[Alan Gordon]

WOW!! A good night...

~Alan

 

[Doug Brott]

Yes, this was a great night. My only complaint was the song in which gonads were tightly clinched.

 

[Alan Gordon]

COLTON: I said last week that I was afraid he'd go back to his lack of connection with me, and my fears came true. I thought it was pretty good, but I had trouble understanding some of the words, and I just wasn't drawn in to the performance. What a difference a week makes...

SKYLAR: I was saying yesterday afternoon that Miranda was a pretty good choice for SkylAr, but when she started off the song, I was cringing at first, but I thought it improved as she got into the song. Though far from perfect, it earned points with for me by simply offering some energy after Colton's performance.

COLTON, ELISE, & PHILLIP: Oh snap... THAT WAS AWESOME!!! Colton was able to draw me into his section of the medley, and with the exception of a one second section of the song, did totally awesome in my book. Elise continued her recent efforts to impress me, and as usual lately, succeeded. Phillip sounded great as well. Their harmonies impressed me, but my one complaint was that I think Phillip had a tendency to get drowned out by Colton and Elise... I suspect I know why, but I would have liked to have heard a little bit more of Phillip's voice in the harmonies. I REALLY enjoyed it!

HEEJUN: I felt like Jimmy and Stevie were right on the money regarding Heejun... I've been saying that, and I'm in full agreement. There were a few words I had issues with, but overall, I could understand pretty much every word, and the sound of his voice was fantastic. I thought it was great...

HOLLIE: I watched "American Idol" twice last night (don't ask!), and the first time through, I thought Hollie did good, but it fell a little flat to me. Carrie's voice adds a LOT to that song for me, and I was comparing her version to Carrie's... which was not very fair to Hollie. The second time through, I listened to HOLLIE sing the song, and I thought it was far superior to my first listen. Not my favorite performance by her, but a very good one.

DEANDRE: Uhhh... WOW!! My first thought as he started singing was "OK, he sounds JUST LIKE Eric Benet." A few verses into the song, he starts throwing out sounds that had my been closed, I would have sworn was coming from Prince (whom Steven later brought up as well). I was very impressed!

JESSICA: AWESOMESAUCE!! Uhhh... I can't think of a single thing to say other than it fantastic, and I think the judges did her a disservice by not giving her an ovation.

DEANDRE, JOSHUA, & HEEJUN: Not as good as the first trio, but thoroughly enjoyable. I thought that they all did a very good job, but that while J.Lo might have been unfair toward DeAndre and Joshua's dancing skills, she was correct about Heejun's.

PHILLIP: One of my criticisms regarding Phillip has been his tendency to let his "growl" control him instead of the other way around. I did not think that was a problem with this performance. I thought it was excellent. Johnny Lang's "Breakin' Me" is one of my (many) favorite songs... and Phillip's performance made me wonder how he would have sounded singing it. :grin:

JOSHUA: Ooh... it started off to me a little... well, off. However, he found himself fairly early on and did an excellent job. Not my favorite performance by him, but very good... certainly much better than last week IMHO.

JESSICA, HOLLIE, & SKYLAR: I think Jessica got a little shortchanged in her solo time. I thought they all did decent, but Hollie and even the short amount of solo time Jessica had, overshadowed SkylAr quite a bit.

ELISE: BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!! I think I'm falling in love with Elise... LOL!! A month ago, I thought Elise was a decent singer and an average looking woman. Fast forward to now, and I think she's a very attractive and extremely talented woman who has managed to climb her way to the point where I'm not only excited for her performance every week, but she's become one of my favorites. Week before last, she was my third favorite performance... last week, my second, and this week my favorite.

MY FAVORITES OF THE NIGHT: Elise (1), Jessica (2), Phillip (3), etc...

LEAST FAVORITE OF THE NIGHT: Colton

MY VOTES: Elise, Phillip, Hollie, Jessica, Joshua

WHO'S GOING HOME: ??????? A good performance night aside, the weakest link is probably Heejun. I'd normally say DeAndre will go before him, but between his good performance, and the fact that J.Lo probably energized his fan base tonight, I'm not sure he'll be going. Taking all that into account as well as the fact that AI voters have a tendency to hate women, my fear is that it will be another girl...

