Goldberg74

I'm suprised it's 10:30 PM CST and there's no thread yet. Anyway, here's the breakdown, feel free to fill in the blanks.

1.) Diana DeGarmo -- ????? -- All three said she was wonderful, looked like a pro.
Wife's Rating: B+

2.) Marque Lynch -- Wind Beneath My Wings -- Played it safe, didn't pick a good song.
Wife's Grade: B-

3.) Ashley Thomas -- Crazy -- Thought she was 'sweet'.
Wife's Grade: B

4.) Katie Webber -- Orange Colored Sky (Wham! Bam!) -- Looked great on stage, didn't like her choice of song.
Wife's Grade: A

5.) Erskine Walcott -- Open Arms -- Gotta a new do, grew up a bit. Randy started to throw out 'props' for picking a Journey song.
Wife's Grade: B-

6.) Jennifer Hudson -- Imagine -- I thought she sucked hard, only Lennon can sing that song. They thought she was okay, and 'made the song her own'.
Wife's Grade: C

7.) Matthew Metzger -- Walkng In Memphis -- Wrong song, sounded okay, kind of struggling... but had a great stage presense.
Wife's Grade: B-

8.) Fantasia Barrino -- ????? -- Loved her. Simon said that whe didn't need this competition to get a recording contract.
Wife's Grade: A-

Who we think is going through to the next round:

Katie Webber


Fantasia Barrino


Who we think might be a wild card:

Diana DeGarmo

Deftones

Katie Webber has the look for sure. She's a piece of ass.

I think the best singers were Diana DeGarmo and Fantasia Barrino, though.

Flay

Absolutely Katie. I really didn't think anyone else had the range or the stage presence that she conveyed. By the way, it's Flash, Bam mostly, Wham once.

2nd place is a toss up between Diana or Fantasia for me. I really didn't care much for anyone else.

Goldberg74

Whoops... sorry... was thinking of the old addage...

Jadzia

I liked Fantasia the best, followed by Diana. Katie was good too, but I thought she picked the wrong style.

BTW -- Fantasia performed Something to Talk About by Bonnie Raitt.

fumanstan

I posted this yesterday in the other thread, but since she performed today, i'll repost it, since i thought it was funny:

So... i havent been paying attention to American Idol anymore, but one of the girls, Ashley, is from my hometown in Irvine, CA, and went to the same schools i did growing up. My friend mentioned last week that he was in the chorus with her, and i didnt think much of it then. Today my brother (whose the same age as her) told me that in 5th grade she kicked him in the nuts. And that she bitched about not winning homecoming queen in high school. Suddenly i'm interested

Shadow Ace

I thought the first two, Diane and Marque, were the best singers. Katie is by far the hottest, and she sings pretty well too. Fantasia's voice just seems to grind on me...I don't like it at all.

Andalusia

Diane DeGarmo. What a cutie-pie!

Patman

The order of my rankings (highest to lowest):

Fantasia - I find her voice too shrill, i.e., I don't hink I could listen to an entire album sung by her. But she's got star quality, otherwise. She's be in the top 12 even if she doesn't make it in this group via judge's choice.

Katie - Sang her song a beat too slow, needed more punch. Her nose bothers me to no end.

Erskine - Actually, his vocals were the best of the males, but song choice wasn't all that good.

Jennifer - Voice too low, and then too shouty at the end. Also too emotional.

Diana - Not distinctive enough sounding.

Matthew - Purty boy, but lacks the cutting vocals to stand out from the crowd.

Marque - Fame is calling.

Ashley - Not too crazy about her, Nashville Star is calling.

TheAllPurposeNothing

A mixed bag tonight.

While I really like Fantasia's voice (actually reminds me more of Patti LaBelle than Macy Gray), I think her song choice was terrible. She was miles away from the fun, flirtatious nature of the song. Even worse, the timing on the song was off repeatedly. Also, the constant looking over to the judges got annoying. But, like Ruben last year, from the get go, you can tell who the judges are trying to push.

Thought the two best tonight were Diana and Katie. Diana did a great job with the Kiki Dee song. Amazed to hear that voice out of a 16-year-old.

As for Katie...all I can say is Wow! A truly big suprise. Not impressed by her previously, but a big turnaround here. I personally think the song choice was great and she was on an energy level far exceeeding the other performances.

As for the remaining five, they ranged from passable (Erskine and Jennifer) to really, really mediocre (Matthew). Tonight, I really came to admire what a great voice Marc Cohn has. And with Marque...its one thing to know the words..but for the whole verse I did not recognize the song. It's as if he rewrote the tune on the fly.

