Idol Chatter & Voice Views

A look back at 2013 wouldn’t be complete without a look at the best and worst from the singing shows in the past year.

So here they are, my picks for the top five and worst five developments involving those shows, their personnel or their former cast members.

This is the last segment in the 2013 Year in Review series.

Follow these links for my picks of best Idol songs, best Idol albums and best Idol videos.

As a bonus, I’ve embedded all the videos from 2013 in the latter blog.

Now …

The Best

Tessanne Chin, Season 5 winner of The Voice, is congratulated by Adam Levine, who broke Blake Shelton’s three-season winning streak. (NBC Photo)

1. The Voice

When the show debuted in 2011, featuring spinning chairs and singers competing in a phony and hokey pretend boxing ring, I never thought I’d be writing the following sentence. The Voice is now the most entertaining singing show on TV. They’ve accomplished that with superior talent, superior production and a charismatic panel of judges. And that panel didn’t miss a beat when Usher and Shakira took the seats of Cee Lo and Christina Aguilera in the spring. The only thing the show hasn’t done yet in create a superstar, though Cassadee Pope and Danielle Bradbery enjoyed more post-show success in 2013 than The Voice’s previous winners.

2. Kelly Clarkson

Professionally, Kelly started the year with a greatest hits album on the Billboard chart and ended it with her first Christmas album. The latter, “Wrapped in Red,” turned out to be one of the most successful of the holiday season. In between, she nabbed a Grammy for best pop album of 2012 (“Stronger”). She hosted her first holiday special (on NBC, not FOX). And in December, she was nominated for another Grammy, this time for her “Don’t Rush” duet with Vince Gill. In her personal life, Kelly got married to Brandon Blackstock in October. A month later, she announced the couple are expecting their first child. Now that’s a year that’s going to be tough to top.

Candice Glover in tears after being named the Season 12 winner of American Idol. (AP Photo)

3. Candice Glover

For five straight years, the winner of American Idol had been a guitar-playing male. Candice Glover knew the story well. She’d been eliminated after Hollywood Week in Season 10, when Scotty McCreery took the title. She was one of the singers brushed aside during the Vegas round in Season 11, when Phillip Phillips eventually won the Idol crown. But she told her hometown newspaper in South Carolina she planned to audition again, determined to make herself “bulletproof” to every phase of the competition in Season 12. A brilliant audition set the stage, but it turned out her biggest competition wouldn’t come from a guitar-playing guy, but from two other talented ladies — Kree Harrison and Angie Miller. She wound up competing against Kree for the title. But a brilliant, show-closing performance of “I Who Have Nothing” sealed the deal. The next night, Candice became Idol’s first female winner since Jordin Sparks in Season 6.

4. Danielle Bradbery and Jacquie Lee

Prior to Season 4 of The Voice, I figured teens with little experience had zero chance of winning the show. After all, talented teens like Trevin Hunte and Melanie Martinez had just been swept aside in favor of a Season 3 final three featuring veteran performers — Cassadee, Nicholas David and Terry McDermott. Then Danielle, just 15 at the time, showed up on the scene with her country charm and pitch-perfect vocals and breezed to the Season 4 crown, having barely performed in public before. If anything, Jacquie Lee, 16, was more impressive in Season 5, en route to a second-place finish. Her prior claim to fame: Winning a local Idol competition in her home state of New Jersey. This much is certain: Their success will likely embolden other talented young singers to audition for The Voice, despite the prospect of facing tougher competition than they would on American Idol of The X Factor.

Kellie Pickler in concert earlier this year. In 2013, she won Dancing with the Stars and released her fourth album. (AP Photo)

5. Kellie Pickler

Back in Season 5, Kellie converted a touch of country charm, unrefined talent and a touch of bravado (how else do you describe it when a country singer tackles “Bohemian Rhapsody”) into a sixth-place finish on American Idol. This year found Kellie back on a TV reality competition. She competed in the 16th season of Dancing with the Stars and waltzed her way to the title with the help of partner Derek Hough. Then, in November, Kellie released her fourth and best album to date, “The Woman I Am.” I’m pretty sure you can count on one hand the number of non-finalists on Idol who have been successful enough to release four post-show albums.

The Worst

1. American Idol Season 12

The only good thing to happen on Season 12 of the once-proud franchise was the crowning of the show’s first female winner in six years. The judging panel was a dysfunctional mess (more on that in a moment), the male talent was abysmal, the singers were again asked to tackle stale themes that had them singing songs they’d never heard and the production had a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants feel you wouldn’t expect from what was once the top-rated show on TV. The low point came on Top 4 Night, Part 1. Idol had decided not to have wild card contestants in Season 12. Without them, the show didn’t have enough contestants to get through the season if the judges didn’t use their save. Guess what? The judges didn’t save anyone. So when host Ryan Seacrest announced a dramatic twist on Top 4 Week — no one would go home — no one was surprised either.

