Thursday, March 26

AI8 - Top 10 (3/25/09)

Theme: Motown; Mentor: Smokey Robinson. The gang (minus Michael, who was sick) flew to Detroit to visit the original Motown studio, which made Lil all teary and proud. And speaking of original, the iTunes songs this week have the contestants singing to the original Motown orchestrations of the songs... which really stinks since Adam's "unplugged" performance was chillingly awesome but won't be available. Figures.

Matt "Let's Get It On" - heh. I was reading song speculation earlier and people were hoping that Anoop would do this (and predicting America would then have a shortage of water pressure as all the ladies hit the cold showers afterward). And really hoping that Danny wouldn't. ;-) It was a decent choice for Matt, though I liked the slow part at the beginning better than after he left the piano. Simon said it was a brilliant song choice & good performance; the other judges also complemented.

Kris "How Sweet It Is" - Smokey was impressed w/either how good he plays and sings, or just that he can play & sing at the same time, it was hard to tell. Again, loved the slow beginning & the rest was good but not tremendous (ok except for the very end), plus I think the song is forgettable (too common to stand out). Audience loved it; Kara & Simon complimented him for making it his own. Simon also said he needs more self-confidence.

Scott "Can't Hurry Love" - Had the background singers around the piano; nice performance, his usual. Simon hated it; he & Randy thought it was a bad song choice, but Kara liked that it was up-tempo. Loved Ryan asking him how he knew he his pants were pink.

Megan "For Once in My Life" - Smokey liked her originality, but the actual performance was terrible IMO. She missed a lot of notes even after changing the melody to better fit her limited range. The judges agreed, though somewhat blamed it on the song choice.

Anoop "Ooh Baby, Baby" - Smokey had no advice for him in practice (in a good way)! And Anoop said he really appreciated hearing the story behind the song. It was very soft and sweet, great performance! Kara said some of his falsetto notes were off pitch but that it's a very difficult song to sing and overall it was pretty good. Paula loved it; Simon said the vocal was great but that he looked sleepy (instead of just serious) while singing.

Michael "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" - I don't think he's fully recovered from the flu & it showed in his performance. Paula was disappointed and called it "old Las Vegas / loungy". Simon said it was too shouty & he has no chance of winning; Randy said the song was too big for him.

Lil "Heat Wave," of course! Complete with video flames as usual. Her dress & hairdo fit the era, & she'd talked about how much the Detroit trip meant to her. Very good performance, definitely one of her best. Paula loved it but the rest of the judges disagreed, saying it was too fast of a song to show off her vocal talents.

ADAM!!! "Tracks of My Tears," 'unplugged' - AWESOME!!!! This is what I've been waiting for him to do - Just. Sing. It was cute how nervous he was doing it for Smokey, but Smokey said for a much-covered song he'd never heard it done this way and really liked it; he gave him a standing ovation after the actual performance! (Adam also asked for the story behind it - I love it, both my faves did Smokey songs *and* wanted to know the backstory!) Adam had his hair slicked back (I didn't like that very well) and wore a skinny suit with very little makeup (& no nail polish); the whole presentation seemed, as with Lil, very respectful of the song itself. And it was a beautiful performance. The judges loved it; Simon said it was the best of the night & showed everything they'd been trying to tell the others about song choice, originality, and relevance.

Danny "Get Ready" - He & Smokey discussed Danny's plan to have the back-up gals sing part of the main lyric; Smokey advised against it and Danny said he would take his advice, but then ended up doing it the way he'd originally planned. I don't think it affected the performance either way though. He went back to stand by & dance with the background singers twice, which was a bit strange/cheesy. Paula loved it but Simon called it clumsy & amateurish. Kara said it was good but not great.

Allison "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" - Aww, makes me miss David Hernandez! But, I see why she got the pimp spot. Excellent song choice and spot-on delivery, but then I love the song anyway. Crowd & judges loved it.

My prediction for the bottom 3: Michael, Megan, and Scott, with Michael leaving. Lots of guest performances tomorrow night, sounds good!

1 comment:

beffuh said...

I have to say, this week, I totally agree with your bottom three and that Michael is leaving. All three of them have had good runs, but at this point, I don't think I would be sad to see any of them go (still a little bitter about Alexis not making it into the top 10). And I will give you props that Adam's rendition was good--but still haven't been won over as his fan yet. :)