American Idol - Season 6 (1 Viewer)

[RAF]

I don't see how you can make that statement (Jordin outperforming Melinda) without actually seeing (hearing) Melinda perform last night. And I don't really understand all the people jumping on the bandwagon with this opinion of a comparison that could not be made without both contestants performing. I might be in the minority here, but in my opinion, Jordin is more of a shouter than a singer. Yes, she has 17 year old charm going for her and all that girlish innocence, famous dad, good potential etc., etc. And yes, she out sang Blake last night (including the atrocious "original" song). But let's not forget that many, many people thought that Melinda was the far better singer on a consistent basis. No matter what the judges might claim about "this is a singing competition" we all know that it's not - for if it was, Sanjaya wouldn't have made it to 7th place and Melinda would have been on that stage tonight with Jordin or Lakisha.

In my opinion, Melinda's worst performance was technically superior to any of the six performances tonight and I have no reason to believe that either of the two finalists would have "smoked" her based on the evidence. All I have to go in are performances I actually saw and heard, not hypothetical performances that never materialized.

In the final analysis, Melinda was not there because she didn't get the votes, plain and simple. America has shown time and time again that this is a popularity contest and not a singing competition no matter what "the judges" claimed tonight.

To me, the most entertaining moment was Blake's first song. After that the show was downhill from there. And I agree with those who have suggested that they get rid of the "original" song competition and presentation. That song wasn't fair to either the performers or to the audience, in my opinion.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

BTW, as far as tonight's performance goes, I have to say that Jordin won by a landslide -- if this truly is a singing competition. And she also beat Blake based on performance in two of the three songs. (BTW, she made "This is My Now" seem like a decent song! That alone should win her the competition! )

OTOH, what do I know? I thought it would be Melinda and Jordin standing toe-to-toe tonight, so it still wouldn't shock me at this point if Blake wins ...

 

[Greg_S_H]

I preferred Blake, though I doubt he'll win. I didn't like that Fighter song at all, and Jordin wasn't pronunciating (as Diana Ross would say) too well at the beginning of it. I loved her first performance of Broken Wing, but the second go-round with it was not nearly as good. She has a tendency to lose control when she goes for the big notes, and she was doing it a lot tonight.

 

[Hanson]

Let’s get the Melinda Situation out of the way first. Did Melinda deserve to go? Over Blake? Are you kidding me? That’s just ludicrous. That’s not even a valid question. But to understand why she went is precisely what I’ve been harping on for weeks – Melinda sounds old. Real old. And her fans can go on about how she was gypped because of her looks, but the truth is, she made no effort to sound, say, younger than 60. Do you realize that the only song she sang from the 21 century was Have a Nice Day during Bon Jovi week? It’s just mind-boggling. And yet, she was in the thick of it because she was very talented, and that talent coupled with a humble demeanor brought out the vote of wheelchair bound geriatrics who slowly dialed her number every week (slowly because of their arthritis and rotary dial phones). These were the voters that gave Taylor the crown last year, and while the higher age limit seemed to win over all sorts of older viewers (including the likes of David Hasselhoff and Judge Judy), the show kind of got pulled out of the kids’ hands, sort of like when Dad gets the kids a Nintendo Wii and then ends up hogging the controller all night. “Go to bed kids, daddy wants to go bowling.”

Before I spell out exactly why Melinda got voted off, you have to understand that when there is a limited number of phone lines and everyone is trying to vote at once for a small number of contestants, a bottleneck is created. So if all three contestants’ phone lines are at capacity during the voting window, the result is that all three contestants end up with the same number of votes (BTW, I read this once on a forum, so if you can poke holes in this argument, remember that I’m just the messenger). Which means… the one with the most text votes wins. But what’s different about this year’s final three vote versus last year’s?

