American Idol Top 10 Theme was Flawed

I had car trouble tonight so I did not write a review. I thought Ramiele should go as well. The early MSNBC line has Ramiele at 36% Chikezie 24% and Kristy at 17%.

I'm pretty sure the bottom three will be Ramiele, David A, and Chikezie with Ramiele going home. I don't think the miss start by Brooke hurt her much if at all. The only two performances that stood out to me were Michael Johns and David Cook. If Cook doesn't go multiplatinum after this competition, I'll be extreamly suprised. I've said in my posts about what song would I put on a mixed CD from any one week. With that David Cook performance, I'd go out to and purchase his whole CD!

Cook was born in 1982 and since Jackson didn't come out with the hit until 1983, I fail to see how the song qualifies under the theme let alone the Cornell version that came out more than 20 years later.

Thriller the album was released in 1982 and featured "Billy Jean".

I'll be back for a full recap of what I thought later on...

Ramiele needs to go home. I can't remember when she didn't give a mediocre performance. I'd put up with another mediocre performance from her if it meant Archuleta was going home, but that ain't gonna happen. I can tell he's good, but I just don't like him.

My wife said KLC was smart for singing "God Bless the USA" because no way would people let her go for singing that song.

Televisionwithoutpity said this:

America is awesome. When you trot out this bull@!$%# sentimental warmed-over brainless hateful crap, you are seriously disconnecting yourself from America and why it's great. It's like Hallmark cards: the opposite of caring. You cannot let somebody else tell you what your heart says. Just by singing this song, the Colonel is saying that she hates America. The real America that is made with blood and bravery and strength and love, the real America that demands that you draw your circle as wide as you can and spend every day serving it with your hands, that goes right out the @!$%#ing window when you pass the buck to some stupid @!$%# song like this. And you know who eats it up, because it's always the same @!$%#ing people that eat this vomit, are the people who are too lazy to think about America or love her in the first place. I hate this @!$%#ing song, I hate this stupid girl, and I hate that this is happening, because my whole theory about how this show reflects the wider culture cuts both ways and I don't want to think about that. These are our people and they deserve to be loved, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let anybody tell me that this is the best that we can be. We are more than this.

Ok, so I'm back for more. So this week was better than last week, but it still wasn't as good as the original Beatle's week or the first '80s week. Yea, I'm gonna say it, "birth year week" or whatever they want to call this week was really just '80s week part two, considering that all but one or two contestants were born in the 80's.

Did anyone else notice, that at least for the first half or so of the show that Randy seemed more critical than usual while Simon seemed more forgiving? I think there was even a time when Simon liked someone's performance more than Randy, which must have been the first time that's happened.

Ramiele Malubay - "Alone" - This was terrible. Her voice could not hand this song at all and in many parts she wasn't synchronized with either the band or the backup singers. She's gotta be in the bottom three this week.

Jason Castro - "Fragile" - I agree with Simon that it just didn't seem like Jason tried all that much this week. It seemed like he just grabbed his guitar and started playing. This was another performance that completely reminded me of "a guy in a dorm with a guitar at midnight" or a street performer. I think next week he needs to try a song that will show off his vocal range some, try to recapture what he did during "Hallelujah".

Syesha Mercado - "If I Were Your Woman" - She's more or less the "diva" of this group, but compared to bast "divas" on this show she's really nothing special. This song was a good choice for her, but she's really just not all that interesting. She's not bad, just forgetful.

Chikezie - "If Only for One Night" - I don't like this Chikezie. It's almost like he's trying to be a male diva, and I don't care for it all. When he sings like this I'm just bored.

Brooke White - "Every Breath You Take" - I think the Stalker's Anthem may be the first non-happy song that Brooke has sung. I think the song really works for her, but she was clearly sick and out of it this week. She messed up at the beginning, her voice was nasally throughout and she just seemed off. But the thing is, she put so much effort and heart into it, that you totally feel the emotion and it almost works. I think Randy was right that the song was far better at open with just Brooke and her piano and that when the band came in the song fell apart. I think if she was healthy she could have nailed the fast part with the band, but because she was limited by health she should have kept the song slower paced and more simple and just let her passion and heart own the song.

