American Idol Report Week 1A

American Idol report

Overall impressions - eh, nothing outstanding. A lot of them seemed to play it safe hoping to avoid making a huge mistake. I apologize for not knowing some of the songs. I'm not as up to date as I should be on current popular music. The numbers following the text is their rank.

My written impressions all occur before the judges speak.

Rudy Cardenas 28 - Free Ride by the Edgar Winter Band, fair performance. Good uptempo song choice to open the show. Too many whoops. Better performer than singer. 9
Paula sounds relatively lucid tonight.

Brandon Rogers, 29 I Want to Rock With You by Michael Jackson, he's my early prediction to go far based on his looks, experience, and singing style. Great looking guy. His performance is fair, not as good as I hoped. Simon is right. Its a safe song. Doesn't demonstrate great range. 6

Sundance Head - Knights in White Satin by the Moody Blues. This brings back a forgotten memory of me seeing the Moody Blues in concert at the Roanoke, Va. Civic Center in 1982. Interesting (weird?) song choice. Some pitch issues on the quieter notes. Does a better job on the "big" notes. Not a particularly good performance. I think his initial audition which was great is the only reason he's gotten this far. I would be very surprised if he makes it until next week. And if he's voted out, its justified. But maybe he can be the bodyguard for the winner. 11

Paul Kim - Careless Whisper by George Michael. I'm not sold on him but will keep an open mind. I definitely HATE the barefoot thing. Very subdued performance. He's better on the big notes than the small. I'm not thrilled with the falsetto, but he gets credit for trying. Randy is spot on with his comments. Its good enough to keep him around for another week, but definitely needs improvement. 7

So far, none of the performances has been good.

Ryan spends too much time criticizing Simon's criticism. Paula and Randy both have been critical, yet he only questions Simon. "Positive reinforcement"? Simon's a judge/critic not a parent!

Chris Richardson 22 - (Justin Timberlake lookalike) - I Don't Wanna Be by Gavin Degraw, he has definite potential based on the footage of his audition. My daughter says his voice doesn't fit the song. I agree. He does a good job performing though and is unique. Simon said it perfectly when he said that Chris' voice sounded "small".4

Nick Pedro 25 - unknown slow song, Good start. The song seems to fit his voice. Oops! Some bad notes especially the high ones. Decent falsetto though. 8

Blake Lewis 25 - Somewhere Only We Know by Keen (?) Good sound. voice sounds good in that Coldplay way that is played on Mix 107.3 all the time. Best performance so far. SImon stole my opinion when he says, best so far. 1

It takes a real man to do a good falsetto.


Sanjaya Malakar 17 - Something by Stevie Wonder - he could follow in the footsteps of Anthony Federov and Kevin Covais as untalented youngsters whom I despise. Except that he was so awful tonight that there's no way he will make it to next week. He may have hit 2 notes correctly the entire song. Then again, maybe not. One of the worst performances in Idol history. 12

Chris Sligh 28 - the goofy looks and decent voice will carry him awhile. I thought he did a good job. He has the most mature voice of the group and managed to sing a loud, uptempo song without having his voice overwhelmed by the instrumentation. This is the first time I've disagreed with Simon tonight. 2

Jarred Cotler 28 - You're the Only One for Me (?) by Brian McKnight - some rough notes and a boring song. Oooh, there's a really bad stretch before the falsetto. To me, it seemed off key throughout although the judges weren't too harsh. 10

AJ Tabaldo - good performance, good energy, pretty even voice tone. No awful notes. Solidly in the middle of the pack. 5

Phil Stacey - 29 I Could Not Ask for More (?) by ?- Bad start on the quiet part. Aww, there's his adoring wife and she looks so sweet. Good job on the chorus. Much better on the big notes than on the quiet parts. Family man persona with 2 young daughters will definitely help him along. Pretty good job. 3

Rankings

1. Blake Lewis
2. Chris Sligh
3. Phil Stacey
4. Chris Richardson
5. AJ Tabaldo
6. Brandon Rogers
7. Paul Kim
8. Nick Pedro
9. Rudy Cardenas
10. Jarred Cotler
11. Sundance Head
12. Sanjaya Malakar

Who should get voted off: Sundance and Sanjaya
Who will get voted off: America will get it right. Adios, Sundance and Sanjaya.