Yes, we admit it; we want Tim Urban gone from American Idol. We’ve wanted him gone from the first time he opened his mouth and that shaky, karaoke, strained voice squeaked out. However, we have to admit that Paige Miles elimination from American Idol this week was well deserved.
Paige Miles on 'American Idol' (FOX)
Still, we feel bad for those who plan to attend the American Idols Live Tour and will now have to endure listening to Tim Urban squawk his way across the country.
After the horror that was Paige Miles’ performance on Tuesday night, we would have been shocked if the teacher from Florida hadn’t been in the bottom three. We were a bit surprised that Andrew Garcia wasn’t there after his abysmal showing this week. As Simon Cowell said, that boy sucked all the life out of his song and left it bleeding on the floor. We doubt he’ll make it more than another week or two though unless Tim Urban does finally get voted off and the VotefortheWorst.com folks switch to Garcia.
Paige Miles & Tim Urban on 'American Idol' (FOX)
Katie Stevens rounded out the bottom three this week and it’s not hard to see why. She’s not the worst singer still in the pack, but she just doesn’t seem to click with American Idol fans. We think she’s just too boringly generic to inspire a strong fan base. Although her performance this week was actually one of her best, it still doesn’t come close in comparision to powerhouses like Crystal Bowersox or Siobhan Magnus. Stevens is another one we bet won’t be sticking around for the top five unless she miraculously pulls something spectacular out of her hat.
We can’t help but feel lousy for Paige Miles getting the cut this week. Not that she didn’t deserve to go, but to stand there and know Tim Urban would get to go on the American Idol Live tour instead of her – with all the extra cash and attention that comes with it? That just has to hurt.
Every week when we tune in to American Idol, we always look forward to the performance of one of the contestants more than all of the others. Although we are fond of several other American Idol hopefuls, such as Michael Lynche and Siobhan Magnus, it is hippie-chick Crystal Bowersox who has truly won our hearts this year.
Crystal Bowersox performs 'Bobby McGee' (FOX)
Last night, Crystal Bowersox rocked it out yet again in the American Idol top 11 with a passionate performance of Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee”. The song was an absolutely perfect choice for her vocals and we frankly haven’t heard a better version of this song since Joplin sang it herself.
Michel Lynche’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” once again showed off his big, powerful voice, but we found the song rather boring and stale. Still, we love Big Mike and hope like hell he ends up in the top three. As for the rest of the competitors, we were decently impressed with Siobhan Magnus – she’s quite growing on us. Casey James actually pulled off a rather okay version of “Power of Love”. We’re not a fan of Casey James, so it takes a lot to say we didn’t hate it too much.
The rest of the guys and girls this week were so pathetic we can’t even make a good guess at who will end up going home. It might Paige Miles, who was painfully terrible singing “Against All Odds”, but we’re still kind of hoping Tim Urban will get the boot despite the VotefortheWorst.com crowd.
Just on a completely random note, we’re a little insulted that Bowersox let Miley Cyrus sign her guitar. We’re sure Melissa Etheridge and the other notables gracing Bowersox’s instrument are shuddering at having that poser wannabe’s name scrawled so close to their own…
The American Idol top 12 took to the stage Monday night for a Rolling Stones themed showdown and once again the ladies hand the guys a royal smackdown. While we do concede a few of the guys were decent, it was definitely Siobhan Magnus, Crystal Bowersox and Didi Benami from the ladies side who really left everyone else in the dust.
WINNERS:
Siobhan Magnus: We have to say we were rather impressed with Siobhan Magnus last night on American Idol. While we like her voice overall, her song choices haven’t quite clicked with us and her voice can topple over that fine line between fabulous and annoying rather quickly. However, her choice of “Paint It Black” for Rolling Stones night was perfect and she managed to girl the song the proper passion it deserved. Magnus earned our respect with this one and we have to award her with the best performance of the evening.
Crystal Bowersox: Although we are still a bit bummed about the elimination of Lilly Scott last week, we’re pleased Bowerox won the ‘eclectic girl’ vote. Scott was great, but Bowersox is just something special. Bowersox once again showed she’s the contestant to beat with her rendition of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. Not only was her voice rockin’, she’s the only one with true, natural stage presence in the bunch. However, we did think this was one of Bowersox’s less powerful performances and the song choice didn’t quite suit her as much as her previous choices have.
Didi Benami: We aren’t sure what the hell this girl was wearing last night, but her performance of “Play With Fire” was one of her best yet. Benami dug down and connected with both the song and the audience. Now if she can just lose the last of those nerves and keep up the consistency, she could have a sneak attack coming later in the competition.
MIDDLE OF THE PACK:
Casey James: We’re a little annoyed that we actually kind of liked the performance from Casey James this week. It wasn’t so bad really and we don’t want to like James. He’s too cute in that goofy “I’m so not aware of my own cuteness – or so you think” way and his talents are questionable at best. But we can’t deny this was one of his better performance nights.
