Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine American Idol

Okay, I don't want to make anyone mad, but I'm totally on the "Vote for Sanjaya" bandwagon now.

So does anyone know if this Sanjaya kid is at least close to being voted off? I've never actually watched an episode of American Idol, but I feel pretty bad for its viewers. I wonder if the formula will ultimately have to be changed?

Well, on the elimination show on Wed, he was not in the bottom three or the top three, so he's safely coasting by in the middle. The Dream Girls (Melinda, Lakisha and Jordin) were the top three, btw. That's as it should be, IMO.

Sanjaya is only a kid, so it concerns me that he's getting all of this very negative attention. I would not want my son in that position. I mean, it's pretty close to a William Hung type of thing. Still, maybe his family is strong enough to laugh through it all?

I have a confession to make. I am finding it harder and harder to get any kind of connection with AI this year. The two who are the best are a mile above everyone else and the others are either just good but not interesting or rubbish in a slightly dull way. The song choices have, with a few exceptions, been uninspired and dull and the theme nights are being done to death. If they just let them all sing songs of their choice that have nothing to do with a theme it might help, but I'm not sure it would. Anyway, on to this week...

Blake: If they could genetically modify pond slime so that it could sing and wear cheap polyester suits then it'd still be more appealing than Blake. He creeps me out with his slimy, creepy, plastic, fake performances and empty smile. His singing voice doesn't have any tone or depth to it and this week he took and classic song that should really be sung by a woman and should be sinister and creepy and managed to make it dull and poppy and completely seemed to miss the point of the song entirely. I am fully aware that I seem to be in the minority in thinking that Blake is one of the worst things to ever have appeared on a talent show of any kind (and we had Pop Stars: The Rivals here in the UK so we've had some real dross) but even if he wins at least I am safe in the knowledge that no matter how good any previous AI winners have been they will never, ever have a career in the UK so I'm unlikely to have to endure his vacuousness once this season of AI is done.

Phil: The Singing Penis had too much make-up on again this week. He also appeared to be singing a completely different song from the band. Possibly to a completely different musical scale from the one they were playing in. Or he might have been communicating with the penis shaped aliens that have planted him here in Earth. I find it hard to believe that squawking and squonking that was issuing forth from his throat was actually singing.

Melinda: Mel has let me down a bit the last couple of weeks in that the spark has been missing but she was back with a vengence this week. She looked like she was having a good time on stage, which she hasn't done the last couple of weeks, and she managed to both tell the story in the song and sing it perfectly without losing that connection with the audience. If there was any justice in the world everyone apart from Melinda and Jordin would get the boot right now (with Lakisha getting the third place obviously) and we'd just go to the final with those two since they're clearly the only ones that actually deserve to be there. I am fully expecting one or other of them to go next week...

Gina: Actually I really rather liked this. It showed a different side to her, showed that she can sing and showed that she can do a nice simple song without having to shout. Not a patch on Melinda but still not bad at all. There was now way on Earth she deserved to go this week even if she never really had a chance of winning.

Chris: Now everyone knows how much I enjoyed Bucky's incomprehensible burblings last last and how much I have missed. Well fret no more since Chris has taken the challenge and run with it! Not content with trying to become the psychopath to win American Idol he has now clearly decided that people will like him much more if he wears a hat over his eyes (which at least gives us hope that he might not be able to see where he's going and trip off the stage with hilarious consequences) and mumbles every single word of the song he is currently ruining. Not quite as amusing as Bucky since Bucky actually made some noises beyond a muffled burp and still managed to make no sense whatsoever, but it's nice to see someone following his example.

Sanjaya: Weak vocals, hideous ill-fitting suit and cringe inducing sucking up to Paula in the hope that maybe she'd give him a good review. Which she didn't. If Paula refuses to give you a good review then you know you suck. Vote For The Worst has a lot to answer for.

Jordin: Not a great song to be honest but not a bad performance of it. Not her best week but again it was something different from what she's done before and she performed very well. She's clearly not got the experience of Melinda but she's got the potential to have a huge career.

Haley: My gods, that was a hideous arrangement of the song. It was kind of like they didn't know what they were supposed to be playing so hedged their bets and played *everything*. Haley was OK. Not bad, not great, just... ah, who cares? Of all of the them she's the one that I really can't be bothered with. Seems like a nice girl but she's unbelievably dull and should have gone weeks ago. America can do better than her, they really can.

