S15.E16: Top 10 Revealed And Perform

[Guest]

Have they been mentioning bookending still?  I think I heard it once in auditions is all, but I don't watch that closely.  

[Ohwell]

MacKenzie has a slightly raspy undertone to his voice that is annoying as hell.  Unfortunately, he'll be around for awhile and might even win.  Not that I even care anymore.

[waving feather]

I just realised the reason why I wasn't that impressed with La'Porsha performance is because I have heard it before. She did the same type of arrangement during Hollywood week with Katy Perry's Roar.

[WhineandCheez]

I thought the anonymous band member who sang the guy's part did a more compelling job.

 

I was hoping that was Borshetta!!  In his stupid leather jacket with the music logo he has on everything.  Who embroiders on a leather jacket?

 

At this point, the only tour this bunch deserves is the "three hour" variety.

 

KEWT!!!  yea I'm old too.

[perfectstorm]

They should just stop with this book ending nonsense. The only person who could ever bookend Kelly is Kelly herself. La'Porsha would be a vocally worthy winner but she doesn't have the same commercial appeal that Kelly did. What made Kelly a success was not just her astounding voice but also charming personality and humor, her pop appeal, charisma, and her heart when performing. All of the contestants this year have at least one or more of those qualities, but I don't think anyone has them all, at least not like she did/does.

I always interpreted that to mean that they were looking for a successful winner - guy or girl.   To be fair, if Kelly had to compete as a contestant when the show has been cancelled, I doubt she would have been able to launch a big pop career.  TV singing shows are on the decline.

[dannymoon]

I didn't watch AI for a while (since season 9), and thought I'd watch the last season. I don't think I care who wins at this point, but I'm entertained enough to watch, but man am I confused. So now that they are in the top 10, the contestants perform...then practice their new song all week, but then don't find out until the beginning of the following week's episode if they are even performing it? Do I have that right? I was so used to Tues night being the performing night and the Wed show covering the results. Why did they ever change the process? Just wondering what the logic was there, though I remember logic and AI don't exactly go hand-in-hand.

 

LOVE Kelly. She's the most adorable rambler ever, even when she's not pregnant. Loved Dalton's thoughts on David Cook too.

[rereader2]

Why did they ever change the process? Just wondering what the logic was there, though I remember logic and AI don't exactly go hand-in-hand.

 

The logic is that Fox didn't want to give AI two nights anymore.

[ari333]

I didn't watch AI for a while (since season 9), and thought I'd watch the last season. I don't think I care who wins at this point, but I'm entertained enough to watch, but man am I confused. So now that they are in the top 10, the contestants perform...then practice their new song all week, but then don't find out until the beginning of the following week's episode if they are even performing it? Do I have that right? I was so used to Tues night being the performing night and the Wed show covering the results. Why did they ever change the process? Just wondering what the logic was there, though I remember logic and AI don't exactly go hand-in-hand.

 

LOVE Kelly. She's the most adorable rambler ever, even when she's not pregnant. Loved Dalton's thoughts on David Cook too.

 

I agree. the booting at the start of the show is a bummer for me. Even if someone is getting booted, let all perform their rehearsed song. sheesh 

[dannymoon]

The logic is that Fox didn't want to give AI two nights anymore.

Thank you. I see it's 1x/week starting next week. Didn't realize!

[rereader2]

Frankly, it's not very good logic, but so far as I can tell, that's the whole rationale.

[BogoGog24]

They don't have the money to do 2 nights anymore. They were dropped by Coke a couple seasons ago and probably don't have the necessary ad support to warrant 2 nights anymore, even just for a 30 minute results show like s13.

I always interpreted that to mean that they were looking for a successful winner - guy or girl.   To be fair, if Kelly had to compete as a contestant when the show has been cancelled, I doubt she would have been able to launch a big pop career.  TV singing shows are on the decline.

Eh maybe. Who knows.

I agree, if Kelly had been launched within any of these last few seasons she probably wouldn't have been that much more successful than a Scotty or Phillip, no matter how talented she is and how good her songs are. The music industry is an entirely different climate now than it was in the early 2000s.

[Kromm]

Trent and Gianna were horrifically bad. No way they (and Lee) aren’t in line for the early eliminations. Tristan and Olivia won’t last long either, even though they’ll be pimped.

The worst part with Gianna is that the judges aren't even giving her the right critique. 

 

They're focusing on her technical failures. What notes she missed or where her pitch was off.

