Tuesday, May 18, 2010

American Idol Season 9 - Top 3 Performance Show Recap - Who Will Go Home?

Hello American Idol fanatics!  Well, we are almost to the end.  Can you feel it?  The sigh of relief that we all will be breathing when this train wreck of a season is over?  At least the 3 remaining contestants are 3 likable kid even if they don't bring the WOW factor to the stage every week. Of course, none of that excuses them from completing Ryan's sentence of "THIS....." with "IS AMERICAN IDOL!" in the cheesiest way possible.  But, I hold that against the producers of the show and not the poor likable trio that remains.   No sense in delaying.  The night was fairly decent with 2 songs for each contestant.  As always it's a contestant's choice and a judges' choice.  Some picks were good, some were bleh.  Who will go home?  Who will be in the finale?  Keep reading to find out!

The Recap (Live Blogged)


1.) Casey James
Casey's Pick: "Ok It's All Right With Me" by Eric Hutchinson
Judges' Pick: "Daughters" by John Mayer

Song 1 Recap: First song was kinda catchy.  I don't know if it won him any more fans that he already has.  It seemed to be more of the typical Casey we have heard over the season.  Yes, he has had some really good performances and this one was just kinda there.  The judges reacted pretty much the same way. 

Song 2 Recap: OF COURSE Randy and Kara picked John Mayer cheese for Casey.  It's a perfect song for him so he might do pretty well with it, but ugh.  That John Mayer really can get on my nerves some times!   Okay, so I thought it would be a great performance, but it kind of fell flat for me.  Granted, if he performed that when there were 12 contestants left, I'd be a little more lenient with it.  It wasn't awful!  But based on what Crystal and Lee are bringing to this week, I don't see him competing very well.  Nice guitar solo, too bad it's a vocal competition!  If he isn't voted off after those 2 performances, well, I just have no more faith in humanity! (put that in there for shock value!  Didn't mean to be that harsh!) Totally agree with Simon.  No WOW factor, and I will go on blaming Randy and Kara for the song choice.  Love how Kara sounded ridiculous trying to defend the song choice and the arrangement.  Sorry Kara, it was too boring for this late into the game.  That won't get him the votes!   And this is pretty good proof how bad this show will be without Simon next year.   

2.) Crystal Bowersox
Crystal's Pick: "Come to My Window" by Melissa Etheridge
Judges' Pick: "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney

Song 1 Recap: Nice song choice with the first pick.  I feel like she'll do an excellent job.  Let's see!  Love that she is bringing the harmonica/guitar combo back into things.  Once again, this sounds like typical Crystal.  The difference?  She is AWESOME!  As awesome as the great contestants in seasons of yester-year?  Well, I don't know if I'd go that far.  But if we're talking between these 3?  It just seems like no competition to me.  Her voice just blows the other 2 away.  I'm not saying that is how it will go down in the end though!  But it will be very hard for me to pick against her.   The judges discussed the arrangement being a little rough.  Yeah, I can see that.  But my previous arguments still supersede that for me and it sounds like they did for the always "tell it like it is" Simon.  Too bad he's leaving next year.  

Song 2 Recap:  Ellen picked this one for Crystal.  Love this song.  Got some chills on that high note she hit!  For the record, never got chills on a Siobhan high note!  She sounds great on it.  The one problem I have on that song is that it's very repetitive.  But we can't hold that against Crystal because she did some great things with it!  I don't even know what else I can say about her.  She's great and she earned her spot in the final 2 many weeks ago.  I love how Kara thinks a good performance ALWAYS equates to "changing up the vocals."  Man she drives me crazy.  Like Simon's comment that she has soul.  Can't argue with that.  See you in the finale Crystal! 


3.) Lee DeWyze
Lee's Pick: "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd 
Judges' Pick: "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen

Song 1 Recap: Sounds like Lee had a great trip home.  Should make for an emotional video clip Wednesday night!  Well, I might stand corrected.  Lee might win this first round.  I keep forgetting that I've noticed quite an improvement with his vocals over the weeks.  He said he is picking songs he can identify with and that was a great one for him.  Great song choice, great performance.  After round 1, it seems like a no-brainer who should be in this finale next week.   Definitely agree that Lee feels like he is in this to win it and he definitely took round 1 with that performance.  You can tell, I Live blog these things based on my commentary in Crystal's recap! 

Song 2 Recap: Hmmm, risky choice by Simon since it was sung so well by Jason Castro before and *cough* Tim Urban.   But he has faith for Lee to do it even better.  Oh boy, Lee even gets his own choir to back him up in top 3 week!  That's usually reserved for the finale week!   Pretty epic performance by the season long underdog.  Very nice!  I will say that the choir definitely helped him have his big moment and not sure if that gave him an unfair advantage but hey...it was really good.  Can't knock him for taking the opportunities provided to him! (bagpipes anyone)   Dare I say it, did that give Lee the edge over Crystal going into the final 2 week?  Man, I am not sure who I'll be rooting for next week now! Crazy how things can turn around with a one song performance.   Ugh, why did Kara have to use the word EPIC?  She always steals my words and I always use them better!   

The Elimination Pick

I'll try grading them this week (on a scale with it being Top 3 night):

Casey:  Average ol' Casey.  Didn't really bring much more than he usually brings.   C+
Crystal: Consistently great and fully earned her top 2 spot, but didn't have herself a big moment as many wanted. B+
Lee:  Improved each week in the competition and has grown in confidence to become quite the contender at the end.  Returned from his trip home on a mission and may be on his way to accomplishing it with a great night.  A

Elimination Pick: Casey James - Time for the lady eye candy to head home!  I think we all kind of saw this coming.

That's all I have folks.  I'm sure the Wednesday results show will be backed with tear-jerking returns home for hour Top 3.  It's always the best results show of the season.  And there might just be justification for it being an hour (I heard they are promising half hour results shows again next year. Yeah right.).  Anyway, I hope you enjoy my ramblings as always and I'll see you after the results!


Ending Credits

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1 comment:

Ian said...

I wasn't too thrilled with Lee's "Hallelujah." "Simple Man" was great, "Hallelujah" was just OK. I hope it's a Lee-Crystal finale, but I wouldn't be completely shocked if Casey snuck in there somehow.