Now show me what you're working with!

Thanks to spoonofchoice for the thread title. Oblique and delicious.

I feel sorry for these kids that got zero exposure throughout the entire time. Here they are in the final 24 out of whatever BS total number they are claiming and a mime has gotten minutes more time then them...

In her 'standing/posing' bio picture she looks a bit like Sandra Oh from Sideways.

I'm not sure if I'd refer to my deity of choice as a 'good luck charm' though...

There, now she at least has one response in her thread.

I think she's totally cute. I'm hoping the fact that she's come this far means she can really sing. Even if that makes me hopelessly naive.

Well, I have no clue who she is... but I'm rooting for her because she's from my hometown. Hopefully she can sing.

I think this is the one that I saw last night and thought to myself: Didn't Kelly Clarkson already win this thing?

In some angles she looks a little bit like Camile. A Camile/Kelly hybrid? She looks a little bit Fillipino. Or is that me?

[I]Wow I feel like an idiot

seltzer4, I agree with you 100%. She really looks Philipino (Filipino?) in the 3/4 body photo.

It's hard to tell though when we only have frontal shots to go on. I have to watch her video, I guess.

Omgod, I totally agree. The first thing I thought when I saw her was "whoa- Kelly Clarkson clone" Hope she can sing as well

Melinda is an industrious little girl. She responded to the Jasmine Trias flower thing by whipping up some egg whites and cream of tartar into stiff white peaks.

One of the girls on my floor went to elementary school with her. She said that Melinda was ditzy but very positive. How two dimmentional.

Wow. Okay, so it wasn't just me. Add me to the list of people who thought "Camille Clarkson."

Vomit.

Man, I was off. As Melinda performed, I was preparing my guess as to how much even Randy and Paula would rip into her. Her awkward stance and hand motions, her weird choice of trills, her slightly off timing... I was shocked to see the judges tongue-bathe her. Something's fishy.

I thought she was pretty damn terrible tonight.

The air traffic hand motions really distracted me from her singing, which at times wasn't completely horrible. Still she had audible trouble with a couple of the notes I can see her leaving tomorrow night.

They've been known to enjoy bad posture. Maybe she is the female equivalent of George Huff, bringing back the Dip? Or something all her own called the Squat?

I think she looks Filipino, too. Glad I'm not the only one who saw that.

Melinda is Hispanic, from what I've heard.

I just wanna know why she didn't try to dress up a little bit. All she needed was some Keds and a dog to walk. Taking the girl next door bit a little too far.

Her performance was just....odd. I didn't find it boring, I just found it kind of strange. She made it a lot harder for herself by trying using too much melisma instead of just holding on the note. I mean she got the crowd going at the end by her glory note. I just didn't understand why she didn't belt it out in the chorus, because she does have the ability too.

With that said, the Kelly/Camile thing was strangely evident in her performance.
voice clarity-kelly
the warbling-camile
the strange gestures-camile
but not nervous-kelly

but yet had the sitting down thing like Josh Gracin...

hmm, maybe they were attempting to blend Kelly and Camile in a blender, and Josh just accidently fell in. So we got Melinda

After rewatching Melinda's performance it was really Anita Baker, with the hands and the wobbling and the knee length skirt. Ok, she was more like me when I used to imitate Anita baker when I was 12.
Poor girl was eliminated and no one is commiserating in her thread. 19E is going to make her disappear for discussing the pimpage. Given that 3 of the 4 eliminated were never pimped.

I loved her for calling them on the pimping bullshit. I really did, and I think she's quite right. She's cute and seems like a potentially sweet girl -- I wonder if she lived on a farm and rescued stray animals, if she would've stuck around.

I felt like the world's biggest asshole watching her tonight. I know, I know, these "kids" get themselves into it, but seeing her try to sing that song through her tears was not the least bit fun for me.

Blah.

