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2006-04-11 - 11:56 a.m.
American Idol: Top Nine and Preview for Tonight
So, I'm really late doing this. Last week was country night and Kenny Rogers was there to help the contestants. He did more than Stevie Wonder did as far as giving advice, but he was nowhere near as helpful as Barry Manilow. First up, I would have never recognized Kenny Rogers. The man has had some extensive plastic surgery. He doesn't look like himself, but he does look good. On the other hand, Ryan Seacrest, who was sporting a beard, looked terrible.
Here's a summary of my thoughts and rankings of last week's performances. I'm doing this without the help of my scorecord and notes, so it will be brief. I don't think anyone broke out and captured a win for the night.
PEOPLE I LIKED:
Chris Daughtry
Chris sang "Making Memories of Us" by Keith Urban. I thought he did well. Nothing mind blowing, but it was good.
Elliott Yamin
Elliot sang "If Tomorrow Comes" by Garth Brooks. I love this song. My only criticism is that Elliot didn't connect with it as much as I'd like. It's a really heartbreakingly emotional song.
Paris Bennett
Paris sang the overly played and overly sung "How Do I Live" by LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood. It's a Celine Dion/Diane Warren sappy crap song. However, I was really impressed with Paris' version and I liked it more than the original versions.
Ace Young
Ace sang another Keith Urban song, "Tonight I Wanna Cry." This is one of my favorite Keith Urban songs and I thought Ace did remarkeably well! He was a little shaky at the beginning, but he got into it and I thought it was very sexy. I liked Ace sitting down on the stool.
Kellie Pickler
Kellie sang "Fancy" by Reba McIntyre. For the record, I like Reba, but I hate her music. And "Fancy" makes me want to cut my ears off. That being said, Kellie gave a fun performance.
PEOPLE I DIDN'T LIKE
Katharine McPhee
Katharine sang "Bringing Out the Elvis" by Faith Hill. I hate this song! Again, Faith Hill is a nice lady, but her music sucks. I've even seen her in concert and I still think she sings crappy songs. In all honesty, it wasn't that Katharine sang poorly. It just that she chose a terrible song and the performance was spastic. I just wanted her to stop.
Bucky Covington.
Bucky chose to sing "Best I Ever Had" by Gary Allen, or Vertical Horizon, which is the version I'm familiar with. I'm surprised at Bucky's choice. I don't think it suited him. It just felt flat. Very disappointing for what should have been his night.
Taylor Hicks
Taylor sang "Country Road" by David Hasselhoff John Denver. Poor Taylor, this could have been a better performance, but he just wasn't feeling it. I liked that he was calm and all, but he sounded off, sharp, off key, something. I was disappointed.
Mandisa
Mandisa sang "Any Man of Mine" by *coughI hate her so much, she makes me violentcough* Shania Twain. This is the one song that I like of Shania's and Mandisa killed it. She couldn't keep up with the fast pace of the song and sounded out of breath.
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Okay so now for tonight's show. I admit this is the most exciting theme tonight ever, the music of QUEEN!
Yesterday I went through and made a wish list for what I'd like the contestants to sing:
I'm hoping Taylor will sing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." It's got that bluesy feeling to it that I think Taylor excels at. Plus, he could play his "craziness" into it.
I'm hoping it's Katharine that sings "Bohemian Rhapsody." In my mind she's the only one who could pull it off. Or "Killer Queen," I'd like to hear her sing that, too.
I love the song "Fat Bottom Girls!" I'd pick this one for Bucky since to me it has a bit of the Southern Rock edge to it.
I'm listening to this Gavin DeGraw version of "We Are the Champions." Elliot would do well if he sang it like this.
"You're My Best Friend" would be good for Ace.
Chris should sing "Another One Bites the Dust." Or the rocked out version of "We Are the Champions."
I think I like "I Want to Break Free" for Kellie.
Maybe "Under Pressure" for Paris.
SPOILER ALERT
USA Today has printed the supposed list of songs:
Ace Young, We Will Rock You: "I urbanized the verses a little, just by riding on (the notes). I put a little R&B soul on it. When we were done, they said, 'That sounds like a record.'"
Bucky Covington, Fat Bottomed Girls: "Yes, we all love the fat-bottomed girls."
Chris Daughtry, Innuendo: "It's a relatively unknown song. It just had a mixture of a dark feel and a positive message. And I just found out they've never performed this live."
Elliott Yamin, Somebody to Love: "I was drawn to the passionate emotion of the song. I heard a lot of soul in it."
Katharine McPhee, Who Wants to Live Forever: "How could (this) not be fun? We're working with so many different legends."
Kellie Pickler, Bohemian Rhapsody: "We only have 1 minute and 30 seconds, and the song is really long. Having to cut so many pieces is really hard to memorize, because I'm not singing the song as it's originally played."
Paris Bennett, The Show Must Go On: "Being with the band was a big experience to me, never being with a rock band before. I was able to pick a song that fits me, that's still rocky
Taylor Hicks, Crazy Little Thing Called Love: "You listen to a Queen song, it's really melodic and very powerful, and the dynamics (are) really cool."
If this list is accurate, I'm really disappointed in Katharine and Paris' choices.
I'm nervous but interested to see if Kellie and Ace pull theirs off or if they crash and burn like I think they will.
I'm really happy with Bucky, Elliot, Taylor and Chris' choices.
I just hope everyone goes balls out tonight! Queen deserves that dedication and respect to give it everything they've got.
I'm also hoping for a lot of Queen songs on the tour this summer!
