American Idol 2009 - Murray & Nunez

American Idol 2009 Analysis, 3/13/2009 - Day 1
Now that I am fully encapsulated in this years American Idol, thanks in part to my lovely wife and lovely mother, here is my analysis of the Top 13 remaining Contestants. Today I will focus on the first two who were voted off of this years show, Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nunez.





Jasmine Murray - Starkville, MS
Jasmine was the first casualty of the 2009 season. While Jasmine was never one of my favorites she proved that she has a large amount of potential. She is incredibly young, only 17 years old, and has impeccable stage presence. She proved that she knows how to work the crowd and how to engage the audience into every performance, but she was missing just one minor element of the competition...she doesn't have the greatest voice. Throughout the competition she showed glimpses of what could be but it was never consistent. Her song choices seemed a little plain and boring as well. In the first couple of rounds she sang, "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles, "Reflection" by Christina Aguilera, and "Man in The Mirror" by Michael Jackson. Her first and third songs were popular in their own respect but were very simple songs compared to the songs that her competitors were choosing. On top of this she never attempted to make the song her own. With the exception of a few times where she would change the pitch here, she showed no musical creativity and it ended up being the exact same song that these stars released off of their cds. There was no bravado in her arrangements and the judges made her aware of this observation. There are a lot of things that she has going for her though. He personality and looks alone will get her places in life and at the age of 17 I know that we will see her again to some extent in season 9 of American Idol.  Jasmine Murray - Eliminated March 11th, 2009



Jorge Nunez - Carolina, PR
Jorge was the second to fall this season. Unfortunately I think that he was a casualty of the shows producer. Jorge barely made it on the television until the round of 36 was chosen. His audition and performance in Hollywood week was void of drama and tears, thus his footage did not make in onto the airwaves. Usually this tactic can go one of two ways. By not being featured on TV you can avoid the chance that the audience will get bored or annoyed with you, ultimately resulting in nobody voting for you when they have the chance. Or you will just be forgotten and never really "included" to the same effect as the other contestants. Regrettably, Jorge fell victim to the latter. People never really got to know him. The first feature they did on him was this last week when we got to meet his family in Puerto Rico. By then is was too late, everybody had already picked their favorites. Jorge sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John and "Never Can Say Goodbye" by the Jackson 5. He did not fail to impress the judges with his vocal ability, however his true personality was shadowed by his nerves once he reached the stage. He never seemed to come out of his shell and fell victim to the publics vote.  Jorge Nunez - Eliminated March 11th, 2009

Next Entries Feature - Adam Lambert & Alexis Grace...stay tuned!