Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Maybe I’ve been watching American Idol play favorites with contestants for so long that I see conspiracies where they don’t expect.

But I suspect last week marked just the beginning of  X Factor pushing Chris Rene as a contestant worthy of a spot in the finals, and perhaps alongside Melanie Amaro when and if the field is whittled to just two.

It’s no secret that the show loves his back-story.  The road to sobriety. From trash hauler to reality show singing star.

The problem has been the singing.  Chris just isn’t very good.   In fact, I wrote last week that we haven’t seen a contestant go this far with such limited vocal skills since the third of fourth season of Idol.

Yet the judges heaped  compliment after compliment on Chris last week.  He sat on a stool and sang an original song — which, granted, doesn’t happen often on shows like this; the singing an original song, that is. The judges went so gaga, you would have thought he was the second coming of Adam Lambert in terms of showmanship.

Only Simon Cowell made reference to Chris’ vocal limitations. “I’m not going to say you’re the best singer, because you’re not,” Simon said in something of an understatement. But he quickly added: “As a potential recording artist, with charisma, with presence, I think you are doing brilliant.”

Here’s what I think is happening.  The folks in charge of X Factor, Simon included, took a look at their contestants and realized they have only two really superior singers left: Melanie Amaro and Josh Krajcik.

Then they examined the X-factor appeal of that pairing. Let’s just say I can’t see young girls squealing at the prospect of going to their first Josh Krajcik concert.

Chris Rene? Inexplicably, perhaps.  He’s only two years younger than Josh (30 to 28), yet seems a far younger in terms of his  music.

Besides, that’s the only explanation I can come up with for something else that happened in last week’s show:  The criticism Josh received from L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell for his rendition of Rihanna’s “We Found Love.”

The criticism didn’t focus on his performance.  It focused on his song choice; it wasn’t a good fit, Simon and L.A. said.

Hmm, I doubt Josh picked dance tunes for a theme week. In fact, you probably couldn’t have picked a theme less Josh-like, unless you made him rap or sing disco.

Anyway, conspiracy theory to not, the Grand Canyon remains firmly lodged between Josh and Chris in my X Factor rankings.

And I really can’t imagine that changing.

So here we go …

1. Melanie Amaro (1): Week after week, she proves she’s the best singer of the bunch.  She did it again last week with “Someone Like You” and “When You Believe.”  And it wasn’t even her best week.  Just crown her already?  Oops, I forgot.  The last four winners of Idol were guys.  A guy won The Voice.  Can Melanie break the streak on a brand new show?

2. Josh Krajcik (2): OK, the Rihanna performance wasn’t very good, but I place the blame for that more on the show for making him sing a dance song than anything Josh did.  And the Rihanna song was more legitimate attempt at  a dance tune than Melanie singing Adele’s “Someone Like You.” The key thing: Josh bounced back with “Something in the Way She Moves,” the best performance on the show.

3. Marcus Canty (4): Regardless of whether there’s a conspiracy theory in the works, Chris Rene will wind up in the finals. Because Marcus Canty has been on the verge of elimination three straight weeks. He shows no signs of gaining the steam he’d need to win the competition. And Nicole Scherzinger will not vote to keep him around again. Will she?

4. Chris Rene (5): Giving credit where credit it due, Chris sounded better on his original song than he has in weeks. As for that original song … well, I’m not sure it was the “stroke of genius” Simon described it as.  I’m pretty certain repeating the line “Where Do We Go from Here” 12 times in two minutes qualifies a song as lyrically challenged, especially when you throw in a lot of nah-nahs and la-las in between.