Here’s my senryu on the subject:

Melinda ousted!
Unlimited texting plans
don’t help old singers

Up until this month, text messages either cost fifteen cents each or you could buy a plan with a set number of text messages included for flat fee (say, 300 texts for $5). While text voting is still limited to Cingular phones, Cingular subscribers can, for $20 a month, vote hundreds or even thousands of times at no extra cost. This means two things – 1) the kids have taken the show back, and 2) unless they figure out how to level the playing field for next year, a gang of texters can simply take over the show. By the time someone dialed Melinda’s number 20 times (and registered maybe 3 votes), their grandchild texted Blake’s number hundreds of times. Which is why Melinda got the boot.

Before we get to the show, I have to ask – WTF was Blake thinking by going first after winning the coin toss? You always go second. You want to see what you need to beat. You don’t want to be the one to set the bar, especially when, in Blake’s case, the bar is set so friggin’ low. Did you think Jordin was nervous in any way after watching him embarrass himself on stage all night? What a numbnuts.

Blake – You know what? It’s not just that I think the sounds effects are lame. Or that the shtick with the stuttering and beat boxing is so cornball it’s practically vaudeville. What I don’t get is this – who likes this stuff? Or thinks it takes real talent? Or that, even if you found it entertaining, how does it redeem the total lack of vocal talent? In the immortal words of Simon Cowell, I don’t want to be mean but… do you like Patch Adams and listen to Amy Grant? And are you excited about next week’s Full House marathon? Let me guess – Easy Cheeze on a Ritz qualifies as an hors d’oeuvre? Oh, and BTW – the performance was LAME. Also, I made up the part about the Full House marathon. Sorry.

Jordin – My concern with Jordin was that she hadn’t really been able to string together more than two solid performances in a row before unleashing a shriekfest on national TV. Even worse – most of the solid performances had one too many blemishes for my taste. So I was pleasantly surprised at how solid and spot on Jordin sounded tonight. There was a bit of shakiness during the bridge, but this is about as good as she’s been this season, and she really just blew Blake away. I have no idea why Simon gave this round to Blake – did he dip into Paula’s pain medication?

Blake – As I suggested last week, Blake chose another song with non-descript vocals in order not to be upstaged by the original. And again, he chose a Maroon 5 song. But this time, the results were quite lackluster. Besides the usual vocal mediocrity on display, Blake was frequently flat and had a pretty weak falsetto – it reminded me of the episode of the Brady Bunch when Peter sang It’s Time to Change with a cracking pubescent voice. Oh, and the song itself was plodding. I didn’t know who wanted to get it over with more – me or Blake.

Jordin – While slightly shrieky at times, A Broken Wing was another impressive outing for Jordin, and this time my wife got goosebumps. An almost flawless performance, Jordin totally blew away Blake this time around. Maybe if Jordin were following Melinda her nerves may have gotten to her, but after the Blake’s pathetic display, Jordin had no pressure and knocked this one out of the park. And if Randy can take sartorial tips from Idi Admin, Jordin can take a fashion page from the Emir of Kuwait.

Blake – If someone stumbled onto Idol for the first time by watching this episode, they would probably wonder how this is a “competition” in any sense of the word. Because Jordin is so far out front that Blake is like an afterthought to the Jordin Show. This is easily the most lopsided final since Justin v. Kelly, and at this point, Blake appeared to just give up the fight. After being thoroughly outclassed twice, Blake had the unfortunate task of singing a song that was way too rangy for him to tackle. And for all the talk of “originality” surrounding Blake’s arrangements, when faced with the prospect of singing an original song with no point of reference to guide him, Blake choked big time. Big time. For one thing, there were enough bum notes to fill a homeless shelter. For another, he seemed to run out of breath, run out of steam, and lost focus. It almost sounded like he was winging it at the end. How pathetic was the performance? Not even his parents could muster up much enthusiasm. And I just couldn’t understand the outfit – the cuffed short sleeves made it look like a waitress uniform topped off with a bedazzled sweater vest and a skinny tie. He should lose for the outfit alone – seriously. I can only assume he dressed that retardedly to distract from his terrible performance.

