American Idol: Which of the Top Seven Will Go Tonight?
Who will win the crown, cute or talented?
April 18, 2012 - 9:18 am
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Season 11 Top Seven
So, shocker of shocker, the single best singer ever on all 11 seasons of American Idol, Jessica Sanchez, garnered the lowest number of votes last week and remains on the show only through the judges’ save.
Quelle surprise! America consistently gets it wrong as the number of contestants dwindles. Year after year, singers with true talent fall by the wayside and marginal talents advance. Think about it: how many Idol winners have gone on to major careers? Kelly Clarkson (Season 1), Carrie Underwood (Season 4), and last year’s Scotty McCreery. That’s about it. Most other winners faded back into obscurity. Lee DeWyze, anyone?
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I’m unembarrassed to say I watch Idol every week.
IMO, Colton and Philip Philips should both go. I keep hoping they’ll split the teenybopper adolescent girl vote just enough for someone to win who deserves it, but chances are one of them will take the top prize…most likely Colton. Jessica Sanchez deserves to win, but I have the feeling she’ll be voted off this week along with Elise Testone.
Frankly, I thought Scott McCreary was a lame Josh Turner imitator who was the least talented of the final three and probably the entire group that went to Hollywood. He won because the teenybopper girls thought he was cute…but he sucks, and that song he sang on Idol last week (or the week before) is the latest of a long line of cliche country songs about small towns. It’s been done a million times before and a million times better. Of the final 3 last year, Haley Reinhart should have won. Of course, it goes without saying Pia Toscano was the best of the final 24.
One other thing: what have the judges got against Haley Cavenaugh? She’s not the best on the stage (although she’s certainly better than most, including Colton and Philip), but no matter how well she sings, the judges give her back-handed compliments at best and disparaging comments at worst. She doesn’t seem to have a bad personality, so I don’t get why they seem to dislike her so much. Frankly, I thought it was funny to see them so upset about Jessica given the way they’ve dissed Haley and fawn all over a few of the others.
I have a feeling that Haylie is getting a sympathy vote because of the judges’ disparagment. I think she resembles some of the past winners too much (cute blonde) and they are trying to get a bit of variety. I don’t think she sounds bad. I enjoyed her last performance and was a bit puzzled as to why the judges were so hard on her, especially give her youth. It seems kind of mean.
They are hard on Hollie, though she defiinitely lacks that stage quality and is inconsistent. Colton is very good, and will be in the top three, “thin voice, limited range”? I don’t know what you’re listening to. Clearly Jessica should win, amazing voice, amazing stage presence, and very cute (though not a big personality).
At some point Phillips has to change or go home, I like him but more of the same is not better. I will disagree about Joshua Ledet, he has been tedious and glassy eyed quite a few times, he will need more like last week to stay in this.
DRay, Skylar “no range”, are you kidding? I’m not a country fan but she is good. And no way Pia or Holly should have won last year, the two country kids were better.
I made no comment about Skylar, but you think she has no range? With the exception of Sanchez and Cavenaugh, she has better vocal range than anyone on stage.
And Scotty sucked. He was a one-trick pony with no range at all who approached every song in exactly the same way. You can make a case for Alaina being the best of last year’s final three, but I still say Reinhart was the most polished and should have won. But Toscano blew everyone off the stage last year. For sheer talent, singing ability, and range, she rivals (and probably exceeds) Jessica Sanchez from this year’s group. But the best rarely wins on Idol.
Skyler is making a country fan of me. She is great. She brings soul to country and makes it believable.
I watch The Voice instead, mostly because the weredaughter and I think Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are hot. Make of that what you will.
Wait — you actually think that was authentic?
That entire episode was totally scripted, top to bottom. It was painfully obvious. Randy Jackson is the world’s worst actor, and when they are faking something, he gives it away every time.
If you paid attention, you will note that they never said that Jessica Sanchez got the lowest number of votes. They simply said she was getting kicked off, and cleverly managed to word it in such a way that they never specified it was due to low vote totals.
The Judges’ ruinous “save” was going to expire the following show without their using it, so they had to fake up a week’s results so they’d have a “dramatic” reason to use it.
The American version of Simon Cowell’s “X Factor” was completely scripted, with the eventually winner (Melanie Amaro) chosen by Simon as the winner before the show’s first episode even aired. And even though that was patently obvious to most viewers, the execs at 19 Entertainment foolishly thought that Simon had gotten away with it and so this season have amped up the fakery on Idol and done everything they could to “deny agency” to the actual voting fans. The way the Top 24 were all eliminated in a single show; the way that the judges (and not the voting public) got to pick four out the top 13 finalists; and the way they have the power to rescue and thus negate the votes in any particular week – all that adds up to a show in which the producers are trying to cook the results.
Luckily, all four of the judges’ top 13 picks have now been re-booted off by the voters. Starting this week, barring more fraudulence, the producers are out of tricks.
As for the contestants themselves: The two obviously best singers are Joshua and Elise. Of the two, Elise won my heart when she choose “Whole Lotta Love” as her song a couple weeks ago. I’d been waiting for the entire history of Idol for someone to sing that song, and she finally did it — and did it perfectly. On a purely technical level, Joshua should win, because he’s insanely talented; but I’m rooting for Elise. The rest are not bad, and I have really no criticisms of them (aside from the clueless Holly), but Jessica, Colton and Phillip are mostly just eye-candy, and Skylar is too relentlessly countrified for my tastes. They’re all very talented, and will all surely have successful careers (winning the show is not the point — getting exposure and a fan base is the point), so I don’t feel guilty not rooting for them.
