“American Idol”: The Finale Beckons
By Chuck Barney
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pm in American Idol.
Your “Idol” Top 3. Who goes tonight?
At last, we’re on the brink of the “American Idol” finale. Here’s what our Readers Judging Panelists had to say about last night’s performances:
Neyshia Go, 17, Antioch
The richness of David Archuleta’s tone in his first song by Billy Joel makes him seem like one of the most deserving contestants in the Top 3. I can’t believe that Paula was actually right in choosing David Archuleta’s song. Leave it to a has-been dancer to pick a great song. My one complaint is that David could have changed the arrangement a bit more instead of sticking so close to the original. David’s following song by Chris Brown was a definite surprise but I kinda liked it. Although his performance was really awkward and stiff, vocally it wasn’t half bad. However in finality, David Archuleta should never sing the word “boo” unless it’s Halloween. “Longer Than,” is one of the most moving songs I know and I actually felt like David did a pretty good job singing it. Surprise, surprise, it was yet ANOTHER ballad and another boring performance even though he sang it well.
– A singer’s number one cardinal rule is NEVER EVER EVER sing a song by a great singer if you can’t outdo them because you will just pale in comparison. My biggest thing against Syesha is that she cannot connect with the audience. Now, “Fever,” is one of my favorite jazz standards, but I did not like how she made it a Beyonce-esque performance-minus the giant martini glass of bubbles. The unnecessary runs and the overly sexual nature of the performance that might have been too much for middle America, made me feel like I was in a cheap nightclub. After watching her producer-picked performance, it made me think she was simply singing in a karaoke bar. I think she may have bought her ticket out of this competition with that performance.
– David Cook’s rendition of “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” was not his best but the most interesting by that point in the time. When I heard that David was going to be performing “Dare You to Move,” I was excited to see another contemporary performance. In my opinion he did a slightly lesser job than Switchfoot. Ken and Nigel definitely picked the best songs for both of the David’s. His final performance was amazing. Contemporary, powerful, and NOT BORING!!! One of the best of the night for sure.
– My Final Verdict: Syesha is sent packing. She should stop by New York and look into some Broadway shows before she’s on her way home to Miami.
Danny wallace, 28, Antioch
Another predictable night from the top three. I’m not impressed anymore. I miss Jason Castro, I know there were a lot of haters out there, but he had more entertainment value than the final three. David Cook is the new Bryan Adams, and I used to like Bryan Adams, so that’s a plus for him. Syesha is deserving for a Broadway career, and after watching her play up the “Look-how-adorable-I-am” angle all night, she became more and more annoying. And since she doesn’t seem to have the confidence that she’ll make it through this week, I’m sure she’ll soon have her Broadway dreams come true.
– I was expecting so much more with three songs, but here I sit, with nothing exciting to remember. I did used to wish that Archie would move around more, but after seeing him attempt to dance, I no longer want to see that. Although I will say that he’s no different without his dad’s help up there. His songs were exactly what I would have expected from him. At this point in the competition, I wanted so much more than just some decent singing from performers who have already found their niche. And apparently the producers think that Syesha’s niche is little kid penguin movie soundtrack songs. There is nowhere new for them to go. The artistic pinnacle for them has been achieved. I’m ready for the finals now. The last surprise left is to see which song will be performed by the winners.
– I hope to see more excitement next week, and I really want to see an acoustic guitar from David Cook. I know he has one.
Maria Sajjad, 22, Concord
– Tonight, we saw a little too much of Syesha, and not enough of Sly-esha. Sly-esha would have known that the only way she had any hope of getting into the top two would be if she shed two or three (thousand) tears. Sly-esha would also have known to equate her struggle on “American Idol” with that of the Civil Rights Movement for a second time; and to make another empowering speech on how much she has grown in the last few weeks. All of this would have been more entertaining than watching her perform all three of her songs tonight. Instead, she wore sexy dresses, danced on stage with a chair, and sang songs that nobody cared about. Sorry Syesha; you should have brought out Sly-esha…or better yet, Cry-esha, if you wanted a fighting chance.