Jordin – As she was about to sing, the one thing than ran through my mind was, “it’s in the bag – just don’t choke.” And when she started rather shakily I thought, “oh no – she’s gonna choke!” And then… she didn’t. She just chewed up Blake and spat him out. She totally went Nagasaki on him. Now, let’s be honest – for all the hoopla about a song writing contest, it was the same sounding dreck from previous seasons. It’s plodding, it’s uninspired – it’s just another variation on A Moment Like This (I mean, come on – it’s called This is My Now – how much more similar can it be?). That said, she did a nice job with what she had, taking advantage of all the opportunities to let loose with soaring notes (that gave my wife goosebumps), and there was enough emotion to make it listenable (she even choked up at the end). I don’t think there are any words or pictures to describe how much Jordin outperformed Blake other than to say he was the proverbial one legged man in an ass-kicking contest. I almost feel sorry for Blake except that he did perpetrate the Jimmy Walker Blue video, and that plus his last outfit should banish him to the ring of hell reserved for self-deluded dumbasses. If you dare to watch it (and I don’t know anyone who lasted more than 30 seconds), that video is 10 minutes of tortuous unfunniness – but the almost incomprehensible thing is, if you think about it, that those were the 10 best minutes they had – in other words, there are hours of even less funny footage out there. We must collect all of that footage, place it in a rocket, and point it to the nearest black hole for disposal. For our children’s sake.

Unless there is a disproportionate flood of text messages for Blake, it looks like Jordin will win this without breaking a sweat. I mean, even if you went into tonight’s show liking Blake, you couldn’t possibly want him to win after that debacle. Could you?

 

[RickGr]

The best performance of the night was the very last one.

Way to go Chris!

Is that the first time a previous contestant has performed on the show using his/her own band, playing an instrument and singing a song he/she wrote?

 

[RickGr]

I think Blake's future is as a producer in the music industry.

 

[ChristopherG]

Totally concur with that.

 

[mylan]

I agree completely with this. It is telling that his song is used at the results show and not some previous winner (and I mean Taylor). He has got the whole rock star thing going on, the entire band did well.

My prediction: Anybody that can make that song sound good has got to win, Jordin Sparks to win it all.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Just watched it (time differences), and am jotting down these thoughts before I read everyone else's comments.

Short version: oh dear.

Discussion: the initial talk about this being the best ever finale was seriously overblown. Whilst I haven't watched all seasons of AI (didn't see S1 at all, only caught the last bit of S2, have watched it all since), I daresay this might have been the weakest, it certainly is of the 5 finales I've seen.

Blake's relatively weak singing voice was brutally exposed tonight. Even his "You Give Love A Bad Name", which he sang reasonably well on Bon Jovi night, wasn't very good. The rest, less said the better.

Jordin didn't actually bring it either. Her "Broken Wing" was better earlier in the competition, "Fighter" was off, and the AI special song, when Simon actually lavished praise saying she wiped the floor with Blake on that, wasn't really saying much considering how piss-poor Blakes' performance of it was.

Jordin will win, but I'd say it's by default. I'm just surprised that both Randy and Simon were willing to say so without reservation (Paula as usual waffled).

A separate thought: Chris Daughtry didn't sing very well either, especially compared to the recorded version of "Home". Goes to show how difficult singing live is.

OK, now having read comments, ThomasC, looks like most of the booted looked pretty bored too, not just Melinda.

Agreed. I almost never heard Melinda sing a bum note, never mind a bad song. I can only remember one instance of Melinda having to scoop a note (i.e. she hit it low and had to go up), and even then it was just a bit. Jordin was certainly off-pitch here and there last night. Blake? Never mind, let's not go there.

Oh well.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Right. Because beatboxers share so many fans with Amy Grant. This comment, more than any other, shows a complete disconnect with the reality of the situation. From a serious side, as I've said before, I've seen Justin Timberlake beatbox. If there's a more "in" pop male singer today, I don't know who he is. As for the joke, it'd have made more sense to wonder if the beatbox fans are people who sit around watching Disorderlies on infinite replay.

