American Idol – Top 13 review

Posted on 14. Mar, 2009 by Per Bristow in American Idol, Performance, Singing

So here we go…American Idol is heating up. My intent is to blog about each episode from my perspective as vocal and performance coach. We’ll take a look at performances and see what we can learn from them. This week we had the 13 finalists sing Michael Jackson songs. How did that go?…

Overall, I thought it was an excellent week and I’m excited we have a very strong group of singers/performers this year. Frankly, I feel this group is far more exciting than the group of last year. The other reason this week went so well is because they sang Michael Jackson songs. Not because Jackson’s repertoire is so brilliant, but because in a competition like this it always serves you well to sing songs where the original artist has a weaker voice than yourself.

Whether you want it or not, you will always be compared to the original artist. That is why girls always fail when they try to sing Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey songs. However great they are, they always hear comments like “the song was too big for you”. Likewise, when a male with a not so powerful voice tries to sing an Aerosmith song it will undoubtedly fall flat. You will always subconsciously be compared to the original whether you like it or not

In my blogs last season I commented many times on some of the singer’s tendencies to get stuck hiding behind the mic stand. This year, the performers are already far better at engaging the audience. I also commented on the tendency to walk out on stage with a mindset of “needing to prove yourself”. The judges up the pressure by saying exactly things such as: “You have to prove yourself”. And that is the very trap many fall into. We, as an audience, don’t enjoy a performance where you are trying to prove something. You don’t want to go on stage and feel you are “auditioning”, that you are being judged that you are there to prove your worth. You are there for one reason alone: And that is to engage the audience and have a phenomenal emotional experience together with them.

And that is exactly what Danny did…

Danny Gokey – Pretty Young Thing

Imagine if Danny would have stayed behind the mic stand – even if he sang with passion and emotion. It might have been great, but nowhere close to what is became. Now he engaged and he had fun, and more importantly he allowed himself to be spontaneous. Overall it was an excellent performance

Anoop Desie – Beat It

I think Anoop is really cool. He’s got a great voice, but didn’t shine as he could have. Anoop has a wonderful, easy going, charming, funny personality. This time he chose to sing “Beat It”, without any of that charm. He chooses to go for a tough attitude and sings it very aggressively. After a while, he goes out and interacts with some audience members in a very charming way, although he’s in the middle of angrily telling us/someone to “beat it”. There is a disconnect here because he is not interacting out of the context of the song. It shows that he’s not real. He is forcing the “toughness” and is posing rather than truthfully living the song. He’ll be really interesting though when he is completely truthful and allows his real personality to shine

Lil Rounds –

Lil is a phenomenal singer. She had the disadvantage of going out first. She sings the song great, has a real nice personality and moves well. But it could be even better. She has the potential to be sensational and in coming weeks she might be. Here she is not. How come? Because there is nothing that surprises us. And the reason nothing surprises us is because nothing surprises her. She doesn’t allow herself to be spontaneous. (Part of that is probably the nervousness of being first). She goes through the song, executes it well, but all the moves are too measured. It’s too smooth, too choreographed. She’s no doubt a great singer and I’m excited to see what happens later.

Adam Lambert – Black or White

In every American Idol, we have seen singers grow on us and some have become world class artists when they have found the right material. Adam Lambert is already a world class singer and I hope he does find the right material. Since he has such an incredibly powerful voice with a wonderful range he can do so many things with it. It is never about trying to hit notes or trying to reach high notes for him. Since his voice is so developed he can instead truly express. He certainly doesn’t hold back and he doesn’t force the voice either. He can instead be spontaneous, which is exactly what good vocal training should lead to in my opinion.

He completely owns the stage and he is 100 percent there to have an emotional experience with us. You see how he in the beginning of the song spontaneously approaches someone in the audience. Take a look at what he does when he sings the line: “Don’t tell me you agree with me when I saw you kicking dirt in my eye”. Now that is real passionate anger and it comes out of what has built up within him throughout the song up to that point. Notice how his emotions have gone on a roller coaster ride through the song. It’s on a completely different level of truthfulness than Anoop’s “posing”. Then after that line, Adam softens, since his anger is not directed to the audience. On the contrary, he relates to the audience and we relate to him and he is likeable. Now, Adam has a special style and if one likes his style or not is a matter of personal preference. It will be interesting to see how he handles song choices in the future and if he can continue to surprise us.