American Idol - Great Love Songs, Not Sung Greatly

Tonight's American Idol review is going to be a short one again. It's late and I've got a long at the 9th Malaysia Plan National Convention, early tomorrow morning.

My personal ranking for tonight's performances are as follows:-

1) Elliot Yamin - I can't remember the name of the song, (the original was sung by Danny Hathaway) but he sang it brilliantly! It suited his vocals perfectly and one can tell that he's very comfortable with the nuances of the song. Good song choice - best performance of the week.


2) Chris Daughtry - One lesson from this week is that unless you can outsing the original singer or bring something fresh to the song, don't sing it. When Chris decided to try "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman" by Bryan Adams, I cringed. Bryan Adams is a great vocalist - it's hard to sound better than him at his songs.

But to my great surprise - Chris brought some fresh angles to the song and made it his own. He didn't sound bad at all. And it takes a very intelligent singer to do that.


3) Paris Bennett - Good song choice by Paris, (singing "The Way We Were") but I agreed with Paula that she over-sung the song, even thought it was overall, good. A little less, would have been a lot more - although the song was obviously not challenging enough to her vocal range. The others are more popular than she is and anything less than an outstanding performance by Paris, puts her at risk of being eliminated.


4) Katherine McPhee - I think the compliments from last week got to her head and little Kat McPheever stopped thinking. She chose to sing Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing" and although it was a decent performance, it was nowhere close to mind-blowing.

It was a bad song choice. If there is one thing that American Idol candidates should know is that: unless you can outsing (or at least, be as good as) the original singer at singing their own songs OR you can bring a fresh breath and angle to the song - you shouldn't choose that song.

A good general rule would be to avoid songs from the likes of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, James Ingram, Stevie Wonder, etc. because very few people in the world, can outsing them at their own songs. Or make their songs sound better or fresher.

It's a pity that Katherine made this song choice. I think it will push her to the bottom 3, for this week. Furthermore, it was a real waste of that ravishing yellow dress she was in - a definite vote-getter.


5) Taylor Hicks - Attempting to sing James Ingram's "Just Once" - Taylor was off key in some parts and purely bad on the other parts. Another case of ever-estimating one's own abilities, like Katherine McPhee. A better song for someone like him would have been something like "Simply Irresistible" by Robert Palmer.

In the ordinary course of things, I think a performance like that would warrant a bottom 3 ending. But Taylor is one of the most popular here, so I think he'll not only survive, but also be in the top 3. Though this would be truly undeserving.


6) Kellie Pickler - Singing the Isley Brother's 'Unchained Melody", Kellie sounded unchained and not in a melodic way. Bad song choice, bad rendition, no passion, no feel. The worst performance of the week. Should be strong enough to push her to the bottom 3, this week.


Now, for my forecast for the bottom 3 - I think it will Kellie, Katherine and Paris.
And based on past patterns of voting - I think Paris would be eliminated tomorrow.

That would be heartbreaking - because she's one of the best vocalists in the competition - every celebrity coach in every single week, has said so. Though honestly, I would LOVE to see Kellie go. Though I don't think this is likely to happen.

p.s. Hey Pixie - I'm not going to be in the office tomorrow - so, you can't tell me the results! Hah! ;)