Lakisha: I'm not sure why but I really didn't like her performance much this week. She looked fabulous but she started off with a string of seriously bum notes and it never recovered to my mind. I didn't think it was awful but nor did I think it was as good as she can be. Not quite sure why the judges raved about it so much, but then again they like Blake and even an OK performance from Lakisha is a million times better than Blake's best performance ever so it's hard to tell with them sometimes.

So this week we had Melinda giving the one and only really good performance and the Singing-Penis and Sanjaya proving that in America you don't actually need any talent whatsoever to become famous. That's probably true of the rest of the world as well mind, but since I am watching AI the Americans can take all the blame for the time being.

Sketchy, I agree completely with your list of how the top 5 should go.

Melinda's going to be huge regardless and doesn't need this. Jordin for the next AI!!!!

Anyone know the theme for this week?

ps/ AI would benefit greatly by going the DANCING W/THE STARS route, and limiting votes to 5 per phone line.

I mean, sure, they may get 35 million votes in as it is now, but if those votes are only coming from 4 million people, that's really not right.

Hmm. Well, we knew this elimination was happening sooner or later. No real surprise, but I felt like Phil should have gone first after last night's performances.

Yawn

Amazing. Doing Latino music definitely took the best singers out of their "comfort zone". None of the good singers were able to sing AND move at the same time and ALMOST none of them were able to summon the passion of the Latino style into their voices.

-heh- it's harder than it looks isn't it?

Carlos Santana should forbid AI from EVER doing his music EVER AGAIN! I happen to LOVE that Santana album and they murdered it. ...maybe murder isn't a strong enough word...butchered might be more appropriate. In any case they stank.

Ok, who turned this week into the Bizarro World episode?
Sanjaya did his song beautifully. The ONLY contestant to have the courage to sing in Spanish knocked it out of the park.
WTF!?
I still can't believe it.

When I finally saw who Ryan was teasing as the two with the lowest votes I actually got excited for a moment. Then I thought, "It's Haley...dammit." Not that I wanted her to stay exactly but I absolutely hate Phil. Yeah, her performance was abominable but I want "the singing penis" to go SO badly. (love that phrase -thanks for that Sketchy)

YK, that's Bevis' phrase, not mine! But I don't care for Phil....

Latin Week really clarified for me, the problem I have with this year's contestants. JLo kept emphasizing passion and connecting a feeling with the songs, and I just don't get that from these guys. I guess I like Jordin best because I feel like she does put some emotion into her performances. Melinda second.

Compare them to Fantasia, who puts SO much emotion into her performances, or my other favorites, Bo Bice and Kelly Clarkson. They just really got into it. Carrie was at her best when she showed some emotion and at her worst when she was more robotic and kinda stiff.

It was just "tick tock" til Haley was cut. She's cute and all, but her performances were SO Carnival Cruise ship!

Now THAT was more like it! I really enjoyed tonight's show.

Phil opened, and was better than his usual awful self.

Jordin rocked, as usual.

Sanjaya still sucks.

Lakisha did good I thought but the judges didn't like it.

This isn't really Chris' musical genre.

Melinda & Blake were both excellent, with Melinda having the edge to take the # 1 spot of the night!


WHO SHOULD GO HOME: Sanjaya of course.

WHO WILL GO HOME: Phil will be heading down the country roads.

Country music night made it hard to pay attention.

Phil didn't make me want to pay attention, though he was apparently better than usual.

Jordin did good. She can really sing the big songs, but just loses me when she tries the more pop ones.

Sanjaya, eesh.

Lakisha made me revert to not caring.

Chris: "Nasal is a style of singing." Fine, stop singing in that style, please. More smiling & eye-twinkling is all I require from you.

Melinda pulled out a perfect song choice. I even paid attention to it. Plus she delivered, as usual.

Blake... I sort of stopped paying attention again, but he's still adorable.

Oh, could this FINALLY be the end of the "journey" for Sanjaya? Geez, I hope so. But I fear Lakisha may be in danger, too. I didn't *love* her last night, but I don't think it was as bad as they judges thought. Melinda looked (and sang) great, Phil excelled at country but I still don't like him, Chris was a hot mess but still cute, Jordin sang a dreadful song quite well, and even though all my friends love him, I'm just not on the Blake train yet.

