Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Is it really a girls’ year on American Idol?

We’ll begin to find out tonight and tomorrow night when the gals and guys go head to head for the first time.

We all know there hasn’t been a female winner on the show since Jordin Sparks in Season 6.

But that’s only been part of the problem for the ladies.

Last year, two of the first three contestants sent home were gals. In Season 10, the first five contestants eliminated were girls. And in Season 9, four of the first five given the boot were ladies.

In other words, we might not have to wait until mid-May to find out if anything has changed.

In the meantime, we have an interesting theme tonight:  For the first time ever, songs of the American Idols.

Translation: The Top 10 can sing songs that were hits for any of the previous Idol winners or songs they performed on the show.

Great theme in my mind.

Oh, and if you missed them, here are my initial Season 12 Idol rankings.

Nope, social media champ Angie Miller is not in the top spot. But she’s close.

Wow, its the first night of the finals and Nicki Minaj is late? Are you kidding me.

Ryan wonders who gave Nicki the wrong directions. Or drained her gas.

Mariah is silent. Though she did seem to look at her watch and sigh. LOL.

And the finals begin, minus Nicki …

Curtis Finch: Oh, no, poor Curtis. They’re throwing the best male singer to the wolves by making him sing first. He’ll sing Fantasia’s coronation song, “I Believe.” Hmm, the stylists did him no favors either, by decking him out in that red paisley jacket. Oh, no, here comes the Idol chorus. Can’t we keep them off the stage and let us hear the contestant and the contestant alone? OK, I was not loving that performance. It came off as a little cheesy. And the wrinkles he put on the song just seemed a little over the top to me. Not surprised he picked a Fantasia song. He’s cited her as his favorite past Idol on a number of occasions. Not sure singing a Fantasia song was the best idea though. Grade: C+

Janelle Arthur: The sweet young country girl from Oliver Springs, Tenn., told HitFix she didn’t mind being labeled a marshmallow by Nicki. She was grateful Nicki gave her a nickname. She’s going to sing “Gone,” performed by Scott McCreery back in Season 10. Hey, an upbeat song. Hallelujah! And they have Janelle looking lovely. Nice performance. Not sure is was packed full of what Randy calls “moments,” but it was better than any of Janelle’s performances in Vegas. And her experience shows; she seemed in control of the Idol stage. Grade: B–

Devin Velez: This young guy from Chicago has been really solid vocally, but Jimmy Iovine is pushing him in the right direction, urging him to do something contemporary. Well, he’s picked a more current song — Carrie Underwood’s “Temporary Home,” but it’s yet another ballad for Devin. But you know what? He starts out really strong. Unfortunately, the chorus is not soaring the way it does for Carrie. And it’s turning into a pretty sleepy couple of minutes. And that last note was a bit of a squeaker, proving he’s not quite a Carrie Underwood. Keith says it was a bad song choice. Nicki disagrees with everything Keith just said. But Randy thought it was way too safe. As for Mariah, I have no idea what her critique meant. I’d agree that was Devin’s weakest performance yet. Grade: C–

Angie Miller: She’s the early favorite. And she already has a huge following. Jimmy warns her not to come off as though she’s performing in a beauty pageant. She’s going to sing “I Surrender,” performed by Kelly Clarkson back in Season 1. She says she thinks she can sing it as well as Kelly. Wow. Bold statement. Well, I see what Jimmy means about a beauty pageant look. But this is also the best vocal and performance we’ve seen so far tonight. That big note toward the end and the lines that followed were amazing. Absolutely spot on. Really great performance. Keith says she knocked it out of the park. Nicki says she looks brilliant, and is “perfection” on every level. Grade: A-

Paul Jolley: There’s been a lot of talk about the lack of a white guy with guitar on Idol this year. In truth, Paul says he plays guitar a little, enough to write songs, but not enough to embarrass himself by trying it on stage. Given Idol’s history, he might want to rethink that strategy. The guy who wants to be the male Taylor Swift is going to sing “Amazed,” which Scotty performed in Season 10. Well, up to the last 30 seconds, that had been my favorite Paul performance of the season. Then we came to the part of the song where Paul should have soared. But he didn’t. Not the way Angie did at the end of her song. Nicki says this is the first time “you’ve stimulated my sexual appetite.” She also thought he did the song justice. He gets decent reviews from all the judges. Grade: C+

Candice Glover: She’s been a judges’ favorite in Season 12 and showed why during a really great victory performance of “I’m Going Down.” And another predictable song choice for Candice. She’ll sing “I Who Have Nothing,” performed by Jordin back in Season 6. She promises to surprise America. Sorry, not surprised by another big ballad. But she’s doing a great job of connecting with the song. There was a section of that song where she was also over-singing quite noticeably. Other than that small stretch, she turned in a really nice performance that brought the judges to their feet. No shortage of moments in that performance. I could, Idol, do without the cuts to Randy looking amazed during the performance, unless we’re going to show his reaction mid-song. Randy calls it the best performance of Season 12. Mariah loves it, too, but explains that she didn’t stand because her skirt’s too tight. Grade: B+

Lazaro Arbos: Next to Angie, Lazaro has the biggest following on Twitter and Facebook. And I love his song choice; he’s singing Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway.” You can see the correlation between the lyrics and his story. What have they done with Lazaro’s hair? Uh-oh. Lazaro seems to have misplaced the swagger he had in Vegas. And Keith hits the nail on the head with that critique: That song was not in his wheelhouse. Nicki calls the performance her least favorite. I’d have to agree. Lazaro will probably survive because of his popularity, but that was the weakest performance of the night so far. Grade: C–

Kree Harrison: I was really impressed by Kree in Vegas. So impressed, I placed her at number one in my initial Idol rankings in spite of the popularity of Angie Miller and Lazaro Arbos. Kree will sing “Cryin’,” which Carrie sang back in Season 4. As expected, they have Kree looking a bit more star-like tonight. Not thrilled with the song choice because I’d rather dance than cry. Nicki compares Kree’s singing with eating waffles. It’s all good. Randy says Kree gives him tingles. Bottom line: She delivered a very solid vocal. I’m just hoping she’s around long enough to prove how truly special she is. Grade: B

Burnell Taylor: This teen is one of the contestants I think needs a solid performance to survive week one. Here comes another R&B ballad — he’s singing Ruben Studdard’s “Flying Without Wings.” Prediction: This performance will not make Mariah cry. At least not because of its goodness. I’m not sure Burnell ever found the sweet spot in his voice on that song, and when he tried to do something special … well, there were some peculiar things going on with his voice. Keith calls his voice unique. That wasn’t a unique I want to hear again. He’s getting surprisingly good reviews from the judges. Hmm, I smell a judges’ favorite and critiques that aren’t based on what we heard tonight. Grade: D+

Amber Holcomb: What does this placement tell me? The judges love Amber. But they’re not sure fans at home are getting it. And they want her to survive week one really badly. This will already be the second time she’s gotten to sing last. Jimmy is trying to push her upbeat, which would have been wise. But she’s going to sing “A Moment Like This.” Hmm. A little risky. OK, that was a fine vocal. Problem is, tons of folks remember Kelly singing that song. And that was not Kelly Clarkson special. Which is one reason why doing the song was so risky. Again, over the top reviews from the judges. Nicki calls it the best of the night. Randy says she killed it. It wasn’t that good. It was good enough to get her through week one. Grade: B-