 

But the real tragedy with Miss Little K. Starr--the reason she never should have gotten past Hollywood is that this stage mother of hers, for all the teaching she did of Gianna, never taught her properly how to emote a song. Just how to belt out notes with all the legitimate feeling of a robot. No... that's not right either. It's not that it feels emotionless. It's that it feels fake and forced. When people use the term "Shouty" they mean someone like this. Loud is fine. Kelly Clarkson is loud. But Kelly combines belting with legitimate emotion. Miss Little K. Starr combines belting with nothing. It's a dreadful listening experience if you're actually expecting a song to raise any emotion in you.

 

The flip side is Avalon, who actually does make you feel something with a song. And she definitely has settled now into a physical look that works for her--if she gave the stylists backstage hell over this she was wrong (not saying she did... just that given her previous rant about it I could imagine it). 

Dalton probably will win this show. I like what he's doing, but recognize it's not something that's very original (to the music industry in general--it IS different for Idol itself). Particularly tonight you could see he's headed straight into that Young Emo Guy category this show has never really found (or at least advanced to live shows with). Daughtry, Cookie and Adam Lambert all had some elements of this, but it's not the same. Think of the Emo bands of the 90s and aughts (My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, All-American Rejects) and think of the fact that Idol never really had anyone do that stuff as their main focus/direction/vibe at least on the Live shows.  Even still those bands have descendants, like 5 Seconds of Summer, The Vamps, etc. so it's still a big successful genre.

I actually liked what Lee did this show. I mean I've been really down on him for a few shows now (he's been rotten stinko bad) but this was actually decent.

I know people are really split on La'Porsha. I wound up liking it, but thought she was JUST at the border of putting too many stupid flourishes on it. One or two more and the whole thing would have toppled. It was on the right side of that, but barely. I WILL turn on her sooner or later if she doesn't cut this shit out.

Sonika was in a bad position following someone they told "you will win the show". And I've NOT liked most of what she's done--for many shows she's been Gianna's clone in the "doesn't understand a song on any level or communicate any legitimate feeling". That said, maybe there's something to the "song selection" statement the judges make all of the time because this was actually a decent performance. Not perfect, but both technically proficient and it sounded like she had a good bead on HOW to deliver it. It's not a very deep song in terms of meaning, but it IS a very hard song to do right, I think. And she actually did.

I feel sorry for Tristan. I mean I actually don't think that started out bad. But it went really wrong about 30 seconds in, where it went flat as a board.

I still think Trent looks disturbingly like Ollie Murs. It just distracts me. It was an interesting performance. Like Tristan I think it started pretty good and went downhill (when his pitch went off).

Olivia Roxx was not bad. But she was not good either. It was very middle of the road.

I'm still positing that Mackenzie Bourg's fandom should be call The Bourg Collective. He WAS good, but I do think he flirts constantly with being too Twee. I realize this show shouldn't be about how many different genres they can do, but instead about how well they do what they do best. That said, I do want to see him do something else. Because this feels predictable, even though it's very well done.

I DID have a problem though with his answer to Harry's question about what the song lyrics meant to him. I thought Mackenzie's answer was purest bullshit, and it kind of told me that while he pulls off a good impression of interpreting a song, that MIGHT be all it is. He doesn't have a real idea of what the song really means and is lucky he's far better at faking that state than someone like Gianna (who's dreadful at that same thing).

Kelly: They made her do all that judging and then she had to sing a ballad? This is an emotional song, awww. Seeing Keith crying is gonna start me off.

Did you see the quick shot of La'Porsha during that? Keith had a little moisture on one cheek at the end, but La'Porsha's face was soaked about halfway through the song. I actually hope La'Porsha learned a lesson from hearing that. For all the over-the-top praise she got, and Kelly's own tendency to sometimes add flourishes, Kelly still only has about 50% of the runs/flourishes that La'Porsha had... and consequently it came off as legitimate and heartfelt. Something La'Porsha is going to struggle with if she DOESN'T CUT IT OUT.

 

Avalon was an example of how they can clean up someone's personal style without changing it.

I find myself wondering if Avalon actually realizes how good she looks, and if she's actually been able to accept that. For all the shit Idol pulls, their stylists are actually pretty good, when the contestants don't get unreasonably attached to weird shit like Cowboy Clothes, or stupid wigs.

 

Is anybody fucking happy?  I am so sick of these songs either show or angsty or both.  So far, the only one who has brought any kind of energy is Dalton.

{hands remote so you can flip over to The Voice, which surprisingly "brought it" with their first episode this season... with at least 2 singers on it, in a single episode, who are better than anyone who's appeared on Idol for years}

I was hoping that was Borshetta!!  In his stupid leather jacket with the music logo he has on everything.  Who embroiders on a leather jacket?

