| Thursday, May 25, 2006 |
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AMERICAN IDOL FINALE
Finally. After 4 months, we are down to the final two: Taylor "SOUL PATROL" Hicks and Katherine "MCPHEEVER" McPhee.
And I disagree with Rickey and Ganns. I don't think it's the "worst finale ever". Although it is a very weak one, especially compared to last year's finale with Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice.
It had its moments, yeah, the good and the bad. But overall, it wasn't so bad.
I. KATHERINE MCPHEE
Katherine performed "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" from the Billboard Week and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from the Top 3 week. It was okay. It wasn't so bad but it didn't really blow me away. She didn't bring anything new to the performance and, although the judges liked it, I'm not a fan of the performance. It was just okay for me. Actually, I think the problem is the fact it doesn't really belong in a FINALE. This is the finale and she didn't blow me away with those performance.
Then she performed her single "My Destiny". And I remembered why I grew tired of the McPheever. She came off across as another young female pop star and didn't really offer anything different from Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore and Jessica Simpson. And the song didn't help her at all. It seemed like she couldn't find the right key and she was just all over the place. It's a bit unfair, really,
because she is a good singer. But she wasn't given a good song.
In the end, even though Katherine is a good singer, her main problem is that she overthinks her performance instead of just belting them out. She's too much in a hurry to become a diva when she hasn't quite handled it well yet. Even though her mom is a voice coach, she still needs to train and she still needs more time to hone her voice. Although if she releases a CD now, people will definitely buy it if only
to hear her singing voice. But if she doesn't try to learn more, she won't last in the business.
II. TAYLOR HICKS
I said it last week. I honestly believe that Taylor Hicks should win this year's American Idol because he is the total package. He may be hard to market but he will always try to give you no less than his best performance because that's who he is: a born singer and performer.
For the finale, Taylor performed "Livin' For The City" from the Stevie Wonder Week and "Levon" from the 1st semifinals week. I enjoyed his performance of "Livin' For The City" because it was obvious he was enjoying his performance. It will be really awesome to watch him perform live. "Levon" was calmer and not as enjoyable as the first one but it was still cool. Coz it was Taylor you know?
Then he performed his single "Do I Make You Proud". It was a great Taylor performance but the song was so cheesy. It would have been really better, as suggested by an AI fan, if they had written the songs they would perform for the finale. But that would be hard for the "first-time singers" and, especially, the younger contestants. But that would have separated the serious ones from the ones just playing.
Anyway, back to Taylor. The reason I love Taylor is that he doesn't just sing the song. He sings and belts it out. He doesn't think. He just does it. And Simon said it himself. Taylor will be the next American Idol.
AMERICAN IDOL FINALE RESULTS SHOW
The show started with last year's American Idol, Carrie Underwood, singing a song with the Top 12. Nice way to start the show. Although, when the Top 12 started coming out, I thought I was seeing things. Is that Jennifer Hudson? Oh, sorry. It's Paris Bennett with big hair.
Do you really want me to enumerate all the performances?
LOWLIGHTS
1. Katherine McPhee and Meatloaf. Okay. I read about the next performances in several AI information websites including several blogs and I could not believe my eyes. I mean, c'mon. Meatloaf? I thought he's "quit the business". Apparently not. I pity Katherine coz she had to perform with him and it wasn't a very good performance. But I have to hand it to Meatloaf. He still "gives his all" when performing. I thought he was gonna have a heart attack right then and there. Geez.
2. Taylor Hicks and Toni Braxton. Taylor performed "In The Ghetto" again. And the producers should have left him doing a solo because it was pretty useless bringing in Toni Braxton when you can't even hear a word she said because her voice was so low! Such a sad thing that the Top 2 finalists' performances with special guest stars were not very good. Not good at all.
3. Golden Idol Awards for Outstanding Female Vocal. That was just downright insulting. At least the one for Outstanding Male Vocal was funny because Crazy Dave (remember Crazy Dave) won the award and he showed up to receive the award!
HIGHLIGHTS
1. Paris performing with Al Jarreau. This girl is gonna go far, I tell ya. With talent like that, it'll be a bad thing if it gets passed up.
2. Top 6 boys performing and Taylor Hicks with a harmonica! I've been waiting for the harmonica to make an appearance since they announced the Top 24! Finally!
3. Elliott Yamin with Mary J. Blige performing "One". I like Mary J. Blige but I'm not really a fan, even when Paris sang her song "Be Without You". But after seeing the video of "One" with U2, I am buying me her CD!
4. Top 6 girls performing. It was great to see the other girls again, especially Mandisa.
5. Carrie Underwood performing her new single "Don't Forget To Remember Me". She shows us once again why she won American Idol last year.
6. Chris Daughtry with Live performing their new single, "Mystery". Chris and the lead singer (I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with Live so I don't know his name) could pass for twins.
7. The Top 12 performing with Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick.
At the start of the show, Ryan Seacrest started griping about their lack of awards. Hence, the Golden Idol Awards. And the winners are:
1. Outstanding Female Vocal: Princess Brewer
2. Outstanding Male Vocal: Crazy Dave
3. Proudest Family Moment: Claudette Yamin. She's such a sweet mom. I admire her for the lengths she will go to just to be able to support Elliott.
4. Randy Jackson Award for Public Speaking: Rhonetta Johnson, who couldn't be there so she had a Thank You speech "via satellite".
5. Best Impersonation: Michael Sandecki as Clay Aiken, with a surprise performance by Clay Aiken himself!
6. Best Male Bonding: Brokenote Cowboys, with a performance from them.
Ryan also introduced another segment especially for Idol, "Puck 'n' Pickler", where Wolfgang Puck introduced exotic dishes to Kellie Pickler. In the first segment, Puck introduced the intricacies of escargot to Kellie. And Kellie, being who she is, refused to eat the snails, forcing Puck to "feed" her the snails, which she proceeded to "transfer" to her table napkin. Smooth, Pickler. But hella funny. And in the second segment, Kellie was introducted to shanghai lobsters. Kellie's being a good sport about all this. It's very obvious that the producers are doing this segment that's making fun of her for the ratings. And I don't think she minds. But it was funny. She actually fell off her seat when the food server came out with the live lobsters. Haha!
But there are only two performances in the whole show that is really noteworthy.
1. PRINCE. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, out walks Prince in all his prince-ly glory. Amazing. After almost two decades, he is still the best! And did you notice? When Ryan was walking towards, him, he turned around and left. Haha!
2. And, of course, the performance of his single of the newly crowned American Idol, Taylor Hicks. It was actually quite anti-climactic since everybody knew Taylor was gonna win this competition. But I still was quite nervous for him. But yey! Taylor Hicks is the new American Idol!
CONGRATULATIONS, TAYLOR HICKS!Labels: american idol, tv |
posted by Jax @ 8:38:00 PM   |
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| 1 Comments: |
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I like your recap. I was rooting for Taylor too, all the way! He really deserved it. (:
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I like your recap. I was rooting for Taylor too, all the way! He really deserved it. (: