The Idol Guy

Andrew Lloyd Webber songs are meant to get a powerful emotional reaction out of their listeners - they’re musicals, after all. This week, our top 6 succeeded in getting that from America. However, that may have had more to do with Carly’s exit than anything else. So how did the Idols play with our emotions on Tuesday night?

First of all, a disclaimer: we claim about zero familiarity with the works of Lord Webber. We can imagine the hordes of music fans rushing to their keyboards and getting ready to call us a musical ignoramus. That may well be the case, but the reality is that a lot of people aren’t. Idol geeks are, in many cases, music geeks as well, and those tend to be more aware of Broadway songs than the general population. Here’s something to keep in mind: people who are not aware of the original songs, as we were, will react differently to those who are. It’s true of every night, but because of the theme, that’s even more true than usual.

The two “worst” of the night were Jason and Brooke. We use the term “worst” relatively, however. It wasn’t that bad, given what they were up against. ALW night was always going to be tough on them because the material favors singers with big, powerful voices - something that neither of them have. It wasn’t going to be a smooth night for them, even under best circumstances.

Neither of them helped their causes much, though: Jason’s singing was heartfelt, but breathy. Not his best effort, but we weren’t quite cringing. As for Brooke, while the false start didn’t bother us much, it did for many online pundits. The singing itself, while better than we’ve seen from her of late, wasn’t quite as good as we expected from this stage of the show. It was, as Randy would say, “okay”, but nothing more.

Next on the ladder was David Archuleta. Our reaction to him is rapidly becoming similar to Fantasia’s, which is not a good thing. We see the talent in David, but he leaves us absolutely and completely bored. Hisfangirls kept him safe this week, and probably will for the foreseeable future, but it’s all the same week in, week out. We’re not entertained.

To make up for those three disappointments, we had three very good performances. Syesha learned not to rely on screechy glory notes and called upon her acting skills to produce her best performance to date. The acting was, to us, a bit overdone, but it suited the theme reasonably well. The overall impact, however, was excellent. Well done.

Carly also had a good night, which makes her departure that much more disappointing. Carly sometimes doesn’t look all that natural and at ease on stage, but that was not the case here. She was in command of that stage with both her vocals, stage presence, and, remarkably enough, charisma. It’s a pity she had to go home this week, but more on that later. One more thing: we had to love that T-shirt she pulled out after her performance.

David Cook surprised us a little by going with a relatively straightforward version, but on the whole it worked reasonably well. It was very different from his usual takes, but we enjoyed it, though not as much as Carly or Syesha.

More than one chance to screw up: The top 5 now move into a particularly dangerous territory: multiple songs every week. If we have one piece of advice, it’s this. Better to have one good, showstopper song and one bad or below-average one, than have average songs, even if none of them aretrainwrecks. People will tend to remember the good one, and forget about the bad song, no matter how horrific it is. Katharine McPhee can be considered the perfect example. During the top 4 and top 3 episodes, respectively, she sang Black Horse And The Cherry Tree and Over The Rainbow, two of her best performances all season long. It made up for the rest of her songs during those weeks, which ranged from the average to the dismal.

The Idol Power Rankings: Maybe our contestants should be wary if they’re not in the bottom slot. It seems to be that most of the boots have come from the middle of our rankings, not the cellar. Just remember the Idol Guy 100% Satisfaction Guarantee: All predictions and analysis will satisfy you, or you get your money back. Oh, wait…

Not much change in the charts this week: David Cook is still comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. The other David follows him (not too closely), and the remaining five are… well, it’s a little cramped.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
Not only did David Cook navigate through ALW week unscathed, he did so with a straightforward version, proving he’s not just about the re-arrangements.

2. David Archuleta (Last week: 2)
We’re getting sick of ballad after ballad after ballad. Can he do anything else? At the rate things are going, David would find a way to turn the Macarena into a ballad.

3. Jason Castro (Last week: 3)
If singing doesn’t work out, maybe Jason can write a book on how to cope with stress. Has there anyone been more relaxed about his tenure on Idol than Jason?

4. Brooke White (Last week: 5)
Her fanbase has come up big for her whenever she needs it, but that’s a limited commodity. Another mistake will get her sent home.

5. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 6)
Syesha has been in the bottom two or three five times already, and this was the third week in a row she’s been in there. Maybe she should take a page from Kristy Lee Cook and have the Stools of Sorrow labelled.