I don't think Blake is talented enough to be a Top 2 contestant, but that's because I don't think Blake is talented enough to be a Top 2 contestant. It has nothing to do with the fact that he beatboxes. The whole Blake discussion gets a little complicated in my eyes because while I think he's undeniably talented at beatboxing, he's no more than an average singer, and he is a bit cheezy. I have no problem with him being in the Top 10, though, as I think he'll make the American Idol tour more entertaining. Ability to sell records? I'll leave that to the prognosticators, but I don't see it.

Anyway, thanks for joining us for another season of hilarious recaps. Looking forward to next year!

 

[RAF]

Actually, the best performance of last night (as always!) was the recap by Hanson Yoo. By far.

I'm looking forward to next season for one reason - the weekly summaries and separated at birth references.

I also loved the senryû! Let me offer my own (with a seasonal reference to qualify it as haiku):

Melinda was great
(but twentieth century)
Snow on the rooftop.

 

[TonyD]

maybe i missed it but has anyone seen the latest sanjaya news and video?

http://www.tmz.com/tmz_main_video?titleid=909923402

 

[phil-w]

Although Jordin certainly outclassed Blake, last night, both of their performances left me longing for Melinda. There is no way that Jordin could hold a candle to Melinda's vocals, and that was proven throughout the competition.

If this wasn't just a popularity contest, Melinda would have won, easily. I really don't care who wins tonight, in fact, I am secretly wishing Blake wins, just to piss everyone off.

 

[Hanson]

What I was trying to get across is that people who are impressed by Blake's "talents" are easily impressed and have low standards. I don't know if it came across that way to most people.

And RAF, very nice haiku/senryu hybrid. The little narrative turn makes it more authentic than mine.

Here's my reworked senryu with a narrative turn to make it more authentic:

My parents bought me
An unlimited text plan
Melinda ousted!

 

[Albert_M]

It makes me scratch my head when someone calls last week shocking. I don't think that I am that smart, but it seemed obvious for several weeks now that Jordan had the combination of quality singing and charisma and ultimately the overall package to win and be the 12 year old's American Idol, not Melinda.

Also I did notice that shot of her in the audience and she looked evil....

 

[Malcolm R]

Agree 100%

Just when I didn't think they could find a sappier final song, AI goes and tops themselves. But again, wasn't it picked by popular vote on the website? So that would explain it.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I agree with the 'B' for Jordin and 'C-' for Blake. And a 'D-' for the evening's track list (which hampered both of them, but Blake much more), although I missed Daughtry, so whatever he sang (his run-of-the-mill hit, I assume) doesn't count. You Give Love a Bad Name was the only song that's even worth a listen, and Blake's performance was inferior to the first time he did it.

Who are the idiots voting for these original songs, and what sort of aural nightmares are the tracks that *didn't* win?!?!?!

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> nice to see Chris Daughtry on stage tonight.

Yeah, too bad we didn't get a full hour of him instead of what we actually saw.

I thought it absolutely sucked to make both people sing the same crappy song back to back... that obviously taints the competition in favor of whoever is best suited to that song.

Plus it's just boring to hear the same song back to back. Oh, did I mention that the song SUCKED? I can't believe it won a songwriting competition. It almost makes me appreciate "Do I Make You Proud", that piece of crap Taylor got stuck doing last year.

 

[EricSchulz]

Just got the chance to watch the show and read the comments...

I will predict, despite being a horrendously excrutiating "song", "This Is My Now" will hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Jordin should win, hands-down...Blake was pathetic on his Maroon 5 choice and even worse on the original "song".

[I feel that I should really refer to it as an alleged song, since LEGALLY there is no proof that a song really exists...]

WHO THE F*** dresses Blake!?!?!?!?!?! When he was first shown at the back of the stage for his last number, I thought he was a living, breathing Cabbage Patch Doll. I think his alleged "stylist" should have warned him about the blond streaks on his head clashing with the pattern on his sweater.

Can't wait to wade through and hour, fifty-five minutes of filler to find out the results.

 

[mylan]

Thats why I'm going to watch the Lost finale and FF to the last fifteen minutes of A.I. (the only part that counts)