Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Time for the final five to tackle the Rat Pack.

Note that Idol has done away with that silly stage entrance by the judges. My guess is that it’s one of the concessions the show has made to try to meet its time constraints.

Well, so much for being in a hurry. We’re wasting a lot of time meeting this week’s mystery mentor, Jamie Foxx. Think one of my big questions has been answered: If each contestant were going to sing twice tonight, they would already be getting down to business.

So, we’re in for an hour-long show with a grand total of 7.5 minutes of singing.

Fantastic. (That’s typed sarcastically, in case you didn’t catch it).

Yawn. Still there? It’s 8:12 p.m. and we’re finally about to hear the first song.

Kris Allen will be singing “The Way You Look Tonight.” No doubt about it, Kris can make the gals swoon. But you were wrong, Jamie Foxx. That didn’t blow me away. Pretty mediocre in fact. Seems the Randy-Kara-Paula trio is slobbering over a so-so effort again. Leave it to Simon to introduce some reality to the discussion. The first part of that performance put me to sleep. Not terrible by any stretch. Just not great. And great is what we’re looking for once the field reaches the final five. Grade: B

Next up, Allison Iraheta, who just celebrated her 17th birthday, singing “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Allison slows things down, probably for the first time this season. OK, I think I might as well admit I’m just not going to like many of the songs the contestants sing tonight. Same thing happened a couple of years ago when my wife wanted to go to a Rod Stewart concert at the Giant Center. As long as he was singing his songs, the concert was great. Everything came to a screeching halt for me when he started singing songs from the ’40s.

Enough about my concert-going experiences. Back to Allison. Again, the first part of the song didn’t thrill me. When Allison kicked in with some big notes, things got better. Nice to hear Kara say the performance should earn Allison a spot in the finale. Frankly, I think her previous seven performances should have earned her recognition as the second-best performer to date (behind Adam, of course). Instead, those performances have earned her three weeks in the bottom three. Like Simon, I fear for Allison this week. That performance wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t a performance that screamed ‘You must vote for me’ either. Grade: B+

Matt Giraud up third with “My Funny Valentine.” I figure Matt has the edge with this theme week. And he’s donned the fedora again. But I just can’t seem to get into this guy’s singing. And, for once, I agree more with Randy and Kara than with Simon. That isn’t a performance I’d want to download, or hear again. Once more, not terrible. Just not great. Besides, I’m sorta rooting for Matt to go home this week. The only alternative seems to be Allison, and I don’t want that to happen. Grade: B-

Danny Gokey will be singing “Come Rain or Come Shine.” Wow. Listen to Danny. He hasn’t thrilled me in recent weeks. For one thing, he has to deliver an A+ performance to match the hype from his groupies on the judges’ panel (Paula and Kara, if you’re wondering). But he just delivered his best performance in weeks. I mean weeks. Easily the best of the night to this point. Grade: A

Adam Lambert wraps up the evening. He’ll be singing “Feeling Good.” Jamie Foxx predicts he’ll knock everyone’s head off. Thanks, Adam, you’re going to drag this awful theme week kicking and screaming out of the dark ages and make it current. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amazing. Danny wasn’t going to be easy to top, but you just did it. Wow. Grade: A+