Ground", and appropriately, does it more like the Red Hot Chili Peppers than the original Stevie song. It's a great choice, and he performs it effortlessly. Simon says that's the only performance that would stand up in the real world.

Ace Young: 9/10. Overall=7.8.
Sings "Do I Do". This was interesting; I thought he really channeled Stevie here, sounding very much like the original, and hitting the runs and the high notes. Very entertaining. But somehow, none of the judges liked him. I think they were on crack tonight.

Mandisa: 5/10. Overall=7.2.
Ouch. She starts flat and stays there most of the way, improving slightly when the song reaches a higher register. Boring, and the wrong song choice.

Kellie Pickler: 5/10. Overall=7.0.
Clearly out of her element here; she looks great (and everyone likes her shoes), but she seems terribly uncomfortable with the song. She probably should avoid ballads altogether. It's on-key, but it's terribly dull.

Paris Bennett: 8/10. Overall=6.5.
Okay, this is the Paris we love. She's energetic and full of soul tonight, head boppin' and everything. She's a little weak on the low notes but otherwise sounds great.

Elliott Yamin: 5/10. Overall=6.0.
It's show-tuney, lounge-acty, cruise-shippy. He sings it pretty well, but it's just so boring. There's no soul to it.

Lisa Tucker: 6/10. Overall=5.7.
It's not bad; she's one of the few to have any success at all with a slow song. There's a few off notes here and there. But she seems to be sucking all the life out of the song, and after a while, you just want it to end.

Bucky Covington: 3/10. Overall=4.3.
He sings "Superstition", which is one of my favorite Stevie songs. Please get that ridiculous southern-twanginess out of the song; it has no business there. "Very superstiSHEAWWWWS", UGH. As Amy put it, he's trying to Garth Brooks it. Bleah.

Melissa McGhee: 2/10. Overall=4.0.
Ugh. It's pitchy, and it sounds labored. And she screws up the lyrics. It's horrendous and boring all at once. But WTF, all the judges liked it! It's bizarro night.

Kevin Covais: 0/10. Overall=1.3.
TIME FOR HIM TO GO. UUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH.

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Posted by Ken in: television

Comments

Comment #1 from Ken (realkato)
2006 Mar 16 - 7:37 am : #

The bottom three were Ace (!), Lisa, and Melissa. And... Melissa is out. Not a big surprise. But why isn't KEVIN in the bottom three??? UUUGGGHHH!

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