Thursday, April 26, 2012

Season 11 Top 6 Elimination Reactions

58 million votes.

Queen Extravaganza perform.

TMZ session.

Jessica Sanchez. Top 3.
Elise Testone. Bottom 3.

Bushy Casey Abrams visits.

Stefano Langone performs.

Hollie Cavanagh. Bottom 3.
Joshua Ledet. Top 3.

Katy Perry performs.

Skylar Laine. Bottom 3.
Phillip Phillips. Top 3.

Skylar safe.

Elise out.
Hollie safe.

Elise is like a rockfish, a bottom dweller. But a few weeks ago she suddenly toned down her grating rasp, and I actually started to like her. She got what she wanted out of Idol, and that is exposure. Now it will be much easier for her and her band to get good gigs. That's assuming Jimmy doesn't sign her.

*Update: I'm wondering if Jimmy just set Phillip up for an earlier than expected exit. Jimmy was talking about Phillip's illness, his struggles, his lack of energy, and how that left an opening for someone else to be in the finale. Look for Phillip to be "voted off" before the finale to ensure that Idol's embarrassing string of wgwg winners finally ends. But don't think he actually had less votes.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Season 11 Top 6 Performance Reactions

1. Jessica Sanchez
2. Elise Testone
3. Phillip Phillips
4. Joshua Ledet
5. Skylar Laine
6. Hollie Cavanagh

Details:

Group Queen Medley. Time filler.

*Round 1:

Jessica Sanchez. A nice girly version of the song.

Skylar Laine. Good verses, but not enough voice for the big parts.

Joshua Ledet. Mic looks like a hair dryer. Fine job.

Elise Testone. Extra points for the tambourine? Good song for her voice.

Phillip Phillips. Bucky Covington's exit song. Not much you can do with it.

Hollie Cavanagh. Really good on the verses. But didn't take it anywhere.

*Round 2:

Jessica Sanchez. I never liked that song before, until she sang it.

Skylar Laine. Good, but what's there to judge?

Joshua Ledet. Nice job, but his voice is not quite smooth enough for a song like that.

Elise Testone. Interesting. Not bad.

Phillip Phillips. Totally bizarre. Great.

Hollie Cavanagh. Nice job, but you know, it's "The Climb."

*Summary:

Only Phillip moved up after the second round because I like the bizarre stuff.

Monday, April 23, 2012

American Idol's Right to Manipulate Votes

Here I will prove once and for all that American Idol can manipulate the votes any way they want without penalty. This from AmericanIdol.com's FAQ:

"What's being done about power dialing?
The American Idol voting process is administered and carefully monitored by an independent vote management company. The producers, in consultation with this independent vote management company, reserve the right to remove so-called “power dialing votes” (via toll-free, AT&T Text Voting and online) that are identified as having been cast in such a significant block, either by technical enhancements or otherwise, that it could unfairly influence the outcome of the voting."

Their statement is all kinds of silly.

The "independent vote management company" is Telescope. Telescope alone should determine what are unfair votes since it is purely a technical issue. The producers of American Idol have no business being involved in the process. The fact that they are involved in the process opens the door for them to manipulate the votes any way they want.

The definition of "fair" is whatever they want it to be, therefore they can do whatever they want to do. When they "reserve the right," it means they may or may not use it, and they decide how much to use it if they do. They make their own rules. There is no risk of them getting caught cheating because they are involved in determing what are fair voting results in the first place.

This proves once and for all, that American Idol gives itself the right to manipulate the votes any way they want.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Colton Dixon Conspiracy Theory

Colton Dixon voted off at #7 on Season 11.

Conspiracy Theory.

It's hard to come up with a conspiracy theory for Colton Dixon when he was sitting at the bottom of DialIdol. Even though voters have other ways to vote, it's still a dangerous place to be. But I'll offer a theory anyway.

The conspiracy theory is simply based on this: Discord between Colton and American Idol.

There were reports many weeks ago about Idol asking Colton to downplay his Christianity, yet Colton did not hide the fact that he wants to be a Christian artist. Thus there may have been an ongoing struggle behind the scenes between Colton and Idol over song choice.

Colton may have become increasingly agitated with Idol over the issue, which culminated in his "I don't care" proclamation over the judges' critiques.

We also have Jimmy Iovine one day telling us about Colton's solid female voting bloc, then trashing his performance the very next day, as if to set up his ouster.

That's pretty much it. Colton wanted out, so Idol let him go.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Season 11 Top 7B Elimination Reactions

53 million votes.

Group number.

Joshua Ledet. Safe.
Hollie Cavanagh. Bottom Three.

Taylor Hicks announces Vegas gig.

Kris Allen performs.

Elise Testone. Bottom Three.
Skylar Laine. Safe.

Dick Clark tribute.

LMFAO performs.

Jessica Sanchez. Safe.
Phillip Phillips. Safe.
Colton Dixon. Bottom Three. Surprise.

Elise safe. Nine lives indeed.

Colton out?
Hollie safe?

Huh? What happened to his text-voting little girl army? Are they still around? Did they leave?

Colton is at the bottom DialIdol this week, second to the bottom last week, but I figured it didn't matter because of the text votes. Very strange. It just goes to show that being at the bottom of DialIdol is still a dangerous place to be.

This is one to think about for a while.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Season 11 Top 7B Performance Reactions

1. Phillip Phillips
2. Joshua Ledet
3. Jessica Sanchez
4. Skylar Laine
5. Elise Testone
6. Hollie Cavanagh
7. Colton Dixon

Details:

*Round 1:

Hollie Cavanagh. Good song for a belter. Good job.

