Wednesday, March 6, 2013

American Idol 12: Top 10 Girls

Keith Urban mentioned at the start of the show that there's some real diversity with the contestants this season. Well, I honestly don't see it. Where's the Elise Testone of this season? Or the Jessica Sanchez? Or the Megan Joy? Or the Haley Reinhart?

As I've said in my previous blog, everyone is sounding so familiar and then, in retrospect, ordinary. There are so many of the same type of artists that they keep running over each other and that's not a good thing. Season 12 contestants are composed mostly of RnB and Country singers - much like how they've decided to pack Season 9 with singer-songwriter/indie finalists and we all know how that season ended, right? Right!

But how did the girls do tonight? I give MOST of them kudos for singing relatively new songs - not the overdone American Idol song choices - but these girls were SO wooden. I was hoping that one of them will grab that mic off the stand and work the stage, but that didn't happen! Well, Zoanette did, but she wasn't exactly singing so whatever.

If these girls could combine their voices with Zoanette's energy, maybe then we'd have a whole different ballgame, but these girls performed like someone drained all the energy out of them. This season is looking so far like boring girls and weird lame guys. Oh joy!

Let's get on with the rankings!

10. Zoanette Johnson
What's Love Got To Do With It
Zoanette. No. Why ditch the crazy when it was the ONLY thing that was working for you? Didn't you get the memo? This was not entertainingly messy enough to be memorable and for Zoanette, this was actually pretty boring. She shouldn't have played it so safe with her song choice and should have done balls to the walls cray cray to contrast the dullsville that happened for the rest of the show. I guess, when she took the competition seriously, her vocals further proved that she just can't sing. I'm sad. It was fun while it lasted though. 4/10

09. Adriana Latonio
Stand Up For Love
Our resident Eskimo went flat. Such a shame. True, I didn't expect much from Adriana, but I was really hoping for her to give a good fight. Stand Up For Love is a decent song choice, but not for Adriana as this just didn't fit her right. It was flat, boring, and lacked even a small aspect of charm. And while it allowed the poor kid to turn in a slightly good vocal, this was just another "so what" performance. 5.5/10

08. Janelle Arthur
If I Can Dream
Janelle gave a decent, if flawed and vacuous, version of this classic. It was a LOT better than last week, but I'm beginning to feel like she's not as great as we've been led to believe. I remember her sounding like an authentic country singer with a perky all-American girl personality, but here, she sounded lifeless and she never really seemed to take command of the song. I don't know. Maybe she's gone the Baylie Brown ‘fodder’ route no? 6.5/10

07. Tenna Torres
Lost
I admit, Tenna has this whiny tone when she belts that irritates me and she needs to reign in her vibrato and runs, but her performance was actually better than I expected. She took some liberties with the melody that worked and her vocals were mostly on point. I still don't give a hoot if she makes it or not - she's nothing special, to be honest - but I give her credit for being decent, at the very least. 6.5/10

06. Aubrey Cleland
Big Girls Don't Cry
While Aubrey didn't exactly bring anything new to this song, I thought she did a very nice job with it. She looked wonderful, she sounded current and her tone worked surprisingly well with the song even if the band kept drowning her out. All that being said, this was just a decent vocal performance that did nothing to establish her as a future contender. The song is nice and all, but it didn’t give her the opportunity to have a great vocal moment. 7/10

05. Breanna Steer
Flaws and All
This was the riskiest song of the episode. Flaws and All is a relatively unknown Beyonce song and we’ve seen vague and risky song choices fail with a public who isn’t ready to accept something different - see, Jessica Sanchez' Stuttering - but I enjoyed this precisely because this song was NOT an American Idol staple. I loved that it's understated with some tender vocal moments that were gorgeous. She was off pitch in parts and strained her vocals especially towards the end, but I liked it flaws and all. Haha. 7.5/10

04. Angela Miller
Never Gone
There's no denying that Miley Angela has studied the American Idol playbook and she's playing this game very shrewdly. She, to me, sounded the same everytime and I don't find her interesting at all, but this girl knows what she's doing. Yes, I felt like some supernatural force figuratively kicked me in the balls when I learned about her song choice - Colton Dixon? Really? - but she clearly stood out from the rest of the girls and she commanded attention during her performance. I still think she's a one trick pony, but I digress. 7.5/10

03. Kree Harrison
Stronger
Her rendition of Faith Hill's Stronger was, well, very strong. There’s something raw about her, something undeniably authentic. Her vocals were on point, her tone was gorgeous on this song, the delivery was effortless and it was apparent that she knows how to interpret a song outstandingly. As good as she is, I also love that Kree is not over-polished and has room to grow, which is important. I can’t wait to see what she does next because let's face it, she’s in a very strong position after two solid performances. 8/10

02. Amber Holcomb
I Believe In You And Me
When I heard she was going to sing this, I was like, "Oh no. this will be unfortunate." But, guess what? Amber actually pulled it off! Yes, there were moments where she was so busy auditioning her voice for Cirque du Soleil acrobatics with all the runs, but for the most part this was a very solid vocal. She was fierce and this was a classic old-school American Idol performance, but managed to somehow make the style seem brand new. I'm seriously hoping she makes it through on votes. 8/10

01. Candace Glover
Ordinary People
Unreal. Candace voice is unreal. She just put herself right back on top of the competition with a brilliant rendition of Ordinary People. This was a perfectly rehearsed and technically astounding from a pure vocal point. Her phrasing was fantastic and her vocal control was impeccable. It was so good, I’m almost positive that Randy Jackson had an orgasm. I know that we'll be seeing her for a while. Now, can she top this? 9/10


Who will make the top 5 girls?
Candace Glover
Kree Harrison
Angela Miller
Janelle Arthur
Amber Holcomb

Who should make the top 5 guys?
Candace Glover
Amber Holcomb
Kree Harrison
Angela Miller
Breanna Steer

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hate tenna's voice, but i think she's far better in technical aspects as compared to breanna or aubrey, so i'd rank her higher than these two

benj said...

ang galing mo talaga DAM... tamang tama predictions mo.. tinalo mo pa si madam auring... hehe.. im 90% happy with the results.. 4 of my top 5 girls made it.. sadly adriana didn't make it.. sa guys i dont like lazaro and curtis.. i'd rather put nick or elijah or vincent onto their places.. grabe.. naiyak ako sa tuwa when ryan called candice and amber's names... whew.. so happy!

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