It’s A Win-Win As Idol Producers Get Their Female Winner And I Get My Life Back

May 16, 2013 – 10:32 pm

For the first time, I am not recording the entire American Idol finale. My VCR is recording The Office retrospective and finale. My DVD recorder is recording The Big Bang Theory season finale. I set that recorder to start recording Idol from 9:30 to 10:20 knowing it’s going to run late and knowing if I use a screen cap with this blog entry, it will most likely be a picture of the moment the winner is revealed.

The show started with a group number I didn’t pay any attention to. It wasn’t very impressive but the number of former Idol contestants in the audience was kind of impressive.

The Band Perry rocked out their single Gone with the help of Janelle who sounded great and looked hot with them. She even got all the choreography down which made her look even hotter. Suddenly I’m feeling more optimistic about her chances of being a successful recording artist in the years to come.

A surprisingly funny (for Idol) explanation for the suspicious elimination of the five boys in a row included clips from their performances cleverly edited with bits showing how the devious girls secretly sabotaged them. We will never know what really happened this season with the boys but we Idol fans have no shortage of theories.

Candice learns she wins American Idol and Kree seems genuninely happy for her.

A surpringly in tune Frankie Valli medley was performed by the five guys followed by Frankie Valli himself coming out to sing with them. He sounded amazing especially considering he’s almost 80. Not only did he sound good, he sounded better than any of the boys who have almost a 60 year advantage on him. Keith Urban was really getting into it. I have a feeling Nikki didn’t recognize any of the songs except the theme from Grease.

Mariah sang a medley or something but I wasn’t paying attention because I was too busy going over what I had written in the previous paragraphs. She sounded good if you like that sort of thing.

Amber and Emili Sande sang the latter’s song, Next To Me. While pitch perfect, Amber sounded positively anemic compared to Emili.

Psy performed his latest release, Gentlemen, no doubt to remind Lazaro Arbos (or any of the other boys for that matter) that you don’t really have to have a good voice to make in the music business.

Keith graced the stage performing his new single Little Bit of Everything. I liked it. And thanks to his Idol tenure, I’ll get to hear it on the radio often this summer. It’s hard to explain but I liked was that the tone he produced from his guitar during his solo at the end of the song seemed to fit his personality perfectly.

Candice sang Inseparable with Jennifer Hudson who was there no doubt to remind all the boys and girls that you don’t have to win on Idol to have a successful post-Idol career. It was an emotional and impressive duet even if they weren’t singing in tune with each other some, actually a lot, of the time.

Angie sang Titanium, a staple of TV talent shows, with Adam Lambert. I thought they sounded fantastic together. I guess the producers really like her because after that, she got to sing with her idol, Jessie J. Again, she sounded fantastic. Apparently the duet with Jessie J. came at the expense of Angie doing a repeat performance of her own song which made her stand out during Hollywood week. To compensate for that loss, Jessie invited Angie to sing that song in concert in the UK this summer at one of Jessie’s concerts. Angie quickly accepted the invite.

The contestants talking about the judges was mostly lame.

Kree sang Keith’s song Where The Blacktop Ends accompanied by Keith on guitar and vocals and Randy on bass. I don’t remember the name of the drummer. He wasn’t a judge. Since it was a country song, it was perfect for Kree.

Kree performed with two judges. Candice sang with a former Idol contestant. Even though Keith and Jennifer are talented, acclaimed and have won all sorts of awards, I felt bad that neither of them sang with anybody outside the Idol universe. Angie got more airtime and got to sing with someone she adores. You’d think she was the winner.

A retrospective of Randy’s 12 years on American Idol was, for me, for you, surprisingly untouching. It made me nostalgic for Simon and Paula but even a softie like me couldn’t shed a tear for the departing dawg.

Aretha Franklin performed in an NYC recording studio while the top five girls performed with her on the Idol stage in Hollywood. A couple days ago she cancelled a few performances for health reasons. If this is what she sounds like sick, she’s more amazing than I ever imagined. She still has it. The girls were basically her backup singers.

Jennifer Lopez performed with Pitbull but nobody from this or any season. Then during the following commercial break that same song was heard in a Kohl’s commercial. In my day, she’d be considered a sellout.

I wonder if this opportunity to plug her latest dreck is a step to bring J Lo back as a judge. Rumors had her being pursued by Idol producers to replace the mindnumbing Mariah in the final few weeks of this season. I hope she doesn’t come back. If they have to recycle female judges, I’d much rather see Kara or Paula return. The first auditions for next season are in less than two months. If the judges are all going to be replaced, the producers are no doubt searching already. Actually, after they saw the ratings tank so badly, they’ve probably been pursuing new judges for weeks already.

Kree and Candice performed One Less Bell To Answer, their final song as Idol contestants. Then Ryan got the envelope with the name of the winner and didn’t even break for a commercial before revealing its contents. With his usual professionalism, Ryan declared Candice the winner. The nightmare farce of a season is over. Now I can get on with my life.

I’m looking forward to America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance but first I have to watch the season finale of Big Bang Theory and the series finale The Office. I hope I can do it. I still have on tape and unwatched, the series finales of Boston Legal and Veronica Mars. Unlike certain judges, sometimes I have trouble saying goodbye to favorite TV shows and avoid doing it altogether.

By Bob | Posted in America's Got Talent, american Idol, Talent Competitions | Comments (2)

Final Perfomances Generally Not Finale Worthy

May 15, 2013 – 9:08 pm

This nightmare season is almost over.

The first round tonight belonged to Simon Fuller, Idol producer, who got to choose songs for Candice and Kree.

Kree won the coin toss and chose to go first. Not sure why. Kree sang Sarah McLachlan’s Angel. It was a beautiful if somewhat sleepy performance. And the judges said nothing. Not sure why. I’m not complaining. I’m just not sure why.

