Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Hey, Elton John night on American Idol turned out better than I thought it would.

Though, perhaps, not quite as good as our three esteemed judges would like us to believe.

Let’s backtrack. Esteemed is a term earned by judges who judge, who help us sort out the good from the bad.

These judges have been doing very little of that.

I graded all the performances tonight. Now it’s time to grade the judges.

Randy: D (for reasons I’ll go into below).

Jennifer: C- (because she at least tries to sprinkle her compliments with helpful advice)

Steven: F-

In fact, I will no longer refer to Steven Tyler as a judge. He’s a cheerleader. Twenty-two straight performances over two weeks, and he’s loved every one.

Heck, at least you knew Paula Abdul wasn’t impressed when she started complimenting a contestant on how nice they looked.

With Steven, it’s “loved it,” “loved it,” “loved it” with lots of gibberish and an occasional witty comment thrown in.

On to the recap:

Best of the Night: Everyone was picking on Randy Jackson for saying Pia Toscano needed to stop singing ballads. Heck, I suggested she be banned from singing ballads for the rest of the season. So what does Pia do? She sings another ballad — “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” — and turned in not only the best performance of the night, but one of the best of Season 10. Could a lady win this? I still think she’ll have to shrug off the ballads to do it.

Runner-up: James Durbin. For some reason, I haven’t been thrilled with the way his voice sounds on the songs he’s picked the last three weeks. But none of these contestants has more fun performing or brings more energy to the show.  James rocked it again on “Saturday Night’s Alright.” And if his vocals early on didn’t scintillate, the ending was as blazing as that red piano that caught fire on stage. James also gets kudos for not taking himself too seriously. That line about being afraid of  “a Pepsi moment” because he had so much hairspray holding up his hair was classic … more so, of course, because Coke is a major sponsor of Idol.

Deserves to go home: Hmm, isn’t it ironic that Naima Adedapo sang “I’m Still Standing,” a song about survival, and it’s destined to send her home. Sorry, the reggae touch on the Elton John tune didn’t work very well. Even Jennifer and Randy said so. Of course, cheerleader Steven Tyler loved it. The combination of lukewarm comments from the real judges and performing second spells big trouble for Naima.

Please keep her: I almost can’t believe I’m typing this, but I’d hate to see Thia Megia go home after her best performance on the show. For the first time, I felt like Thia  meant what she was singing and showed emotion on stage rather than turning in the picture perfect pageant performance.  Credit goes to Jimmy Iovine for nudging her in that direction.

Baffled by the judges: They baffled me a lot on a night when I thought most of the Idols were OK, but not nearly as good as the judges would have us believe. But nothing baffled me more than their rave reviews of Casey Abrams’ performance of “Your Song.” Take the crazy out of Casey, and you’ve pretty much robbed him of his magic. There was nothing magical about that pitchy performance Wednesday night. In fact, I rated it the second worst of the night.

Then there was Randy’s declaration that Haley Reinhart’s rendition of “Bennie and the Jets” was the best of the night. Seriously, Randy? I mean, I know Haley performed last. I know that’s supposed to be the featured spot on the show. And, hey, she had fun. She could teach Pia a thing or two in that department. Haley also picked a good song to show off her soulful voice. But that was nowhere near the best vocal of the night.

Idol Chatter advice for Jacob Lusk: Everyone has been urging you to show restraint when you sing. You need to learn to control the facial expressions, too. They’re often downright scary. And incredibly distracting. But, hey, amazing note at the end of “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word.”

Idol Chatter advice for Lauren Alaina: Spend the next week practicing onstage interviews.  Have one of the guys play Ryan Seacrest. Try your best to play a grownup. And form intelligent answers. Because you’re coming off as gee-whiz silly when you’re not singing. And it’s more annoying than Kellie Pickler charming.

Prediction for Thursday night:  Naima Adedapo is going home. That’s a given. Who goes with her? Despite what I considered a subpar performance, I think Casey is safe. His supporters will rally after last week’s scare. I think Thia Megia could be in trouble. But if I had to chose who else to send home, it would be Stefano Langone. He does great when he’s singing pop songs. Ballads are not his forte, and he performed a lackluster ballad for the second straight week.

Song by song grades: (blog here)

Pia Toscano: Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me — A
James Durbin: Saturday Night Alright — B+
Scotty McCreery: Country Comfort — B
Thia Megia: Daniel — B
Jacob Lusk: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word — B
Paul McDonald: Rocket Man — B-
Lauren Alaina: Candle in the Wind — B-
Haley Reinhart: Bennie and the Jets — B-
Stefano Langone: Tiny Dancer — C+
Casey Abrams: Your Song — C
Naima Adedapo: I’m Still Standing — C-