 

KEWT!!!  yea I'm old too.

Really the guy makes my skin crawl. He's so creepy. Slimy. Edited March 1, 2016 by Kromm

[holly4755]

well to save money just cut one judge. I think that would make it more watchable. 

It is alltheir own fault, didn't the results night start out as a 15 minute show, then go to 1/2 hour then someone got the bright idea to drag it out to an hour or two into totally unteachable zone. I was fine with the ridiculous FOrd commercial, and the easily mocked group number and then the result, but NOOooOOoo Idol had to do over kill and wonder where they went wrong and come to the exactly opposite wrong conclusion - more judges, we need more judges, . 

[Occasional Hope]

They did the booting of contestants on the next show on Nashville Star.

 

I'm not sure that giving four favoured contestants a pass last week will actually do them any favours.  Voters will bond with the peron they picked in this round and overlook the favoured few.  I'll bet at least a couple of them get booted by the public by halfway through the finals.

 

Olivia was very breathy on this song, and not impressive at all.  She seems like a sweet person, though.

 

Gianna was boring and her pitch was shaky, and positively painful on the big notes.  

 

Lee has a pleasant tone but his enunciation was so poor I really couldn't tell you what the lyrics were for most of the song.

 

I didn't find Avalon very interesting.  The song didn't suit her.  Tristan and Mackenzie were also dull and forgettable.

 

Dalton's voice is very average, but he's a charming performer.  I could see him winning.

 

LaPorsha is very talented, but I didn't really enjoy her tone on this song.  Sonika, OTOH, has a lovely tone normally, but this was a bit shouty.

 

Trent looks annoying (making faces, and imo no one needs to wear a hat indoors), and he sounded bad, but in a memorable way which might work better for him than the dull but worthy.

[drafan]

Lee: Has a nice speaking voice and has tons of potential. Seems young, but quite likable.

Avalon: Looks like a young Demi Moore ( before all the plastic surgery). Like her voice.

LaPorsha: Why did the audience loose their shit over that? Harry would've told anyone else to cut with the runs.

MacKenzie: Ho Hum.

Gianna: Way too, or not enough something.

Trent: Couldn't get past the Dudley Do-Right get-up, so didn't really listen.

Tristan: Not bad.

Dalton: Wow, that voice is weak. Didn't notice until now.

Sonika: Want her to stay just to hear Keith say her name with his Aussie accent. She was really good vocally.

 

There must be someone else...can't recall at all.

Oh, Olivia!! She was OK, but why didn't her dad buy her into the biz???

 

I'm sticking with this season, just because I've been here so long and I want to see any and all former Idols they trot out. That's been the best part so far.

Edited March 3, 2016 by drafan

[Kromm]

Kelly's season is the only one that I didn't watch, so don't know that much about her and her journey. With that being said, she seems very impressed with her own celebrity. The whole 'judging' stint seemed very self-serving. 

You didn't have to watch her on Idol to have knowledge of her. Like any major celebrity she's done innumerable interviews, been profiled, etc.

 

Also, if you think she's impressed with her own celebrity, you're really getting a pretty different read on her than most people, I'd say, since she generally has a rep of being pretty humble (other than about her own voice, where admittedly she's more on the super-confidant side). 

As for the judging stint being self-serving, I'd bet cash money she had to be talked into it. I believe that she's refused to do it before--multiple times I think. She's come back to Idol to sing, sure, but that's different.  But what if it was self-serving?  Are you under an impression that celebrities should only appear on things for 100% verifiable altruistic/non-career-enhancing reasons?  How would that even work? There wouldn't be a show business.

[BogoGog24]

It'd have been an incredibly bad look for Kelly if she had refused to judge for the last season. She would have looked ungrateful for what the show did for her. And most fans enjoyed seeing her come back. I don't think she's impressed with her own celebrity at all, quite the opposite. But I don't know how seriously I can take someone who says Tristan "wasn't bad" when she was a complete train wreck so YMMV and all that.

[ari333]

It'd have been an incredibly bad look for Kelly if she had refused to judge for the last season. She would have looked ungrateful for what the show did for her. And most fans enjoyed seeing her come back. I don't think she's impressed with her own celebrity at all, quite the opposite. But I don't know how seriously I can take someone who says Tristan "wasn't bad" when she was a complete train wreck so YMMV and all that.

 

I think it'd have been totally understandable since she is pregnant if she had not come back.  

