American Idol Review – Top 12

Posted on 12. Mar, 2008 by Per Bristow in American Idol, Performance, Singing

Okay, we are down to the top 12 in American Idol and the performers are on a new bigger stage, this week singing Beatles songs. Overall I enjoyed the performances this week. I feel the girls have improved. I wrote last week that I felt the guys were in general of higher standard than the girls this year. Last year I felt the opposite. Now that we are down to 12 singers, I am hereby going to give my views on each performance.  I am also posting the videos in case you didn’t see them. As much as I can without turning it into a book, I’ll try to adress issues from a learning point of view. Let me know what you think. So here we go…

Sayesha Mercado started off the night with Got To Get You Into My Life.  That was, frankly, the best vocal I’ve heard from Sayesha so far in my opinion.  She has had a tendency to push her voice harder than she needs to. Now her voice soared with less effort than previous weeks. Obviously it’s tough to be the first contestant and start off the night. Good job

Chikezie  - She’s A Woman. Honestly, I feel that was one of the best performances ever in American Idol. 4 weeks ago, I just didn’t feel Chikeze had the vocal chops, but now I feel he could might as well win the whole thing. I love to be surprised. The performance was bursting with energy and life. His voice sounded great, and he delivered surprise after surprise within the short song. And most of all, he was so engaged and engaging that it became an emotional experience for us. That’s what performing is all about.

Ramiele Malubay  - In My Life.   Hmm.  This came across as tentative.  In general, Ramiele would grow enormously as a singer if she developed more strength in the low register.  The voice often goes out on the low notes and it adds to the tentative feel as well as pitch problems. (Read more on how to sing on key here.) The staircase didn’t work and the whole walk across the stage became a choreographed move that also felt tentative  Even though moves can be choreographed we want the action – the “why” and “how” you move – to be spontaneous. For example, we don’t want to walk across the stage because someone has told us to do so, but because we want to get closer to the audience. We want to get to a state where walking across becomes spontaneous and organic – as if we are being drawn to the audience. (How to get to that state we’ll discuss another time.)

Jason Castro – If I Fell.  He certainly wins on his charm, his easy going attitude and his uniqueness.  I love that he doesn’t force or “act” or try to show off vocal skills. On the other hand he tends to hold back his voice more than he needs to. I felt he started great and the song was about to build, but then stagnated.  I wished he would have built it more  (not in volume necessarily, but emotional intensity). I wouldn’t mind if he sang out more once in a while. Sing without the guitar next time, Jason.

Carly Smithson – Come Together.  Oh darn. With this song she really had the opportunity to get the crowd on their feet like Chikeze did. She made it too internal for my taste and it’s not an internal song.  It was good, but I wasn’t as thrilled as the judges. Having said that, it was better than last week. Carly has a tendency to force the high notes. She could get more power and more emotional intensity and more connection with the audience if there was less physical force. Having said that it was definitely an improvement from previous weeks

David Cook – Eleanor Rigby.  Interesting, yet somewhat strange song choice. The beginning wasn’t very exciting and he was stuck behind the mike stand. But then he kicked it into a whole new gear.  From the chorus to the end he was absolutely awesome. Luckily for him we only remember the end, right?  In a sense we can argue that the unexciting beginning set the stage for the big shocker ending.  Dynamics are a good thing and the end was terrific.

Notice one more thing:  As laid back as David seems to be, he actually feeds off the audience. Watch how he scans the audience He notices something and there’s a hint of a smile.  He sees them, he feels them, he works off of them.  This is what Carly did not do and what made her performance a more internal show. She looks out, but she’s not as aware of them (she looks down and closes her eyes quite a lot too).

Brooke White – Let It Be.  I love Brooke and her style.  We have heard so many versions of this song, so I frankly felt this became to “regular”. I felt she could have done more with it, and I don’t mean going for high notes and singing riffs and runs just to be fancy. But I felt she was “sitting” on her emotions and the piano got in her way rather than helped her.  There was more that wanted to come out. I felt she wanted to get up from the piano and really experience the moment. I think her big emotional reaction afterwards speaks to this too. On the other hand, if she would have gotten up just because it was a choreographed move, it would have taken us out of the song. Good job

David Hernandez  –  I Saw Her Standing There.  And David was the one to fall into the trap I wrote about the last two weeks. He came across as far more self-conscious than he has in the past. The walking into the audience was obviously choreographed and unfortunately that’s also how it felt. The judges talked about doing too much, but the issue is that when we are set on following through on a plan – i.e we are focusing on the result rather than being in the moment and truly experience – we tend to become self-conscious and we overcompensate. 

Amanda Overmeyer  – “Alright, Here we Go!” she shouted during the intro. Now that was a brilliant opening. Felt totally authentic, spontaneous and confident and she certainly got my attention right off the bat. How far she is going to go is just a matter of how much people like her style. She also tends to get more internal than need be. Work off the audience more next time

Michael Johns – Across The Universe. As great of a singer he is, I agree he could have done more with the song. However, I don’t agree with Randy that it was about changing  notes necessarily. I felt it was to even in the dynamic area.  He’s calling out throughout the whole song, and the song could have become more interesting with more dynamics.  I just don’t feel it was a great song choice this time.

Kristy Lee Cook – 8 Days A Week. Vocally it’s the best I’ve heard from her, and I didn’t mind the country arrangement at all. If you don’t know the original it totally made sense.  The problem was that she wasn’t into the song, what it meant to her and what it means to the audience. When she sang the first line “ Ooo I need your love babe” she wasn’t connecting to it and neither where we.

David Archuleta –  We Can Work It Out.   Yeah, we can work it out, David.  So David did what everyone fears, he forgot the words more than once, and messed up the song in front of millions of people.  Paula said to never show that you make a mistake. Well, she was preaching to the choir. David was naturally thrown but he kept going trying to regain his balance. Great job. I frankly liked to hear this groovy upbeat side of him. My fear is that his “balladering” could grow old as the competition moves on, so this was nice.  I also feel this talk about him being the front runner and the pressure the press has put on him serves him no good.  It was probably good to have a bad night at this stage. Unless of course this gets to his head and the press start pressuring him and reminding him of missed words.  Who cares about some missed words?

Overall quite a lot of great performances this week. 

My top performance of the night: Chikeze

In the danger zone: Ramiele, Kristy and David. It’s probably Ramiele’s turn to leave. Then again, this is ultimately a popularity contest not only a singing contest so who knows.