Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Movie night on Idol. Quentin Tarantino night on Idol.

The guy’s a legend. Ryan just told us so. And the movie director/producer/actor will serve as guest mentor for the performers this week.

Meanwhile, there will be a change in Idol’s format tonight.

Since, according to Simon, the girls talked too much last week, the show ran late and anyone who watched on DVR missed Adam Lambert’s brilliant version of “Mad World.”

To avoid the same from happening this week, only two judges will provide feedback to each performer.

Which means Simon won’t get to judge each contestant?

Bet the contestants who missed out on that will be disappointed, huh?

Allison Iraheta kicks things off with Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing.” Simon calls her the girl’s only hope in this competition … what does that mean for poor Lil? And Allison gets praise from Paula. I’m not sure that was nearly as good as Allison’s performance last week. The end seemed particularly … ah, shouty, shall we say. But I’m rooting for Allison and hope she doesn’t fall prey to the curse of performing first. I still think she might be the contestant the judges find themselves needing to save. Grade: B-

Next up, Anoop Desai, singing Bryan Adam’s “Everything I Do, I Do For You.” Wow, I think Anoop just found his comfort zone. That was a spot-on performance of a classic song. Very, very good from Anoop at a time when he desperately needed it. Remember, this guy was 30,000 votes from going home last week. Grade: B+

Adam Lambert will sing “Born To Be Wild” from the film “Easy Rider.” Well, one thing’s for sure, he won’t get cut off this week. So, this week, we’re back to rocker Adam. Gosh. Week after week, this guy steps on stage and takes the quality of the show through the roof. I mean, we’re watching a polished professional halfway through an amateur competition. I wondered how he’d top last week. I think we all just found out. Regardless of what Simon says. I can’t imagine anyone despising that performance. My wife just made an excellent point. Adam should get to finish the show every week. I mean, how do you top that? We just saw perhaps the top rock performance ever on Idol. Grade: A+

Matt Giraud has the misfortune of following Adam to the stage, singing Bryan Adam’s “Have You Really Ever Loved a Woman?” That might just have spelled the end for Matt. He messed with the melody of a classic love song. And some of those notes … well, I thought cats were fighting on the front porch. They were that screechy. Grade: D

Danny Gokey performs next. Apparently, he just bought a guitar. And Danny is going to sing “Endless Love.” Darn. And I would have bet he’d sing, “My Heart Will Go On.” Suggestion for Danny: You should have sang “My Heart Will Go On.” All that performance did is make me yearn to hear Lionel Ritchie’s much, much, much better version of the song. Paula says we were slayed at the end. Ah, yeah, I thought Danny slayed the end of the song, but not for the better. Grade: C

Kris Allen is going to sing “Falling Slowly,” from the film, “Once.” A very simple ballad, simply done. Not sure that was his best performance, but it was better than last week’s off kilter version of “All She Wants To Do Is Dance,” and it was better than what we heard from Matt and Danny. Grade: B-

And, now, Lil Rounds closes the evening with “The Rose.” She ranks right up there with Anoop as a contestant most in need of a brilliant performance. Unfortunately for Lil, that was not brilliant. In fact, the first half of the song was painful. The second half was better. But, much like when Danny sang the Lionel Ritchie song, I just couldn’t help but think how much I’d rather hear Bette Midler’s original version. Grade: C-

Week 6 recap blog