Tuesday, March 20, 2007

AMERICAN IDOL 11

A strange mix tonight of talented people doing poorly, and less-talented people doing better than expected.

Haley sang much better than expected. I think she'll last another week. (Especially in that outfit!) Chris Richardson was surprisingly good. Much better than he ever has been.

Stephanie lacked confidence and did not seem happy to be singing. She's in danger. By talent alone, she should be in the final 6, but this song didn't show it. Blake is standing up very well. He may make it to the final 6 and may even be the best male singer.

Lakisha was weak in her Shirley Bassey impression, even though she's one of the two best singers on the show. I don't think she's in danger though. Philferatu was better than usual but still weak enough that he may be in danger.

Jordan was very good. Sanjaya was awful, but the crowd reaction showed why he will be around for a while. Gina Glocksen was better than expected but could also be in trouble eventually.

Chris Sligh looked like he was having fun but didn't really bring much to the song. Melinda totally rocks. She's in another league.

The real star of the night was the little girl who cried the whole time (link requires registration). I'd love to know what's going on inside her head. And will they have her on next week? Will she try out some day, and be the next American Idol?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The real reason for the Sanjaya move might be found here:
http://www.votefortheworst.com/
It's an amusing idea if it's affecting the voting and certainly as valid as any other crazy voting block. The only winner is the phone company!

Cynthia Friedlob said...

The little girl reminded us of the girl in "A Hard Day's Night" who screamed repeatedly, through hysterical tears, "George! George!" Wonder whatever happened to her.

Some things never change!

Bondelev said...

I had not thought of the HARD DAY'S NIGHT reference until you pointed it out.

It's widely rumored that Paul McCartney was going to be the judge for the show and that they would use Beatles music, but that he backed out at the last minute, which is why they were stuck with suck-ass guests.

As to VoteForTheWorst, it's unlikely they have much influence. There are over 30 million votes cast every week, mostly by compulsive 13 year-olds like the crying girl who wouldn't know real talent if it slapped her in the face. That's the real reason Sanjay is still around.

That said, I like Sanjay and feel sorry for him still being there. He looks embarrassed every week. I wish they'd put him out of his misery!

Next year, I hope his sister re-auditions. I thought she was the better of the two, but it's clear something happened off-camera in Hollywood week since she just suddenly disappeared without her audition being shown.

Anonymous said...

Luke, do not underestimate the power of the dark side.

The Internet is a VERY big place and that site has been talked on a number radio talk shows.

Cowell is pretty upset about this, see
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/03/10/simon_cowell_will_quit_if_sanjaya_malaka
One wonders if he thinks there is a campaign. After all, a number of the winners have had a campaign.

Time will tell. But one thing is true: Sanjaya is now on the AI tour.

Enjoy. ;-)

Bondelev said...

Just because Howard Stern mentioned it, it doesn't mean they have any power. VoteForTheWorst has been around since season 2. It doesn't work. The first two people they picked to vote for this season have already been voted off. Sanjay is their third choice. Obviously it doesn't work or they never would have gotten to Sanjay.

Anonymous said...

It's not just Howard Stern. Talk radio in LA is also talking about the website. Past performance is not an indication of future performance as a result. Only time will tell what, if any, effect a movement like that could have. Certainly a national movement for Sanjaya is possible -- and this is what the talk radio stations are mentioning.

PS I don't watch AI so I have no idea as to the rest of Sanjaya competition. This is a total meta-experience for me.

Bondelev said...

If you watched the show, you'd see that Sanjaya has a HUGE following. He's very attractive and women and gay men really like him. He also has a large following among Indian-Americans. I expect him to be around for another two or three weeks regardless of VFTW.

http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/Predictions.asp

Dialidol.com has ranked Sanjaya in the top 2-4 every week EVEN BEFORE VFTW changed from supporting Sundance or Antonella to him. VFTW has done this every season. At some point late in the game VFTW switches to someone weak who clearly has a following, and then claim credit for it.

They even did it with Taylor Hicks, who won because he was the best singer that year. He was the "worst" in their opinion because he was a blues singer and not a pop singer. Then they point to his weak album sales as proof that they were right, when his album in fact did not sell because no one wants to hear him sing pop music.

A.I. certainly has its problems (the voting system is stupid), but VFTW is not one of them. They don't need to organize an effort to vote for mediocoty, America is dumb enough to do it themselves.