~Alan

 

[Holydoc]

I was not as impressed with DeAndre as you were.

My bottom three were:
DeAndre
HeeJun
Skylar or Joshua

Favorite was Elise. She killed it!

 

[Steve]

Ya. Elise covered a song I didn't think was possible to cover, and might have given the performance of the season, so far. Amazing she was able to pull that off so well.

I also liked that glimpse of her and Stevie harmonizing after the rehearsal. I'm pretty sure Elise will remember that fondly for the rest of her life.

 

[Steve]

I was not as impressed with DeAndre as you were.

My bottom three were:
DeAndre
HeeJun
Skylar or Joshua

Favorite was Elise. She killed it!

My bottom two were DeAndre and Heejun. Especially DeAndre. I don't know what the judges were hearing, because his pitch was all over the place in parts of that song, IMHO.

I'm looking forward to the week when their constituencies are no longer relatively large enough to keep those guys in the competition, because I would much rather have heard Erika sing last night than DeAndre. Just my .02.

 

[dettxw]

My bottom two were DeAndre and Heejun. Especially DeAndre. I don't know what the judges were hearing, because his pitch was all over the place in parts of that song, IMHO.

I'm looking forward to the week when their constituencies are no longer relatively large enough to keep those guys in the competition, because I would much rather have heard Erika sing last night than DeAndre. Just my .02.

Yeah, what he said.

Got around to looking at VFTW and looks like Heejun is their guy. Wonder how much influence do they really have? Doesn't seem like he can last too much longer.

Can't say that I've got a favorite this go-'round. Jessica and Joshua seem to be fading a bit, afraid that Colton is going to ride his little dress and singing quirks right out of the competition (kind of like Adam lost because he insisted on screeching on every song and his in-your-face flamboyancy), Phillip growls every song, and Skylar seems limited so overcompensates with loudness and intensity.

 

[VDP07]

Elise has been my favorite since the beginning. I fear for her survival though. Like so many great performers from past seasons, for some reason, she just hasn't developed a voting following. Don't know if it's her age, her look or her singing style, but she seems to be in the bottom 3 quite often. That said, I've never voted so I really can't complain about the outcome each week.

 

[Alan Gordon]

I was not as impressed with DeAndre as you were.

My bottom three were:
DeAndre
HeeJun
Skylar or Joshua

Favorite was Elise. She killed it!

Heejun and DeAndre are the two weakest links.... hence why I even though I enjoyed their performances last night, I didn't bother to vote for them. I always hate for a contestant to go out on a high note, but I really don't think it'd be fair for the other contestants if they were the ones sent home.

Ya. Elise covered a song I didn't think was possible to cover, and might have given the performance of the season, so far. Amazing she was able to pull that off so well.

I also liked that glimpse of her and Stevie harmonizing after the rehearsal. I'm pretty sure Elise will remember that fondly for the rest of her life.

I still think Jessica's "I Will Always Love You" is the highlight of the season for me, but Elise's performance last night was amazing!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure she will remember that... just like I suspect Phillip will remember the comments he got... LOL!!

For Elise Testone, the mentoring experience was especially wonderful because she actually got to sing with the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman.

"I said, 'I sing your music,' and Jimmy [Iovine] was like 'Well here Stevie, why don't you sing a song together?' We sang 'Dreams.' She sang the chorus and I harmonized above her. I just jumped right in -- it was like we had been playing together forever."

In fact, the familiarity was apparent as soon as Testone and Nicks met. "There are certain people that I meet that I instantly feel like I have been friends with them or we know each other," she says. "I felt that way with Steven Tyler, and I felt that way with her. There's just something that we have that we just clicked. We were just friends. I was so excited and I couldn't stop giggling."