[TheGreenKnight]

You didn't have to watch her on Idol to have knowledge of her. Like any major celebrity she's done innumerable interviews, been profiled, etc.

I didn't see Kelly's season of Idol either and I became a fan of her before I even knew she had anything to do with Idol. "Because of You" is what made me a fan.

[drafan]

 

Agree, Kelly is one of the better Idols. It was probably smart of her to come on while she's pregnant/not touring....keeps her out there in the biz.

Edited March 3, 2016 by drafan

[BogoGog24]

I think it'd have been totally understandable since she is pregnant if she had not come back.  

That is basically the only acceptable reason for her not coming back (hence why she won't be at the finale). Aside from that, I mean, I think she'd have looked ungrateful if she had refused to come back in some way for the final season and fans would have been pissed. 

[Duke Silver]

^^Then I guess we'd better see every other AI alum who is still in the biz show up & perform/judge as well.  Unless that standard applies only to Kellie, of course.

[BogoGog24]

^^Then I guess we'd better see every other AI alum who is still in the biz show up & perform/judge as well. Unless that standard applies only to Kellie, of course.

With Kelly it made sense because she was the first winner... Why would they have not included her in some capacity?

Edited March 3, 2016 by BogoGog24

[Guest]

Why would she not come back?  She's done plenty of reality tv with much fewer viewers than this show.  She's never acted bitter about the show.  She's hardly "above it".   Last I heard her recent album wasn't selling well.    

[Rick Kitchen]

The song she sang on the show has reached number one on the iTunes downloads as a result of her performance.  And her latest album, Piece By Piece, peaked at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

[90PercentGravity]

That song has been on the radio for months.

[Rick Kitchen]

And it jumped after her performance.

[Kromm]

^^Then I guess we'd better see every other AI alum who is still in the biz show up & perform/judge as well.  Unless that standard applies only to Kellie, of course.

They've all been invited back over the history of the show, and we've already seen a few this season before Kelly.

 

But she's the standard bearer. Only Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and possibly Scotty McCreary, have had (arguably) bigger careers than Kelly, and Hudson didn't even win the show. That said, we saw Scotty already, and I'm sure all three of those ladies (as well as Chris Daughtry, another non-winner who's up there right after those four in fame, and maybe even Katherine McPhee, yet another non-winner) may have been invited... we don't know. Not all of them would be able to fit it in their schedule. Phil Phillips probably won't show though (and may not have been invited) because he's in litigation with the producers. And we've already SEEN the rest of the folks who have had some amount of fame from the show in that Duets round.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Kromm

[queenanne]

Kelly has been back to Idol to sing before.  She's very grateful, as far as I can make out, has always seemed very grateful about it (except for the occasional comment about its grueling physicality), was always nice to and about Simon Cowell even though he had to be convinced to get on the Kelly train, etc.  I agree it's far more usual for no-shows in this situation to be talked and thought about badly, it's almost universal, regardless of what show they were on.  "They think they're too good for this program that put them on the map, huh?  Snobs!"  To the point where I feel like Ryan has, in fact, gone out of the way to explain why people not currently suing 19 Entertainment have not shown up in a situation where they might have been expected, in an effort to show that their no-show is benign and not snobbery.

Edited March 3, 2016 by queenanne

[BogoGog24]

Word to all of that, plus I don't understand the self promoting thing. Literally every single person on that stage, the judges, Ryan, the contestants, are all self promoting. That's why they're on the show. And there's nothing wrong with that. The contestants want a shot at a music career, the judges usually have a new single, Vegas show, album, tour whatever to promote. It's kind of the way the industry works. If you don't promote yourself or your product, you don't have any chance of success. If you're gonna bag Kelly for it, you have to bag them all. Yes she was there to promote her single but she also gave some good advice to the contestants and I'm sure it was an incredible experience for them to get to see the original Idol. Everybody got something out of Kelly being there.

[Guest]

The song she sang on the show has reached number one on the iTunes downloads as a result of her performance.  And her latest album, Piece By Piece, peaked at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

I think it was #1 it's first week and dropped to #12 its second week.  It's not a flop but I think its even lower in sales than her Christmas album, about half the sales of her 3 prior albums to that and nowhere near her first two, like 1/14th the sales of those?  

[perfectstorm]

They've all been invited back over the history of the show, and we've already seen a few this season before Kelly.

 

But she's the standard bearer. Only Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and possibly Scotty McCreary, have had (arguably) bigger careers than Kelly, and Hudson didn't even win the show.

Scotty McCreery has not had a bigger career than Kelly Clarkson.  He was recently just dropped from his label.

