Taylor Hicks and the rest of the top 12 do Stevie Wonder
A bigger stage, a bigger audience, and a formidable theme left some of the top 12 struggling last night.
Here are my thoughts from best to worst:
1. Taylor Hicks - Taylor knows what he's doing, and he want to win this contest. Taylor chose the upbeat Living For The City and turned it into his own. He knows how to work the stage and the audience, and look like he's having a good time while he's doing it. Taylor toned down some of his more eccentric moves and just concentrated on giving a great performance. Though a little more subdued, Taylor was still able to show his truly unique style and received the longest audience ovation of the night.
2. Paris Bennett - Gave an energetic performance and showed her ability to do a soulful vocal. I was starting to think Paris wasn't quite ready for this competition, but she proved me wrong last night. I liked her confidence and her ease on the bigger stage in front of the bigger audience. Her song was All I Do.
3. Lisa Tucker - Lisa did a pretty good version of Sign, Sealed, Delivered. My one complaint is that the the tempo was a little slowed down, which took some of the energy out of the song. Randy said it was kind of boring, which I agreed with. I'm putting her third, because I did think overall it was a good vocal and compared with a lot of the other performers she did put a lot of energy into it. She also seemed comfortable in the new format.
4. Chris Daughtry - I know a lot of people will put Chris in the top 3, if not number 1, but I have to take him down a couple notches. There's no doubt Chris is good at what he does, but he seems the most afraid to step out of his comfort zone. As soon as they said the theme was Stevie Wonder I knew Chris would do Higher Ground, but I was kind of hoping he would surprise me. Instead he turned in a performance in the style of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and basically just avoided doing Stevie Wonder. So the performance was good, but the originality was lacking, and I just don't get any sense of Chris' personality when he performs. Also he did not even know Higher Ground was a Stevie Wonder song until last week, so he looses some points with me right there.
5. Bucky Covington - Bucky stepped completely outside of his comfort zone and did Superstition. While it was far from the best vocal performance of the evening, I liked Bucky's enthusiasm and the effort he put into doing something different.
6. Katharine McPhee - Katharine did Until You Come Back To Me, which wasn't a huge stretch for her, but she did do a pretty good job. I'm not finding her performance to be all that memorable, but compared to about half of the group she did a good job.
7. Elliott Yamin - I think Elliott was a little too much in his comfort zone, and ended up not picking a great song choice. As the judges pointed out, he chose a safe song, Knocks Me Off My Feet, and gave a good but forgettable performance.
8. Mandisa - I thought last night was Mandisa's weakest performance of the season so far. She did Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing, and the song seemed a little low for her range. She sounded better during the choruses, when she could really belt it out, but the verses came off a little weak.
9. Ace Young - I'll give Ace some points for trying to really connect with the audience and get them energized, but unfortunately his vocal performance was lacking. Randy called it "manic," which I agreed with. Ace had to go first and seemed very nervous, which caused the lyrics to be inconprehensible at times. His song was Do I Do.
10. Kellie Pickler - Kellie probably struggled the most out of all the contestants. She made the mistake of saying in her pre-song clip that she had no confidence in her ability to do Stevie Wonder and it showed. Her confidence seemed to slip as the song went on, and the only thing memorable about her performance was that it was bad. It was the first time Kellie received unanimous negative commenst from all three judges. Kellie did not seem comfortable in the new setting at all, and she'll have to work on that if she wants to maintain her status as one of the top performers. Kellie did Blame it on the Sun.
11. Melissa McGhee - Melissa did Lately sitting down almost the whole time on one side of the stage, which I thought was an unusual choice. Her pre-song clip showed Stevie Wonder getting slightly annoyed that she messed up the words during a song they were working on, and then she ended up forgetting the words during her live performance. She did seem to cover her mistake pretty well, and most people probably wouldn't have noticed had the judges not pointed it out. Despite the getting the lyrics messed up, the judges seemed to like her performance, but I thought it was just ok.
12. Kevin Covais - I've said this already, but I'll have to keep saying it as long as Kevin stays on the show, but I just don't know what he's doing there. Kevin is the only one to delve into Stevie's '80's work with Part Time Lover. Simon said Kevin's performance was apalling and I completely agree. Kevin has obviously let some of the adulation go to his head and his whole performance just seemed like a novelty act. Vocally Kevin once again showcased his lack of range and lack of stage presence. Keep the phones away from his pre-teen fans!