SOURCE - 'American Idol' Top 9 talk Stevie Nicks: 'My favorite mentor ever'

~Alan

 

[Alan Gordon]

My bottom two were DeAndre and Heejun. Especially DeAndre. I don't know what the judges were hearing, because his pitch was all over the place in parts of that song, IMHO.

I'm looking forward to the week when their constituencies are no longer relatively large enough to keep those guys in the competition, because I would much rather have heard Erika sing last night than DeAndre. Just my .02.

I think Erika deserved to stay in longer than DeAndre and Heejun, and last week I certainly agreed with you. However, as I said, I personally thought both were superior to Colton and even Skylar, so...

Got around to looking at VFTW and looks like Heejun is their guy. Wonder how much influence do they really have? Doesn't seem like he can last too much longer.

He's got both them and his fans. I know multiple people who are Heejun fans... I like him, and I loved last night, but he is not as skilled as many of the others and he shows too many problems in his voice when he sings. His antics last week ticked off many of his fans that I know personally, so it will be interesting to see how his new-found attitude will affect his standings tonight.

Can't say that I've got a favorite this go-'round. Jessica and Joshua seem to be fading a bit, afraid that Colton is going to ride his little dress and singing quirks right out of the competition (kind of like Adam lost because he insisted on screeching on every song and his in-your-face flamboyancy), Phillip growls every song, and Skylar seems limited so overcompensates with loudness and intensity.

Sadly, I agree that Joshua may be fading a bit, but I totally disagree with Jessica. She had an amazing song a few weeks ago... she then had a bad week due to a bad song choice, but managed to bounce back with a good performance last week and a great performance last night. I think that if you compare every song she does to her Whitney performance, pretty much every performance will pale in comparison, but I don't believe that's fair to Jessica.

Honestly, I'm afraid Doug may be correct regarding Colton. He's got the teeny-bopper vote, he's got the church-going vote... I think he will be TOUGH to beat. It sucks in my opinion, but this is what AI has turned into...

I hear your complaint about Phillip, but I think he's learning control over his growl. Last night was another night where he managed to show restraint and control over it. He needed that in my opinion...

I don't disagree with Skylar...

~Alan

 

[Henry]

BEWARE the "PIA MOMENT".

 

[Alan Gordon]

Elise has been my favorite since the beginning. I fear for her survival though. Like so many great performers from past seasons, for some reason, she just hasn't developed a voting following. Don't know if it's her age, her look or her singing style, but she seems to be in the bottom 3 quite often. That said, I've never voted so I really can't complain about the outcome each week.

Though I haven't been a fan since the beginning, I've been singing Elise's praises for weeks, and while I have some family members who have been fans these last few weeks, I have friends and co-workers who really haven't warmed up to her much. Perhaps last night will change their minds...

My Uncle gave a few votes to Elise and Phillip last night, and said he got some busy signals. I didn't experience any, so I expect that had more to do with the fact that he called right after voting began instead of the amount of votes they were getting, but my hope is that Elise will be safe from the bottom three again this week!

~Alan

 

[Alan Gordon]

BEWARE the "PIA MOMENT".

I'm constantly afraid of the "Pia Moment", but to whom are you referring to this week...

Joshua?!
Jessica?!
Hollie?!
Elise?!

~Alan

 

[Henry]

I'm constantly afraid of the "Pia Moment", but to whom are you referring to this week...

Joshua?!
Jessica?!
Hollie?!
Elise?!

~Alan

Yes, any one of them.

 

[Alan Gordon]

Yes, any one of them.

Yeah... I'm pretty nervous for all of them... particularly Hollie and Jessica tonight.

~Alan

 

[hdtvfan0001]

I was not as impressed with DeAndre as you were.

My bottom three were:
DeAndre
HeeJun
Skylar or Joshua

+1 on those bottom picks.

DeAndre has no range of skills to delivery...and frankly...his whiney voice is getting annoying.

 

[Henry]

Yeah... I'm pretty nervous for all of them... particularly Hollie and Jessica tonight.

