» 3-31: 2004.04.27 Options

[bettymojo]

Hopefully TPTB have learned their lesson. If you want someone to win a singing competition, then have them sings songs that require singing, not dancing with a few words strewn about.

Fantasia was wretched, as usual. Her dress was gross, wear a support bra. The shoutout to Jennifer was stupid, it would have been you sweetheart so be glad Jen is gone. Her vocals were terrible, she has no breath control when she is trying to dance too. I did think her hair was cute for once.

George was ok. His breathing was very good.

LaToya is beeyootifull. She looked awesome, but every time she danced the cameramen showed the drummer. Stupid cameramen, and stupid spotlights. When are they going to fix that? Her vocals were ok, she was breathy too.

John is such a cutie. He did what he does every week.

Jasmine suuuuuuuucked. She was flat or sharp or off key or out of tune or whatever means bad musically the entire song. I thought one of the lines was "helpless in your eyes" but the way she sang it was "helpless in your eyarms."

Hey, I'm not ashamed to admit that I liked Diana's dress. I thought it was cute. She was ok, also breathy.

Overally, this was worse than Manilow but not as bad as Elton. (I still miss JPL! *sniff*)

I don't remember which contestant said it (George I think), but it was nice to hear them say (paraphrasing) "Meeting Elton John and then Gloria Estefan...". Ha! Must be Barry didn't make much of an impression.

[scarletsmith]

OMG, that just blew. The nitty-gritty rundown:

• Fantasia: The strutting Macy Gray Fantasia is back. I'm not a big fan of Fantasia and I especially dislike that version of her personality. I suspect she'll be back in the bottom three again, and she may even come up on the short end of the stick this week.
• George: "Amateurish" was a perfectly apt description. That's three bad performances in a row. Not a good thing.
• LaToya: WTF was up with that attempted dance sequence toward the end? OMG, talk about JPL having no rhythm...that was dreadful. Not that the singing was much better; it was the most by-the-numbers rote karaoke performance of the night.
• John: That was easily the best performance he's given in weeks; it was the most I've seen him connect with the music, and he looked more comfortable up there than ever. And wow, were the judges attempting some reverse psychology. Will it work? Not for me. I've gotten through about once every five attempts so far.
• Jasmine: That was half a good performance. The first half was excellent. But what happened to her pitch on the second half? I'm serious, that was horrible. I cringed so hard it hurt.
• Diana: She's got that second-trimester belly showing again; who told her that the shredded skin-tight look was good for her? Let's not discuss the singing; Carmen did this song better last season, for {deity}'s sake. I don't think she hit a single note on pitch until the end section, which finally sounded good. It's not a coincidence that the last section was where she finally cut loose and sounded like a real human instead of R2Di2. I think she'll be safe, but she really needs to step up her game if she wants to avoid the bottom three.

Top Three: John (but just barely), Diana, LaToya.
Bottom Three: Fantasia, George, Jasmine.
Would like to see go: Fantasia.
Will likely go: George, alas.

[anthonyludwig]

Overall Overview: Kinda lackluster because the contestants could not just stand statue-like at the mic and wail on Whitney Houston songs (cough Jennifer cough). Diana won the show, and Fantasia showed herself as the complete performer, and should do well the week getting Hudson votes.

Winner: Diana, who stood out on a night when most did not, and was the only contestant to successfully combine dancing and wailing.

Loser: John, but it hardly matters, it will be interesting to see if he goes down to the backlash vote tomorrow.

Bottom Trio: Jasmine, Diana, and John

Homeward Bound: Jasmine

Top Duo: Fantasia and Huff

Winner: Fantasia

[GraceTX]

Agree that this was the worst night ever. Did anyone else notice when the camera was on JPL in the audience during Diana's performance and he was just standing there (everyone else was dancing or at least clapping or something) looking at the camera, not even paying attention to Diana? Stupid famewhore.

I saw it and was going to point it out, but thought I'd read the comments posted so far. I thought I hated JPL before, but just standing there, staring at the camera while everyone danced and clapped to Diana's performance was completely disrespectful. My hatred for him knows no limits.

I tried voting for Diana, but it's been busy. She was my favorite tonight. Heck, I even liked the little trill thing she did. Buy hey, I'm Spanish so that's right up my alley.

[AgentX]

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse than Manilow night, Estefan night shows up. That was some awful stuff. Not only awful, but boring. Tonight was the reason television comes with a mute button.