Candice gave a much more spirited performance of Adele’s Chasing Pavements. . Round one definitely goes to her.

Photo chosen totally at random from my hard drive.

With the ladies off stage, Ryan went to Mariah for some comments and she brattled on about how good they were. Randy said the songs were sleepy and not good choices for either singer. For the record, I wrote sleepy in my review before he said it. We are on the same wavelength or else I’ve just gotten so stupid watching this show I am now thinking and writing with the same limited vocabulary as the head dawg.

Canadian Idol loser Carly Rae Jepsen came on and sang Take A Picture,the song she was asking us to help her with all season. It wasn’t nearly as catchy or memorable as Call Me Maybe.

Victory songs were premiered in the second round.

Kree’s All Cried Out didn’t seem like the kind of song you sing after winning the competition. It’s a good song though. It just isn’t the sort of thing you sing running the victory lap. Three judges stood for her.

Candice’s song I Am Beautiful was an overwrought, overly orchestrated piffle that did nothing to highlight Candice’s R&B or soul tendencies. It did not seem to be a song written with her in mind. Nikki decided to join the other three judges for this standing ovation. Nikki isn’t too obvious now, is she?

Keith said the songs were tailor made for both singers with Ryan commenting that Candice’s song was a bit more on the pop side. And he was right. Neither song was as good as Phillip Phillips’ Home but weren’t sappy like A Moment Like This.

Round two goes to Kree.

The final round was favorite songs performed earlier in the season. It was the singers’ choice.

Kree’s final song Up To The Mountain was pretty flawless. The judges all loved it. Blah blah blah.

Candice ended the show with I Who Have Nothing. I was hoping she’d do the Cure’s Love Song again. This song gave her the chance to really belt it out. This was the most powerful performance of the night by far. Kree should have chosen to go second. Keith loved it. Nikki commented on Candice revealing her legs. Randy once again plumbed the depths of his box of clichés and declared that Candice can really sing. Mariah liked it, too.

Round three goes to Candice.

I don’t really care who wins. I’ll watch the finale tomorrow knowing I’d rather be watching The Office.

By Bob | Posted in american Idol | Comments (2)

Just One More Week And The Dreary Madness Ends

May 9, 2013 – 9:35 pm

This past week, I was in Las Vegas. My return flight was scheduled to return at 6:30pm giving me plenty of time to get home, have dinner and even throw in a load of laundry before plopping down in front of my TV to watch the top three on American Idol. United Airlines had other ideas for me. I was stuck in McCarran airport for over six hours. Luckily I had a laptop to keep my occupied so I didn’t go totally crazy but I also didn’t get home in time to see the show. And I am amazingly fine with that. I didn’t really miss it. I don’t care anymore. Just about every show on TV is available online the day after it’s broadcast but oddly Idol isn’t. Therefore I don’t know how anybody did last night and don’t really care. I am so bored with this show this season I am not even recording it to get a screen shot for tonight’s review. The talent is uninspiring. The judges are depressing. And the future looks bleak for a show that gets beat by just about all the competition now.

The big news of the week, other finding those three girls kidnapped over 10 years ago on the west side of Cleveland, is that Randy has turned in his resignation to American Idol. Hip hip hooray. Of course, the word on the street is that he would have been finally getting his walking papers anyway. I may be bored with the show but my disinterest isn’t necessarily terminal.

In this pre-Idol photo, Kree looks like she's trying to channel the spirit of teen bride/wannabe sexpot and fame whore, Courtney Stodden. It didn't work. It's just not her style.

Awful audio marred the start of the top three’s rendition of Selena Gomez’s Who Says. Considering the top three singers are a country singer, a bluesy R&B diva and a rocker that only looks like a Disney princess, it was an awful song choice. However rumors floating around the net say Ms. Gomez is being approached to be a judge next year. I sure hope not.

Jimmy says he liked last night because the singers didn’t get to choose their own material just like in the real world and just like on his label. What a dick. When artists aren’t allowed to have the final say in what they release, they suffer. They become corporate puppets and not artists. It might explain why Haley Reinhart’s album on Interscope sucked so badly. Come to think of it, it might explain why most of the idols post-Idol career tank so quickly. One of the first things Kelly Clarkson did after she won was hire a lawyer to break her contract with 19 Management which turned out to be a brilliant move. How could she know how awful their track record would be before they even had a track record? Jimmy gave round one to Angie, round two to Kree and round three to Candice.

Lauren Alaina came on looking like the younger sister of the Long Island medium. I think she was trying to look sultry but I’m not sure.

A behind the scenes look at Mariah’s video screening had her telling the ladies that she doesn’t let others dictate what they will do with her because it’s her image and she claims ownership of it. This balances out Jimmy’s chauvinistic attitude about how to work with artists. Good for her. And she wasn’t even countering him purposely. She just spoke her truth.

Alicia Keys sang something and it was probably the best thing of the last two nights but I wasn’t paying attention. I was in the kitchen making hot cocoa.

Ryan finally announced one of the top two. The first person sent to the finale was Candice much to everybody’s delight. Then again, at this stage in the season, all three should have enough fans to unleash a wave of delight in the audience. The other finalist is Kree which made me happy. I think she deserves it more. That said, I was still sad to see her go. Fighting back a wave of tears, she struggled to sing her swansong. It was almost cruel to make her sing, Ryan. But they had three minutes to fill so she had to sing regardless of her lack of composure. That’s show biz.

By the way, Kree and Candice were predicted to win on Dialidol. If the numbers hold up and the margin remains as wide as it was this week, the season is Kree’s to lose.

By Bob | Posted in american Idol | Comments (2)