Tonight was a bit weird. I think if the producers learned anything, it should be this: no matter how much you paid for a book of songs, no matter how tempting it may be, do NOT do two weeks in a row. Even the introduction of the singers at the beginning of the show seemed off.
Amanda Overmeyer started off the night with “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, which was a good song choice. I didn’t think her performance this week was up to par with last week, and I thought she was a bit screamy tonight. Randy gave her a 7 out of 10. Simon, on the other hand, said it was a predictable mess.
Up next was Kristy Lee Cook who was bound to do better than last week (it would have been hard to do worse). She didn’t go quite as country this week with “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, and it was certainly better than last week. In fact, it was one of her better performances. However, it did seem like she could have had the song written in a different key. It really seemed like the son was too low for her, and she consistently doesn’t really connect with the song of the audience. None of the judges were over the moon about this performance.
Hoping to redeem himself this week after a rather dismal performance last week, David Archuleta sang “Long and Winding Road”. He remembered all the words, so that was already a step up. However, I still didn’t think it was terribly interesting. The judges all loved it, though, so I guess it may be that I’m the only one who has that opinion.
Michael Johns was the most ambitious with his song choice, choosing “A Day In The Life”, which is normally over a five minute long song. Unfortunately, the risk didn’t really pay off. It was really strange, vocally and performance-wise. He seemed awkward on stage again this week. Simon pretty much summed it up— “it was a mess”.
For those who had a great week last week, such as Brooke White, this was a particularly difficult week. Brooke looked like she was ready to song “Here Comes ths Sun”. She was very sunny looking. It wasn’t my favorite of her perfomances. She moved awkwardly, which she admits to. Hopefully, next week she’ll be back on track doing what she does best. Randy thought the performance was awkward. Paula found a way to be positive about it. Simon said it was terrible.
David Cook sang “Day Tripper”, which I didn’t recognize by the name, but it did seem a bit familiar. It was a good song choice and predictably good. He used a voice box, which was interesting. Simon thought it was predictable, as well— but not in a good way.
Carly Smithson sang “Blackbird”. I thought it sounded good. She’s one of the only ones this year who usually looks comfortable just standing in the middle of the stage with a microphone. Randy and Paula really liked this performance, but Simon said it was indulgent.
Up next was Jason Castro with a very mellow version of “Michelle”. Hey, at least he remembered the words, even the ones in French. The judges weren’t completely impressed by this performance, and I just thought it was a little better than okay.
Syesha Mercado survived the bottom three last week and sang “Yesterday” this week to try to avoid that position again. Will it work? I think so. I wasn’t as blown away by it as the judges, but I thought it was pretty good. I thought it bordered on indulgent but didn’t cross over into cheesey land.
Last week Chikezie was awesome. This week it seemed like he was trying too hard to recreate the success of last week. He sang “I’ve Just Seen a Face”. It was an interesting arrangement and entertaining, but Simon may be right when he said it was bordering on gimmicky.
The final singer of the night was Ramiele Malubay. For me, her performance of “I Should Have Known Better” reminded me of a high school talent show— a good high school talent show perfomance, maybe even the winner, but still a high school talent show. Simon calls that amateurish. Yeah, I guess that’s what it was.
On tomorrow night’s results show, Kellie Pickler will be singing, so that should continue the weirdness. I assume she won’t be singing The Beatles. Make sure to vote in our poll and let us know who you think should be going home.
