American Idol: 3/4

Last night was Men’s night, and once again they proved this season of American Idol has on of the best line ups ever. This week they were supposed to sing songs from the 80s. Apparently, that’s a lose category as we will discover.

The night started off somewhat weakly with Luke Menard doing a stumbling version of George Michael’s Wake Me up Before you Go Go. It was so so. Menard stumbled around and muttered the words. Luke obviously didn’t use the force. He’s probably going to be voted off.

David Archuleta was next, starting on the piano and singing Phil Collin’s anthem to the homeless. Another day in Paradise. It was a very solid performance,. and once again he made it his own. But as Simon pointed out, it was kind of a downer song. David needs to show some bounce. Which is kind of funny since Simon was picking on Brooke a week ago about being too positive. In this case, it was Archuleta acting like a beauty contestant talking about world peace. (He did that last week with Imagine, one of the most trite songs ever written). First David tries singing about world peace (and socialism!) now he’s singing about the homeless. What’s next, global warming?

It’s sassy Danny Noriega to the rescue next. He’s not he type to get all political. Girls just want to have fun. So his tune of the night is Tainted Love, which was made famous by Soft Cell in the 80s, but they were doing a cover of a 60s song at the time. It was originally recorded in 1964 by Gloria Jones, but it’s been covered by a lot of artists since, including Marylin Manson and the Pussycat Dolls. I suspect the later was Danny’s influence here. Especially the way he flounced around. Frankly, when they said 80s, I was expecting him to busy out a Pete Burns tune. While Noriega did a decent job, it wasn’t his best. But he should be safe.

As if they were trying to make a statement about controversy because a video of Danny being all emo has surfaced on the internet along with stories about David Hernandez working for three years a a stripper in a gay bar.  So when they asked David what the most embarrassing thing he can remember was--oh, snap--he was talking about a booger that appeared in some photos of him. He then goes on to do one of the best performances of the night, covering “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” which was a hit for Celine Dion in the 90s, not te 80s. Though the somg was written for Meatloaf who eventually did it in this decade on Bat Out of Hell 3. Anyway, Hernandez did a solid performance. One of the best so far. He’s safe unless the voters punish him for his past.

Michael Johns followed with “Don’t You Forget About Me”, as if channeling Michael Hutchence from INXS. It was kind of more muted than I was expecting. I kept thinking he should have done an INXS song instead. But it was solid and the judges liked it. Safe.

David Cook decided to take on a Lionel Ritchie song. And for that you’d expect him to be voted off. But he surprisingly made it from a pop song into a Rock Ballad, while bringing a guitar with him. It was surprisingly effective and he garnered high praise for it. Safe.

Jason Castro is next, once again bucking the 80s theme by singing a Leonard Cohen song from the 70s, “Hallelujah. Well, it was covered by Jeff Buckley in the 80s. Anyway, he does a solid version of it. It’s kind of quiet, so I wonder if the fans will vote for him. The judges, however, praised him up and down, so I say he’s probably safe.

Chikezie finished the show with a cover of a song Whitney Houston made famous called “All The Man That I Need”. He changed it to All the Woman that I need. Doesn’t matter if he did a great job singing it, which I feel he did. It may have been a big mistake because Simon ripped into him for it. He tried to defend himself by saying it was done by different artists, etc. No matter. He may not be safe. Which is a shame, because I think he’s a really good singer and could have gone far (but not to the end, I think). He’s been in the bottom a few times, so I suspect he will be again.

So that’s for my review of the Men’s Idol show. Hopefully I will get to see the women tonight. I missed them last week and no one uploaded it to the web.

1. I didn’t get to see the women on AI last night.  I was headed home from Portland and was stuck in the mountains because of a major car wreck.  :(

   Posted by  on  03/06  at  06:30 AM

2. I did. I will review it shortly.

   Posted by  on  03/06  at  07:51 AM
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