Home Television Television Episode Blog TV FLASHBACK: American Idol Season 8 Revisited
TV FLASHBACK: American Idol Season 8 Revisited
Written by US Townhall staff   
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 04:05

American Idol Finals - Week 7 Performances 4/21/09

Well, we correctly predicted last week's bottom 3, but found ourselves surprised by Matt Giraud's getting the least number of votes. He won't make it to the final 3, but last week was too soon for him to go. However, now that the Judge's Save was used, the contestant with the fewest amount of votes will definitely be going home from here on out. This also means that tonight two contestants will be voted off the show so that the season can still end on time in May.

This week's theme was "Disco Night," and we were very pleasantly surprised by the amount of creativity that most contestants showed in making these songs relevant for today. On the surface, it would seem that the guys were at a disadvantage because disco was predominantly a female-driven genre. However, the guys really came through and generally did better than this season's remaining two female contestants.

(1) Lil Rounds sang "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan. This song was also done in American Idol 4 by Vonzell Solomon during "Dance Week." Coincidentally, that week also featured the top 7 of that season (that was the week where Bo Bice stole the show with "Vehicle"). This time, it was just another medicore performance by Lil. Lil has basically gone as far as she can in this competition and each week reveals the limitations of her talent. Lil has a natural vocal ability, but she would benefit from some formal vocal training to iron out the few kinks in her voice. At this point, there is very little to say except to agree with Simon that this will likely be Lil's last week in the competition. PREDICTION: BOTTOM 3

(2) Kris Allen sang "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer. Kris turned in a very original performance on this 1983 dance (but not actually disco) hit. Paula hit the nail on the head by calling it Santana-influenced. As for her comment about Kris being a man willing to "shop in the women's department," if we could translate, it seemed Paula was saying that most men may not be able to take a song written by a woman for women and feel comfortable singing it and making it sound authentic coming from a man. If that's what she meant, we agree. Kris gave one of his best performances with this song, and it reminds us of past contestants like David Cook and Blake Lewis who took familiar, somewhat corny songs, and made them legitimately cool. PREDICTION: SAFE

(3) Danny Gokey sang "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire. Like "I'm Every Woman," this song was also sung during Season 4. Anwar Robinson actually got voted off after his performance of this song back then, but we think Danny will fare a whole lot better. It was an energetic crowd-pleaser as usual for him, and the liberties Danny took with the routine melody of the song really paid off nicely. PREDICTION: SAFE

(4) Allison Iraheta sang "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer. Allison brought a slow start and a rock guitar to the song, making it decidely un-disco, but totally Allison. We felt this was a smart move on her part to morph the song to fit her style rather than try to play at being a disco diva. The ending felt like she stopped singing long before she was supposed to, but overall we liked this performance. However, Allison has been in the bottom 2 twice before, and while we feel she has leapfrogged over Lil Rounds in this competition, she is still somewhat vulnerable. Ordinarily, we'd feel very confident in declaring her safe, but since two people have to be eliminated tonight, we're a little iffy in our predictions. PREDICTION: SAFE

(5) Adam Lambert sang "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman. Sticking with his proven winning formula, this was Adam's slow week. He delivered a stripped-down version of Elliman's track from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack which wasn't quite as emotionally poignant as his performance of "Mad World" two weeks ago, but at this point in the competition, Adam is really just competing with himself. We agree with Randy in that Adam is already professional-level and ready to record an album. We disagree with Simon in that it was a sure bet that Adam would do some campy, flamboyant discoy performance because Adam's instincts in this competition have been rock solid thus far, and he would know better than to derail his own forward momentum by being so corny. PREDICTION: SAFE

