This week, American Idol revisited a theme from past seasons -- songs from the contestants' year of birth.
That resulted in performances of a bunch of tunes from the '80s and one from the '90s.
A recap, from the Associated Press:
Lil Rounds continued her streak of disappointment on "American Idol."
The 24-year-old Memphis mom's eyes welled with tears as judge Simon Cowell derided her performance of "What's Love Got To Do With It" Tuesday night as a "second- or third-rate version of Tina Turner."
...She has lost momentum in recent weeks, while Adam Lambert has emerged a serious front-runner on the popular Fox network competition.
The 27-year-old actor from Los Angeles received a standing ovation from none other than Cowell following his rendition of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.
...Cowell and his fellow judges loved Matt Giraud's slick take on the Stevie Wonder hit "Part-Time Lover." They also gave Danny Gokey high marks for his cover of Mickey Gilley's version of "Stand By Me." They praised Anoop Desai's performance of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," although Cowell deemed the North Carolina college student a "singing yo-yo" for his erratic work.
...[Allison] Iraheta, who has an easy laugh and can do an uncanny impression of Gokey, performed Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me." Judge Randy Jackson compared her to original "Idol" Kelly Clarkson, declaring: "She could sing her face off and so can you!"
Cowell suggested Scott MacIntyre go back to what he does best — playing the piano — after the 23-year-old from Scottsdale, Ariz., tried his hand at the electric guitar.
...Kris Allen generally gets good reviews, but the judges' panel mostly soured to the heartthrob's cover of "All She Wants To Do Is Dance." Cowell used some of his favorite words — "indulgent, boring, forgettable" — to describe it, causing audience members to shout their support of Allen: "You're hot!!!"
Responded Cowell: "So am I, but it's not about that."
Milwaukee's own Danny Gokey gave another solid performance. Born in 1980, Danny sang Mickey Gilley's version of "Stand by Me." He is so consistently great. GO DANNY!
More and more, Idol watchers seem to be picking Adam Lambert as the favorite to win Season 8.
I think Adam is generating more attention than Danny this week because he once again deviated from his more typical frenetic performances.
Vocally, Adam Lambert returned to the style that won him such praise when he performed "Tracks of my Tears" two weeks ago. No jumping around the stage. No shrieking. Again, he wore no chains, no black leather.
He sang a haunting version of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, the Gary Jules/ Michael Andrews arrangement. It's so much better than the rather dorky original.
Video of Adam's performance.
Because the one hour live show was running late, there wasn't time for all four judges to give their critiques.
SIMON COWELL: The bad news is we're running out of time. The good news is I'm the only one who's gonna be talking, and I think words are unnecessary but I want to give you a standing ovation.
That move was quite a statement from Simon. I think it was deserved.
It's becoming clear that this is a contest between Danny and Adam.
Although Adam would be a worthy winner, I'm sticking with Danny. Of course.
2 comments:
I don't watch American Idol so I'm not 100% sure, but I bet it was a cover of Gary Jules' version of Mad World. Youtube that song it's fantastic!
That's right. It was Gary Jules' version. He deserves credit for the arrangement and reworking the song.
Actually, Adam really copied him, except for the high notes, and he struggled with that last one. A little too high.
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