The Top 13 Perform - American Idol 2012

Welcome back to another round of American Idol.  This week, the female contestants sang Whitney Houston songs and the males sang Stevie Wonder songs.  They were mentored by Jimmy Iovine and Mary J. Blige. 

The bottom male and the bottom female contestant, according to America's votes, were revealed, and then the judges made the final decision on who was to go home.  But we'll get to that in a few minutes.

First up was Joshua Ledet, who sang I Wish.  He dropped the gospel-ish tone for this song, which was refreshing.  He did a really great job and set the bar high for the other contestants.

Elise Testone was going to sing Greatest Love of All, but Mary J. and Jimmy nixed that and told her to sing I'm Your Baby Tonight, instead.  When she started out, she did NOT have her usual spunk and confidence. It was kind of like someone had made her eat raw liver right before she stepped onstage.  She really picked it up and started performing about halfway through the song, but the judges were not impressed.  I personally thought the judges were a little harsh; at least she stayed in tune.

Next was Knocks Me Off of My Feet, by 6'8" contestant Jermaine Jones.  He really loosened up this week and started performing like a pro.  He put a nice groove to the music, and really got his big sexy on with this song.  He totally made me smile!

Erika Van Pelt was worrying me a little, because Whitney songs do not really seem to suit her voice.  But I guess she proved me wrong, because she was actually superb singing I Believe in You and Me.  There was a great buildup to the chorus, and then she pulled it back at the end for a little touch of softness.  The ending was a nice changeup from her usual power vocals.

Next up was Colton Dixon, who the judges insist on calling "a rocker."  Seriously?  AC/DC is rock. This dude is way too soft to be a real rocker.  He sang Lately, and the last note was really beautiful.  Other than that, I was pretty bored with Colton.

My girl, Shannon Magrane, looked awesome in a short black jacket and sparkly black fitted pants while singing I Have Nothing.  However, she missed one of her biggest notes, which I haven't heard her do before.  I guess it's pretty intimidating to sing Whitney Houston, and her nerves got the better of her.  The rest of the song was okay, but she just never seemed to relax.

Deandre, on the other hand, still looked like one half of Milli Vanilli (go look it up, youngsters!).  He sang Master Blaster with a reggae beat, and showed great timing and rhythm.  He is great onstage for his young age, and this rendition really allowed him to show off his swag.  And his hair.  His gorgeous, gorgeous hair...not that I'm jealous or anything.

Skylar Lane was next, and I'm generally not a huge fan of hers, but this girl brought it with Where Do Broken Hearts Go.  She made a Whitney song country, and it actually sounded like the song was written like that.  I still think the stylists need to get ahold of that tacky ass Loretta Lynn hairdo of hers, though. 

Heejun Han, the funny man of the Top 13, sang All in Love is Fair.  He started out kinda soft and smokey, and honestly, it was a little slow to develop for me.  But by the middle and the end, Heejun was bringing it on home! 

Hollie was next with All the Man That I Need, one of WH's signature blow-your-eyeballs-out classics.  Could cute little Hollie measure up?  *Standing ovation*  Really.  I'm standing here clapping for this chica....which is making it really hard to type.  Needless to say, she was fab!

I'm not really sure why Jeremy Rosado was dressed like Mr. Rogers on his way to the bowling alley.  I was really a bit confused, and slightly disturbed, by his attire.  He sang Ribbon in the Sky, and while it made me want to skip through a grassy meadow, it was not very exciting.  He should join a boy band as the not-so-sexy-but-lovable one in the group.

Jessica Sanchez took the biggest risk of the night by singing I Will Always Love You.  Holy Hell, that takes some guts!  This girl is the real deal, though.  She had the audience (and me) totally mesmerized from the very first note.  She took that song and kicked it right in the ass.  Randy deemed her "one of the best talents in the country," and I must agree, Dawg!

Phillip Phillips rounded out the night with the classic Stevie Wonder tune, Superstitious.  He did a kind of amped up rock verson of the song that really showed a lot of intensity.  He was my favorite male performance of the night.








