Top 6 (4/25/06)

This week's theme is Greatest Love Songs of All Time (in the Known Universe, tm Randy). The guest artists are Andrea Bocelli (I didn't know he's blind!) and David Foster. They are much, much more interesting than I expected - well, we'll see about the performance tomorrow, but the "coaching" was really good. I try to listen to most performances for a little bit w/my eyes shut to try to just judge the audio, so of course I find myself curious to hear a blind man's opinion. (And David had a fun time asking Andrea what he thought the contestants looked like, because Andrea usually guessed right on! Such as, "What color is Kellie's hair?" "Blonde!" Not that that's a difficult one, but you get the picture.)

But even more than that, I enjoyed David's critiques of the contestants' singing, because he critiqued!! He was very... well, harsh, really, with them, and I think that was good for them. ;-) I think most of them appreciated it.

Also Kat was singing some operatic duet w/Andrea (cool!), and Chris had to lie on the floor on his back to sing (made him use his diaphragm instead of just his throat).

The songs:
1. Katharine- I Have Nothing
2. Elliott- A Song For You*
3. Kellie- Unchained Melody
4. Paris- The Way We Were
5. Taylor- Just Once
6. Chris- Have You Ever Loved A Woman

I didn't take notes. Everyone was good, as they should be at this point, though some weren't very interesting. I need to rewatch Kat's, as I thought it was great but I was running back & forth to the kitchen; Randy & Paula both thought she was bad (off-pitch). Though her dress (or lack thereof in strategic places) will garnish her quite a few (male) votes, regardless of the vocal.

Kellie did much better than I expected her to, and I wasn't bored because I didn't know quite what to expect, but it was a rather boring performance, if that makes sense. (David Foster called her robotic!!)

Elliott and Paris were very, very good, the best 2 performances IMO, though Chris was close behind. I still fear for Paris because while she can sing anything fantastically (Andrea was v. impressed), her style changes so much that her 'self' disappears somewhere in there, and I think having some sort of strong or defining personality is key at this point. (Plus uniqueness, especially in genre, and she & Elliott may split some votes because of that.)

The first half of Taylor's was boring, but it picked up speed & the last third or so was really awesome. I wish he'd used the same power for the whole song.

And Chris was very good; great (though surprising) song choice for him!

My prediction of bottom 3: Elliott, Paris, and Kellie, with Paris leaving. (Kellie was reamed and we know from last week that gets votes, but 2 poor performances in a row usually has some effect.)

*Musician trivia: one of their background singers is Donnie Hathaway's daughter!