You probably won't see much commiserating because it was right on that she got eliminated. What was gonna keep her in? There's already a Kelly Clarkson. She was not a pretty as some of the other ballad girls. She didn't even bother to dress for the dance and give herself some appeal. Then she doesn't have the class or good sense to bow out in a classy way. Disappointment aside, no need to be a class A beeotch. I say, Good Day.

I kinda liked the cutting of Melinda Lira because it led to one of the best moments on the show. It wasn't expected, but it was so true. Sad thing is that girlfriend probably thought she was kicking ass and taking names with that power-rawr ballad. Here's to Melinda to be the contestant to FINALLY write that AI tell-all. I'll buy it girl, just keep those crazy paws away from me.

She should have never tried to do a Celine Dion song, because she doesn't have that voice range. But I have to admit she sounded way better tonight than she did last night. Maybe it was all emotion or maybe it was just me.
There were others that were worse than her, like Mikalah, I like her but the girl sounded terrible last night and chose an awful song for her to sing.

I can't say I'll miss her because she just wasn't good at all, but I do have to give the girl props for her pimping comments & the truly hysterical death stare. I do believe that was the first time anyone has EVAH done that on this little show called American Idol & I, for one, found it to be somewhat refreshing. I have a really hard time believing that some of these people actually think they have a ghost of a chance to win this, but hope does spring eternal, as they say. The chosen ones will all come out standing & Melinda just has to be thankful she made it as far as she did. Bring on some more death stares. Truly entertaining!

Kudos to Melinda for being brave and talking about the pimping. Because we Intarweb peepul are savvy and know about the pimping already, but out there in Middle America are people who are saying, "What did that Chinese girl say? The show isn't fair? Simon doesn't always tell the truth?" It's those people who will start to question the "machine" and maybe see through the BS they've been feeding us. Power to the people!

What would have made great TV? If, in addition to discussing the lack of pimpage, she smacked Seacrest in the head, thrown down the mic, and refused to sing.

And Simon Fuller wouldn't DARE sue her.

She wasn't even as good as Amy Adams was last year on the song, but hopefully the great unwashed will learn that if you are going to put 12 people out there, they should get equal amounts of pre-semifinal screen time.

Oh God, that deathstare was frightening! I was seriously both fearing and awaiting some sort of severe emotional breakdown for the gal right there on national TV.

Nope, I didn't pity that shlubby, low-class bitch one bit.

Her voice isn't as strong as most of the other girls...she's not all that attractive and has no apparent ounce of style...she is about as interesting and unique as a Saltine cracker...she picked an insanely boring and way too vocally-challenging Celine Dion ballad.
Then she had the nerve to get on there and whine like the sore loser she is that nobody voted on her because the producers were playing favorites and didn't show her all that much? Oh honey, wake up! You weren't shown all that much because you're not all that talented, attractive, or interesting, so get over yourself already and get a clue.

((whoever mentioned that it's amusing how some of these folks actually think they have a ghost of a chance to win this thing is right---the extreme level of delusion profiled on this show is always its most entertaining aspect!))

So good riddance to bad rubbish, as that was one of the most classless final 24 exits on AI I've ever seen!

oh she's hispanic? i thought she's filipino...

http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/me...ms_capitals.gif

I did think she was making excuses instead of admitting that she just wasn't very good, but Melinda had a point about the pimping. The judges cracked me up, though, because when she said that, they had the nerve to look confused about it. Yeah. Rrright.

I thought she did a much better job on the song the second time around. Funny how that works.

She did have a point, although that becomes less of a factor as the weeks go on. But at the same time, Aloha and Celena had as little pimping as she did and still got through, so personality does play a role.

Damn skippy. I was kinda holding my breath waiting for her next move. I was thinking either breakdown or stage rage (i.e.,going out in a hail of gunfire, attacking Ryan, etc).

I hated the pimping excuse. She blew chunks, she picked a song meant for a scary high soprano, and she needed to wear sleeves.

I felt for Melinda, she was totally taken by surprise and for a second it didn't look like she was all there if you know what I mean. She had a valid point when she mentioned her lack of airtime in the beginning but I thought Simon had a more valid point when he said that it was up to her to sing her heart out and make herself memorable. I wish her luck, she's real young and her whole life is ahead of her.

