The Bristow Voice Method Blog

American Idol Review – Top 9 – How To Sing And “Emote”

Posted on 03. Apr, 2008 by Per Bristow in American Idol, Performance, Singing

My review of American Idol this week has 9 singers left. It’s Dolly Parton week and they get to perfom Dolly Parton songs, meet her and get her input. Imagine that she has written 3000 songs!  Not bad, huh? Okay, let’s  look at what it means to "emote".  How much do you need to emote when you sing? Watch the videos and see what I mean…

Brooke White- Jolene

Solid and very honest is what first comes to mind. On the other hand, it wasn’t all that exciting either. It wasn’t a very emotional performance or an emotional experience for me watching and listening. It was nice, pleasant, honest and sincere, but not all that memorable.

David Cook – Little Sparrow

Another solid performance. Not the most exciting song for him in my personal opinion, but he did sing and perform it really well. 

Ramiele Malubay – Do I Ever Cross Your Mind

Since Ramiele wins on her charm, I’m really glad she allowed her flirtatious, fun side to come out. She could take this even further and could become exceptionally good at getting the crowd on her side. This is obviously a new experience for her on a big stage like this, so we’ll see what happens in years to come. I liked this side of her though and I felt she had fun.

Jason Castro -   Travelin’ Thru

I liked the uptempo, groovy take.  I’ve said before that at least he allows his approachable personality come through in his singing – to a certain extent. I agree with Paula that in one way it was his best performance. She also said “your voice sounded so strong and rich”.  Well now… in relation to his past performances maybe.  But if there is one thing Jason does not have it’s a strong and rich voice. His weakness is that he restrains his voice quite severely, and therefore lacks in range and dynamics. He can’t sing very strong at all. He has made this habitual use of his voice into something that comes across as pretty cool, and with his likeable personality and musicality it takes him pretty far. If he, however, were to discover how he could let out his voice with less restriction – i.e. with greater freedom and ease – he would have more dynamics, he would be able to have even more fun, have more choices and become even more charming.

Carly Smithson – Here We Come Again

For the first time, a spontaneous smile crossed Carly’s face while singing (she smiles spontaneously all the time when she is being interviewed). Now that is attractive.  Interestingly – or strangely – it happened when she sang “you lie those pretty lies”. Hmm… If she stayed with us and allowed spontaneity to carry through the song, it would become incredibly interesting.  But no… she turned inwards again, closing her eyes, opening her eyes, closing, opening, looking all over the place but not really seeing, and not fully understanding the lyrics or the intent of the song. Am I being unfairly hard on Carly?  Maybe I am. It’s just that she would become so attractive if she opened her eyes and connected with us with the intent of the song in mind. It’s interesting that she commented “and I smiled” to the judges. It reminded me of the “old school” actor I once worked with who walked off stage after an emotional scene expressing “wow, I almost felt sad for real tonight”. Carly is of the school of “emoting” rather than “being”.  The thing is that she’s very good at it so she gets away with it. I just know she could be greater. 

David Archuleta – Smoky Mountain Memories

If you really know what you are talking about, if you are really are talking to a friend about something important, if you are really set out to inspire, if you are really reflecting on a true memory, you don’t need to emote. You can allow yourself to just express and allow emotions to happen. You can allow yourself to be spontaneous. You allow emotions to happen rather than create them. This is what David does so well. He chose as song that was meant to inspire not to “emote”.  As a result, he became quite emotional and a big portion of the audience did so too. David, once again, wins on his ability to communicate.  

Kristy Lee Cook – Coat Of Many Colors

Vocally she’s great. I think she’s grown tremendously as a singer in the last couple of weeks. So how would we make Kristy even better? Well, unfortunately there is a tad of self-consciousness and shyness in her performance. She hasn’t quite discovered the freedom of releasing her true inner self. She’s also been hammered by the judges and been in the bottom three so much that I’m sure it must be tough. Under those circumstances it’s tough to go out there and be free rather than getting caught up in “I have to prove myself” feelings. When we feel “I have to prove myself” we can’t be truly free and spontaneous and we are bound to become more restricted and self-conscious.

Syesha Mercado – I Will Always Love You

Now this moved me. That was absolutely wonderful in my humble opinion. And in my humble opinion I think it’s unfortunate that the judges always tend to compare with the original singers. I agree that taking on Whitney Houston songs often fail, but here Syesha succeeded (Yes, “I Will Always Love You” is of course a Dolly Parton song, but the comparison tends to be with Whitney’s version).  In any event, I really felt Syesha. She had me. She was comforting and truthful and really spoke to me. In fact, I really believed her when she sang that she will always love me. What? You’re saying she wasn’t singing to me personally?  Well, when she looked into the camera, I thought she was. And since that’s what I felt, I couldn’t care less about what Whitney might have sounded like.  As a matter of fact, I felt Syesha’s soaring power note was absolutely phenomenal (and just as powerful as Whitney’s). But then again, I’m swayed by the fact that I was emotionally moved. How about getting everyone in the audience feel that you are singing personally to them next time you perform? Interesting quest, huh?

Michael Johns – It’s All Wrong, But It’s Alright

Love his voice, his soulfulness and I have nothing else to say. Just kidding… He’s living up to his image as a brooding, troubled soul, hard-to-get, rock star quite well. The thing is that I think he is much more approachable than he lets on when he sings. I still want to see that approachable side of him (you know… the things I wrote about last week). However, this wasn’t the song to do that, so what he did here worked really well. Good stuff.

Overall, I have to confess I wasn’t overly excited this week compared to last week. Where you?

Top performances:  Syyesha and David Archuleta trailed by Michael Johns and David Cook.

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