American Idol Season 7 Top 20 - The Girls, February 27, 2008

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American Idol Season 7 Top 20 – The Girls, February 27, 2008

By PopSavant | February 27, 2008 | Email This Post

Welcome everyone. Here we are again, tonight with the girls half of the top 20. Read along and feel free to join in with your own comments.

This is 1970’s week, but somehow last night we were mercifully free of disco. We’ll see if that holds up tonight, or if one of the girls will feel compelled to drop It’s Raining Men. Here’s hoping.

It’s 8pm. Here we go.

Ryan Seacrest tells us “millions of families” are watching. Not singles, apparently… bad demographic? Besides, we know no lonely sad people watch reality television.

Ryan now tells us the guys are sitting in the “dog pound.” Well, it is Fox, maybe they’re using the old Arsenio set.

The judges are announced, and size-13.5-shoe-Randy emphasizes how important song selection is, that you have to know what you can sing. Paula says the guys last night were “really good.” Simon says the performances last night should motivate everyone else.

Carly Smithson proves she’s in the running for world’s perfect woman by not only being an extreme hottie, but now telling us she spends time in an Irish bar; something tells me she’s a Guinness girl. She comes out with Heart’s Crazy On You, which is a marvelous song choice, and from the first note you can tell it’s going to be awesome. Everything works: her look is just right for the song, the band is tight, and her vocals are strong enough to power through. She’s definitely set the standard for the night. Randy says the beginning was “rough,” but that by the middle of the song she “got it together. It was al’ight.” Paula says “It takes a great singer to perform those big notes… you’re an amazing singer.” Simon thinks it was better than last week, but that she hasn’t found the right song, although the other girls “can’t touch you vocally.” Carly says that whatever else happens, she wanted to sing that song on American Idol.

Syesha Mercado gives us an overview of her career in commercials, and then demonstrates an eerie baby cry; hopefully if she ever gets kicked off she’ll have that ready. She gives us Me and [Mr.] Jones, by Billy Paul. It’s… uninspiring. The vocals aren’t right, and the performance has that drifty quality that makes you think you’ve got a fever. She goes for the big note at the end, Randy says that those “soft little notes” in the verse seemed disinterested. Paula says “I like the interpretation,” but agrees with Randy about the soft notes. Simon says that “it was a bit of a silly thing,” since the song wasn’t written for a girl. “I was put off as soon as you started it; the song wasn’t designed for your voice, so you can’t really do that big note at the end.”

Brooke White went to beauty school, and enjoys doing hair. It’s good to have a trade, I guess. Oh, she just made the beauty school dropout joke. Her song is Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain. I pretty much detest this song, but I think it’s perfect for Brooke. Her voice is perfect for it, and she’s having such a good time with performance that we all have a good time, too. Excellent all around. Randy tells her it was “a great song choice for you,” although she didn’t do anything original with it, and asks if the song was directed toward Simon. Paula says “everyone was diggin’ it.” Simon “absolutely loved it,” and really did think the song was about them.

Ramiele Malubay gives us a short, lackluster Hula demonstration, and then hits the stage with Don’t Leave Me This Way, by Thelma Houston, bringing our miraculous disco-free run to a crashing halt. Ramiele’s version is nothing special; it certainly didn’t inspire dancing in the aisles, which disco ought to do. Randy “keeps it real” and calls it “okay” at best. Paula takes a break from reality and says “your vocals are amazing” – clearly not based on this performance – but that Ramiele “didn’t get to perform your magic.” Simon says the song was suited for a “ghastly wedding,” but he still thinks she’s one of the top three singers in the competition. Her post interview is a bit too little-girl-cutesy for me, it makes her seem dumb.

Kristy Lee Cook shows us her tomboy side, opening her interview with an irresistible girl next door, chick-in-a-baseball cap look. She proves that’s not the only side to her, though, coming out in a shimmery silver top that shows her off to good effect. She sings Linda Ronstadt’s You’re No Good. The song feels like it’s dragging, and she has no real emotion behind it, which is not a good thing for what’s supposed to be a song all about accusation. She doesn’t do anything wrong, but it’s just nothing special. Randy thought it was “a hundred percent improvement over last week,” but that she never really broke out, even though he liked it. Paula says “you’re back, you’re back, you’re back.” Simon “can’t remember what you sang last week” so this was a huge improvement, and suggests she try going “down the country route” to make a splash.