Many of the show’s most successful graduates — Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry, etc. — were voted off way back in the back, 4th, 5th or even earlier; and some of the winners have flopped. The best thing the contestants can do is define a style on stage, garner a fan base and stake your claim for a genre, and not worry about winning.
I don’t see the obvious fake staging that you do, but nevertheless I think you’re right. (Maybe I just have the eyes for it.) I’ve suspected as much for many years.
As for Elise, puh-leeze. She couldn’t sing on-key if her life depended on it. Wait, did I say “sing”? I meant “shout”.
Jessica will be big no matter what happens. I think Holly is a dance song diva who has yet to realize it. Phillips is DeWyze. Testone clearly isn’t much liked by her fellow competitors.
I like Skylar for the win, based on sheer personality alone.
Zombie, if the Jessica fiasco was scripted, why did they allow her to at least begin to “sing for her life.”? She’s was awful, and I don’t think the audience will forget. Jessica’s confidence is completely shaken, what after all the Jimmy plaudits. She may last another week or two, put I doubt she can shake it off.
Having watched pretty much all 10 ½ seasons, I concluded many seasons ago that “the fix was in,” and that the producers and judges thumbs were definitely on the scale, as judges who made very rational comments for weeks would suddenly turn on a contestant (who had given a very good performance) for no apparent reason and pronounce what he had done as substandard, and basically “got out the hook,” or, on the other hand, the judges would extravagantly praise what seemed to me to be a lackluster performance. This season it has gotten so blatant as to have Jennifer Lopez tell voters to “vote for” a particular contestant.
I really do believe that American Idol is about as spontaneous and on the up and up as professional wrestling.
If this is truly a “singing competition,” and the votes of the American people do really determine who wins (and, after all, Jessica Sanchez—like all the other finalists– is guaranteed a healthy income (reportedly union scale of $1,000+ per show) and all sorts of exposure from the Tour), why should the judges interfere with the viewer’s judgment that, for some reason, Jessica’s latest performance was underwhelming, and she should not be the ultimate winner?
The judges “save” was all very convenient “drama” and, I believe, staged.
I note, too, that we are just told what the results of the vote are each week; we have no independent verification of these totals and results. To quote a saying attributed to Stalin, “it is not the people who vote that counts, it’s the people who count the votes.” I say, “trust but verify.”
As for a few of the people who didn’t win often doing better than those who do, I’ve always wondered if who won had something to do with how “tractable” and “commercial” the producers judged the top contestants to be, and the contracts the production company had the winners sign; reportedly a unusually long, 7 year contract, if an unusually well-compensated one, vs. the runner’s up being able to negotiate a shorter, less constraining contract.
I note too, the horrible songs that the Idol winners are often—I assume by contract—made to sing.
Unfortunately, Idol just seems like a big meat grinder that just sucks these singers, often kids, in and spits them out, pigeonholed as this or that type of “artist,” and transformed into whatever kind of singer the producers think will best sell today and, in this process, some with strong personalities can emerge relatively unscathed and some can’t. Along the way, too, there are all sorts of artificially inflated “stars” and “artistes” who just shouldn’t be there at all.
I’ve often wondered if domed to being a second or third class “star,” and playing Disney World, regional theater, state fairs, and cruise ship gigs, but never really making it big, or having one great hit and having to perform it over and over again for decades wasn’t some form of hell.
Most of these Idol runners up and winners had boring, routine jobs or were high school or college students; I wonder if those who–to one extent or the other–made it, are satisfied with their new lives and careers?
No mention was made of David Cook who won in 2008. He has made a couple of albums and last time I heard, was still going strong. So your theory has some holes in it.
Don’t forget Adam Lambert. Not a winner, but with a good career going.
Then there’s Taylor Hicks. Not feeling too bad even for him because even the lessor idols make a ton of dough.
The fact that Jessica Sanchez got the lowest vote last week just confirmed my opinion of the stupidity of general population of America. After all these are the same people in general who voted the unqualified Usurper Obama in to office.
Of course it’s scripted. The drama is all staged, as was mentioning Elise’s dying dog. Everything about the show is one giant made for T.V. event.
But the problem with Jessica is that, no matter how great her talent might be, she is doing songs no one wants to hear. It really doesn’t matter how good you are if no one wants to download or otherwise buy your music. So far, she hasn’t sung a single song that anyone in my family wants to hear again. I don’t like country music, but I can see that Skylar fits right into that and could easily sell records and perform on the country stage. I can see Colton and Phillip doing the same because they at least have a persona on stage. Even Joshua has a built in fan base because there is a market for the type of music he does. But Jessica? Maybe she can cover Whitney Houston’s entire catalog and build up some fans that way, but otherwise, I doubt it. I think Hollie has the same problem. What is she going to do with her career? Re-sing every power ballad ever written?
I may be wrong, but that is how I see it. The talent they have is only part, even if a major part, of creating a fan base. The rest of it is based on appealing to a significant group of people.
As we have seen, there are all sorts of talented singers practically coming out of the woodwork, but It seems to me that it takes more than just raw talent, but also good songs to sing and the ability to recognize and choose them, image and presentation, timing, grit and determination, and luck to become a star, and a perilous life it can be—see Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and many other etcs.
What I find particularly sad are the contestants who really don’t have true star level talent or appeal but who have been told by the Idol judges—week after week—how good they are and what stars they are, and who believe it, get eliminated, and then try to pursue a career.
JLo openly roots for Jessica and Joshua, even when they don’t do well (ie, last night). Joshua is exhausted. Jessica is a shell of herself.
Still like Skylar for the win, although the young teens who do the voting will push either Colton or Phillip over the line.