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‘American Idol’: If Performances only Mattered, Recap of Top 10
If performances from last night are any indication of who will depart from ‘American Idol’ it could be a toss up. Of course by now everybody knows that the competition is becoming less and less about the music and more about the singers’ fan base. Just like in the “real world” it’s who you know, not what you know. That being said, in a competition based solely on performance the bottom of the pack carries a familiar face, Sanjaya Malakar, and Chris Sligh.
Nothing more can be said about Malakar, there are no new ways to express the absurdity of his presence. You’ve got to give the guy credit though, he is consistent; each week he manages to mangle a song so much so that it could actually effect the sales of the artist who originally performed it. But Malakar is a pawn in a game being played between those who despise ‘American Idol’ and those who treat it like a religion. Malakar has become the sacrificial lamb of an anti-Idol movement and the only thing he can do to stop it is step down, but don’t count on that happening.
So Malakar opts to sing a No Doubt song while Gwen Stefani is on the show, kind of like the guy that wears a t-shirt of the band when he goes to see them perform. He sings the ever popular “Bathwater” track that radio killed a few years back and does what he does with just about every performance. Forgetting the lyrics when the original artist is there is never a good thing. Enough about Malakar, he will survive the vote because there is still enough people concentrating on pushing him through than there are people wanting him out.
Sligh suffers from an inability to select the proper song. If Sligh is relying on somebody else to choose his songs he needs to stop listening. Why he would try to cover a song that can only be sung properly by the guy who originally sang it is beyond comprehension. While the Police have a few tracks that can be covered, ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ is not one of them. Sligh stumbled his way through a song that he admits to never singing before. Not exactly sure if now is the time to be experimenting with a song that requires precision and absolute timing. Tonight the audience could be waving Sligh-bye.
Just to stick with the Police thing for a second and prove that there are songs that can be covered by the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Phil Stacey performed ‘Every Breath You Take.’ This is the same guy that has been on the brink of elimination and homeward bound for weeks yet he pulls it off. As a matter of fact Simon compliments him on his choice. That’s because it’s a song that can be covered. Ask Puff Daddy, the guy took the beat changed some lyrics and had a number one hit. Now Stacey should be safe based on his intelligence and song selection while Sligh sweats it out because of a whim to sing something he has no business singing.
Of course there are songs that have been covered by artists that, while not quite as good as the original, still have an ability to stand on their own. Haley Scarnato’s rendition of ‘True Colors’ is not one of those. Cyndi Lauper has one of the most distinctive and pure voices the recording industry has ever heard and to try and imitate her was a bad decision by Scarnato. Phil Collins covered the song and sounded terrible and that’s a guy that recorded seven number one hits in the U.S.
The top four spots are relatively safe baring a major collapse so LaKisha Jones, Melinda Doolittle, Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis have nothing to worry about. Gina Glocksen is working her way up the ladder as is Chris Richardson but really those two are just competing for face time as neither stands a chance at cracking into the top.
As each week goes by fostering a prediction becomes more and more meaningless so just sit back and take ‘American Idol’ for what it is, a microcosm of how the world operates on a daily basis. Who do you know?
