May

24

Was there any doubt? I saw a copy of TV Guide from a couple of weeks ago with Melinda, Blake and Jordin on the cover and guess who was standing out front and center? Yes, it was the winner, Jordin Sparks. Now that’s interesting.

Jordin definately had the upper hand going into the show last night, well, I guess she had the votes to, with her great voice, beautiful smile and 17-year-old charm. She was a sure winner.

I’m kind of wondering how Blake Lewis got into the number 2 position in the first place. I wonder if VoteForTheWorst.com had enough influence to give the number 2 spot over to Blake instead of Melinda Doolittle? No matter because the nuber 2 and 3 spots on American Idol are usually good for selling a few million records in the comming years.

But now it’s time for Jordin to bask in the spotlight for hopefully a long musical career. She certaily is deserving of being an Idol winner. But I wonder what her musical genre will be? We’ve seen a few different styles from Jordin, but nothing that really defines her like Blake’s beatboxing. It will be interesting to watch and see where Jordin goes as a singer.

Congratulations to all the Idols and congratulations most of all to the winner, Jordin Sparks.

Alan

Tags: , ,

May

22

I’ve purposely not voted at all this season on American Idol so as to remain objective about writing this blog. Tonight I cast my first and only vote this season and it went to Jordin Sparks.

Jordin absolutely blew away Blake Lewis this evening. It wasn’t even close, especially on the last song, This Is My Now. Jordin Sparks will win American Idol tomorrow evening.

Here’s how Blake and Jordin worked it out tonight:

Blake Lewis - Blake opened up with his Beatboxing version of Bon Jovi’s You Give Love A Bad Name and he did a great job. Blake is great entertainment, no doubt about it.

Blake’s second song was Maroon 5’s She Will Be Loved and it was a little pitchy. (there’s that word again) Although it wasn’t that bad, I expected much better for THE FINALS!

This Is My Now was the third song for Blake and when I first heard it, I didn’t really like it because he didn’t do that good of a job at it. Then Jordin sang it and that changed my mind. It didn’t go that well for Blake as he was off pitch through most of the song.

I like Blake, he’s very entertaining, but his performances tonight showed why Melinda Doolittle should have been on the stage instead of him.

Jordin Sparks - Jordin opened with a new song that she hasn’t sung on American Idol and it was great. Christina Aguilera’s Fighter was he choice and, as the judges put it, it was stellar.

Martina McBride’s A Broken Wing was Jordin’s second choice and Randy Jackson said it was, “Better than the original” and Simon said, “Now that was good.” Is there any reason to think that Jordin doesn’t deserve to win the American Idol crown tomorrow?

Then Jordin sand the Idol Songwriter’s winning song This Is My Now and she solidified her place in American Idol history and will become the youngest Idol ever, at the tender age of 17.

So that wraps it up for American Idol season 6 tonight for the singers. It’s now in the hands of you America. I strongly urge you to vote for the most talented singer tonight and, that would be Jordin Sparks.

One of Jordin’s numbers is 1-866-436-5706. Call it and vote now.

Alan

Tags: , , ,

May

22

Yes, that’s my prediction. Although I thought Melinda Doolittle was going to win American Idol I can’t pick her, because she got the boot last week. I’ve been more wrong than right this season, but I do think that Jordin Sparks will take home the title tomorrow evening.

Why Jordin? Well, honestly I’m surprised that Blake Lewis made it to the finals. Don’t get it wrong, Blake is one talented singer, but he has had more bad nights than Jordin has. In fact, I think Jordin has had only a single bad night since the contestants were whittled down to the top 24. Plus Jordin has a very likeable personality to go with her talent, good looks and more main stream appeal.

This is coming from me being the person who couldn’t stand main stream music when I was a kid and into my early adult life. Disco was an aberration to me and top 40 music was never played on my radio. And to be as real as I can be, I would probably buy Blake’s CD before I would buy one from Jordin, but this isn’t about what I like, It’s about what 40 to 50 million votes want. Notice I didn’t say voters.

It’s pretty simple, Jordin will get more votes because the Beatboxing thing, no matter how cool it is, doesn’t resonate with as many people as a down-to-earth, smiling, attractive female singer who can sing in a variety of styles and make it work.

Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to see the finals tomorrow night because I will be out of town so I might not write another blog after this evening’s assessment until Sunday May 27th.

Tune in tonight and see if you can figure out who will win American Idol tomorrow evening.

Alan

Tags: , , ,

May

16

I didn’t like disco, I’ve never listened to top 40 music and I don’t agree with America on this one. Melinda Doolittle was supposed to win American Idol. She had the talent, she had the chops, she had the interpretation and it was her contest to win.

I’m sure many people are stunned at this point and wondering how such a thing could have happened. Well, I guess it happened because not enough people voted for Melinda Doolittle. Melinda has probably been the most talented and most consistent singer American Idol has ever had on the show.

Both Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks had major gaffs on a couple of songs where they just didn’t work right and have been severely rebuked by the judges. That was never the case with Melinda. While she received a couple of less than enthusiastic comments from Simon, we all knew Melinda was first class talent all the way. Besides, Simon even admitted he was just dying to say something bad about her.

