Music

AMERICAN IDOL RECAP: Top 3 Perform / Top 3 Results (5/16/2012 & 5/17/2012)

by Claire Ward-Beveridge

Pop Hunter is re-capping the grotesque display of culture that is American Idol all season. Here’s what you need to know from this week’s round, which aired May 16th and May 17th.

Now we are down to three. As far as I can tell, this particular stage of the competition can be the most interesting/exciting – there are usually two somewhat clear finalists, and then one contestant that may or may not weasel their way into the last episode. This particular season, however, it seems that the winner has already been made pretty apparent. But we’ll get to that in a little bit.

This episode didn’t really have so much a theme as a selection structure that allowed for song-choice-criticism to be evenly spread across three different parties: the judges, the contestants themselves and ol’ Leather-Turtle himself, Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine. As can perhaps be expected, the songs selected by Jimmy were the most interesting and appropriate and truly were chosen to showcase each contestant’s individual style and strengths. The songs selected by the other two parties were a mix of bland, unfitting and passable – I mean, I certainly wouldn’t trust my 16-year-old self to choose a song for me to sing on live television, but what do I know? At least there was variety.

Performances:

Joshua Ledet – I’d Rather Go Blind, Imagine & No More Drama

We’re going to discuss Joshua first. He is the clear-cut winner in my mind, as you may have guessed.  Joshua has the stupefying ability to make every song he sings seem like the gold standard – the version by which all other succeeding interpretations attempt to come close to in terms of spiritedness and emotion. His first song, an Etta James song called “I’d Rather Go Blind” was beautiful – right up his alley in terms of tone and melody and just… so entertaining to watch (the moment at 1:00 where he repeats the line I was just…  is so perfect in its incremental power). He can probably sing anything and somehow make it sexy, but its the soul/r&b songs that he can really ace. The two truly sexiest, impromptu moments over the course of this whole season occurred when Joshua (probably due to heat and costume constrictions, but still) peeled off his jacket and in this case, in ear monitors, as he moved about the stage – so sexy because he clearly had no intention of doing it purposefully and it came about in such a heated moment of like, “I don’t give a f***!”

His next two song choices were like night and day in terms of their mood and sound and critical response: John Lennon’s “Imagine” (his own choice) which came off as sounding like something you’d hear playing on repeat at a Salvation Army in your small town and Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama”. The latter, chosen by Jimmy, was definitely in the top three performances that he’d done this season. With an opening that reminds me every time of the opening credits of The Young and the Restless, Joshua slid into this song effortlessly and left it on the stage as a sweaty, adrenaline and rage-tears-soaked tour de force. As the song ended and he slung his jacket over his shoulder and stared innocently at the crowd, he looked as though he had no idea what had happened.

Jessica Sanchez – My All, I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing & I’ll Be There

Next we have Jessica – sweet, demure, rail-thin Jessica – with a voice like Beyoncé (no really – close your eyes and listen to her, she’s studied every Bey track like a nerd before a spelling bee) and a number of life-years under her belt as abundant as Steven Tyler’s brain cells. She’s talented as shit, but she lacks the pain and grit that really makes a performance sink deeply into one’s soul – granted, her Jennifer Holliday cover certainly wasn’t lacking in the backbone department. She’s doing her best – which is still quite astonishing. Her first song, the Judges’ selection, Mariah’s “My All”, was smooth and consistent for the most part, but large sections called for a lower register that her 16 year old frame just could not support. As J-Lo noted in her critique, it’s a “hard song” and I couldn’t help but wonder if J-Lo was maybe (unknowingly?) trying to sabotage her just a little bit – as Forbes’ Most Powerful Celebrity, she’s going to want to maintain that status and nip every potential threat in the bud. Just a theory, but she’s always seemed to favour the male contestants on this show.

Jessica’s next song, Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” is one of those tunes that we’ve all heard a sickening amount of times to the point that it was truly hard (at least for me) not to space out when hearing it. Steven Tyler, on the other hand, was most likely doing his damnedest to stifle a wrinkly boner. Her rendition of it was good, fine, consistent, whatever. Obviously she chose it for brownie points as the song came out when Jessica was just 3 years old.

Her final song (Jimmy’s choice) was The Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There”. As with darling little Thia Megia from last year, who was oft compared to a young Michael, the same can certainly be said of Jessica at times.  As with her previous performance, this one wasn’t anything spectacular, save for a moment around the 1:08 mark where she hits a high, impaling note with “Let me..” and she sounds exciting again.

The judges do love her (especially one horny, mystical, beaded witch-doctor) but there’s a certain sadness in their eyes when they’re picking apart her performance – as if they suspect that she’s not long for this competition or feel sorry for her or something.

Phil Phillips – Beggin’, We’ve Got Tonight & Disease

Phil Phillips is going to win the whole competition. He’s never been in the bottom two, bottom three, what have you… and he’s a white, handsome, young male who appeals to young girls and their obligatory moms alike. He has talent but, at least to me, there’s nothing really exciting going on there. Along with the obvious Dave Matthews comparisons and stoner/frat music sensibilities, there’s just something so tired about everything that he does, for the most part. He’s readymade for large, family-oriented folk festivals – I can totally see his name on the Crossroads Guitar Festival poster: “Phil Phillips – Ernie Ball Stage, 9 pm.”

But his consistency, his charm and his palatability are what will carry him through to the end. I wasn’t going to dissect his three performances out of spite (and, let’s be honest, boredom) but I will say that his cover of Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight” was rather lovely. Maybe that can be credited to the song itself. Still, his voice sounded less… grating and throaty.