Michael Lynche: Sadly he couldn’t quite pull off another powerhouse night like he did last week, but Big Mike’s sweet, strong performance of “Miss You” just made us want to give him a big teddy bear hug. Somehow we can’t ever quite see this guy becoming a huge star, but we do love his voice and think he’s definitely in our top five picks on the show.
Aaron Kelly: We’re not really Aaron Kelly fans and we’re unlikely to become such any time soon. His take on “Angie” wasn’t the worst though and even had a few nice moments. His vague wandering around and zoned-out face couldn’t help but make us wonder how much he’d been smoking before he hit the stage. Dude does NOT know how to click it with the audience.
Lee Dewyze: There were a few moments where Dewyze’s rendition of “Beast of Burden” almost shined, but not quite. He sounded like he had gum in his mouth through half the song and his zombie personality on stage has got to go.
Paige Miles: We’re not really sure why Paige Miles thought a song called “Honky Tonk Woman” would really suit her. The song didn’t quite fit and her voice was rough in spots, but we think she still earned a spot in the top 12.
LOSERS:
Tim Urban: The award for the biggest loser of the night absolutely goes to Tim Urban, American Idol‘s idiotic replacement for eliminated contestant Chris Golightly. His reggae version of “Under My Thumb” was so nasty, we had to plug our ears halfway through and cry a little bit. If this guy isn’t gone this week, we have serious doubts about the sanity (and taste level) of the American public.
Katie Stevens: Some people out there seem to love this girl and we totally just don’t get it. Her voice is week, her stage presence is boring and her song choices are confusing. Although her take on “Wild Horses” was one of her better performances, that’s not saying much.
Lacey Brown: Brown’s choice of “Ruby Tuesday” for her Rolling Stones song was just bad, bad, bad. It was worse than pitchy and actually caused physical discomfort in our ears. We’re honestly just sick of listening to her do damage to normally beautiful music.
Andrew Garcia: You just can’t take an awesome, classic song like “Gimme Shelter” and treat it like a joke. That’s what Garcia’s performance of it felt like. He was all over the place, his handling of his mic stand was almost lewd and his voice couldn’t figure out where the hell it was supposed to be throughout the song.
We are admitted American Idol addicts, even after years of listening to some of the worst singing we’ve ever had the horror to hear. Even though sometimes we desperately think we need therapy to break this American Idol addiction, we can’t help but keep watching week after week.
Crystal Bowersox on 'American Idol' (FOX)
Thankfully, last night’s performances from the top eight women of this season’s American Idol were relatively easy on the ears for the most part. Several of the ladies were actually pretty damned fabulous. Which we are thankful for, because a handful of them were boring at best and cringe-worthy at worst. Let’s just say we were awfully tempted to fast-forward through several performances after hearing just a couple of notes.
So how did the American Idol top eight women do last night? Well, here’s our ranking of the performances from the evening.
8. Paige Miles: “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin – We are so ready for this girl to go! She can’t stay on pitch to save her life, her stage presence is boring as hell and she most definitively does NOT have the ‘it’ factor. We’re hoping this is the last time we’ll have to watch her in action.
7. Katelyn Epperly: “I Fell the Earth Move” by Carole King – Boring, flat and terrible song choice for her voice. It’s not that she’s a terrible singer, but she seems to have absolutely no clue what to do with her voice. Plus, she never really looks comfortable on stage and we tend to forget her the moment she walks off screen.
6. Katie Stevens: “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson – Not only was the song rough, Stevens just wasn’t connecting with it. When you know what this song sounds like when Clarkson belts it out, Stevens comes across as a terribly cheap rip-off. We did rate her a little better than we would have just because she actually went for a song that should have suited her voice better – if she could have pulled it off.
5. Lacey Brown: “The Story” by Brandi Carlile – We kind of like Lacey Brown but we don’t agree with the judges that this performance was relatively good for her. When you compare her against some of the stronger girls in the competition, she just comes across as a decent karaoke singer you enjoy after having far too many drinks.
4. Didi Benami: “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac – We liked the song choice here, especially since Benami doesn’t really sound much like Stevie Nicks, so it made the song feel more original and unique. There were certainly some weak spots though and she still doesn’t quite own the stage, but we feel she’s got potential.
3. Lilly Scott: “I Fall to Pieces” by Patsy Cline – It was quite hard to rank the last three ladies because they are seriously all way above the rest of the pack. We know how hard Patsy Cline is to sing and Scott did quite a hot job of it. It was a bit quirky here and there and not quite the perfect song for her voice, but it was still far and away a better performance than most of the other ladies.
2. Siobhan Magnus: “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals – We almost ranked Magnus at number one for this great song choice, but she did have a bit of wobble at one point. The song suited her voice nicely though and we think this may have been one of Magnus’ best performances yet. We could see big things for this girl.
1. Crystal Bowersox: “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman – Bowersox almost didn’t make our number one spot, but that was only because we expect so much of her. Her rendition of Chapman’s classic song was terrific, but it wasn’t risky. There was virtually no chance Bowersox wasn’t going to do a fabulous job with this kind of material. Still, her voice is definitely one of the strongest of the ladies and she always looks like she belongs on a stage like nobody else.