– When asked about his stage-dad-from-the-depths-of-hell, David Archuleta was quoted as saying, “He’s given me a lot of good advice and helped me from making any dumb decisions”. Well, daddy must be smoking something strong, because advising your beyond-Vanilla son to sing a Chris Brown song is the dumbest decision anyone could make. David should NEVER in this lifetime refer to the object of his affections as “Boo”. Other than that, The Chosen One delivered two solid performances, and has been consistent throughout this competition. No doubt he will be in the final two.
– David Cook ended the night strong with his rendition of “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. He followed all the David Cook rules: 1) Start the song off-key; and almost grunt your way through the lower notes. 2) Belt out the chorus, and drop your jaw to the floor so it seems like you mean what you are singing and 3) hold out the high note at the end, so the audience will forget everything you sang before that. D-Cook is a genius, and will definitely give David Archuleta a run for his money.
Tyler Maddalon, 10, Danville
I thought tonight show was the worst ever. It had barely any good performances. Syesha was fake again and very predictable but still had good vocals. David A. can sing but always bores me to death. Does he bring anything new to the show? He never gets me excited. Finally David Cook, the always excellent performer. But for the first time ever he didn’t do excellent, he did great. But when he ended the show he had the producers holding his fate and they led it to the finals. He should be the AMERICAN IDOL.
Patti Compton, 76, Rossmoor
Gosh I was disappointed in Tuesday show. I was eagerly anticipating the final three’s performances and anxious to find out which songs each would pick to wow the judges. David Archuleta went first and, as usual, he gave a credible job. But, to me it was nothing outstanding.
– But I knew, my favorite, Syesha, would do herself proud on this special night. Ho-hum. Maybe David Cook would excite me! Didn’t happen.
– Have I just become jaded or bored with the whole show? Maybe so. When Syesha announced she would sing the old Peggy Lee song, Fever!, I thought now she would show her stuff! Well, she sure wasn’t Peggy.
– Finally, though I’ve not been a David Cook fan, I pepped up when he announced his choice of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” I love that song! But, not the way he sang it. Oh well, maybe next year!
Rob Miller, 46, Oakland
Themes of the evening:
1. Song selection was pretty poor across the board — by the judges, the contestants and particularly the producers.
2. Nobody knocked one out of the park.
3. Nobody screwed up badly.
= BORING!
David Archuleta did the same old, same old. A Chris Brown song? Dude… it wasn’t workin’ for me. You do NOT have the moves. The producers (or Randy for that matter) could have challenged little David to sing something out of his comfort zone, but they didn’t, and we got the same boring routines. Why don’t they say HE has to change it up sometimes?
– Syesha tries to take on another big song, and doesn’t fare that well in the comparison. Alicia Keys? Syesha, I’m one of your supporters, but you’re NOT as good looking nor as good a singer. For your second song you (wisely I think) opted for the “sex sells” strategy. The last song? Just a weird song choice but that’s not your fault.
– David Cook: All he had to do was not screw up. Mission accomplished. The first song was a challenge for him, or for any singer. His Switchfoot song was just OK for me. The producers clearly gave him the best song, a rock anthem in “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Pretty clear who Nigel wants to win this thing, ain’t it?
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May 13th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
BORING! What a shame that no one gave a “knock your socks off” performance. It will David vs David next week and we’ll finally find out if eleven year old girls across America prefer cute or edgy boys.
Syesha deserves the team player award for having the guts to wear black and white for her “Happy Feet” performance. At least her sense of humor is intact. If American Idol wants to revamp next season for the sagging ratings, how about letting contestants sing a whole song…ya know since it’s a singing competition?