As far as I'm concerned, Phil and Sanjaya are the same. Decent voices but not great. Decent looking but not great. No star quality. It's beyond annoying that they're both still there.

Chris is only a little better than those two.

It did seem like Lakisha was shouting that song. I know it was in order to show her passion, but it came across as just loud.

I really like Blake, so I'm probably easier on him than normal, but this time, I'm not sure he hit all the notes he needed to. He always gets points for difficulty and complexity. He does have true presence onstage. I just worry about his lack of lips.

Melinda put together another blockbuster performance! She's just got it together and she didn't look 50!

My favorite this season, and last night, is Jordin, and her most recent performance proves why. She has excellent stage presence, she has drama and emotion, and she can nail the big finish. Love that! She was amazing and I echo Randy's constant statement about how this is coming from a child of 17. (Believe me, I know that some 17 year olds are pretty much adults, but not all of them are...) I remember when another youngster, Diana DeGarmo, sang "Broken Wing." She was good, too.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

And is it just me, or did it seem like Simon KNEW Sanjaya was a goner?

I am generally quite underwhelmed by most of the contestants on AI this year. I refuse to believe that all the singing talent in America has already been used up, but if the likes of Sanjaya and Chris are the best the country can do then gods help us all. Anyway...

Actually, the singing penis wasn't bad this week. He still looks like he has an inch of make-up on and in the results show the Phantom-Hat-Placer had struck again but he wasn't appaling. Just not brilliant. One of the best of a fairly bad bunch though...

Jordin. Bloody hell the girl is good. She knows how to build up a song properly without the start of the song dragging or being dull. She looked stunning and even though she clearly lacks the experience that Melinda has she's potentially at least as good a singer. I'm really going to be miffed if she's not in the final two with Melinda.

Sanjaya. About bloody time. Even though this week he was utterly appaling he was still pretty shocking. He's wet and ever so slightly creepy and just a not very good singer. There's no way he should have got this far in the first place but thank gods he's finally gone.

Lakisha. Right, I am now officially over Lakisha. She *should* be fantastic, and she's got a great voice but she simply doesn't seem to know how to perform in any way that actually has any life to it. I don't really understand why since she's clearly come from a gospel background and she should be able to bring that joy and excitement to her singing and she doesn't. Even though she clearly wasn't comfortable with the singing style none of the others were either and didn't seem to let it get to them. In the end, after going on and off key for most of the song, she ended up just shouting. There's a fine line between belting a tune and shouting it. Jordin belted and built up the story of the song as well as the musical build. Lakisha... well, she didn't. Unless she can really do something great soon I don't care if she gets the boot or not.

Chris. Aw feck off you creepy serial killer whiny nasal slimy little turd. Who the hell was voting this little pysho into the top four? 'Nasal is a singing style'. What? WHAT!??!!? No it's not you little pillock, it's an excuse to cover the fact that he can barely sing in tune and thinks that by droning through his nostrils we won't notice. His hideous white denim jacket didn't help matters. Mostly, however, his piggy little eyes and droning honking of a fairly rubbish song was enough to make me want to lauch him into space and then cheer as he flames and burns on re-entry.

Melinda. Yay! The diva is back! A brilliant choice of song and showed that not only can she sing in tune but she can keep up with a keep up with something like that. She looked stunning and looked like she was having a whale of a time. Easily the best performance of the night (although to be fair Jordin wasn't much behind) and I'm so glad she's recovered from a couple of slightly meh weeks.

Blake. I... just... I mean, it's... there's just... I mean, seriously, how... urgh. Just... urgh. He gets slimier and more hideous every single bloody week. His singing this week was actually pretty shitty as well, which is maybe the one thing I've not been able to criticise him about before. However his tank top pulled down over his arse made him look like he was a four year old who has been dressed up smart by his parents and wants to take his trousers of and run around in the mud. Except he's not cute or endearing or pleasant in any way at all. He's one of the most unpleasant, vile looking, slimy little wastes of space to ever appear on a TV sacreen. Of course the one small mercy was that the public have actually seen enough sense to put him in the bottom three. Now all you need to do is not vote for him at all and maybe we can get rid of the little prat.

So, Melinda and Jordin were great, Phil wasn't that bad and the others shouldn't really have bothered turning up. You'd really think with the top seven we'd be a bit better than that...

CHRIS

me: He's so freakin' CUTE, but I'm still not a big fan of the vocals.

bf: He IS so freakin' cute, and his vocals aren't necessarily the best but they aren't horrible.


MELINDA


bf: She can do NO wrong.

me: Agreed. Even if she doesn't win, she won about 9 weeks ago.


BLAKE

me: Still my favorite guy. I, er-- find him a BIT more physically appealing than Bevis and think he should be top 3. LOVE his style in clothes!

bf: DEFintely the # 1 guy; One of the first times he has ventured out of his vocal style.


LAKEISHA


bf: First week: YES. Since then: AVERAGE. Sad to say, would not be upset if she left.

me: I'm sorry, but Fantasia OWNS that song.


PHIL

me: Didn't even really pay attention. He cannot hold my interest.

bf: Honestly, Sanjaya could have stayed and Phil left, and it wouldn't have affected anything.


JORDIN

bf: CUTE as all getout; should be in the finals.

me: I still want her to take it all.


WHO SHOULD GO HOME:


me: Phil

bf: Phil


WHO WILL GO HOME:


me: Phil

bf: Unfortunately, Chris

I liked the variety of songs performed, I like that type of music in general.

Least favorite to most favorite...

6. Lakisha. She's a doll and all, but no on can touch that Fantasia song. She really should have done a classic gospel number or something.

5. Chris. I'm just not much of a fan, but his vocals were fine, no problem.

4. Blake. Maybe he should have been my #5, but I like him more than I like Chris. I think sometimes I'm liking Blake's potential more than I like his actual performances. Or, I've liked some of his past performances, so I hope they'll all be that good. He was middle of the road for me, this time.

3. Phil. Surprise! Phil is high on my list this time! I don't really know that Garth Brooks song, but I thought Phil soared on it! Somehow, by dressing nicely and just standing still, he didn't irritate me, visually.

2. Melinda. I don't know that Faith Hill song, but Melinda really delivered on it! Lovely.

1. Jordin. I love when my favorite(s) do songs that I adore. I have "You'll Never Walk Alone" by *several* artists on my iTunes, and I sing it myself, in karaoke. I LOVE that song (my favorite version is by Elvis)! Honestly, I detected a couple of pitchy moments during her performance, but still, she blew the roof off with it! Great!

I wasn't home when the show was actually on, but I *would* have voted. I suppose now would have been the best time.

Now, to read what you others have posted....

Heh, it's just me and Lash and bf so far....

I think it may be Lakisha who goes.

Man, I love Lakisha, but she is REALLY frustrating me with her song choices. She could have done something really fantastic last night, but she chose that crappy song? She clearly has no imagination when it comes to song choice. Still, I voted like crazy for her, because I want her to outlast Chris (he's adorable, but..), Phil (ick) and even Blake (he's good, but I just never feel "moved" by him).
I would love a Top 3 of Jordin, Melinda and Laksiha, but I don't think that's going to happen. Actually, DialIdol.com predicts the bottom 3 this week will be Blake, Melinda and Chris--but they aren't always reliable. I imagine Lakisha will be in the Bottom 3, and I am HOPING Phil will be there and go home...but I doubt it.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the stars tonight! I hope it doesn't come off super-cheesy. They can fit a LOT of commercials within a two hour show....

My favorite part was Kelly Clarkson's song, then the Celine Dion/Elvis duet.

I love that there was no elimination!

jeff beck on guitar, but i didnt watch it, just caught a glimpse, what the hell was kelly wearing cause she looked pregnant.

Heh! Someone on youtube joked that it was only a special effect making it *look* like Jeff Beck was on stage with Kelly. Hee! I think someone else made a Mama Cass joke about Kelly, but I'm currently denying any such comments about her, cuz I luv 'er too much.

I'm in love with that "Up to the Mountain" number. I've found 2 other artists that have recorded it. Sorry, forgot their names. I'll look 'em up and post....

Hey, what happened to Pink and Gwen Stefani? Dropouts?