Tonight the American Idol contestants sang two songs— a song from the charts from their birth year and a modern chart topper.
Elliott Yamin started the night off with “On Broadway”. The judges weren’t crazy about this performance, but I thought it was quite good. Honestly, I think Elliott is very good. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sing a song that I just hated, but I never really love him, either. I wish he could pull out a showstopper, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen.
I was really surprised about Paris Bennett’s choice of songs. She chose to sing Prince’s “Kiss”. I kind of think that only Prince should really sing Prince songs. It just seems that his songs are a bit odd, vocally, and the only thing that really works about them is that he sings them. Simon said the song was “screechy and annoying”. I can’t say that I would agree with that, but I don’t think it was her best performance. It was just a weird choice for me.
Okay, I’m going to preface this next recap with a disclaimer of sorts. My husband liked this performance a lot. He sang Styx’s “Renegade”. I LOVE this song, I did not care for the variations he sang on this song. My husband said the original was screamed, but I beg to differ. I think Chris has a fine career in alternative rock in front of him, but I really dont’ think he has the best voice. I think whenever he gets onto shaky ground vocally, he resorts to screaming. I think that’s what happened with this song. Anyway, the judges loved it, my husband loved it… I loved the SONG, but not this performance.
I can’t tell you how much I hated the version of “Against the Odds” that Katharine sang. She sounded okay singing it, and her clothes stayed on, so that was good. I think she sounded horrible. You know when Paula resorts to talking about how you look, there’s a problem. None of the judges cared for this performance.
Earlier today I read a rumor about what songs would be sung tonight. I know you’re wondering “Why didn’t you share it with us?” Well, I was sure it was a hoax because they had Taylor Hicks listed as singing “Play That Funky Music, White Boy”, and I just could not imagine that, given a full year worth of songs from 1976, that Taylor would choose to sing THAT. Well, I was wrong. The list was correct. I really liked the performance, but, come on— it’s “Play That Funky Music”. It almost makes me feel like Taylor just wants to see how crazy a song he can sing and still get votes. At least it wasn’t “Shake Your Booty”, which was another choice. The judges weren’t quite sure what to make of it, either.
That was the first half of the songs. I’ll cover the modern songs in a second post.