Edited March 3, 2016 by ifoundit

[BogoGog24]

Yeah I like Scotty but no way he's been more successful than Kelly. He had a platinum selling #1 album plus I think 1 or 2 gold records, along with a few gold and platinum selling singles, and 1 top 10 country single. He's also won a few country awards.

[ari333]

I thought I clicked on this eppy thread. Were Scotty and those other people on  this show on this night? I did see Kelly judging. Didn't see the whole show.

[Qoass]

It was just Kelly. So far this season all the winners have appeared with the exception of Candice, Phillip and Carrie.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Qoass

[TheGreenKnight]

Scotty McCreery has not had a bigger career than Kelly Clarkson.  He was recently just dropped from his label.

Yeah, he's behind Jordin and Phillip Phillips even, when you throw in the fact that those two had hit singles along with their debut album going platinum. Which is especially bad when you consider he should have had it easy in country where there are 2 women and 5,000 men.

[Occasional Hope]

Scotty hasn't really applied himself to his music career; he's been juggling it alongside going to college, which obviously didn't help.

[ari333]

I guess I fail to understand what Scotty has to do with this episode.

[Guest]

Yeah, he's behind Jordin and Phillip Phillips even, when you throw in the fact that those two had hit singles along with their debut album going platinum. Which is especially bad when you consider he should have had it easy in country where there are 2 women and 5,000 men.

I'm trying to figure out how 5000 men helps Scotty.  Heh.  

 

This says Scotty's actually outsold (in records) most idol alumni including Kellie P, David, Jordin, Adam, Jhud and Phillip.  Go Scotty.  Y'ol corncob.  Though he's not in the same universe as Kelly and Carrie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Idol_alumni_album_sales_in_the_United_States

[BogoGog24]

To his credit he did break a world record for being the youngest male solo artist of any genre to ever debut at #1 with a debut album at just 17 years old and also was the first country act to ever do so. That's still mega impressive.

[sinycalone]

Scotty hasn't really applied himself to his music career; he's been juggling it alongside going to college, which obviously didn't help.

Scotty stopped taking courses at NCSU almost two years ago. He has been touring as a headliner and an opener almost since the Idol tour ended. He did split with his label...but other artists have done the same recently: The Band Perry, Sara Evans, Jarrod Niemann, etc. Not that unusual these days.

[PamelaMaeSnap]

Re: Booting contestants at the beginning of the episode ... well, I guess we'll know for sure how they're going to handle this in an hour or so but my GUESS is that they'll have the 10 semifinalists on stage and start calling them up to perform their songs and compete one by one ... until they get to the final 3 and whoever the two are who don't get called are the eliminees ... we wave goodbye, and semifinalist No. 8 sings for their life.

 

I thought that was how they did it last year with the Hollywood Squares chairs but I'm not sure ... 

 

But I don't think they'll do the big dramatic eliminations first and then have everyone sing. They need DRAMAH for the whole show, especially with only one show a night. 

 

But it's more than possible that the format of doing the kick-offs first and then letting the other eight sing has been announced and is a done deal and I just missed it (a. I have the flu and haven't been online much and b. I haven't looked for it). It just makes sense to me knowing how they like their drama that leaving it down to the last three people on stage at 8:52 or whatever would be the best way to ramp up the drama.

[cmahorror]

If anyone missed Kelly's season there are great recaps of it up on the no longer updating but still readable Television Without Pity site. Kelly was actually considered the underdog for a good part of her season - no initial audition footage and Simon didn't even remember who she was before she came up to sing for her place in the finals. The front runners that season were Tamyra and Justin but Kelly slowly won everyone over with her vocals and personality.

 

Most seasons are up but, for some reason I don't know, the season with Kris and Adam has been taken down.

 

Kelly killed it - I was good until I saw Keith crying and then I was in tears. Kelly is the American Idol.

[27bored]

On 2/25/2016 at 9:59 PM, 27bored said:

By the way, if you want to hear a good version of "I Put A Spell On You" to cleanse your pallet after Gianna sang it like a Christina Aguilera freestyle, go listen to Lydia Rene. Lydia is a heavyset woman of color who pretty much looks like La'Porsha. But unlike La'Porsha, her head doesn't look like two tons of cabbage.

I just thought of this. I made this comment two months ago, and then what happens on the Voice?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTw240U8AIk

CHRISTINA AGUILERA FREESTYLE! I called it, y'all.

[MarkHB]

Kelly's performance of "Piece by Piece" is currently up for votes in King of Disparate TV Things Mountain, should you wish to go and vote for her performance.