American Idol Report

American Idol Report for March 27

When I first got married, we had a cat. It was my wife's and in order
for her to accept me, I had to accept the cat. That was a fair trade. We
moved into a house that was kind of "out in the country". We had lots of
open land near us and lots of animals lived there. The cat adapted
surprisingly quickly to the country life. Despite having spent her previous life as
an indoor cat, she quickly became an efficient and ruthless hunter. One
morning I awoke and slipped on my flip flops in order to go outside to
get the paper. I felt something kind of squishy on my toes and looked down
to see that the cat had left me a gift of a dead mouse. Naturally I was
touched. Now the cat didn't just like to kill mice. It was a bit
sadistic and quite often liked to play with a mouse before delivering the
ultimate death blow. It would bat the mouse forward and then pounce on it. Then
it would repeat the entire process. It was lots of fun for the cat and
kind of funny for us to watch.
I'm sure you're wondering what this story has to do with American
Idol. Well, here it is: the cat is the American Idol voters and the mouse is
Sanjaya. The voters know Sanjaya is awful. They've got him. He's
caught. However, they are having some fun playing with Sanjaya just like my cat
used to do with the mice it caught. It is relatively harmless and no
one gets hurt except the mouse eventually. Ok, so where's the harm in
that. Stephanie and Brandon were far more talented, but they weren't going
to win anyway. So the voters can play with Sanjaya a little more. Bat him
around,pounce on him. Continue to let him make a fool of himself.
So here's the harm. Sometimes when the cat was playing with a mouse
before voting it off, I mean killing it, the mouse would scurry away and
simply disappear. The cat would look. We would look. But the mouse was simply
gone. It got away. In other words: THE MOUSE WON THE GAME! Watch out
America. We don't want this mouse to win this game! It is time to
stop playing with it and to deliver the final blow. Imagine Sanjaya standing
on the stage at the finale with balloons and confetti pouring down.
Imagine him taking the microphone and singing "We are the champions". Stop
the madness. Finish the mouse off already.

This week is songs by No Doubt / Gwen Stefani and bands that inspired
her. Basically, 80s and 90s week. The performances were ok overall. I
think the familiarity of the songs prevented any breakout performances.

Lakisha Jones - Last
Dance by Donna Summer. I think Donna Summer is a little overdone on Idol, but
Lakisha does ok. I'm not a big fan of the song and I don't think it
gives Lakisha enough of a showcase for her voice. Still a good performance
of course. Rating: good

Chris Sligh - Every Little Thing She Does by the Police. Chris has a strong solid voice. He doesn't mess up any notes. I'm not good enough musically to detect his tempo issues. I still would love to see him do a Hall and Oates ballad like
She's Gone. Rating: fair
http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season6/gina_glocksen/ - I'll
Stand By You by the Pretenders. Excellent song choice and a very nice
performance. Her voice is solid throughout. I especially liked her
"whisper" vocal early on one of the phrases. Easily her best
performance so far. Rating: very good.

Simon used the phrase "Chalk and Cheese". What does that mean?

Sanjaya Malakar - Bathwater by No Doubt. Gwen does not seem very enthusiastic or
confident that Sanjaya will do a good job with her song. If "No Doubt" is a
good name for Gwen Stefani's band, then "No Talent"would be a good name
for Sanjaya's. Besides the weird hair, there's nothing more to say.
Rating:
Very Bad

http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season6/haley_scarnato/ - True
Colors by Cindy Lauper. Its funny how songs that I think would work
well fall flat sometimes. It thought this was a good choice for Haley, but
it fell flat. No highlights at all. Just adequate. Rating: fair

Gwen seems to be the most candid of the guest celebrities. She voices
some real skepticism about some of the performances.

Phil Stacey Every Breath You Take by the Police. His voice fits the song very well. Good job performing it. He hits every note. This is his best performance so far.
Rating: good

Paula is spot on in her comments to Phil about being better on the
choruses than the verses. What's gotten into her? I understand what she's
saying and many of her comments make sense.

Melinda Doolittle
Heaven Knows by ? Boring. Just a ho hum disco song performed well by Melinda.
Still don't like her. Rating: good

Blake Lewis Love Song by the Cure. His voice isn't strong but he's always interesting. The guests keep saying that he needs to be restrained with the beat boxing, but he's done very little of that. Maybe he messes with it in rehearsal or
something. He's difficult to judge because he's so unique to this show.
Still I like him. Rating: good

Jordin Sparks- Hey Baby by Gwen Stefani. I don't like her school girl outfit, but guess I can't be too tough since she is a school girl doing a school girlish song. She does it well although its more of a performing song than a singing song.
Rating: good

Chris Richardson
Don't Speak by No Doubt. Solid performance. His voice is stronger than it has
been. He does well on all of the big notes. One of his better performances,
but will it keep him out of the bottom 2? Rating: good

This week's ratings:
1. Lakisha
2. Blake
3. Jordin
4. Melinda
5. Gina strong performance moves her up
6. Chris Sligh Better pick it up next week or he could be bottom
2.
7. Phil Stacey Strong performance moves him ahead of Chris R.
8. Chris Richardson
9. Haley Scarnato
10. Who do you think?

Who should go home: Sanjaya
Who will go home: Haley