It’s been that way forever: Both Carly and Michael’s exits were met with more complaints of how the show is no longer about “singing”, but now a mere popularity contest. We’ve become used to hearing something along those lines every year once a talented contestant leaves before their time.

Time for a reality check. The idea of the success of anything being based on pure merit is an alluring one for just about everyone - none more so than America, where it’s deeply embedded into the national psyche (the American Dream, the Protestant work ethic). As an ideal, it’s pretty good. Implementation, however, is tricky, as any engineer worth his salt knows (which, for the record, we are.)

There are many reasons why Idol has never been, and never will be, judged on pure merit alone. How do you define “merit” anyway? The answer: you can’t. Good singing, good music, is not about the glory note, the “pitchiness”, or the power.

It comes down to one fundamental fact: music cannot be judged objectively in any way. There’s more to music than the ability to hit a high note, or perfect enunciation, or any of the technical matters that singing coaches love to cite. You could fulfill every item on a music technician’s checklist - be the most perfect vocalist, but be a failure as a musician. Music, like all art forms, is based on conveying emotions, and that varies infinitely with every individual. One person’s idea of musical heaven might well be another’s nails on chalkboard.

More to the point, people don’t always buy music just because someone’s “tone” or “pitch” is perfect. There are many singers who may not be technically the best - they don’t have the multi-octave rangers, or the ten-second-long glory note - but they are able to connect emotionally with the audience brilliantly. Whether it’s to bring them to tears, or make them laugh, or make the go “wow”, it doesn’t matter. They bring feeling to the music.

Critics use the “popularity contest” meme to denigrate the show, but what they forget is that it’s never been about just the “singing” in the first place. People react to the same song, the same singer, the same arrangement in very different ways. That’s been true since Season One; that’s what people vote on. Yes, it’s a popularity contest, but the Idol voting process measures, within reason, that kind of emotional impact. It’s not perfect - no system is - but it’s better than most of the alternatives we’ve heard. The most horrifying prospect we’ve heard is giving the judges input in the finals. Yes, you could say it’s a “popularity contest”, but it has always been that way.

Yet another shocker that isn’t: What is it with some boots on Idol that people can’t react to them without being incredibly emotional? We’ve done the rounds of the Idol punditocracy, and it seems to be that the universal reaction is one of disbelief, anger, and more calls of how idiotic other people are?

Time for a dose of coffee and sobriety. Carly’s boot is something of a complicated one. A lot of factors came into play: some of them have been hanging around for a while, but some were directly due to what happened this week.

On pure vocals alone, Carly is perhaps the best contestant this season, and maybe even one of the better ones Idol has ever seen in seven seasons. However, her problem has always been difficulty connecting with her material, and this made building afanbase difficult. This was obvious when Carly ended up in the bottom three twice: once deservedly, the other not quite as much.

The other long-term problem that hurt Carly was vote splitting. Her natural genre is rock; however she was never alone in that genre the way Kristy was, andSyesha is. She was always splitting votes with David Cook. This also made her fanbase somewhat smaller that it would have been under other circumstances.

Unlike Kristy, Carly was able to repair the damage to her fanbase early on, but there would always be some after effects. Her fanbase was good enough to get her into the top six, but compared to the others it would always be a little underpowered. Still, her good performance should have gotten her enough votes to stay, right? Wrong. She ran into a classic perfect Idol storm.

One of the paradoxes of this show is that it’s not necessarily the best performances that give you the most votes each week. Sometimes, a bad - or what is perceived to be bad - performance can actually get more votes, thanks to afanbase that has a desire to “save” their favored bet. Brooke’s and Jason’s fanbases got the call this week, and both answered. It helped their causes, too, that both had been built early before fanbases had hardened (as we talked about last week).

It also hurt Carly that her own fanbase had been called upon to “save” her for two straight weeks as well. Their reaction to a good performance was to relax: understandable, but in the face of two energized fanbases a mistake. The result was the votes not being there when Carly needed them. This is not an unusual circumstance: Idol history is replete with cases when a relaxed fanbase sees their champion do well, becomes confident, sleeps on the job, and is shocked by the results. Ask the Melinda Doolittle fans.

What can we learn from Carly’s exit? First, for future AI contestants, you have to be on top of your game early on. You have to be able to impress voters right from the start; you also need to show a clear musical identity relatively early. If you can do that - if you can develop a fanbase early on - then you’ve got some room for error later on. If you can’t do that, then you’ve got no room for any mistakes. To be sure of staying every week, you have to be exceptional every Tuesday night. Even then, however, that strategy has limits.