Fantasia: I'm not a fan of hers and tonight just solidifies my position. Her vocals were weak, and her "This is for you Jennifer" got on my nerves to a high degree. She looked like she was having fun, but I sure as hell wasn't. 3/10

George: I was bored to tears. This was a complete non-entity, and George's vocals didn't help matters at all. This makes 3 bad weeks for the Huff, can he survive another week? 4/10

LaToya: This song had what? 10 words? It was sung well, but didn't wow me in any way shape or form, but compared to the other two performances it was good. 6/10

John: I don't know what Paula was on about making his Grandmother proud, maybe if Grams was hard of hearing, but otherwise...Awful 1/10

Jasmine: Another boring ballad. But in comparison with singers from the rest of the night it wasn't awful. I liked it - but I'm a fan of hers. I like the tone of her voice
6/10

Diana: I really liked this performance, and thought it was the best of the night. I liked the dress too, it was a lone bright spot admist a sea of meh. 7.5/10

Personal Bottom Three: Fantasia, Geroge, JOHN
Probable Bottom Three: Diana, George, JOHN

[Steve Crime]

Not a good night for Idol. I think the problem was that the band and arrangements were almost note for note the same as the original hits. As a result, we end up with something that's a little off because Gloria Estefan was missing. It came off as karaoke-ish.

Fantasia - Good, but probably her weakest so far. Still, her weakest is better than some contestants' best.

George - Brought his game back up. He'll be safe this week.

LaToya - 2nd best of the night. She really knows how to work with a band.

John - The usual, meaning terrible. He's a nice kid, but yeesh. He should have been gone about a month ago.

Jasmine - I was expecting more, because her voice is in the same tonal range as Gloria Estefan's. A little flat, but good for her.

Diana - Best of the night. Someone needs to fire the sound guy or something, though, because I kept hearing one of the band members singing, and he was flatter than Shelly Duvall.

This post has been edited by Steve Crime: Apr 27, 2004 @ 8:16 pm.

[Sadie0209]

I just had to share my mother's comments regarding John Stevens during tonight's show (keep in mind that she is 60-ish, very conservative, a "moral Christian" type):

"You know, that kid needs to stop hanging around his grandma so much and go out and get laid."

I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants!

[Baralai]

1. Fantasia--The performance was fantastic, but the singing wasn't her best. Obviously, Latin pop just isn't for her. But, "this is for you, Jennifer" and "I love you, Jennifer" has pretty much guaranteed my power voting for her! Okay, maybe it was a ploy to get Jen fans to vote her, but it worked on me. Of course, it helps that she's among the ones I'm routing for to win.

2. George--Song choice did him in. Course, he could be singing, "I blowtorch puppies" and I'd still love him. Anyway, I do agree with Simon though.

3. Latoya--Like Fantasia, great performance, but not her best vocally. Simon said it best.

4. John--Whoa, that was weak and mostly out of tune. But, he looked so cute. However, what Simon said was spot on, John is a class act, not to mention tough as nails, and that's no small feat for a 16 year old. But, when Simon was mentioning "ex-contestents", who was he referring to?

5. Jasmine--Bleagh. Wretched.

6. Diana---Oh! Loved it! Loved her outfit, her performance, her voice. Excellent job. She was better than Carmen(who sang this song last year), that's for sure! Best of the night.

Course I can't help but think that Jennifer would have wiped the floor with most of the performers tonight. Heh.

Bottom 2:

Jasmine(eliminated)
John(just a little longer, sweetie, you'll make it to big band night, if they have one)

This post has been edited by Baralai: Apr 27, 2004 @ 8:21 pm.

[darkguardian]

Hrm well I don't agree with anyone else tonight but that happens sometimes. I will agree though that this was just a awful train wreck of a show in general. Whoever came up with this idea should be summarily beaten with a large heavy object. My poor ears. Perhaps thats why I liked Diana and Jasmine so much, by the time the show got to that point my ears had taken so much abuse.

Fantasia-boring and lifeless she wasn't raspy but she was just going through the motions up there.

George-Vocally he sounded great, not much raspiness except on the highest notes. His dancing was criminal though.

Latoya-Boring and lifeless though she at least had more feeling than Fantasia. Her voice was just wrong for the song and she sounded trapped in the song.

John-The first 10 seconds I wondered if he could pull it off then he spectacularly crashed and burned. That was just cringe worthy. Awful awful. It was a poor decision on his part to do a song meant for a group of singers in the first place but even so he lacked the power to hold even a fairly unspectacular note. The boy is just not meant to be a lead singer. I'm ok with the use of conga's though, nearly every Gloria song has them, that was the last thing wrong with the song and hearing the Miami Sound Machine rip it up was really the only big highlight of the night for me.

