Inspirational songs week couldn’t have been more surprising tonight as three finalists - Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado, and Kristy Lee Cook - who had almost become afterthoughts, turned out some of the best performances on the night.
It was front-runners David Cook, Brooke White, and Carly Smithson who stumbled a bit tonight in my opinion, continuing this season’s theme of having no contestant being able to completely break away from the pack.
While the judges were crazy about David Archuleta’s performance of “Angels,” I didn’t think that it was that spectacular, especially when compared to some of the performances that Archuleta has performed in earlier weeks. The judges also found Brooke White’s performance Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” to be “pleasant,” but I found this to be one of the most painful performances of the season. I don’t know if it’s her facial expressions or awkward responses to questions that seem to get more frequent every week, but I find myself liking Brooke less and less every week and think that she more than deserves to be in the Bottom 3, if not go home this week.
Michael Johns turned out a great performance to kick off the night in Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which didn’t necessarily blow anyone away, but it showed a continued progression of improvement week to week.
Joining Michael Johns in the “I’m getting better!” club was Kristy Lee Cook, whose performance of Martina McBride’s “Anyway” was by far her best of the season. Not only was this performance Kristy’s best, but it was just a very good performance overall. It was good, not just “good for Kristy Lee,” which would be a little better than “kind of ok.”
While I’m happy to see that Kristy Lee is improving week to week, the reality is that many of us will never ever be able to shake her trainwreck performance during Beatles Week. Though I found this performance to actually be really great, the problem that I’m having with Kristy Lee is that if I know the song she’s singing, I will know exactly what her performance is going to sound like before she starts singing (again, minus that horrible Beatles performance, as no one could have seen that coming). It’s not that it’s a bad thing, but it takes away from her ability to have a David Cook-like “WOW” factor.
While the judges wouldn’t agree, I thought Syesha Mercado turned out one of the best performances of the night with Season 3 winner Fantasia’s “I Believe,” which was her winning song four years ago. Syesha may not have a realistic chance of winning Season 7, but she is more than proving that she deserves to be in this talented Top 8. Vocally, she’s about a half step away from being incredible every week and her awkward answers to Ryan’s questions don’t really help out too much.
However, this week Syesha turned out a pure, pop version of a song that most of us only know as Fantasia’s emotional, raspy, stomping around the stage (but amazing), Idol song. Personally, I really enjoyed it and thought it was a stand out performance and Syesha’s best of the competition so far.
Though not as incredible of a beat down as David Archuleta gave the other 19 during Top 20 week with his performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Jason Castro took a moderately sized deuce on the other contestants tonight with his performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the acoustic, Hawaiian-influenced wedding version, a la 50 First Dates.
Jason Castro looked like he was running out of steam before this week and he really needed to wake up and prove that he could regain the magic that was his performance of “Hallelujah.” Not only did Jason prove that he could regain that magic, but he proved that he deserves to be back in the upper half of remaining contestants.
The song was perfect for Castro and vocally, he did just enough to “make the song his own,” while not even coming close to overdoing it. It was by far the best performance on the night, giving him and David Archuleta likely the only two guaranteed spots in next week’s Top 7.
Who deserves to be in the Bottom 3 this week? (though Michael Johns could be in this group as well)
Carly Smithson
Brooke White
Kristy Lee Cook
If Brooke or Carly go home before Kristy, it will be because they both really stumbled this week. Brooke’s performance was almost painful and Simon Cowell was completely right in saying that it was a bad move for Carly to choose a song that was almost angry during inspirational song week. Brooke showed that she just doesn’t have what it takes to win this competition, while Carly’s subpar song choices continue to make her seem like less of a front runner than she should be at this point in the competition.
My vote count for this week included a vote for each of the following contestants - David Cook, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, and Syesha Mercado.
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1 response so far ↓
1 Sunny // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:56 am
DC, Castro delivered that rainbow of colors that Paula’s spoken of earlier in the season! With a ukulele, who’d a thunk it? Man, that was brilliant.
Dial Idol has Carly in the bottom spot, but I agree with you on Brooke. Seriously, she looks like she’s about to crack up. Might be a good idea to send her home, last two weeks she’s been an outright mess.
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