Posted by kitiwiti on May 28, 2010 in
Uncategorized Job-hunting takes me away from American Idol. Therefore most of my real time comments were limited on my twitter. I will repost them here for your benefit.
AMERICAN IDOL GRAND FINALE with Crystal and Lee
Tangina!!! Crystal performing witth alanis!!!!! Swerte! %^*#@&$ this is the best finale evar
TOP 2 – PERFORMANCE NIGHT with Mamasox & Lee
I think crystals more in the zone. do i vote for her? she looks like lil pete fr pete &pete. So i get confused (& lee looks like my cuzn) 8:51 PM May 25th via Twitterrific
Oh no lee you di-int! Not U2!!! No one should touch U2!!! AI finale is almost over but feels lame & bitin. 8:40 PM May 25th via Twitterrific
TOP 3 with Lee, Casey and Crystal
looks like a crystal – lee showdown for AI next week. wooot! 8:46 PM May 18th via web
DUETS NIGHT / TOP 4 with Lee, Casey, Crystal and Big Mike
OMG! i got goosebumps from AI’s crystal and lee doing Falling Slowly from ONCE 8:51 PM May 11th via web
***
How funny that both finalists Crystal and Lee auditioned in Chicago (with Crystal laughingly telling Lee on the top4 show that he was her Chicago crush).
The winner, as it turns out, is Lee Dewyze. I really would’ve loved for Crystal Bowersox to win this year. The best don’t always necessarily win, as we can attest over the last few years of AI. Lee has an extremely commercial voice, and his looking nervous and stoic makes him feel human. Crystal, who looks perennially stoned, makes us feel like she’s someone you can never relate to, someone who doesn’t really care. Her voice is very strong however (and crystal clear!). It has been a boy winner for the last 3 years and I felt it was time for a girl. Ah well. Blame it on the prepubescent girl voters and grannies.
THE APPEAL OF LEE DEWYZE
Lee is wildly popular and yet he’s the underdog. He doesn’t play guitar that well, he has a regular crappy 9-5 job back home and without AI, he is just a regular Joe. He looks nervous all the time, and seems like a simple quiet guy.
People love underdogs. And because they champion the underdog, I find myself championing the new underdog that is Crystal Bowersox. I was originally rooting for her – for any girl to reach the finals; yet Lee’s quiet charm gets to you, and week after week, he picks the songs well and owns them. It doesn’t hurt that he’s good on the eyes too. He’s got those big blue eyes that tell their own story… like a soulful puppy in a window saying “Take me home! please!” Why wouldn’t you love him?
The judges regularly criticized Lee for seeming like he can’t contain an ounce of confidence (while Crystal just looks like she’s extremely confident but doesn’t care) but he’s not gonna be brilliant outside of AI like Crystal is without being picked up by bigwig producers & arrangers. Let’s face it, even finishing at #2, Crystal will make records like Janis and Tracy Chapman and Stevie Nicks combined. She’s got it made. Her talent alone does that.
Lee needs all the help he can get.
Tags: american idol
Posted by kitiwiti on Apr 28, 2010 in
Uncategorized Now, it’s really a competition! Still in the running:
Lee Dwyze, Michael Lynche, Crystal Bowersox, Casey James, Aaron Kelly, Siobhan Magnus
Last week they did Inspirational songs, mentored by Alicia Keys. The week before that, it was Elvis week, mentored by last year’s Adam Lambert. Last night, they did country.
Judging from last weeks elimination, I suppose Casey and Aaron are in trouble. Little Aaron is running out of tricks, except for his great tone (for-a-17yo), Casey is no longer relying on his looks or hiding behind the perfect guitar licks.
So for last night’s theme, which was Country mentored by Shania Twain, the idol hopefuls went all out. I wasn’t crazy about Lee’s Still The One rendition, it was way rough (I missed his whole performance though, and the critique), Siobhan did something weird and country but I do like her belt-outs more than when she sings without. Crystal did something laidback (but she still looked stoned), Big Mike did a Maxwell-esque number and it was good; both were praised but not as high as before.