Amanda Overmyer, the Harley-riding bookworm, tells us she likes to read biographies of rock stars, then comes out with Kansas’ Carry On Wayward Son. Wow. Where to begin with this one? It’s a complete trainwreck. Her voice cracks throughout the performance, she screeches a superfluous “child!” for no reason in the middle of the lyric, and her hair – which I dug last week – looks as if her aforementioned Harley collided with Pepe Le Pew’s white paint. On top of it all she dances like she’s that character from Nightmare on Elm Street that Freddie Kruger turns into a marionette by using his veins as strings. She finally puts the performance out of its misery by screaming and punching towards the crowd. She looks like she knows she’s blown it as soon as the music stops. Randy, not knowing what else to say, settles with calling it a bad song choice. Paula says “you’ve got some moves… you can dance.” If I didn’t still have a crush on Paula based on the Straight Up video from years ago, I’d think she didn’t know what she was talking about. She also flirts with whole new levels of confusion by calling Amanda “a brilliant, brilliant artist” Simon says “everything felt contrived… I couldn’t wait for it to finish.” Paula finishes by giving Amanda makeup tips.

Alaina Whitaker is stunning in an electric royal blue dress as she offers up Hopelessly Devoted To You by Olivia Newton-John. There’s only so much you can do with this song, but Alaina does it well. I enjoyed the performance, though at the end of the year it certainly won’t make any “best of” clips. Randy says “not the right song choice… I dunno.” Paula says “you did a real good job… I don’t think it was as bad as [Randy] did.” Simon: “I like you, but my problem is it’s almost as if your grandmother prepared for this audition.” The segment ends with the judges arguing about Alaina’s dress – put me down as solidly in support. Ryan, for some reason, feels the need to tell us “heels and a blue dress” aren’t really his thing, surprising no one.

Alexandrea Lushington shows a clip of herself in Princess Leia hair singing the National Anthem, so if we ever have George Lucas night she’ll be all set. She gives us Chicago’s If You Leave Me Now, and does an unremarkable job. Randy says the problem was that the song was too “safe” for her “mad vocal skills.” Paula said “you stretched it, you made it your own. You’re relevant and important in this competition, just let yourself be.” Simon says the song is “absolutely stuck in its time period” and that she was “inconsistent… in tune, out of tune.. and boring.

Kady Malloy goes from showing us opera in the shower to singing Magic Man, which is another great Heart song with a completely different feel from the one we heard earlier; she goes for sort of an Allanah Miles Black Velvet steamy, sultry vibe, which is exactly right. If Carly hadn’t led off with a Heart song, this would have been completely awesome. As it is, it just seems very, very good. She looks like a million bucks, despite the rows of ugly multicolored buttons defacing her black outfit. Randy said she “never found the pitch… it didn’t work.” Paula says “when you powered, you sounded great” but lost it on the low notes; Paula isn’t sure who Kady is. Simon is “frustrated” that Kady hasn’t defined herself (and he claims to have never heard the song before… WTF?)

Asia’h “Gratuitous H” Epperson tells us the great preparation cheerleading was for American Idol, and shows us what she learned by taking the stage to sing Eric Carmen’s All By Myself The song is too low for her; she sounds a bit like an obscene phone call from Kathleen Turner. Then the high notes come, and she misses those, too. It’s not good. Randy tells us she’s been sick, which may explain some things, and says “highest degree of difficulty… you did a really good job with it.” Paula agrees with me about the low parts, but says “the ending is what counts on this song.” Simon calls it “one of the diva songs of all time, and you’ve got to be one heck of a singer to pull it off… and unfortunately, you’re not.”

Summary/Comments

I’d say it was the best show of the young season, although that’s not saying much. It’ll have to get better from here if we’re going to have that one star-making moment that always seems to come out.

Best of the Night: Other than Carly, who is in a class by herself? Either Brooke or Kady.

Bottom Two: Amanda was easily the worst by several light years; if she’s here after tomorrow she’s got compromising pictures of someone, guaranteed. Second worst? Ramiele.

That’s it for tonight. See you next time!

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