[typed while watching last night's tape, fast-forwarding through most of the non-singing bits]
Stevie Wonder week?! Oof. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: weeks devoted to the songs of a single performer or group are Very Bad. Famous performers usually become famous performers due to unique vocal qualities, and their songs aren't going to be suitable for everybody, no matter how good they might be. Have a soul week, a country week, a swing week, a Motown week, even a rap week if you must, but give the singers a range of choices within a broader category!
Ace is up first... and sucks. Very pitchy.
Kellie is boring me. Alas.
Elliott starts out okay, if caberet-ish, then seems to get a bit lost in modulation before making his way to a solid ending.
Mandisa starts off a bit flat, but kicks into high gear once she gets to the higher notes. (See, this is what I mean. Most people don't have Stevie Wonder's range, and it's ridiculous to expect them to.) Better than anybody else so far, but I hope this isn't as good as it's going to get.
Oh, good. Bucky makes an excellent song choice, if a comparatively safe one. I still don't much care for his raspy voice, but this is the first successful performance of the night.
...holy crap, that is Jessica Simpson's hair. Observant fellow, that Simon.
Melissa is barely hanging onto some of those high notes, but manages it. Not an outstanding performance by any means, but a competent one, better than the first four performers.
...she forgot the lyrics? Oof. I'm not familiar enough with the song to have noticed.
Lisa is flat. And not very good. Pity.
Kevin is doing "Part-Time Lover"? Oh, my. [long pause] HA! [long pause] ...the kid is fun, what can I say. If he's the novelty act, at least he's playing it up well. He's totally safe this week.
Katharine is okay on the low parts, and actually pretty good on the high parts. The best of the women so far.
Taylor is taking on one of my favorite songs... putting aside the cognitive dissonance of it being sung by a very white guy, and the unavoidable extreme abridgement, he's doing it pretty darn well. Props.
Paris is okay. Not great, not terrible. Okay. Has the raw ability, but isn't keeping my attention... but then I was admittedly editing another entry at the start of it, having belatedly noticed that this week's result show is at 9:00, not 8:00.
Chris just isn't grabbing me. Not sure why, really, but he's not.
My pool predictions'll be in a comment to the previous entry shortly, although I'm not even sure where to start this time around.
Posted by Shmuel at March 15, 2006 7:37 PM