(6) Matt Giraud sang "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees. When Ryan announced that Matt would be singing this particular song, we immediately thought that Matt had cut his own throat and had squandered the second chance the judges gave him. "Staying Alive" is just so emblematic of everything that has been endlessly parodied about the disco era: the white polyester suit, the falsetto male singing, the tacky flashing lights and disco ball -- all of it. Singing this particular disco song should have been the kiss of death for any contestant foolhardy enough to try it. However, this turned out to be one of our favorite performances of the night. We liked the way Matt brought the vocal pitch down to a level that wouldn't give seizures to dogs and bats. We liked Matt's interaction with the background singers. Most of all, we liked Matt's infusion of hip hop dance moves into his performance, and we loved Matt's surreptitious use of John Travolta's famous finger pointing gesture. It made it a cool callback rather than a corny copy. We don't know what the hell Simon saw or heard in the theater, but he was way off in his critiques of Matt's performance being desperate and lacking originality. Unfortunately, Simon's words have the most weight of any of the judges, so if Simon says you were bad, then many people watching will just take Simon's opinion as their own without any filtering. Therefore, Matt is in danger. PREDICTION: BOTTOM 3

(7) Anoop Desai sang "Dim All the Lights" by Donna Summer. Again, when we heard that this was Anoop's choice, we feared the worst. However, we enjoyed Anoop's take on this, the third Donna Summer song of the night. We disagree with Simon when he said the song shouldn't have been taken uptempo. We feel that the lyric of the song is so slight that to sing this as some sort of heartfelt ballad would have elicited laughs from the audience. Anoop, like Allison, did the classic disco arrangment of doing the first verse slowly and then kicking it up for the remainder. We felt this worked much better. Not fond of the slightly off-key final note, but overall this was a good performance. However, as we've stated before, Anoop simply doesn't have the fanbase that some of the other contestants have, and after Simon's crushing criticism, he will undoubtedly fall into the bottom 3 once again. PREDICTION: BOTTOM 3

As we stated last week, you can divide the top 7 into 2 groups: the 3 frontrunners, and the four remainders. Nothing that happened last night made us change our minds, and, in fact, we feel that tonight's bottom 3 will be the same bottom 3 from last week: Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud, and Anoop Desai. However, if Allison appeared in the bottom 3 in place of either Anoop or Matt, we wouldn't be totally caught off guard.

This will be a difficult elimination because 2 contestants have to go -- almost one-third of the remaining people. For us, Lil Rounds is a lock for elimination, while the other is quite a bit up for grabs. If we were picking, we would want it to be either Allison or Anoop over Matt, but Matt did receive some of the harshest drubbing from the judges after Lil. However, we're going to put ourselves out on a limb and say that the two contestants to go tonight will be Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai.



 

MORE INTERVIEWS...

  

the-apprentice-logo-thumb UslanMichael-resize-thumb 30-rock-thumb agnes-nixon-thumb BenSpierman-thumb big-brother-logo-thumb bobby-flay-thumb Bridgeboy-logo-thumb
cast of The Apprentice 10

BATMAN film producer MICHAEL USLAN

Sherri Shepherd

Vanessa Minnillo

All My Children creator AGNES NIXON

Bronx Opera's BEN SPIERMAN

cast of Big Brother 12 BOBBY FLAY & STEVE ELLS of America's Next Great Restaurant Cast of the play Bridgeboy
bruce-canwell-thumb chuck-thumb crystal-chappell-thumb dan-kroll-thumb dan-parent-thumb david-lyons-thumb debbie-gibson-tiffany-thumb dede-emerson-thumb
Library of American Comics' BRUCE CANWELL RYAN McPARTLIN & SARAH LANCASTER

CRYSTAL CHAPPELL

part 1: Guiding Light

part 2: Days of Our Lives

soapcentral.com founder DAN KROLL DAN PARENT of Archie Comics DAVID LYONS of The Cape DEBBIE GIBSON & TIFFANY Author DEDE EMERSON of A Different Kind of Streetwalker
dowling_jpeg-thumb eliana-ujueta-thumb jamal-igle-thumb Jay-Mary-thumb jeremy-irons-thumb jerry-beck-thumb josh-groban-thumb kai-soremekun-thumb
BOB DOWLING of the 3D Entertainment Summit Indie filmmaker ELIANA UJUETA of Beneath the Rock comic book artist JAMAL IGLE Genesis Repertory's JAY MICHAELS, MARY MiCARI, & actors Oscar-winning actor JEREMY IRONS