Michael Johns - "We Will Rock You"/"We are the Champions" - First off, these songs are two separate songs. Just because everyone always plays them together doesn't mean that they are the same song. Second, I kinda didn't like this performance. I felt it had the same problems as last week in that he was trying to do too much in his minute and a half. Maybe one of those songs could have worked, but playing both did not work. I felt it was too scattered. He also still does the most awkward things with his arms and body.

Carly Smithson - "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - I'm not sure if Randy really knows what words actually come out of his mouth. That said, this was a good song for her, though I was a little bored. She has a habit of basically singing the song exactly the same way as the original artist, so it becomes a really great karaoke performance... For her to take the next step I'd like her to try to arrange a song to make it hers and own it.

David Archuleta - "You're the Voice" - I'm glad Simon called him out this week. This whole performance was terrible. The song was bad, the performance was bad, and his voice was nothing special. He almost reminds me of a Vegas act, like a poor man's Wayne Newton from back in the '60s. He better damn be in the bottom three after this.

Kristy Lee Cook - "God Bless the USA" - I guess this was a good choice for her, though its over-sentimentalism made me throw up a little in my mouth when she first starting singing. Maybe she can find her niche singing semi-patriot songs with country undertones. Though if she breaks out in John Mellancamp's "This is Ooouuurrrr Country" next week, I will throw my shoe at the television. This was her best performance so far, but that says more about her past performances than the current one.

David Cook - "Billie Jean" - This was a brilliant performance. I like that while he did the Chris Cornell "rock" performance of this song, it still let he vocals dominate. The the accompanying music by the band was subtle and complementing and was background to his vocals. That's been his one weakness so far in that I don't think he's placed his vocals on display yet, but with this song he's finally done that and it worked magnificently.

Great Review, but "Beetles" seriously!!! Beatle's

Beetles????????
try Beatles !!!

Duh, vacelts! "Sharp" is a real musical term. It was not Randy's new made-up word. Sharp basically means that the note the girl sang was slightly higher than the note she was supposed to sing. That just makes it sound bad or out of tune.

Thank you, Morgan, for pointing out that 'sharp' isn't a made-up term. If you're sharp, it basically means that you're higher than the note intentended but lower than the next note on the scale. Flat means the opposite - lower than the note intended but higher than the next lower note on the scale.

Another correction - Fragile was on "Nothing Like the Sun" which did indeed come out in 1987. It may not have been released as a single until 1988 but that doesn't seem to have mattered for most of the songs that were sung on Tuesday.

At this point in the competition, people will be going home if they aren't viewed as able to win the entire competition. Chikezie or however you spell his name didn't have a chance of the crown; neither do Ramiel (who was so sharp or flat in the first half of the song that I had to mute it), Michael Johns, Jason Castro (total lounge singer, and barely a good one at that), Kristie Lee Cook (very bad Carrie Underwood wannabe without a shred of her charm or vocal talent) or Brooke White.

I think it's a toss-up at this point between:

David Archuleta, who fans keep around because they either want to squeeze his head off and hang him from their rear view mirrors or because they recognize that he's extremely vocally talented. The boy does know how to work the audience, too.. it's just the overwhelming shyness that takes over as soon as the song ends that is going to start hurting him as the competition narrows.

David Cook, who admittedly had the best performance of the week, but I'm sorry, I don't get the "You're soooooo original!" gushing from the judges/the public. He basically sounds like Eddie Vedder or any of the other emo/rock bands of the last 20 years. Yes, his arrangements were original, but his voice/style are nothing new. As someone who was terribly glad to see that genre of music/singer fall out of popular appeal, I don't really want it to come back.

