Tonight the final 13 contestants on American Idol perform the songs of Michael Jackson to narrow the field when results are announced tomorrow night. Many of them will have a hard time mastering Jackson’s songs. Paula Abdul will likely be positive, but expect Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson to be rather hard on the gang again tonight.
Here are some quick thoughts on how I thought each contestant did tonight.
Lil Rounds “The Way You Make Me Feel’ – She gave a very strong performance for being the first out of the box tonight. I agree with Simon that her fashion was horrible, but it was not nearly as bad as Paula’s makeup (horrible glitter-gold-bonanza all over her eye lids. Grade: B
Scott MacIntyre – “Keep the Faith” – I truly hated this performance and thought he totally ruined this rather obscure song. I have heard it a few times being a retro fan of Jackson’s music. Simon was right on. The singing was so bad that I didn’t know the good job he did on the piano. Let’s just be honest, Scott is talented, but he is not going to win ‘Idol’. Grade: D
Danny Gokey – “PYT Pretty Young Thang” – Gokey gave perhaps the best early round performance in the history of the show. He totally owned it and looked like a seasoned pro. He had the crowd into it, he danced, he had Paula and Karen singing backup at points. He blew the judges away and I am a believer in this guy. I agree with Paula, I believe he will be in the finals. Even Simon said the vocals were “brilliant”. Grade: A+
Michael Sarver – “You Are Not Alone” – Sarver is a country boy and he chose one of Jacko’s softer and cheesier songs (still a personal fave, remember MJ rolling around half naked with Lisa Marie Presley). He was extremely solid. He is likable and he very much will make it through tomorrow night. Grade: B
Jasmine Murray – “I’ll Be There” – I have a hard time believing this Mississippi native is just 17-years old. She has a great presence on the stage and looks like a star. She did a great job overall singing the song as Randy said. She likely won’t win the show because of her age and challenging songs that will trip her up in the next few weeks but she is one of the best contestants so far tonight. Grade: B+
Kris Allen – “Remember the Time” - He is really fresh, smooth and talented. He came out rocking with the acoustic guitar on this classic Jackson hit. He made the song fresh, acoustic and made it playable for today’s current radio format. He is popular with the ladies (he is married) and that will help get him through the next couple of rounds. It doesn’t hurt that he is very talented. Grade: B
Allison Iraheta -”Give Into Me” – This gal is just sixteen but comes across being about ten years older. She has a very mature voice and is more of a rocker than anything currently playing on the radio. She is a cuter version of Gina Glocksen. Easily one of the top performances of night. Bonus points for rocking one of Jackson’s more obscure songs. Grade: A-
Anoop Desai – “Beat It” – Bad song, bad performance, bad night for Anoop. Every single judge railed him for this performance beginning with Paula. It was as harsh as I have seen her be on a contestant. I have seen far worse performances on the show, but I have to agree it wasn’t good at all. I was impressed by how mature Anoop was in taking the judge’s beating and how he desires to be back next week to show everyone what he can do. I hope he makes it back next week. Grade: D
Jorge Nunez – “Never Can Say Goodbye” – This performance was very weird to me. I felt like I was in a dimly lit Puerto Rican club being served cheese straws and bad drinks. This is the first I have heard Nunez perform and I was not impressed. I started having bad flashbacks to episodes of ‘Star Search’ from the 80′s. The worst song selection of the night by far. The performance kind of reminded me of Borat. Grade: D-
Megan Joy Corkrey – “Rockin’ Robin” – She is a cute girl but I found her ink so distractingly bad. I swore at one point that she had stolen Nikki Sixx’s right arm and had it surgically attached to her shoulder. She reminds me a bit of Katy Perry, but Megan is not nearly as secure. She has that ‘crazy’ look in her eyes that scares the piss out of me. She will be back next week though. For the first time tonight I realized how much ‘Rockin’ Robin’ sounds like ‘Jailhouse Rock.’ Grade: C+
Adam Lambert – “Black or White” – The dude can sing and he had a great vocal and stage performance with this Jackson classic. He also probably most closely resembles Michael Jackson. The kid has years of experience doing musicals and it comes through. The judges were floored by him, but his performance scared me at parts. He was good, but at his worst tonight, he reminded me of Meatloaf. Grade: B+
Matt Giraud – “Human Nature” – One of the more underrated Jackson songs of all-time. Matt reminded me of Justin Timberlake, before Randy said it, and John Legend as well. Giraud was very true to the original and would give Jackson a run for a money with his performance tonight. One of the top three performances of the night in my opinion. He has a good shot at the finals. Grade: A
Alexis Grace – “Dirty Diana” – I really like Alexis. She reminds me of a mixture of Pink and Christina Aguilera. She chose a naughty Jackson song that gave her natural sex appeal. She seemed extremely confident singing and extremely shy and ackward before the judges. I thought her performance was very strong and reminiscence of X-Tina. Grade: B-
