Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Now American Idol 2009 starts for real.

We’ve endured those silly audition episodes, those predictable drama-filled Hollywood episodes, not to mention Idol’s grand scheme to spoil the semifinals.

Now it’s down to the final 13. These are the performances we’ll remember, for good reasons or bad.

For starters, I’ll be interested in seeing who the first couple of singers are. Those contestants typically face an uphill battle because the voting won’t start until nearly two hours after they perform.

Time for song-by-song grades for week one.

Well, first, some breaking news courtesy of Simon. Two contestants will be heading home Wednesday night rather than one.

Funny, I had asked the Idol p.r. folks earlier today whether the season finale was still scheduled for May 20, despite the fact that the field had expanded to 13 candidates.

The answer was yes, that two contestants would be eliminated one week, but that they weren’t sure when.

Well, I guess we know now.

Lil Rounds is up first, singing “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Oh, yeah, if you missed the earlier announcement, this is Michael Jackson night on Idol. Lil just turned in a decent performance. Not nearly as good as Randy, Kara and Paula are making it sound, but certainly good enough that we’ll be seeing her another week, whether she had to sing first or not. Bottom line: Simon’s the only judge who got it right. For the second straight week, she selected a song that wasn’t the best at showing off her incredible voice. Grade: B-

Scott MacIntyre slips back into his comfort zone, behind the keyboards, singing “Keep the Faith.” The song choice isn’t surprising given Scott’s message of inspiration, but Simon’s comments are again on the mark. Of all the Michael Jackson songs to choose from, he just sang on that isn’t very well known and isn’t likely to be a crowd pleaser. And Scott’s piano playing was better than the vocals. Not sure he has the voice to be the Idol. Grade: C

Danny Gokey up, singing “PYT.” The judge favorite already has Paula and Kara on their feet. No surprise there. Heck, Paula is beside herself; she already has Danny in the finals. For crying out loud. I give Danny an “A” for his performance; he’s a better performer than I expected. I give him a “C” for the vocals; I’m just not thrilled by this guy’s sound. Still, it boils down to the best performance yet. Grade: B.

Michael Sarver takes the stage, to sing “You Are Not Alone.” The fans at americanidol.com gave Michael the lowest rating of any of the final 13 contestants. I’m not sure that performance is going to help his case. Rather boring. Rather safe. An OK vocal. Michael Jackson did record better songs than these, didn’t he? Grade: C.

Jasmine Murray takes her turn on stage, looking lovely as always, singing “I’ll Be There.” I’d love to see young Jasmine jumping around on stage like Danny Gokey, showing off her youthful appeal. She just always looks like the perfectly composed pageant contestant. The vocal, not bad, not great, a little sharp at times, but a couple of big notes to compensate. Grade: C.

Kris Allen gets to sing Michael Jackson again. He made the finals with a fine version of “Man in the Mirror.” This time around, he’s singing “Remember the Time” and, as promised, he has guitar in hand. That said, I have no idea why. He wouldn’t have needed a guitar to sing that turkey. Decent vocal, but I liked “Man in the Mirror” better. And most of the other performances tonight better than that. Grade C-

Allison Iraheta on stage, singing “Given To Me,” and looking like a rocker chick, a la Amanda Overmyer. Wow. Now that was a performance. Best one of the night. A rocker chick delivered. I thought “Alone” was over the top. That wasn’t. This is the girl who won a sweet 15 competition on Spanish television? On a night of bland pop performances, Allison delivered big time. Grade: A-

Anoop Desai’s turn, singing “Beat It.” Finally, one of the better Michael songs. Now, here’s the downside. People are so familiar with the original, they’re going to compare Anoop to that, unless he changes it up dramatically, like David Cook did last year with “Billie Jean.” Instead, Anoop is giving us a straight down the middle version that’s going to come off as bad karaoke compared to the original. Grade: D-.

Jorge Nunez will be singing “Never Can Say Goodbye.” I think we’ve slipped into the karaoke zone, and it ain’t a good place to be. That was boring, with a capital B. And it lacked any of the emotion that Jorge used to sing his way into the finals last week. Only marginally better than Anoop. Grade: D.

Megan Corkrey gets her turn, singing “Rockin’ Robin.” You’d never know this gal had so little experience on stage. That was a solid, fun performance, and was a breath of fresh air coming after the two that proceeded it. Not a challenging song vocally, but unlike that judges, I thought that was a nice match of singer and song. Grade: B.

Adam Lambert sings next … “Black and White” … and I mean sing. Thanks, Adam, for providing a master class in how to sing and perform. Chalk that up as the first memorable performance of season eight. And one of the best performances we’ve heard on Idol in eight seasons. Grade: A+

Matt Giraud gets his turn, singing “Form of Human Nature,” from behind a piano. Poor, poor Matt. How can you follow the performance we just saw? Well, you can’t. Still haven’t heard a great performance from this guy. That was just so-so. Kara and Paula are beside themselves again. Of course. Grade: C.

Alexis Grace wraps up the show. Go, Alexis. She’ll be singing “Diana.” Well, on a night of too many safe boring performances, Alexis is being neither safe or boring. For that reason, I’m liking it. Might have been a little over the top. But it sure wasn’t boring. Grade: B