American Idol 2009 Top 7 Show Reaction

American Idol 4/14/2009
Reaction

This week's song category was "Idol at the Movies." The contestants had the opportunity to sing a song that had been used in some sort of Hollywood film. The celebrity guest that they had on last night was Quentin Tarantino, which made absolutely no sense to me? Sure it was cool and he is a big name in the movie industry, but what sort of insight could he have given the singers? It would have been a better idea if they had pulled in either someone like Howard Shore (famous movie score composer, Lord of The Rings) or someone who had sang a memorable song in a movie (Whitney Houston, Mandy Moore, etc.). I was also a little disappointed that the songs that the contestants chose to sing were mainly songs that were played in the background of the movie. Nobody sang a song from a musical like Grease or Hairspray. That would have been cool. Sidenote, I went to the Twins game last night (great game!) and forgot to record the show so I had to hurry and find the videos on YouTube last night before they started pulling them down due to copyright infringements. I did find them however they were not of the high quality variety so keep that in mind when reading my critiques.

Allison Iraheta - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith) from Armageddon
Along with many of the other contestants, Allison was showing her age with the song choice of I don't Want to Miss a Thing. This was the biggest movie song from the 90s and for good reason. Allison's rendition and performance of the song was just OK. I am starting to get bored with Allison. Yeah her voice is good, yeah she's got some stage presence, but she is not engaging at all and all of her performances sound the exact same each week. She's got enough of a following and is good enough to keep going on into next week but she needs to spice things up a bit if she truly wants to be part of the top 5.

Anoop Desai - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You (Brian Adams) from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Just the fact that the song Anoop picked was from Robin Hood makes me want to vote for him! Based off of his performance he won't need my vote, but based on the way that Idol fans vote he probably will. For the second week in a row Anoop borught his A-game, this puts him right on schedule to completely suck it up next week. I hope, I hope, I hope that Anoop has realized that this is the type of song that he needs to sing if he truly wants to continue in this competition. Not that he deserves it but only because there are only 7 left, I think the Anoop will find himself in the bottom 3 this week.

Adam Lambert - Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf) from Easy Rider
Adam was back to his punk rocker ways last night and it "sort of" worked for him. Singing Born To Be Wild he screamed, he high fived the fans, and pumped his fist with the bass beat. Adam is a showman, there's no denying that. As the competition gets tougher and the number of contestants dwindles, people begin comparing these amature singers now turned celebrity to music legends. Most recently I have stumbled upon a bunch of people comparing Adam to Freddie Mercury and Axl Rose. In my humble opinion I think it is a stretch to jump out and compare these singers to legends of music past. Adam is not ever going to compare to Freddie Mercury and does not have the swagger of one Axl Rose. He's fine this week and is well on his way to the top 5, but let's not get ridiculous.

Matt Giraud - Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman? (Brian Adams) from Don Juan DeMarco
Matt Giraud's performance was just OK this week. However, not like Allison, Matt cannot afford just an OK performance. With the grinder that he has put himself through by picking poor songs, he needs to come out and blow people away each and every week. I really like Matt's style and his voice but for some reason he has yet to develop much of a fan base. Unfortunately Matt will find himself in the bottom 3 this week and potentially could be sent packing.

Danny Gokey - Endless Love (Lionel Richie and Diana Ross) from Endless Love
If there is one thing that has remained constant throughout the entire season it is this. After every Danny Gokey performance one of the judges makes a comment that goes a little something like this, "I saw that you were singing this song and I was like, wow that's a big song, be careful." And every time they say this they follow it up by saying that he knocked it out of the park! At this point in the race anyone who doesn't have Danny Gokey in the final 2 is flat out beind obsurd! Danny's performance last night was great and he seems to be hitting his groove. People are frowning on Danny because they don't think that he will be a successful pop artist if he wins the competition, yet based off of the competition there is no way that he won't get a shot at it! I think that Danny could find his niche in contemporary Christian music and could even see him cracking the pop charts. Danny will be safe this week and should cruise into the Top 5.

Kris Allen - Falling Slowly (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) from Once
For the first time in as long as I can remember Kris struggled a little bit with this song. He was away from his guitar and it just seemed weird. This was disappointing for me because I felt like this could have been a GREAT song for Matt Giraud or Danny Gokey to perform. Kris has built up enough equity to be safe but for the first time in a while he may be sweating bullets regarding the bottom 3

Lil Rounds - The Rose Lover (Bette Midler) from The Rose
Lil brought it a little bit tonight. There were more glimpses of the potential that Lil Rounds holds tonight than there were in the last 4-5 weeks! As she sang the song all I could think about was Napolean Dynamite and the performance of the Happy Hands club. Back to the task at hand, Lil put a lot of soul into her rendition of this song and it worked out very nicely for her. Sadly the last few weeks may have already sealed Lil's fate. I think that she will surely find herself in the bottom 3 this week.


Overall Predictions: after the 04/14/2009 performance show
Last week I went 3 for 3 in my bottom 3 predictions but missed with Scott getting voted off.

1. Danny Gokey
2. Adam Lambert
3. Allison Iraheta
   
4. Kris Allen
   
5. Anoop Desai
6. Lil Rounds
   
7. Matt Giraud - his rollercoaster trip will end on a low note tonight. Matt's going home.