May 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Okay, after watching Tuesday’s show I now feel justified in saying that David Archeleta is certifiably boring. His voice is nice but he lacks the spice. Now its time to make room for David, although I must admit that Sayesha has really gotten very provcative. Wasn’t totally impressed with some of the song choices by all. When Sayesha sang “fever” I thought she was really off-pitch (as if she had one), and the chair thing seemed contrived. But she has turned into a “hottie” that’s for sure. She has definitely gained confidence. My vote: David gold, Sayesha silver, David bronze.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Idol Thoughts:
David A – I missed his first song. Second song was much ado about nothing. It was forced and contrived. Once again I kept picturing him at 6 Flags or Disney G - rated. I recently saw a video of him singing when he was 11 or 12 and he was much more genuine, singing with reckless abandon, and a lot more soul.
“Longer,” what were the producers thinking? Have a 17 year old, white bread virgin, sing about a life long commitment to the woman he’s never kissed. He’s shown no growth. I hope he gets booted.
Syesha – I think she has the package to be successful. It was a good performance void of shouting high notes (That’s a good thing). Her “Fever” gave me fever. She was playin’, slinkin’, and showin’ some leg in a sexy performance. She probably will regret that choice tomorrow, but it showed another side of her. She’s turned into a seasoned pro before our eyes with real consistent and varied performances the last 4 weeks. She’s carving a career for herself while losing the competition.
Simon nailed the last song, saying it was fun, young, but not defining. That was her last hope to go to the finals.
David C – “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” was a great choice by Simon. It’s a singing competition and David put a different spin on the classic tune, ending on a high B. It shows he can perform well in different styles. Randy wanted him to rock, but we’ve seen that many times and probably will again before the night is over.
I don’t know the second song, but once again it was Hootie. It was O.K. He could have chosen better.
The first half of his final song seemed forced to me with the strings and his pop style vocal. I didn’t realize it was an Aerosmith tune until he started to rough up the vocal around the half way point. That’s when it worked for me.
Overall a mediocre evening. I may have to bail on the next season because this was really lackluster. I didn’t watch the Jordon Sparks season and if David A wins that will tell me a trend is at hand with young winners. They just don’t move me.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:31 am
The judges certainly threw Slyesha under the bus. Her performances were stellar, and even usually sickeningly-sweet Paula was harsh. Someone give her a saucer of milk! Meow!
Monkey Boy’s performances were white-bread and boring, and I’m sure all the press about Daddy Dearest certainly didn’t help. Cookie was his usual good, but like Colleen said, not knock-your-socks off good. He’s going to have problems topping some of his previous performances. Cookie should win the title, but the judges are making it so blatantly obvious. The show needs another multiplatinum winner to maintain its credibility as a force in the music industry, and based on what Daughtry has done, the producers probably see dollar signs in David Cooks’s massive cranium.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I too was disappointed in the majority of last night’s show. I had really expected these 3 strong vocalists to do something special and yet, while none of them did anything particularly terrible, the only performance that struck a chord (no pun intended) w/me was David A.’s version of “And So It Goes”. Yes, it was him pretty much doing himself as he has done for the entire season, but I believed him on this one and liked the fact that he didn’t fill it full of usual “runs” throughout.
His Chris Brown song was o.k. and I don’t think it bothered me as much as it did others. Yeah, he looked ackward doing it, but I have to give him props for trying it because there’s no other way he’s going to gain the experience and learn to be comfortable doing that type of thing unless he keeps doing it. I have always loved Dan F.’s “Longer” and he did an o.k. job on it, but I think the producers could (and should) have chosen something more appropriate for thing “young”, seemingly naive, 17 yr. old to sing.
Now, on to Syesha … I felt she did a really nice job on the Alicia Keys song, given that AK is so known and loved right now. What struck me most about it though was that Randy chose it for her to sing in the first place … he’s the one who’s always jumping on the contestant’s backs for singing something that’s only going to make them be (perhaps unfavorably) compared to the original artist. Oh well. And she did look absolutely beautiful. While I saw nothing wrong w/her choosing a “standard” for her 2nd song, I felt she overplayed it. The last song choice from the producers was not bad, but have to agree that it probably secured her departure from being in the final 2.