Melinda has a CD

Isn't that against the rules?

I thought so too. I think it's because she wasn't trying so hard. It helped her performance markedly.

Melinda seriously looked like she wanted to knock Seacrest out after his charade. Don't you just love live TV?

I agree.Except aside from the surprise, she also looked mighty miffed. Girl, no one does Celine Dion better than Celine Dion. When will these kids learn?

A quick listen to the CD and Randy's right -- she's sound a lot like Kelly. Now how is Melinda going to get around those legal ramifications?

Melinda's CD is also at Amazon.

Perhaps since she got cut at this round (which is apparently different from the final 12) then her contract with 19E is null?

I *think* the rules are that you can't have representation (like an agent or manager) or be signed to a record label at the time you audition. Technically speaking, you could terminate your contract or relationship today, and audition for AI tomorrow. Simon Fuller once said Britney Spears could theoretically drop her management, leave her label, and audition. (I am just now realizing how tired I am of hearing or seeing that statement.) Also, Celena Rae won a recording contract when she was on Your Big Break, and surely the producers know about that by now. So I don't see how Melinda's CD would be a big deal.

That said, she can't release anything now until at least October (and probably later since she made it to the semifinals), so she put the CD out at the last possible minute, knowing that her presence in the semifinals would generate some public interest/Google searches. The CD was released on Jan. 15, a very smart move marketing-wise (ConstantBitch did the same thing - his band's latest CD came out Jan. 18, the day his first audition aired). She's using this 15 seconds of fame to promote something that has already been released and which she can't be held in fault for by her AI contract. So, good for her. AI uses these people for its own advantage and disposal, and they should be smart enough to use AI to their individual advantages. I would say she's lucky - she's under no obligation to release anything under 19Evil's name, unlike the top 10, who will have to sign to 19Evil if the label decides they want to offer them a contract.

This CD was obviously an independent release - I mean truly independent, with no label or professional support whatsoever. The CD is only available at CDbaby.com, an internet-only distributer. This is a route that a lot of fledging independents take when they don't have enough outside support or money to get national or regional in-store distribution. Also, all those reviews for her CD look like they were written by family members and friends, and whoever wrote that CD review for her needs to go back to fourth grade and learn some basic grammar and capitalization skills.

Speaking of the CD review...
Not that someone can't be a Janet and Celine fan at the same time...but I wasn't getting any vibe from her this week, stylistically, that said Latin or Janet Jackson. Aiwop, how does the CD actually sound in terms of vocals, production, lyrics, etc.?

I agree aiwop, she was seriously channeling La Clarkson in "Has Been" of those CD samples. This year's batch of semifinalists convinces me that somewhere AI has a bot factory making inferior copies of previous contestants.

Anyway, from the clips they have up at CD Baby, wow does Melinda's CD sound like bad lounge music. A total WTF at the "Latina Janet Jackson" description too, because if you want to highlight someone's vocals, Janet Jackson's lip synching dance act is not the comparison I would choose to make.

Thanks to spoonofchoice for the thread title; other Honorable Mentions will be featured in this week's recap.

Melinda Lira has Filipino blood

I honestly listen to her AI clip at least once a week. She wasn't that bad to me. But it's like, Random Good Singing Girl isn't the same as Random Good Singing Guy. Unfortunately, girls have to really stand out on this show. Even if, for no other reason, that they don't stand out... like Carrie. She didn't have as strong a voice as Vonzell and Carrie, but at least she seemed like she tried. Her voice is a little musical theater-ish for me, though. She has good technique but trying to emote a bland, power ballad like "Power of Love" isn't really in her.

Does anyone remember Melinda? (No, not that one). I found some recent clips of her singing on Youtube:

If I Ain't Got You
When You Believe

I think she sound pretty good, although the other girl outsings her in the second clip. She had a good voice, but the lack of airtime and bad first song choice hurt her.

I think she'll end up being remembered best for the death stare, though. That was scary.