The big surprises came from Casey James, whose vocals totally shone through without any fancy guitar licks and Aaron Kelly.
The funniest thing about last night’s show was: Simon. He looked like he had diarrhea and couldn’t wait to get out of that country-hellhole.
Tags: american idol
Posted by kitiwiti on Apr 14, 2010 in
Uncategorized I was actually pretty disappointed with both AI and GLEE last night. After so much hype? After all the cooking prep i did for our private viewing party? LOL. I did a crockpot recipe of pot roast and successfully created meringue with strawberries and mango flavored whipped cream…but I digress. Dinner was the highlight, as AI unnecessarily ran 90 minutes long and ate up Glee’s airtime. Sue Sylvester did a copycat music video of Madonna’s Vogue (with some nasty modifications – will post it up later) made of pure awesome. But aside from Rachel’s new bf, Mr Shue’s new gf and paramour, well, Glee’s second season premiere left me hanging. It’s like a shabbily composed song that cuts out abruptly without the proper musical progression.
AI also had its share of disappointments. I mean, its ELVIS/ADAM LAMBERT week. I love A.L. for all his shrieky glam-ness. He also gave spot-on critiques on the kids… I was a little surprised that he was mentoring this week. Then again, even with one year of musical experience under his belt, I’d respect him more than Miley Cyrus, who may be writing her lyrics, but is still produced and backed up by the musical bigwigs.
Anyway, I figured Andrew Garcia, who lacks the singers know-how to do proper phrasing, took the boot tonight, quite abruptly (thanks Ryan!). And it really has been a long time coming… I understand that he really needed to go, despite his original and surprising Straight Up cover of Paula Abdul during Hollywood week. However, he’s been crawling slowly since then, whatwith bad choices, bad arrangement, bad attack/phrasing… even the mixing of his voice is awful. How sad is that? To be part of American Idol’s top 24/12 and have people think you didn’t belong there! I don’t even remember any good performance he’s done since Hollywood week, and yet week after week I rooted for him. The judges are over him, weeks ago, so they readily accepted the fact.
He also could’ve done something more. His guitar performances were kind of weak, making his guitar somewhat unnecessary. If he was more of a dancing performer, he would’ve done appealed to more people. The AI voters have already picked their favorites. Think you he didn’t try hard enough to win?
In the final bottom 3 were: Tim Urban, Big Mike and Katie Stevens. Tim Urban did surprisingly well! I noticed Adam Lambert gave him solid suggestions (as compared to flimsy advice to the older ones) and Tim took it. If the unripe banana (whatzisname?) made it this far, I would think he would dominate this tender-guitar-moment schtick.
Big Mike… he did well with In The Ghetto, as suggested by crazy ole Siobhan, and I felt that he did not deserve to go this week…it would be a waste of a Judge’s Save from the previous week, wouldn’t it? 
As for Katie…we-ell, I am getting bored with her low register, her range seems extremely limited, almost nasally. There’s texture there, and she’s super cute, but really, there are plenty other great ones.
My top picks are still: Crystal, Casey, Big Mike, Lee
So at the end, the second victim of double elimination night turns out to be Katie, because she’s been sucking half the time during the top 24 shows. And that’s okay. Because they show her grandma recorded AI on her tivo and has been watching her so proudly in between Alzheimer attacks. Dammit! I hate these AI backstory-sob stories! *cries*
Bonus: Elliott Yamin , as he promised on Twitter LOL, showed footage of heading back to Africa for more Idol Gives Back. Aww, E. You’re adorable when you do outreach! None of your fellow AI alums can be as cool as you!
Tags: american idol
Posted by kitiwiti on Apr 7, 2010 in
Uncategorized WOOOOH A LENNON-MCCARTNEY THEME ON AMERICAN IDOL! 
No other theme makes me quiver more than hearing my favorite songs and listening to AI contestants do justice/injustice to the songs. Did they give the songs a current flavor, sing it karaoke style or just plain butcher them? Let’s go through this in chronological order, shall we?