Carly Smithson / Syesha Mercado - both of these ladies have phenomenal voices but have had mixed results when it comes to connecting with the audience. Carly has the upper hand here, and since rocker voices seem to last longer than diva voices, she'll probably last longer.

I don't exactly know who wrote this article, or if it is a public site where anyone can write a column but in journalism, generally you check your grammar and spelling. And lacking a bit of research! It was chalk full of information, but the grammar and spelling errors were distracting. If they are going to continue to write a column here, they should really consider having someone proofread their work! By the way, The Beatles (one of the greatest and well-known bands of all time), spell their name as such--not Beetles! UGH!

I don't exactly know who wrote this article, or if it is a public site where anyone can write a column but in journalism, generally you check your grammar and spelling. And lacking a bit of research! It was chalk full of information, but the grammar and spelling errors were distracting. If they are going to continue to write a column here, they should really consider having someone proofread their work! By the way, The Beatles (one of the greatest and well-known bands of all time), spell their name as such--not Beetles! UGH!

"Sharp" is a musical term meaning the note was sung higher than it was supposed to be. Randy has used it before and it's been used for centuries. The inverse term is "flat" meaning the note was sung lower than intended.

Kristy Lee Cook was out of tune through most of her performance. I can't believe the judges didn't say anything. Guess they don't want to dump on the patriotic song.

David Cook sings amazing, but he's cocky and doesn't have enough charisma.

David Archuleta sings great, but is getting a little boring.

Brooke White is often out of tune and sings the same type of song every week.

Syesha's personality doesn't connect twith the audience. We need a soul felt story out of her.

Jason Castro is my favorite! This week was a little boring, but I've loved all of the previous song choices and he made them so unique and great! He is usually the only one who has songs, with a few exceptions) that I can listen to over and over again.

Carly seems like a poser to me. She sings techically well, but her whole persona seems fake. I don't connect with her, although she does have a cool accent.

Ramiele is out of tune every week. Parts of her songs are good, but she's so inconsistant that is difficult to finish listening to her songs.

Michael Johns is also out of tune often enough to make it annoying. Yes, he has a nice personality and has a couple songs he can really sing, but that's it. He can't sing the majority of songs well like an American Idol needs to.

"Sharp" is a musical term meaning the note was sung higher than it was supposed to be. Randy has used it before and it's been used for centuries. The inverse term is "flat" meaning the note was sung lower than intended.

Kristy Lee Cook was out of tune through most of her performance. I can't believe the judges didn't say anything. Guess they don't want to dump on the patriotic song.

David Cook sings amazing, but he's cocky and doesn't have enough charisma.

David Archuleta sings great, but is getting a little boring.

Brooke White is often out of tune and sings the same type of song every week.

Syesha's personality doesn't connect with the audience. We need a soul felt story out of her.

Jason Castro is my favorite! This week was a little boring, but I've loved all of the previous song choices and he made them so unique and great! He is usually the only one who has songs, with a few exceptions, that I can listen to over and over again.

Carly seems like a poser to me. She sings technically well, but her whole persona seems fake. I don't connect with her, although she does have a cool accent.

Ramiele is out of tune every week. Parts of her songs are good, but she's so inconsistent that is difficult to finish listening to her songs.

Michael Johns is also out of tune often enough to make it annoying. Yes, he has a nice personality and has a couple songs he can really sing, but that's it. He can't sing the majority of songs well like an American Idol needs to.

I agree with a lot of what people have said here...but I have to say that I think David Cook and Michael Johns are the two best. Cook is just brilliant....he could be the lead singer of a band like Audioslave today!! I think that he is better than Chris Daughtry. I am getting tired though of Ryan and the judges saying that this is the year has the "best contestants so far in the history of idol". I think that is a bunch of crap. There are great ones every year, and I can think of a couple of years that had stronger contestants than this year. There are only a couple that I am impressed with this year. But what will Idol do if a rocker wins? Can you see Cook singing some cheesy, weepy slow song? And what the hell ever happend to Taylor Hicks?