My predictions for leaving tonight are either Kevin or Melissa.
Here are my thoughts from best to worst:
1. Taylor Hicks - Taylor knows what he's doing, and he want to win this contest. Taylor chose the upbeat Living For The City and turned it into his own. He knows how to work the stage and the audience, and look like he's having a good time while he's doing it. Taylor toned down some of his more eccentric moves and just concentrated on giving a great performance. Though a little more subdued, Taylor was still able to show his truly unique style and received the longest audience ovation of the night.
2. Paris Bennett - Gave an energetic performance and showed her ability to do a soulful vocal. I was starting to think Paris wasn't quite ready for this competition, but she proved me wrong last night. I liked her confidence and her ease on the bigger stage in front of the bigger audience. Her song was All I Do.
3. Lisa Tucker - Lisa did a pretty good version of Sign, Sealed, Delivered. My one complaint is that the the tempo was a little slowed down, which took some of the energy out of the song. Randy said it was kind of boring, which I agreed with. I'm putting her third, because I did think overall it was a good vocal and compared with a lot of the other performers she did put a lot of energy into it. She also seemed comfortable in the new format.
4. Chris Daughtry - I know a lot of people will put Chris in the top 3, if not number 1, but I have to take him down a couple notches. There's no doubt Chris is good at what he does, but he seems the most afraid to step out of his comfort zone. As soon as they said the theme was Stevie Wonder I knew Chris would do Higher Ground, but I was kind of hoping he would surprise me. Instead he turned in a performance in the style of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and basically just avoided doing Stevie Wonder. So the performance was good, but the originality was lacking, and I just don't get any sense of Chris' personality when he performs. Also he did not even know Higher Ground was a Stevie Wonder song until last week, so he looses some points with me right there.
5. Bucky Covington - Bucky stepped completely outside of his comfort zone and did Superstition. While it was far from the best vocal performance of the evening, I liked Bucky's enthusiasm and the effort he put into doing something different.
6. Katharine McPhee - Katharine did Until You Come Back To Me, which wasn't a huge stretch for her, but she did do a pretty good job. I'm not finding her performance to be all that memorable, but compared to about half of the group she did a good job.
7. Elliott Yamin - I think Elliott was a little too much in his comfort zone, and ended up not picking a great song choice. As the judges pointed out, he chose a safe song, Knocks Me Off My Feet, and gave a good but forgettable performance.
8. Mandisa - I thought last night was Mandisa's weakest performance of the season so far. She did Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing, and the song seemed a little low for her range. She sounded better during the choruses, when she could really belt it out, but the verses came off a little weak.
9. Ace Young - I'll give Ace some points for trying to really connect with the audience and get them energized, but unfortunately his vocal performance was lacking. Randy called it "manic," which I agreed with. Ace had to go first and seemed very nervous, which caused the lyrics to be inconprehensible at times. His song was Do I Do.
10. Kellie Pickler - Kellie probably struggled the most out of all the contestants. She made the mistake of saying in her pre-song clip that she had no confidence in her ability to do Stevie Wonder and it showed. Her confidence seemed to slip as the song went on, and the only thing memorable about her performance was that it was bad. It was the first time Kellie received unanimous negative commenst from all three judges. Kellie did not seem comfortable in the new setting at all, and she'll have to work on that if she wants to maintain her status as one of the top performers. Kellie did Blame it on the Sun.
11. Melissa McGhee - Melissa did Lately sitting down almost the whole time on one side of the stage, which I thought was an unusual choice. Her pre-song clip showed Stevie Wonder getting slightly annoyed that she messed up the words during a song they were working on, and then she ended up forgetting the words during her live performance. She did seem to cover her mistake pretty well, and most people probably wouldn't have noticed had the judges not pointed it out. Despite the getting the lyrics messed up, the judges seemed to like her performance, but I thought it was just ok.
12. Kevin Covais - I've said this already, but I'll have to keep saying it as long as Kevin stays on the show, but I just don't know what he's doing there. Kevin is the only one to delve into Stevie's '80's work with Part Time Lover. Simon said Kevin's performance was apalling and I completely agree. Kevin has obviously let some of the adulation go to his head and his whole performance just seemed like a novelty act. Vocally Kevin once again showcased his lack of range and lack of stage presence. Keep the phones away from his pre-teen fans!
My predictions for leaving tonight are either Kevin or Melissa.
posted by Sherry L at 8:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home