Aaron – Sang The Long & Winding Road. It was just okay… he went off key at times. His tone is good, but he bores me.
Katie – Solid performance of Let It Be, after weeks of being toasted by the judges.Her look was hot… it was exactly the kind of dress I was hoping to find at JETRAG (but did not) – a pink longsleeved mini dress with a neckline that ended by her jugular.
Andrew – Was just alright for me. His guitar was overpowered by band and was kind of unnecessary. I really like him, but I wish he had more drama when he opened his song Can’t Buy Me Love. It was such a fun song, I wish he just tried dancing sans guitar instead.
Michael Lynch – was damn impressive…he incorporated some R&B undertones into Eleanor Rigby. I swear it almost gave me chills, baby, it was really good.
Crystal – Hot!!!! Her vocal interpretation of Come Together had really good dynamics – changing up her voice according to the story within the song — and that truly set her apart as a performer this week. I was however, distracted by her constant looking at her guitars fretboard. Her mouth , in effect, turned away from the mic a few times so the tonal quality was ruined.
Tim – sang All My Lovin, and even played guitar. I would say he did okay.. he does sound current, but also a bit boring. He did his usual no-frills Tim Urban schtick, which, I guess , is good for other people.
Casey – very vulnerable performance… One of my favorites as well, as it really made me pay attention to the screen. He was the only one who did a pure Lennon song, Jealous Guy. He normally plays a mean guitar along with the band, but this time, it was just him and a cello player. After the song ended, he even stepped off from the mic, face down, and took a second to regain his composure as the lights when back on. Emote!
Siobhan – Her voice shook most of the time on her Beatles-pick Across The Universe. She held back from screaming (as recommended by the judges) so overall performance was a bit boring. Without the screaming and the impressive showcase of Siobhans range, what are we left with? A nasally moan-ey register…and a gadawful outfit.
Lee – did Hey Jude and it was Hottttttt! I didnt appreciate that he did the song a few keys higher than original and it really put a strain on his voice. BUT overall, it was still pretty magical. i actually loved the bagpipes dude that started coming down the stairs… hahaha it was distracting, yes, but it was so fun, especially when he invited the audience to sing along. Even if he’s as modest as he appears on the show, he just successfully did a ‘Wow, rockstar moment…’ by involving the audience. Half of the other AI contestants can’t even do that!
My favorites tonight:
Casey
Crystal
Michael
Lee
It truly was hard to pick a favorite, everyone was above average to great tonight! Only disappointment was that Sir Paul was too busy to “mentor” the AI kids this season. Ah well, maybe next time! Gotta download this awesome episode!
If you have not seen last night’s show, check out this video package pre-performance on AI c/o yahoo
Tags: american idol
Posted by kitiwiti on Mar 20, 2010 in
Uncategorized This is the 9th season. Naturally, I think the judges, who sometimes give our random comments as if they cant really give constructive criticism, are finally locking down on what makes a star. And it isnt just one thing:
- possessing the x factor
- musicality : the ability to recreate/interpret a song song on their own by: rearranging song, changing tempo/genre,
- believability/sincerity
and lately
- the ability to have a “moment”* during every performance
- an immediate certain look/ genre (so people know what type of artist the singer is)
-(not a prerequisite by the judges but,) more-than-amateur skills at an instrument
* That “moment” Simon always talks about, is the ability to sing and give your audience goosebumps at a certain point in the song. A real singer has tapped into that sort of energy and should know how to do it again.
Sadly, many talented folks have left AI without even having to grace the top 12, while the popular cute kids get all the glory (Remember Sanjaya from season 6?). And with my favorite Lilly Scott (hated on by country lovin American grannies & the clueless prepubescent AI fans) and Lacey Brown (the girl with the Sixpence voice) voted out, I feel like wanting to boycott losing interest in the show. The remaining kids are talented alright, but so lackluster in spirit and originality! Some of them do improve weekly, but sadly, I don’t America recognizes which ones are actually doing it right.
Tags: american idol