Randy Jackson gets goodbyes from Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj on his last show as an American Idol judge. Turns out, it was the last show for all three … as judge. Randy wll be back in Season 13 in a new role. (FOX Photo)

2. Mariah Carey: Idol’s all-time worst judge

Mariah got millions of dollars to judge American Idol. She was very successful at one thing: making all the failed judge experiments in Idol’s past, from Steven Tyler to Ellen DeGeneres to Kara DioGuardi, look like major success stories. She wins the crown for all-time worst Idol judge. Hands down. Mariah’s shining moment came on Top 6 week, when Lazaro Arbos missed a key change, something Mariah thought should not happen that far into the competition. Of course, Mariah couldn’t state it quite that succinctly. Instead, she rambled on for 2 minutes, 8 seconds — longer than Lazaro sang. Randy Jackson rubbed his head. Nicki Minaj was smiling ear to ear. I would have loved to have read that thought bubble. Even Lazaro started smiling when Mariah asked for divine intervention. If you’d like to relive the full critique, I’ve pasted it below.

3. Randy Jackson as mentor?

Lots of longtime Idol watchers weren’t real disappointed when news came that the last of Idol’s original judges was stepping down at the end of Season 12. I mean, how many ways can you say “in it to win it” or “he/she can sing the phone book” before the statements become so cliched that they’re meaningless. Ah, but the news of Randy’s departure took a startling twist after months of speculation about who might judge and who might mentor American Idol Season 13. And the new mentor will be: Randy Jackson. Hmm, he couldn’t provide very meaningful critiques through 12 seasons, so now he’s responsible for helping tell contestants what they need to do to improve? Sounds sensible to me. Just joking.

Nicki Minaj provided some humorous moments as an Idol judge, but couldn’t control her Twitter fingers. (FOX Photo)

4. Nicki’s trigger-happy Twitter fingers

It was one thing when Nicki Minaj took to Twitter to defend herself when Mariah said she hired extra security because she didn’t “feel emotionally comfortable” around the rapper. But by mid-season, she was sending out tweets directed at contestants. Devin Velez happened to mention that he thought Nicki went a little overboard in her critique of a group performance gone awry. Ms. Minaj’s response, among others: “Trust me BEW BEW. If EYE didn’t want u in that TOP, YOU wldnt have been in that TOP. Fought for ALL of you. So just simply b gracious.” And she added: “If Curtis didn’t get SAVED, NONE of u get saved! Best male voice of the SEASON!” By Curtis, she meant Curtis Finch, the first finalist eliminated in Season 12. Of course, Nicki didn’t get to provide her opinion of Curtis on air because she was late showing up to the Top 10 show — Idol’s very first live broadcast of the season. That was an Idol first.

5. The Voice’s instant save

The Voice made very few missteps in 2013. But the show introduced one twist in Season 5 that had West Coast viewers fuming. And for good reason. It was called the instant save, and it worked like this. With five minutes left, the show would announce its bottom three vote-getters. Then viewers could tweet to save one of the three. The singer with the most tweets got the save. For viewers watching live in the East, no problem. For viewers out West … well, this made absolutely no sense. If they cared enough to check Twitter three hours before they’d normally be watching the show, they could participate. But if they did, then why watch the show? For all the fuss, the instant save made absolutely no impact in the outcome. Every time a contestant was saved, her or she went home the very next week.

And, no, I didn’t forget

Here’s Mariah’s critique of Lazaro Arbos, which probably qualifies as the show’s most convoluted ever … well, except for the night back in Season 7 when Paula Abdul thought everyone had performed twice … before they actually had.

Mariah Carey turned out to be a multi-million dollar monumental flop as an American Idol judge. (FOX Photo)

“So, no, Lazaro, here’s the thing. Honestly, I’ve been accused of being too nice and la, la, la. And the powers that be have reminded me and reprimanded me (that) I’m here to judge. So, please understand, like Randy said, you’re the person we all understand, and, in terms of your struggle, there’s no denying you are beyond courageous to be doing this.

“But at this point in the competition, there cannot be a key change and you’re in … and you don’t continue to … how do I express it? We can’t go into another key and you stay in the old key. Does everybody understand what I mean? There’s a thing that happens in the music where it takes you to another level. If you stay in the previous key, that’s just the end of the song.

“And it’s like, if you couldn’t hear yourself, that could be a reason why that maybe could happen. But that’s something I have to point out to you only because if you’re not aware of that, this is like kind of a big deal. And … um … so … I think … OK … for a um, um, um, how do I say it? What is the word? Darling, help me out. Lord, in heaven.

“What I’m trying to say is this: Sometimes it can be harder to sing a quiet song that requires control, that is not belting. Remember when I said when you hit your sweet spot that’s when you’re strongest. Earlier. In another day. So this type of song, you really need to be owning and comfortable and just like, ‘I’m here. I’m singing. I’m casual. Whatever.’

“If you don’t have that ability to do that, which I only felt for like, half a second toward the end, it’s not the right selection for you. And I’m sorry to say that because I dearly love you and respect you. But I’m trying to help your next performance.”

If only someone had been able to help Mariah with her next critique.