Animation historian JERRY BECK

1st interview

2nd interview

singer-songwriter JOSH GROBAN

web series producer KAI SOREMEKUN of Chick

1st interview

2nd interview

kathy-bates-thumb kenneth-johnson-thumb kyle-bornheimer-thumb law-and-order-los-angeles-thumb logo-thumb luann-de-lesseps-thumb max-thumb mike-miz-thumb
Oscar-winning actress KATHY BATES of Harry's Law Television producer KENNETH JOHNSON of V, Bionic Woman, Incredible Hulk KYLE BORNHEIMER & HAYES MacARTHUR of Perfect Couples

Terrence Howard, René Balcer

Dick Wolf, Alfred Molina, Alana de la Garza

publisher DAN HERMAN of Hermes Press COUNTESS LuANN de LESSEPS of The Real Housewives of New York City author MAX ALLAN COLLINS of Road to Perdition WWE Champion Mike "The MIz" Mizanin
MillCreeklogo-thumb nick-lachey-thumb niki-taylor-thumb paul-reiser-thumb ricky-gervais-thumb rosie-odonnell-thumb steve-niles-thumb the-event-cast-logo-thumb

JEFF HAYNE of Mill Creek Entertainment

1st interview

2nd interview

singer-actor NICK LACHEY supermodel NIKI TAYLOR talks The Celebrity Apprentice actor PAUL REISER of The Paul Reiser Show actor-producer RICKY GERVAIS of The Office actress-television host ROSIE O'DONNELL comic book writer STEVE NILES

Ian Anthony Dale, Nick Wauters

Jason Ritter, Sarah Roemer, Blair Underwood, Željko Ivanek

thore-jo-thumb tom-brokaw-thumb tom-pelphrey-thumb apothecary-theatre-thumb tori-spelling-thumb
THORE SCHÖLERMANN & JO WEIL of Verbotene Liebe Peabody & Emmy award winning journalist TOM BROKAW Emmy award winning actor TOM PELPHREY of Guiding Light actors from The Apothecary Theatre Company TORI SPELLING & DEAN McDERMOTT of sTORIbook Weddings

 

 

MORE FEATURES... 

 

Reviews & Previews:

Summer 2011 Movie Preview

Fall 2010 Television season

Fra Diavolo

Die Drei Pintos

Romeo and Juliet in Brooklyn

MPI Home Video

Timless Media Group

Boris Karloff's Thriller

Hunter: The Complete Series

Polly and Her Pals

Icons: The DC Comics and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee

Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern

Spider-Man musical delayed again

Frozen

Dead Space: Aftermath

Altitude

 

 

    

Events:

New York Comic Con

Apprentice 10 kickoff

Farewell to Guiding Light

Farewell to As the World Turns

The Broadway Directory

 

Award Show winners:

Academy Awards

Emmy Awards

Grammy Awards

Tony Awards

American Music Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Screen Actors Guild Awards

American Country Awards

 

    

Television blogs:

American Idol 10

American Idol 9

American Idol 8

Big Brother 12

Big Brother 11

ABC Cancels Both All My Children and One Life to Live

Guiding Light: A Look Back

 

Editorials & Issues:

Scam Alert: Have You Received This E-Mail Job Offer?

Meet the 112th Congress

Brooklyn politicians Kevin Peter Carroll vs. Ralph Perfetto

Before Rosa Parks There Was Lizzie Jennings

Understanding New York State Government

USTownhall RoundTable podcast: The Worlds of Entertainment and Current Events