Jasmine-Now that she has ditched that fucking flower she looks much more mature and actually quite hot. Have to remind myself that she is in fact under age. She's also done something with her hair and I like it much better than how it was in the early rounds.

Diana-I thought she justified her placing last week tonight. She sang very very well and actually was vibing off the music and was decidely unrobotic tonight. The rapping part was kinda scary but the glory note that went up a few octaves was impressive. I think she is one of the contestants with the most potential to be huge in a few years once she has matured. Her voice is pretty astonishing she just lacks the emotional connection which I think she actually had tonight. My clear favorite of the night but I was not blown away, just impressed.

Ranking:Diana, Jasmine, George, Latoya, Fantasia, and John Stevens bringing up the rear.

[Gabria13]

Gloria Estefan, huh? I never had anything against her. Seems like a decent enough person. Glad she said upfront she wasn’t there to judge. It’s cool – they have the Miami Sound Machine performing with the kids.

Man, that Fantasia can perform! Her shouting out to Jennifer ‘tho? Boy, I don’t know. I hope that doesn’t hurt her. I’ve decided I’d really like to see her win this thing. I’ve never visited the Knoll, but I can’t help but feeling that Randy & Simon’s anti-pimping was a reaction to last weeks shocker.

It bums me out to say I can’t think of a thing to say about George’s performance.

What the hell was Simon doing to Paula under the table?

That was the most personality LaToya’s shown ever. She was having a hard time singing & dancing ‘tho. She sounded out of breath. It would be right for the final 2 to be her and Fantasia.

For the love of all the Gods, please send Jon home tomorrow. I can’t take it anymore. The judge’s comments made me feel as if they were telling America that it’s OK to let him go home.

Hee! My hubby was just caught the Seacrest AT&T Wireless commercial and said, “That guy’s a dick even when he’s trying to be cool”. Ahh! That’s why I married him.

Jasmine looks really good tonight, but I still don’t get the sense she understands…that she feels what she’s singing. Maybe they should raise the age limit for this competition.

Predictable song choice from Diana. And a predictable performance.

[mekaleka]

Am I evil if I think Carmen did a better job with "Turn the Beat Around" than Diana did?

After Diana was finished, I actually did say "Carmen did it better", immediately followed by a "did I really just say that?"

I am with others who are confused by the positive reaction by the judges to Jasmine's performance. It didn't sound like she hit one note correctly to me. I thought she was horrible. I also thought Diana was horrible. Yet, she got pretty good feedback, too. Maybe I'm not hearing what the judges are hearing. I so wanted Gloria just walk out at some point.

Tonight was awful, but I did kind of like Latoya's performance. I can't really say anything about John because I muted the tv about two seconds into his turn. I will say that if he had done an upbeat song and danced too? I would be voting for him right now.

This post has been edited by mekaleka: Apr 27, 2004 @ 8:17 pm.

[wghedges]

This was, by far, the worst theme night ever. Props to whoever observed last week that "salsa night" would translate into Miami Sound Machine for AI.

I actually have always been a fan of Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Yeah, I can be a bit cheesy. But anyway, my point is, I love most of the songs, but they are written specifically for Gloria. Few people can carry them off. These contestants are not among those few.

I knew they were all going to suck, even the talented singers (George, LaToya, Fantasia, and to a lesser extent Diana), before the singing even began. They just can't do Gloria's songs. No contestant has a vocal style that meshes well with Gloria's songs. It's just not good. This was a suck-ass theme night - NOT because Gloria's music is bad, but because her music does not allow the contestants to showcase what they're good at. So...yeah.

Again, it was a terrible choice for a theme night. Nobody's vocal talents were highlighted by the songs. Because of this, I'm "grading" on a curve.

Fantasia Barrino :: Get On Your Feet
She put a lot of energy into it, as usual, and did a good job for what she had to work with. Still, not very good vocally. 7 out of 10

George Huff :: Live for Loving You
I thought he did a really good job, considering. I guess by combining the "Latin" moves and the Dip, he came up with...the Salsa Dip? [rimshot] Oooh, bad pun. 7.5 out of 10.

LaToya London: Rhythm Is Gonna Get Ya
Eh. I liked the sexy dancing and the personality she put into it, but vocally? Not so hot. Again, it's not that LaToya is a bad singer, by any means - just that her style is not at all compatible with this type of music. She was trying to "diva" (for lack of a better term) out the notes, which didn't sound at all good with the style of music. 7 out of 10.

John Stevens :: Music of My Heart
God, he sucks ass. Randy was generous in saying that three of John's notes were in tune. I didn't hear one note that was on key. However, even though I hate John, if he'd sung "Conga," I probably would have voted for him for 3 hours. 1.5 out of 10.

