The American Idol Week 4 results show opened with a dapper Ryan Seacrest announcing yet another voting record: 32.5 million votes cast.
But what I really want to know is the differentials between the contestants. For example, did Anthony/Nadia/Anwar escape the bottom three by a mile or by one vote? The slimmer the margin, the more pure chance determines who stays and who goes. And . . . No. Stop. Desist. If I discuss the science of statistics in the same sentence with American Idol, this blog will explode.
Anyway, Nikko, Vonzell and Scott comprised this week’s bottom three. Only Vonzell surprised me.
Scott probably lost some ground based on the Problem That Will Not Be Named. After all, American Idol is one of the few venues in pop music where street cred doesn’t enhance your image or your chances of winning. Also, let’s face it: it helps if you look more like an angel when trying to maintain your likeability in the face of an unflattering dust-up with the mother of your child.
So, Nikko got nixed and that’s that. On to the next round.
In the meantime, we got treated to:
A bold and bald-headed, but very snazzy (yes, almost to the point of sexy) Velvet Teddybear. Ruben Studdard was in the audience, no doubt at Fox‘s request, the better to flack their newest dumb-laughs show by remarking on Rube’s sitcom debut as a mall food court worker. Okay, the ubiquitous Kimberly Caldwell shows up, too. Who woulda thought.
Fantasia, attractive and energetic---to use her oddly incongruous injunction that people should go on stage and “act ugly”----came out acting, well, ugly, which I infer means taking a song like “Believe” and multiplying every note times ten, while rupturing a few bronchi and being sure to get in at least 59 “yeah, yeah, yeah’s” per minute. Not since the Beatles turned the phrase into a generation’s reply to “she loves you” has “yeah, yeah, yeah” served such an important function in our national life.
I’m sure you had to be there.
Last but not least, Ford finally got something right with the idols performing “Everybody Got Their Something” while vamping for the cam and driving around in cutesy cars. Shoot, that‘s the song that should be released as the idols’ single for charity, not that other thing that sounded like the Monkey House at Busch Gardens at feeding time.
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Article comments
1 - scg
I finally got it! The only ones who are truly safe are Scott and Anthony (why they continue to make it to the next rounds is beyond me)!
2 - Paul Roy
Holy cow has Fantasia gotten even fatter! You'de think her handlers would insist on a Kelly Clarkson miracle makeover for her.
3 - Eric Olsen
agreed: she was seriously shoehorned into those jeans
4 - Natalie Davis
Fantasia, fat? Heavier, yes; I question those jeans. But fat? What a sick country and what sick standards of beauty or thinness it has.
5 - Sticker
scq:
Every season there are contestants who inexplicably are voted through and through. But the noose only continues to tighten.
Speaking of tight---okay, Fanny's (her family's pet name for her) jeans were sprayed on, but what did you guys think of her singing or whatever that was??
6 - Eric Olsen
I prefer a somewhat more wistful side of Fanny
7 - Sticker
always the diplomat, Eric
I agree with you on Fanny's wistful side
8 - Natalie Davis
Putting it mildly, she *was* energetic to a fault. But it appeared that the crowd loved it, and I sensed that she believed every word she sang. I'll take a little screeching in return for deeply felt passion expressed in song.
9 - Paul Roy
She certainly worked up a sweat.
10 - Eric Olsen
hey, I love Fantasia, Nat, no doubt about it - she about carried last season on her talent and personality - just expressing my preference on angle of view
11 - Sticker
Natalie--
I think you bring up a good point. One of the big disconnects on AI is the fact that the audience/judges are hearing the performance LIVE and the rest of us are viewing it on the small screen.
Live performances are just different. Yes, a good well will translate well onto the small screen, but it's still a translation.
It's just not like being there.
Sometimes the judges pick up on the energy in the hall and think a performance was the best thing since sliced bread, but the rest of us at home are going "whaaaa??"
In fact, sometimes what is great energy in a live performance comes across as just ridiculous on screen.
12 - Brenda
Fantasia didn't sing, she screamed! It was awful to hear and watch. She was poured into her jeans. I could care less that she has gained some weight but my gosh learn how to dress! She is very talented and I had hoped she be the winner last season but thank goodness she didn't perform like that during her American Idol days. As for the remaining contestants, Scott should not be hounded based on a past mistake that he has paid his price for. Have none of you made any mistakes in your life?