Kind of torn ultimately on how I want the voting to go here. While I voted for Katie, I"m not sure if I want to see Diana or Fantasia go foward. Like I said, I really like Fantasia's voice, but she definitely needs better song choices. Diana, while good, for some reason strikes me as though she may have already hit her peak. Don't know why...just a feeling.

Alyoshka

I think that Katie was the best overall. A great voice, good stage presence and has control of her body on the stage.

Then right after her was Matthew (who I voted for). He probably had the best look overall on the stage. Plus his vocals were actually better than most of the guys on last year's AI (he could take Josh anyday).

Caliking

fantasia is the best this show has ever had! i usually hate the blandness of american idol...finally someone with some style, individuallity and very talented also.

katie is hot but she is just like every other pop star. (she would be my 2nd choice though).

i hate the radio!!!!

shanester

I didn't like Fantasias voice at all... Her words wereslurred. I can't believe the judges went gaga over her!

I thaught Katie Webber had a better overall voice and presence but what's up with her song choice??..

It's rock/pop music not jazz..Once you've made it then you can experiment with different styles (eg Sting)

tanman

I thought Fantasia was pretty good but I personally didn't like her much. But it is nice and fresh.

I thought Katie definately had the look. She is hot. But she comes across as a little fake. A little much.

Erskine did well (hero).

Overall I thought they all did quite well. Definate higher quality than previous seasons at this stage of the game.

I didn't vote though. Did anyone?

Shannon Nutt

Every season, it's surprising how the judges try to sway the voting by over-complementing or under-complementing a performer...

I thought Fantasia was middle-of-the-pack last night, but thanks to Simon's comments that "she doesn't need this contest to get a recording contract", she'll probably make the top two.

My biggest problem with Fantasia? She was forgetting the words to the song...not one judge mentioned it.

So ANYONE can come back for the Wild Card? SOLIDER GIRL!!! Please, I'm begging you FOX!

shaggybrown

Was the format different this year?
I seem to remember they only had a Piano for music the previous years, now they have a full backup band and a MTV Unplugged size audience. What do they get next year - backup singers too?

I think having the backup band this early is not a good idea. It's too easy to get distracted from the vocals. Also, when they get to the top 12, other then a larger stage and crowd, there won't be anything else new.

As far as last night's performances, I really enjoyed Fantasia. In fact, any time an African-America girl goes up and doesn't sing Whitney Houston gets points in my book. She took a song written and performed by a very different person and manged to make it unique. I didn't notice her missing any words, maybe this was part of the arrangement. They never have time to sing the full song until there are fewer competitors.

Groucho

I liked Diana the best myself. Very impressive.

I'm not surprised to see Katie get so many votes in the DVDTalk poll after all the comments on her boobs in the previous threads.

Tarnower

So how will this work? There are, what, four groups of eight people? And two are picked by America from each group, and then the judges pick a wildcard from each group? That would make the final number of AI contestants 12? Am I correct?

Groucho

The final number is 12, that is correct. However, the four wildcards are a bit different than you described it. Here is how it worked last year:

Each of the judges chose 4 wildcards from any phase of the show. Most of them came from the final 32, but at least one (Carmen, who went on to the final 12) was eliminated earlier.

The 12 wild cards perform, and America votes. The winner of the votes makes the final 12. Additionally, each judge gets to pick 1 wildcard to also go to the final round. Last year, America's "wild card" pic was Clay Aiken.

Tarnower

My God! How long is this gonna take until the actual Final Competition begins? It seems like it's been on for so long already and they are farting around. The show ends in May, which means if one is eliminated each week, then the final 12 competition has to begin in the next couple of weeks.

Struz

We could see the return of William Hung on the Wildcard show !




I thought Diana was by far the best, then Katie.
Both had great voices and picked good songs to sing.

Fantasia's voice is grating and duck like. She slurrs most of her words. I can't believe they all loved her.

The others were just average. Except for Jennifer. She was bad. She picked the wrong song for her and screamed through the end of it.

Patman

Anyone think Katie can get that nose of hers fixed? It looks like a shark at some angles. It's one of the weirdest looking noses I've seen on an otherwise pretty girl.

Vonner

My top three were (in the order they sang): Diana, Katie, and Erskine. I thought Fantasia sound too nasally. Her voice gets on my nerves.

And yes, I did vote for the three I like above.

Y2K Falcon

I would *like* to see Katie and Erskine advance, but it will more likely be Katie and Fantasia, imho, based on the "push" by Simon (there must be a difference between what WE hear on our TV speakers and what they do, I just didn't feel it). Diana needs to wait a couple years and get that cruise ship gig.

So, Erskine as a "wild card", please. Sadly, I'm guessing we will see "scooter girl" as one, though.

Shannon Nutt

I first thought it was a really BAD nose-job. Then I noticed her mom has the same weird looking nose!