I was SO not impressed with the girls on "American Idol" tonight.
None of them really wowed me and only two gave what I consider enjoyable performances.
The first of the two I liked, Syesha Mercado, sang "Me and Mr. Jones" (italics mine), a sex-change on the original by the great soulman Billy Paul. I thought her phrasing was nice on the song, although I did not like they way they hacked up the song to make it fit the short amount of time she had to sing.
Randy thought it was just aight and suggested she should have selected a bigger song to show off her big, belting voice. Simon thought it was a "silly" song choice because the song was written for a man.
I can see why she made the choice, though. Besides it being such a great song, perhaps she figured if she sang a tune made famous by a guy then she'd be less likely to be compared to the original.
The judges seemed to love Brooke White the most. This year they're allowing the contestants to play instruments when they perform, and she's the first one I've seen that actually looks comfortable with a guitar. She sang Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" (cue the jokes about Simon thinking the song was about him.) She sang it well, and her performance was very relaxed and comfortable although she did play it safe by not altering the song very much from the original.
So far, out of 20, I'm only feeling 5 contestants. I just hope that by that time it gets down to the Final 12, more of the contestants start to bring it.
By the way, that's an unintentional pun in the headline. But, it's silly enough that I'll leave it in.
Posted by: Luis Moreno | Feb 28, 2008 at 06:06 PM