Jasmine Trias :: Here We Are
I thought she sounded even worse than John tonight. "Pleasant?" What crack are the judges smoking? She was terribly off-key, and not even in a laid-back way like John. Rather, she was LOUD and off-key. I have an ear infection, and my ear hurts like hell as it is. Thanks for making it 20 times worse, Jasmine. 1 out of 10.

Diana DeGarmo :: Turn the Beat Around
I thought she did a good job and was the best of the night (which isn't saying much). She actually showed a few semi-sparks of personality. And damn if she didn't nail that tough pseudo-rapping part after the second verse, which always trips me and my friends up when we try to sing along to the song on the radio. Plus, that cool tongue-rolling thing was pretty sexy. Or maybe I'm just jealous because I can't do that. *pout* Anyway, thumbs up for the Di-Bot. 8 out of 10.

Three Best: Diana, LaToya, George
Three Worst: Jasmine, John, Fantasia
America's Bottom Three: Diana, Jasmine, John (with John going...please, God)

[Stagehand]

I'm sure there's a flat joke in the fact that they had John's face as a soda flavor during the pimpmercial but I'll leave the recapping to the professionals.

Fantasia: much as I admire her for always being herself and bringing her own flavor no matter what, sometimes it's more important to know how to read a room. And she just doesn't. Take the criticism and deal with the fact that - as evidenced by her and your lack of votes - not everybody's loving you and Jennifer. This would have been a good week to play ball. You're not so safe sweetie.

George: has made very bad song choices lately. Though I'm not sure if was a right one for him in this weeks theme.

LaToya: still bores me. I know she's a great singer but she just doesn't move me.

John: it's time to let him go. There is no one left to oust in his place. I'm gonna miss him but he isn't getting better. There is no song they could write to fit him. Ever. I'll buy the DVD to have something to remember him by but I can't help anyone else get trashed in place of what just isn't going to change.

Jasmine: is improving. She's emoting. Not talking constantly about Hawaii and showing more range. Though she still overreaches and needs to learn control. I think she's done good enough this and last week to deserve more time here.

Diana: made me remember why I voted for her in the semi-finals. Still a bit perky and pageant-y but the best of the night in my opinion. Her voice was back on par and she showed some better personality. Her dancing isn't great but neither is anyone else's.

That's about all I can say. I can't get too worked up over what was definately the worst night yet.

[Sukey Tawdry]

Um, er, well…now I suppose I have a newfound appreciation for Gloria Estefan's talents. Yeesh, worst night ever. LaToya was the best only because she was basically competent. Totally predictable—I knew she was going to come out in a hot red dress with chandelier earrings and slicked hair, and I could have predicted her whole routine, but I guess she did the best with a lame night. Fantasia was "jiggly" bot this week--girl I love you but buy a bra--and I thought it was her worst performance vocally by far—first time I was "meh" about her this whole season. But she looked beautiful so there's that. I have a feeling she'll get reamed for sucking up to Jennifer fans. The first time posting this I forgot about George entirely, so I guess that sums up my feeling about his performance--I had a feeling that song wouldn't sound good in his range, and it really didn't. Utter mehness. John Stevens was so bad I literally had to cover my ears. Jasmine defined pitchy for us—towards the end she wasn't hitting one good note in two. When Diana got to the staccato lyrics in her song, I was covering my eyes and my ears…and that dress. Oh my goodness, chubby 16-year-old thigh is not something I need to be looking at. Overall…WTF? Stop with these ridiculously narrow theme nights. JUST STOP.

This post has been edited by Sukey Tawdry: Apr 27, 2004 @ 9:18 pm.

[parsleysage]

I liked DiBot tonite--thought she did well (warning: disclaimer to follow:) CONSIDERING THE NIGHT. I actually picked up the phone for the first time in 3 years of watching to vote for her. After last week's travesty, I felt it to be my duty. And her dress was cute. Its not her fault she's still got her baby fat, Simon. And just think--she can sub as a carwash for the Ford Focus.

How can Jasmine have such a nice tone to her voice and then totally cream 4 or 5 notes in each performance? She did some crap with those notes that I've never heard b4. At one note, she sounded like she just gargled with sulphuric acid.

I think Fantasia might be gone after tonight. All of a sudden, like 6 months into the show, Simon realizes that her voice is like a 1942 black and white cartoon of Steamboat Willie??

Great speech to Teen Martin, Simon. "Ah, John, every one likes you, and no, you shouldn't feel at all guilty that Mohammed Atta drove an airplane into the Twin Towers to avoid hearing you sing anymore. Don't need to feel guilty, it's not like it was your fault..."