David C.’s performances were just o.k. for me last night. I sort of liked what he did with “The First Time …” just because it showed us how he can step out of his comfort zone and do something different. The 2nd song was kind of boring to me and he definitely shone brighter during the 3rd performance.
My prediction is the same as what we’ve probably all been expecting for some time … a showdown between the two Davids. As I’ve said before, I think David A. would benefit more from the structure of being in the “Idol Machine” for the next year and David C. would have more fun if he did not have to go through that. That being said, however, I would prefer to see David C. win it just because it’s time for all those pre-pubescent girls to not get their way for a change!
May 14th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Well, well, well.. The end is near, thank God! It seems like this season has gone on 4 EVER and I’m more than ready for this to be over. Last night’s show was lackluster, although they did hurry it along at a good pace. David C. is still being dressed in Oliver Twist clothes, Syesha looked pretty glam all night and David A. is trying really, really hard to enjoy himself.The entire show needs an overhaul. David C. should win it, then he can FINALLY jump up and down like I KNOW he wants to!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Last night was a bit strange for me on American Idol. As all 3 performers seemed to be a bit tired and strained, musically. Which might be understandable. But here is my critique, based on order of appearance:
David’s Archeleta’s first song was a great ballad, that was sung to perfection. Possibly the best song of the entire night, vocally for me. But, his attempt at that upbeat song by Chris Brown, was awkward and stiff at best … complete with down right embarrassing dance moves. I kid you not, I was rolling on the floor with laughter when I saw that. And his 3rd song, “longer than” is one of the more passionate songs written of all time. Yet David’s version was a bit mundane and boring for me.
Syesha has long been one of the more consistent performers through out this entire compition in my opinion. While visually, she looked stunning … She turned in 3 performances that were somewhat average, musically. Not Syesha like at all. She will definitely be leaving tonight (and deservedly so) But, her looks and her on stage charisma is bound to land her a job on a Broadway musical very soon. So, I think she will do all right in her career.
Simon did David Cook no favors what so ever by choosing the slow ballad “first time ever I saw your face”. Which is sort of like expecting little David Archeleta to rock out “Purple haze”, by Jimi Hendrix. But, all and all, I think he did a decent (not great) job on that song. Oddly, he was given one of the great rock anthems of all time, “I don’t want to miss a thing” and he did a good, but somewhat strained version of that song. But overall, based on all 3 songs, Cook probably performed the best of the night.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
the final 3, eh? here’s what’s surprising to me: all three of the remaining trio can really sing, except that last night, no one really kicked booty to ensure their spot as a finalist (ok, well, cook did). i applaud david a. for trying something from this century, but not sure that song sewed it up for him. his billy joel was beautiful, but at this point, people want something different from him. as usual, syesha looked fantastic and sang well, but she just doesn’t connect. then there’s david cook, who indeed really cooks. he takes a roberta flack song and makes it soooooo work. that guy could almost put out an album already with the stuff he’s thrown at us, “billy jean” and the likes. still, i’m not sure who will actually make it into tonight’s finals. i’m like most folks, wanting a david vs. david showdown.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:36 am
We all knew it would be David v. David…..Whoever is the winner, isn’t the loser…they both have great attributes and will both make it. I am finally glad it’s coming to an end…I am looking forward to Last Comic Standing and Amazing Race…….
May 15th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
For a minute there I thought Seyesha may beat out Archuleta. She was great, peaked at the right time but unfortunately not enough. It really doesn’t matter because David Cook has got the AI title down, no problem.
I would buy a CD or concert ticket for David C. right now. Wheras, if I’m in Anaheim with the kiddies I might stop and listen to Archuleta sing Disney melodies. Not that it’s bad work but you have to start somewhere.