Ok, they named the bottom 3 guys:  Joshua, Jeremy, and Jermaine.  I guess people don't like contestants with names that start with J.  Of these three guys, Jeremy Rosado was the lowest vote-getter.

The bottom 3 girls were Erika, Elise (something against E's?), and Shannon.  Elise Testone was at the bottom of the pile for the ladies.

When it came down to Elise vs. Jeremy, the judges chose to keep Elise and send Jeremy home.  I think this probably pissed JLo off because she seemed to have some kind of weird crush on Jeremy.  Oh well, she'll get over it by the next episode.

I'll see you fine folks back here then!

American Idol 2012 - Live Semifinalist Round - The Women Perform

The night was kicked off by Chelsea Sorrell, singing "Cowboy Casanova."  Here's today's tip to the contestants:  don't sing Carrie Underwood songs.  Please.  You will only make yourself sound stupid.  Chelsea is a beautiful girl, but she was flat for most of the song, and she wasn't breathing in the right places.

The second lady to sing was Erica Van Pelt.  Her rendition of "What About Love" was belted out with her signature power vocals.  And she sang ON KEY!  Also, I had mentioned during one of the audition posts that she needed a new hairdo, and apparently the show's stylists had their way with her, and she now looks FAB!  I love to be right!

Jen Hirsh went third and sang "One and Only".  There aren't many who do justice to Adele songs, but Jen pulled it off perfectly.  However, the song was very slow to develop and bored me slightly until near the end.  Not that it's a bad song....it just didn't butter my bread, so to speak.

Young Brielle Von Hugel sang an old song, "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay."  This girl thinks she's a lot better than she actually is.  Some of the song was pretty good, but some of it was truly BLECH!  For some reason, she reminds me of the annoying girl who always gets killed first in horror movies.

Hallie Day sang "Feeling Good."  Holy crap, she looked gorgeous!  She sang well with a good mix of spunky and sultry.  On a side note, does that song make anyone else want to do a strip tease?

Li'l country gal, Skylar Lane, was up next with "Stay with Me."  Something about this girl gets on my nerves.  It's not her voice, because she stayed in tune.  Maybe it's the trailer park hairdo.  She was a great performer, though.

Baylie Brown, also in the country genre, tried to sing "Amazed," but she was off key throughout the entire song.  She is a beautiful girl and looks great on camera.  I think she needs to get an agent and try to get into movies.

Hollie Cavanagh was next with "Reflection," and holy hell!  This tiny, unassuming-looking girl blew this song right out of the water.  Fabulous!

Haley Johnson sang "Sweet Dreams," with some kind of spacey-sounding background vocals that were very distracting.  At one point I actually went outside with a gun to shoot the panther attacking a family of kittens outside.  However, there was no panther and no kittens...it was just Haley's screeching.

Next was Shannon Magrane with "Go Light Your World."  I just love this 6-foot-tall beauty!  She was adorable in her little intro video, plus....the girl can SANG!  She's only 16, but she showed so much maturity onstage.

Jessica Sanchez was next, singing, "Love You, I Do."  She said that her voice has been sore and hoarse all week, but I think she's full o' poo, because she was near perfect!  She has wonderful projection and some big ole pipes.  What's up with these young chicks this week?  WOW!

Lastly, we saw Elise Testone with yet another Adele song.  Ok, people...there are other singers out there besides Adele, okay?  Let's move on and find something else to sing, PLEASE!  But I digress.  We were discussing Elise, who started out at the piano and then got up and started working the crowd.  She had a great bluesy feel and sang with a lot of passion.  Overall great job!



And on to the results.  The top 5 girls for this first week were:

For the Wild Card Round, three guys and three girls were asked to sing a song of their choice.  Then each judge got to choose one contestant to save.  The girls who were chosen to sing were Jen Hirsh (who was awesome), Brielle Von Hugel (who was pretty sloppy), and Erica Van Pelt (also awesome).  If you'll remember from the last post, Steven and Jennifer both chose a guy as their Wild Card.  Randy, however, chose Erica as his, unfortunately letting the wonderful Jen Hirsh go.