And the game is on. AI3 kicked off its twelve weeks of finals Tuesday night with a "soul" theme, and there was plenty to go around. I'll break down the winners, the losers, and my predictions for tomorrow's results show.
THE WINNERS
Watching Fantasia, you have to wonder why she doesn't already have a recording contract and a few platinum albums under her belt. This girl is a born performer with an amazing voice. Going into tonight's show, I had her pegged as neck-and-neck with LaToya for the top spot, but with the pressure turned up on the big stage, Fantasia rose to the challenge and blew everyone else out of the water. Her version of Signed, Sealed, Delivered could be released tomorrow as a single and sell a few million copies, easy. I know some people think she's nothing more than a Macy Gray clone, but I think she's got plenty of versatility to go along with her talent.
Diana's got a great attitude, and you can tell it bugs Simon to death. Her performance of Think tonight was second only to Fantasia's. The one problem she may have later on down the road is the lack of a built-in fan base. She was voted into the finals in Round 1 of the semi-finals, before America had seen most of the other performers. While that means she's had more time to accrue fans, she doesn't seem to have a "target" demographic in the way some of the other singers do. It remains to be seen if this will be a factor in keeping her on the show or not.
Simon hit it dead on when he called Jon Peter the "dark horse" of this competition. While his detractors crucified him for his epileptic dance moves in the wild card show, enough of American saw the talent behind the goofy act to land him in the Top 12. The dance moves were toned down tonight, but he pulled off a great rendition of Drift Away to thunderous applause from the in-studio crowd. It's clear why he's America's favorite.
The amazing thing about George is his ability to take over-played, cheesy songs and turn them into rousing, crowd-pleasing showstoppers. He did it once before with Lean on Me and he did it again to great effect tonight with Dock of the Bay. It's amazing that his energy, excitement, and enthusiasm have not diminished one iota since we first saw him in this competition. And, thank god he shaved the moustache. Now he actually looks like he could be the American Idol. He may yet pull it off.
Article comments
1 - sheri
This is a tough competition !! Diana DeGarmo has been my vote, but last night Jasmine impressed me.But then, I find myself wanting George Huff to win.
2 - JohnnyLunchBox
My favorite is George. While Trias, DeGarmo and Barrino turned in great performances, and Velasco certainly has that "potential", Huff makes it seem so effortless and his humility is endearing. Huff really enjoys what he is doing, and is by far the best male vocalist in the competition. Good luck to George.
3 - BRICKLAYER
So, I was channel surfing during the commercial break for the Food Channel's "Top 10 Places to Pig Out" (our very own Primanti Brothers was featured on the list, with a bunch of inebriated yinzers in Steelers garb wolfing down the sandwiches and waxing poetic on the merits of this sandwich- which, while I think is a very good sandwich, is really very overrated-but at 2:00 AM, with a belly full of Iron City, it can be Manna, and yes, since we no longer have the steel mills, we must latch on to a poor boy sandwich to help us find our civic pride and indentity), and I land on FOX, and there is this dude singing "Hard to Handle", and it was SO bad, that Mrs. Bricklayer and I had to stop and watch the whole thing. And I say to Mrs. Bricklayer: "That is the mooky dude from every karaoke bar, in every town in America. If I accidentally ever found myself in a karaoke bar, and that dude was belting out this stinker, I would pull my tin snips from my mini tool belt I always keep on me, and I would cut the power! Then I would go back to my bar stool and resume my discussion about the relative differences between the Scandanavian and Norwegian death metal scenes with the scantily clad bar maiden. I mean really, has America gotten so far down the talent list that this is all we have left? It was freaking horrible, my friends. If this is all we have left of "American Idols", I believe we should start outsourcing our talent jobs overseas, like we do with the Dell computer tech positions. I'm sure there is someone in India with a load more talent than this fella. Nothing against him, but good lord man, please go back to the wednesday night sing off at the local hoot 'n holler, and entertain your friends and neighbors, as they quaff down endless bottles of Coors light and all you can eat nachos, and leave the singing to the lovely, talented, and oh so generously gluteously gifted real talents, like the wonderful Ms. Kelly Clarkson.
4 - Scott Pepper
BL-
If Leah isn't voted off tonight, Matt will probably be the one to go. If his performance was all you caught, you got the worst part of the show last night.
5 - Eric Olsen
Bricky, no one runs on as entertainingly as you (God, I am happy to hear that you have your own term for "yinzers" - this makes me very happy and quadruples my already high respect for the region, which nonetheless produces some of the most untenable assualts on the English language). However, I fear that only a Pittsburgher would admire Kelly Clarkson's pooper.
Re the Big Man's performance: you really did suffer the slings and arrows of poor timing as the galoot songbird's performance was among the lowpoints of the evening and this final round 'o 12 has a veritable shitload of undeniable singing talent.
I was impressed and even entertained as warbler after warbler stood up to the plate and smacked roundtripper after roundtripper, and even the lesser lights struck extra bases.
I could seriously see five or more recording careers out of this batch.
I believe that I shall now make my way dntn and espy the Stllers in action.
6 - BRICKLAYER
Mr. O,
You forgot to end your sentence with "n'at".
As in, "Scotty got sentenced to the half way house, 'cos ah the drinkin, n'at."
Or
"Ahm goin' to deh bar, 'cos ahm fed up with all yer naggin' n'at."
Or, when questioned by the lil' lady:
"What were ya doin' out all nite?"
"Just hangin' out n'at".
Oh, and I don't know what it is about that rumpshaker, but like Sir Mix Alot, I like 'em round, big, and juicy.
7 - I
Nice breakdown; I thought Latoya was better than Degarmo, though. John Peter, while he's my favorite, I think overdid the dancing too much this time out. I enjoy it for its quirkiness, but his moving around like that detracts from his ability to sing. And regarding John Stevens: I think he's better when he's doing the pop stuff than when he's sticking straight to the old-school crooner thing; I think his best performance by far was his "Always a Woman." So I'm hoping that when he does get to the pop stuff, he's doing it that way, as opposed to the way he did the one last night.
8 - Scott Pepper
I think my expectations for LaToya may have been too high going into last night, so I was disappointed when she didn't go all out the way Fantasia and Diana did.
I can't imagine John being around for more than three weeks--I agree he did well with Always a Woman, but one good performance won't win him the show.
9 - Dawn
Excellent breakdown - I agree pretty much with everything you said.
10 - Shaunna
I believe that Leah is a great singer, she just doesnt belt out her songs because her voice is kinda soft, and personally, I think Camile is one of the best. If it wasnt for her nerves, I believe she could possibly nail this competition, sounding like Lauryn Hill, and everyone knows Lauryn can sing!