Colton Dixon. Bad Idea. Not enough meat in his voice for that song.

Elise Testone. Great song for her. It's all about power, which she's got. And no sign of her grating rasp.

Phillip Phillips. That was a Phillip Phillips special right there.

Jessica Sanchez. I feared the song choice, but she handled it just fine.

Skylar Laine. Not a good song choice to compete with the other girls.

Joshua Ledet. Only Fantasia herself could do it better.

*Round 2:

Hollie Cavanagh. Oh my, bad Hollie returns. Sigh.

Colton Dixon. Bad Idea II. What's up with Colton?

Elise Testone. Kinda disjointed. Never caught a groove.

Phillip Phillips. He's just plain kicking butt tonight. Simple as that.

Jessica Sanchez. She just cracked my head somehow. But an odd song choice.

Skylar Laine. Finally, a girl who improved in the second round.

Joshua Ledet. Not bad, but he's sounding a little worn.

*Summary:

Only Skylar moved up in rank after the first round because Hollie and Elise did so poorly.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Season 11 Top 7 Elimination Reactions

Group number.

Hollie Cavanagh. Left side. Our left.
Jessica Sanchez. Right side.

Wonderful, a Nigel game.

James Durbin performs. Odd little mic.

Phillip Phillips. Joins Hollie.
Elise Testone. Joins Jessica.

Meaning Jessica is in the Bottom Three.

Jennifer Hudson performs.

Joshua Ledet. Joins Jessica.
Colton Dixon. Joins Hollie.

Skylar. Safe. Refuses to pick group. Put with Hollie.

Joshua, Elise, Jessica Bottom Three.

Joshua. Safe.

Elise. Safe.

Jessica out. Why bother? Saved by Judges' coup.

Jessica needs to dumb it down and sing songs geared towards an unsophisticated audience.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Season 11 Top 7 Performance Reactions

1. Jessica Sanchez
2. Phillip Phillips
3. Joshua Ledet
4. Colton Dixon
5. Skylar Laine
6. Hollie Cavanagh
7. Elise Testone

Details:

Skylar Laine. I just hate it when a little girl holds a big guitar. It hides her, it's distracting, and it affects her breathing, which is always a problem for her anyway.

Colton Dixon. He doesn't do the falsetto switch nearly as well as DeAndre. Nice otherwise.

Elise, Phillip duet. Time filler.

Jessica Sanchez. I swear she must have black blood. Young Filipinas generally can't sing stuff like that.

Joshua Ledet. Not quite right for his voice, or maybe his mic was not set up quite right. Still good, though.

Colton, Skylar duet. Time filler.

Hollie Cavanagh. Holliepops. Sounds good. But the singing was ponderous, and her elephantine delivery didn't fit the acoustic guitar.

Phillip Phillips. This was good Phillip stuff.

Holle, Jessica, Joshua trio. Time filler.

Elise Testone. Not good. Very unpleasant.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Season 11 Top 8 Elimination Reactions

Jennifer video.

Joshua Ledet. Safe. Duh.
Jessica Sanchez. Safe. Duh.

The Wanted perform.

DeAndre Brackensick. Bottom Three.
Colton Dixon. Safe.

Hollie Cavanagh. Bottom Three. Duh.
Skylar Laine. Safe. Duh.

Kellie Pickler performs.

Elise Testone. Bottom Three.
Phillip Phillips. Safe.

Hollie safe.

Elise safe.

DeAndre Out.

Judges' Save: No.

I can only wonder what DeAndre would be like if he had the kind of early training that Jessica got. He's still young, so he can still improve greatly.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Season 11 Top 8 Performance Reactions

1. DeAndre Brackensick
2. Joshua Ledet
3. Jessica Sanchez
4. Colton Dixon
5. Phillip Phillips
6. Skylar Laine
7. Hollie Cavanagh
8. Elise Testone

Details:

DeAndre Brackensick. It's subtle, but he's good.

Elise Testone. She needs more pace for her rough, limited voice.

Sklyar, Colton duet. Time filler.

Phillip Phillips. Not a good song for his voice either.

Hollie, DeAndre duet. Time filler.

Joshua Ledet. Not much context to his screaming. But still good.

Jessica Sanchez. Not enough song for her to sing. Bebe Chez dumb.

Elise, Phillip duet. Time filler.

Hollie Cavanagh. It messed her up to move. She should have just stood there and belted it out.

Jessica, Joshua duet. Time filler. But a good one.

Colton Dixon. Nice, but Cyndi Lauper does not present much of a vocal challenge.

Skylar Laine. Very nice try for a small voice.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Elise's "Whole Lotta Love" Overrated

Elise Testone's "Whole Lotta Love" performance appears to have become the most overrated performance in Idol history. I will explain, in simple analytical terms, why it is so overrated.

It comes down to this: Degree of Difficulty. Elise is singing the song in the original key. For a guy, it's very high, but for a girl, it's very comfortable. No strain, no danger. All Elise has to do is sing the song in her normal loud, rough voice, and it's done. Easy, like a walk in the park.

Compare that to the vocal mine field Jessica had to navigate through, which she did with skill beyond her years, and there's no way Elise's performance should be rated above Jessica's. No way.

And what about Adam Lambert. Adam creates his rock voice. He adds tension, sneer and extended vocal range. If you watch his performance from Season 8, he's working very hard. No walk in the park for him. So there's no way Elise's pedestrian version should be rated above Adam. No way.

This is why Elise Testone's "Whole Lotta Love" has become a whole lotta overrated.
AEvangelista - American Idol Blog