~Alan

Hollie and Jessica are my favorite females in the competition. Hollie became one of my favorites the night she was selected to the top 11, and Elise is growing on me after last night.

Jessica by herself can outsing all of the females there and most of the male contestants. You just never want her to stop.

Tonight?

1. The departure of Heejun or DeAndre or Skylar would be justified...
2. Joshua or Elise or Phillip would not.
3. Colton is one I'd like to send home, but frankly, he's a very strong competitor and his elimination now would be like a mini-"Pia Moment".

A "Pia Moment" in this season would kill it for me ... I think I would stop watching the show.

 

[Steve]

Hollie and Jessica are my favorite females in the competition. Hollie became one of my favorites the night she was selected to the top 11, and Elise is growing on me after last night.

Jessica by herself can outsing all of the females there and most of the male contestants. You just never want her to stop.

Tonight?

1. The departure of Heejun or DeAndre or Skylar would be justified...
2. Joshua or Elise or Phillip would not.
3. Colton is one I'd like to send home, but frankly, he's a very strong competitor and his elimination now would be like a mini-"Pia Moment".

A "Pia Moment" in this season would kill it for me ... I think I would stop watching the show.

Well at least the judges still have that save in their back pockets. Since they didn't use it to rescue Erika last week, I think their strategy is to save it for someone only if they're convinced that person has a chance of winning it all. Doing so would avoid what happened in 2006's final four voting. The analysis after that vote was America thought Chris Daughtry was a shoe-in and most voters didn't think he needed their help. As a result, Taylor Hicks, Kat McPhee and Elliot Yamin became the final three. The judges were visibly upset by that outcome, but had no recourse, at the time.

 

[Alan Gordon]

Hollie and Jessica are my favorite females in the competition. Hollie became one of my favorites the night she was selected to the top 11, and Elise is growing on me after last night.

Elise grew on me once I heard her sing "Let's Stay Together"... prior to that, I had no feelings for her either way.

Aside from Skylar, all of the girls left are outstanding, IMO.

Jessica by herself can outsing all of the females there and most of the male contestants. You just never want her to stop.

Agreed... however, Jessica is getting a lot of the same criticisms from people that Pia got last year. Criticisms like "She's too perfect" and "I don't see why people like hearing a robot sing", or that they simply can't connect to her.

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE?! YOU CAN CONNECT TO COLTON'S PERFORMANCE LAST NIGHT, BUT YOU HAVE ISSUES CONNECTING TO JESSICA?! :new_cussi

Tonight?

1. The departure of Heejun or DeAndre or Skylar would be justified...
2. Joshua or Elise or Phillip would not.
3. Colton is one I'd like to send home, but frankly, he's a very strong competitor and his elimination now would be like a mini-"Pia Moment".

A "Pia Moment" in this season would kill it for me ... I think I would stop watching the show.

I agree with part one...
I agree with part two... though I've been somewhat disappointed with Joshua these last two weeks. I'm really hoping he'll blow me out of the water next week.
I begrudgingly agree with part three...

I would LOVE for Colton to be in the bottom three this week. I think it would be an injustice for him to go home, but I would love for him to at least be in the bottom three. I don't expect that to happen, but I'd like to see it. Perhaps it might humble him some...

If I continued watching AI after Howdy Doody winning last year... I'll continue watching... Maybe he and Nicki Minaj will sing a duet tonight...

~Alan

 

[Alan Gordon]

Well at least the judges still have that save in their back pockets. Since they didn't use it to rescue Erika last week, I think their strategy is to save it for someone only if they're convinced that person has a chance of winning it all. Doing so would avoid what happened in 2006's final four voting. The analysis after that vote was America thought Chris Daughtry was a shoe-in and most voters didn't think he needed their help. As a result, Taylor Hicks, Kat McPhee and Elliot Yamin became the final three. The judges were visibly upset by that outcome, but had no recourse, at the time.

I think the judges were ticked last year after realizing Pia was being sent home and they had already used their one save on Casey Abrams...

~Alan