American Idol Season 10 - Top 11 Perform (Again)

"Hey Kids!!  Shake it loose together, the spotlight's hitting something that's been known to change the weather.  We'll kill the fatted calf tonight so stick around!"  Welcome to "ELTON JOHN night*" American Idol fans.  And what a night it was.  You really can't go wrong with Elton's "electric music" rocking us all night long.  I think it has been quite some time since the last Elton themed night (season 3 I believe).  I remember Billy Joel night in season 2 and remember being so depressed that THAT crop of contestants were butchering Billy's tunes.  (ugh Josh Gracin, I'll never forgive you for your rendition of "Piano Man")   Anyway, being a singing pianist myself, it was nice to see the piano on stage all night, complete with iPad Sheet Music!  I need to get me some of that!  And for the most part, the contestants continued to impress.  Yes, there were some flubs from a couple of the predictable ones.  And one surprise performance from someone I wished would just go away.  But we'll get to all of that in the recap.  But for now, 2 weeks straight I'm glad I'm back doing this writing gig! 2 go home Thursday night! Let's get on with it.

*Disclaimer: Lyrics by Bernie Taupin on "Elton John Night"   Oh...and this show was brought to you by Coca Cola, NOT Pepsi Mr. Durbin and your Michael Jackson reference!   Don't you forget who is paying for your flaming piano!  (no pun intended, being Elton John night and all) 

American Idol Season 10 - Top 11 Perform

Hello Idol fanatics!  We're back.  And what a difference a week makes!  I guess Motown week usually brings out the best in contestants.  Everyone knows the songs, and people can really showcase their voices with them.  There really is not one contestant I can point to this week and say they were horrible.  No, I think the ones that will be in danger are the ones that are forgettable or unlikable.  (i.e. the usual suspects)  But, I will do my standard ritual of talking about each contestant individually before declaring my results!   Let's dive on in!

American Idol Season 10 - Top 12 Perform

Well wasn't that a mix bag of disaster and awesomeness?  Hello Idol fans and welcome back to another one of my "why did I get back into this?" recaps!  They really did front load this week's "Songs from the year you were born" agenda with most of the bad performances.  About 6 singers in, I was about to call it a day and give up.  But naturally, I forgot about some of the people still in the competition, and they didn't let down.  There were a couple surprises and a couple letdowns along the way as well.  I'm sure people will disagree with some of my critiques but I can only call them as I see them, as usual.  So, no more hesitation required.  My brief thoughts, after the jump.

American Idol Season 10 - Top 13 Results

Well kids, looks like I found a few minutes for a little blurb.  I can always find time to pat myself on the back when I get things right!  This one really was no shocker, and even the bottom 3 wasn't too shocking.  So let's just get right to it!  THE ELIMINATED CONTESTANT IS....

American Idol Season 10 - Top 13 Perform

Hello Friends!  We're back for the top 13 and I have to say, I'm starting to regret coming back out of retirement for this!  This week did nothing for me at all.  There may have been a couple good performances, but for the most part I was just utterly bored for 2 hours.  And is it me or does the AUDIO feed coming to our TVs not sound as good for these live shows?  I thought it was my surround system dying or something but it sounds fine on commercials and every other show.  You'd think for a show being judged by how it sounds that it would be giving America the best sound to hear it!   So I don't know.  Maybe the judges were telling the truth for a lot of these contestants by saying they were great.  But it certainly did not sound that way to me.  By the way, did you know tonight's episode was pre-recorded?  They wanted to make sure they fit all 13 contestants into 2 hours.  Now, I'm not sure when it was ACTUALLY recorded but Steven Tyler wished someone a Happy International Women's day and that was yesterday (my wife made sure I knew!).   So that's kinda bizarre.  Anyway, I'm not really sure I'll have much to comment on below.  (I say that a lot)  So we'll just see how this goes.  Could be tough to pick who is going home.  The contestants sang songs from their "IDOLS" and Jimmy Iovine and his production team  gave them some tips on how to improve their sound.  The reviews after the jump.

American Idol Season 10: Top 13 Revealed!

Okay, so I lied!  Looks like for at least THIS week I am doing a results show recap!  But there were performances so I feel like I kind of need to say something!  We had no idea how this episode was going to go down, but I gotta say that I am a fan of this format.  Sure, they drew it out as much as they could to get some additional ad dollars.  (Hey, if we need to watch additional half hours of Idol to keep shows like FRINGE on the air, bring it on!!)   But I just liked the idea of a 1 week sudden death semi-finals.  We have been theorizing for years on how the show could be improved.  The road from auditions to the Top 12 seemed to take forever.  I think we're a couple weeks earlier this season than usual and with a Top 13 instead.  Hey, it's a good compromise!   And do you know what the best part is?  I picked 8 of the Top 10 correctly AND 9 of my 10 got through!  Maybe, my threatening to retire has gotten me back on my game!  We'll see.  After the jump I'll reveal the TOP 13! 

American Idol Season 10 - Top 24 - Top 12 Girls Perform

Well well well...looks like the girls might be a little BETTER!!!  At least this week they were, and it's a pretty big week to be better.  Hello Idol nuts, yep I'm still here again today!   I was a little shocked to see how much some people "differ" (to quote Randy's favorite word this year) in opinion on some of the male contestants.  So, I won't be surprised if I'm totally off tonight.  But, I can't help how I feel!  If I like what the contestants are bringing to the table, I'm gonna mention it.  If I think they're wasting all of our time, then I'm at least going to write some books on why they are to make that time worth while!   I thought the girls did really well tonight.  And I think they did well enough to make the judges consider them over the guys for the wild card slots (if any exist.  They're being really vague about it!)   We'll just have to wait and see Thursday night when the Top is announced!  But until then, I have some girls to praise and bash!  So there is more after the jump!

American Idol Season 10 - Top 24 - Top 12 Guys Perform

Hello Idol watchers.  I'm baaaaaaack!  Well, if anyone has been keeping up, I really never went away.  I have been posting comments all season in my last post.  Idol blogging has been a tougher habit to quit than I imagined, but I definitely didn't want to spend too much time writing about the pre-taped episodes any more.  I also plan to not stray from my promise of being less wordy and less committed!  Treating American Idol with such attention to detail the way I did LOST was really overdoing it, and I think is really where I became bored with it.  So, I have been easing my way into this season.  If you notice in those comments, I didn't even remember any contestant's names for the majority of the auditions and Hollywood.  Now that we're into the live shows, my approach won't be much different.  This is IDOL BLOG - UNPLUGGED!  I'll post something for each performance show but you guys are on your own for the results!  If I feel so inclined maybe I'll write a comment in the latest post but I really don't think those results shows warrant much analysis.  But, long story short, I'm still here!  I just don't see how I can let a season of Idol go by without at least giving my picks and a jab here and there at the contestants!   So, I hope you enjoy my new blogging style for AI and I hope to keep discussing in the comments with all of you like in years past. Enjoy!