Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Idol Thoughts: What IS Goin' On?


I have been trying to let the pain of getting RIPPED off last night subside before I made this next-to-last Idol Thoughts post. I am still in shock. It was completely absurd. I am in utter disgust and near rage. I can only imagine how "The Pride of Arkansas" is feeling right now. Let me explain.

The finale of American Idol consists of 3 songs for each contestant to perform. The first was the contestants' choice from all of the songs they had performed thus far. The second was picked by the American Idol producer Simon Fuller, not Simon Cowell the judge. The third and final song was a hideous arrangement written by judge, Kara (whatever her last name is).

So Round 1 goes to Kris. Both singers did exceptionally well with songs they had previously performed on the show. Kris blew me away. His true abilities really did shine through on this song. One, brief moment of happiness for the evening.

Then, we begin the downward spiral with Round 2. The producer picked the songs for this round. Both songs seemed "socially charged" and Kris certainly got the short end of the stick. Adam's song was Change is Gonna Come, a 1964 R&B hit by Sam Cooke. He rocked it. I think it was his best performance, THE best performance of the entire year. Kris was assigned the song What's Goin' On by Marvin Gaye. He did okay but I agreed with Randy that this song was just not big enough for the magnitude of the evening. Who's fault was that? The stupid producer's, of all people!

And then we have Round 3. This is when the train wreck happened. Kara the songwriter-judge apparently co-wrote a song entitled No Boundaries. An MTV article quite accurately describes it as "a titanic mound of turgid clichés." It was an awful, awful song and as Simon would say, it was indulgent. Adam did good, yada, yada, yada. Then Kris began. I was horrified as I watched the final performance for Kris. I ain't gonna lie--it was BAD. He strained to hit nearly every note. Poor thing. Did I mention it was really bad?

This is what chaps my hide...When the song was over, all of the judges acknowledged that this song was out of Kris's range. Ooops, sorry. Our bad. Hopefully people will forget it?
WHAT? Why, pray tell, did they not change the key of the song? There is a freakin' orchestra on stage--let's play something the contestant can sing for crying out loud. Kara at least had the decency to say that she hoped Kris wouldn't be judged on this song because it was a bit out of his range. Ya think? Simon had to bite his tongue so he wouldn't completely mortify Kara by telling us what he really thought about the song itself. Anyway, I have to stop because my blood pressure is elevated.

If Adam wins it is going to mean nothing to me. It's like if you win at basketball but it's cause the best player on the other team tore his ACL during the 4th quarter. If Kris wins, on the other hand, then all is right with the world.

4 comments:

  1. My musical talents are next to none; I play the radio and know how to insert a CD. But I agree with you, Keelie. I actually voted for the first time ever last night. Kris, you got my vote!!

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  2. I watched bits and pieces at work with my patient. Quality of sound is not real good on a call light remote! Didnt get to see this go down. I guess Im lucky!....My patient was cheering for Adam......I am behind Kris!

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  3. Keelie, please always post about Idol-when it's "in season". It's been fun hearing your take on things, and I'm sorry you had to endure the pain. It hurts me just to hear about it! Yikes!

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  4. All must be right with the world now! ;-) Yay for Kris!

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