I’d have to agree with Paula in that hey, it’s time for Melinda to leave the show and get started a week earlier on her than Blake and Jordin. There is nothing but bright shining stars for Melinda Doolittle in her future. You go girl!

One another note, it sure was great to see our man Elliott Yamin again on the American Idol stage singing Wait For You. This year’s Idol did not have a voice that came close to matching Elliott’s.

So there it is, a Blake and Jordin final. I never would have guessed that would happen. I don’t know, maybe there is something to that rumor about Jordin being picked to win American Idol, ya think?

Alan

Tags: , , ,

May

15


Are you a member of Blockbuster Online yet? This seems to be the way a lot of people are going today instead of stopping in the video store only to find out your favorite DVD is rented out. 

With Blockbuster Total Access you can shop online for your favorite videos and get them in just a few days, and you don’t have to even worry about mailing them back. That’s right, you can take them to your local Blockbuster store and drop them off there. What could be better than that?

Well, maybe the fact that you can also rent American Idol DVD’s from Blockbuster as well. Are you like me and can’t get enough of those really crummy auditions from the past seasons or would you like to see some of the uncut and uncensored footage of what it’s really like at the American Idol auditions. Yes, there’s even a DVD for that.

Blockbuster Total Access Online is pretty cool, saves a lot of hassle and let’s you get as many DVD rentals per month as you want depending on what plan you sign up for. Plus if you are into games you can also get unlimited in-store free game rentals with this deal.

So, if you need your Idol fix every week, and don’t forget the show is only on for 2 more weeks, check out Blockbuster Online. By the way, they have tons of other movies as well, not just Idol stuff.

Alan

Tags: , , , ,

May

15

Wow! Now that’s what American Idol is all about. After last week’s Bee Gees songs I tend to think everyone was a bit disappointed in the Idol’s performances, but this week they have redeemed themselves in a big way.

Each contestant sang three songs tonight and they were all very good, so it’s going to be a very close vote this week. Usually it is easy to pick out someone that doesn’t do as well as the rest of the contestants, but I think all three gave it their best shot this evening.

Here’s how the night unfolded:

Jordin Sparks - Jordin was incredible tonight as she started out the show with Wishing On A Star. I haven’t heard the song before, but she did a great job and just continues to show more style and improvement every week.

Jordin’s second song was the Donna Summer’s hit She Works Hard For The Money that looked a little less enthusiastic than the first song, but the judges were completely enthused and they tend to give the contestants a boost when they are positive.

Her third song was her choice and it was I Who Have Nothing which she sang on a previous show. The song is pretty depressing, but she knocked it out and it was her best performance of the night.

Blake Lewis - Blake started out with Roxanne by the Police and it was absolutely the perfect song for Blake. I’ve been trying to figure out who Blake sounds like when he just sings and lays off the Beatboxing thing and I think it’s Sting. It was fantastic.

Blake’s second song was from one of my favorite groups, Maroon 5, and it was cool to listen to. This Love was the song choice by the producers of Idol and it fit him well. It was a slightly different arrangement than what everyone is used to, but Blake sounded great.

On to his third song, Blake sang Get You Alone and it was his classic style. He threw in some Beatboxing and it sounded great because it was appropriate and not overdone. Good going Blake.

Melinda Doolittle - Melinda opened round one with the winning song from Whitney, I Believe In You And Me that showed why Melinda will be this year’s American Idol. Melinda can’t miss because she is so incredibly talented and at complete ease being on the stage.

Melinda’s second song Nut Bush City Limits by Ike & Tina Turner was hot, hot, hot. Melinda will win, not because Jordin and Blake don’t have great talent, but because Melinda is on such a higher plane of talent that there is no comparison. Melinda has so much talent she could win American Idol twice.

Melinda Closed the show with I’m A Woman and it was another knock out performance. It was pure, classic Melinda, the one that we have grown up with, well at least for the last 12 weeks.

Dare I make another prediction? Yes, of course, that’s why I write this blog. This is a tough one because they all did really well tonight, but someone must go and I think it will be Blake. Blake is good, Blake will get a record contract, but out of the three that are left, Blake has been the least consistent by only the slightest margin. Sorry Blake, I might buy your album though.

Tune in for a big results show tomorrow at 9:00 pm.

Alan

Tags: , , , ,

May

15

Tonight is the night all American Idol fans and watchers get to vote for their favorite contestant to move on to the finals.

I was a bit wrong in remembering how the show format is for the semi finals. Each Idol contestant gets to sing 3 songs, not just two songs as I had thought. The contestants each get to pick one song, the judges pick one song and record mogul Clive Davis gets to pick a song.

It should be a really interesting show tonight because with this format there aren’t any excuses for doing poorly. Each song will be picked to suit the specific Idol hopeful strong points and play down their weak points. Let’s hope the contestants themselves understand the purpose of this as well.

I’m sure we can expect Blake Lewis to do some sort of Beatboxing rap type song, Melinda Doolittle to do some sort of soulful Aretha song and Jordin Sparks to do a, well, I don’t know what style I would put Jordin in, I guess we will find out tonight. I have to admit I don’t listen to popular music that much so I don’t know where Jordin really fits in. She does have an incredible voice though.

I think we’re at the point if anyone falters at all tonight, they will be doomed. And honestly, I’m not expecting to see Blake make a mistake or pick a bad song, but I just can’t imagine him being around for the finals. Jordin or Melinda would have to trip and fall off the stage for something such as that to happen.

You don’t want to miss the show tonight.

Alan

Tags: , , , ,

May

14

Thanks goes out to Andie who alerted me that American Idol News is featured today at AOL Television. The story is features 10 bloggers making their predictions as to who will win this year’s American Idol.

After quickly looking at each blog in the story it looks like things are pretty evenly split between Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks with only one or two picking Blake Lewis to take the whole enchilada.

I just hope that the last three Idols get a better pick of songs than what they had last week. Yes, the Bee Gee’s were giants in the music industry, but as I read on someone else’s blog, getting black girls to sing in a white guy’s falsetto wasn’t the smartest thing in the world for the producers to do. Can you imagine Aretha singing a Bee Gee’s tune? Or can you imagine the reverse, small voices singing big voice songs?

I think the results might have been much different if the contestants would have had to sing Bon Jovi last week instead of Bee Gee’s. Everyone sand Bon Jovi well, no one really stood out on the Bee Gee’s tunes.

Come to think of it, I believe this week the contestants get to pick any song they want to sing and then record producer Clive Davis picks the other song, a song that should fit them well according to Mr Davis.

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens.

Alan

Tags: , , , ,

May

12

So here we are at the end of another American Idol season with only 3 contestants and 2 weeks left till the end of the show.

So how are the last 3 Idols going to finish and who do you think will win? After this week’s performance by Blake Lewis I think a lot of Idol fans are more than a bit surprised to see him in the semi finals. At the beginning of the top 24 I predicted that we would see an all girl semi final which included Lakisha Jones. Unfortunately that won’t happen.

But here’s how the final three American Idols will finish:

Melinda Doolittle - Everybody knows Melinda will win, I know it, you know it, okay everyone knew it 12 weeks ago. Melinda was a total professional from the word go and although she has received a bit of criticism from the ever negative Simon and Randy in the last few shows, she’s about as close to a perfectly talented Idol as you can get. The only trouble with Melinda during this whole season is that she is so incredibly talented, she really didn’t have any place to go. How can you improve on near perfection?

Jordin Sparks - Jordin will come in second. Jordin has really blossomed on Idol this season. And this is what American Idol is all about. We were all worried about 10 to 12 weeks ago wondering how this group of people actually got here, but thankfully it turned out that the most talented people made it to the top and Jordin is certainly deserving of making it this far.

Blake Lewis - Blake will have to make a complete transformation, morphing himself into a rock star, hair band, lead singer out of the 80’s or some such weird thing to make it any further. Yes, Blake is good, and the Beatboxing thing is cool, for a season, but he just can’t compete with the two ladies left and he will get he boot next week. But hey, there isn’t anything wrong with third place on Idol, I mean look at the success Elliott Yamin has received from his third place finish.

On that Elliott note I just have to say, we really didn’t have any male singer that approached the voice quality of Elliott Yamin this year. Chris Sligh came close, but his talent wasn’t as diverse as Elliott’s and he had a real hard time with his tempo, something that just came natural for Elliott.

I’m going to be very surprised if the results turn out other than Melinda first, Jordin second and Blake third.

Tune in next week for the fun.

Alan

Tags: , , , , ,

May

10

Lakisha Jones was the unfortunate Idol contestant that came up short on the show this evening. We are going to miss Kiki and her soulful strutting around the stage and singing like she knew what she was doing.

At this point in the competition it’s really anybody’s guess as to who will be the eventual winner, but after last night’s performances I thought it would have been Blake Lewis who got the boot tonight. Blake just didn’t rise to the occasion yesterday evening, but apparently he has enough of a fan base that that didn’t seem to matter.

The Bee Gee’s songs were a bit hard for the Idol contestants to duplicate as was evidence last night and again tonight as they sang a Bee Gee’s medley that was awful. I appeared that there was a problem with the mikes during that song, but it still sounded really bad. None of the show’s producers had the foresight to see that only a few people can sing like the Bee Gee’s did. Maybe no one can sing like they did.

It looks like my track record on American Idol predictions is picking up a bit as I picked Lakisha to go home tonight in my final four pick a couple of posts back. I didn’t want it to end up that way the votes came in.

I’m sure there is a record producer out there that already has a deal in the works for Lakisha though. There isn’t any other venue in the world that makes stars out of unknowns like American Idol does.

We only have 2 more weeks of American Idol left, can you believe it? Jordin Sparks, Melinda Doolittle and Blake Lewis face off next week for the semi-finals.

Alan

Tags: Tags: , , , ,