The other lesson is for AI voters: the word relax shouldn’t really be in your vocabulary, and certainly not with this few people left. For fanboys or fangirls, assume that every week, your bet is at risk. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that. For once, Paula’s right. Because the Idol voting base is more diverse than it ever has been before - an offshot of the new Idol we’ve been talking about - each and every contestant has a “ginormous” fanbase.

The same, in a way, holds for the rest of the Idol punditocracy. If they want the “best” to go forward, then it has to vote that way. It’s a bit rich to throw peanuts from the safety of a keyboard, when it’s perfectly possible to at least try and do so.

And now, the much anticipated bye-ku.

Taken by surprise
Carly Smithson, Superstar?
Cannot predict now

There’s a part of us that would like to know if the Idol top 7 was as terrified by Mariah Carey week was we were. Mariah Carey has traditionally been given a wide berth by Idol contestants. The only person to sing a Mariah Carey song in the finals was Kelly Clarkson. The two other attempts to do so took place in the semis. Kelly was the only person to be advanced to the next round by voters; the two others either got a second chance by wildcard or were eliminated that week. (Open Arms does not count, as traditionally it has been more closely associated with Journey than Mariah on Idol.)

Of course, Carey-itis isn’t completely without basis. The trouble with her songs is that more than most songs, they’re built around the strengths and weaknesses of the original artist. Mariah Carey songs are more demonstrations of her range and power than proper music; other singers can only go so far with them. The songs aren’t good enough to survive a good rearrangement, and doing it up front is sure to result in tough comparisons - especially from Randy “I worked with the fantastic Mariah Carey” Jackson.

That said… it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We’ll try to hold off on the “bad song choice” commentary this week, since in normal circumstances this top 7 had as much business singing Mariah Carey as a pyromaniac had inside a fireworks store. Most of the performances we’d classify as only okay, but because it could have been so much worse we’ll take it and breathe a sigh of relief.

Best of the night was David Cook. The theme itself was as difficult as any for David, but even then he upped the danger factor with Always Be My Baby. However, we give him credit: it worked very well. As we said last week, David Cook is the best example of the new Idol, and he proved it by taking a song as remote from his own comfort zone as possible and reworking it into something that fit him superbly. It wasn’t his best performance, but blame that on what he had to work with. All in all, a superb performance.

While David was safely ahead of the rest, there were quite a few performances that sounded good to us. Kristy had to prove that last week was not a fluke, and she mostly did. The most noteworthy thing about Forever is it’s probably the least countrified song Kristy’s done in a while, and that’s mostly due to her voice (which Kristy can’t do anything about). This was a very pleasant surprise, to be honest The worst thing that can be said is that her voice sounded strained at times when reaching for the power, but otherwise it was excellent. Unlike some of the others this week, she actually managed to connect with the song emotionally. For the second week in a row, Kristy was the best of the girls. Who knew that was even possible?

Jason’s approach to Mariah was somewhat predictable, but fairly well done. It won’t win over new fans, but give Jason credit: he did make the song his own. Take that for all it’s worth: good emotional connection, but vocals that aren’t anywhere as good as the rest of the field. All things considered, we liked it - not great, but pretty good.

As for the rest of the field, the word we’d use is “decent”. To their credit, they avoided producing any obvious trainwrecks; however we’re not exactly looking for these videos on Youtube for a replay.

Regular readers may recall that we half-seriously suggested When You Believe a few weeks ago - but for Syesha, not David Archuleta. As far as a David A. ballad goes, this wasn’t impressive. His ending was rough, and the rest of the song was the same old Archuleta we’ve seen before. When You Believe has an “epic” feel to it, and it just didn’t work. The only really “new” thing here is the wardrobe, and to be honest it looked strange. Randy is completely wrong: David can sing, but he can’t sing everything. This was not as good as the judges said it was.

If Carly was hurt by not being vulnerable, Brooke was at the opposite extreme. Brooke went beyond “vulnerable” territory and looked (and sounded) completely nervous. Singing with her mouth so close to the microphone was not the smartest idea either. Brooke is good enough that so long as she doesn’t stray too far from her roots she usually sounds okay, but she was barely in that territory this week. The basic concept was sound, but she executed it poorly. She needs a good kick up the rear to wake her up; if one bottom three appearance won’t do that a second one might do the trick.

The one person in this competition who has the power to take on a Mariah song at full tilt is Carly, and she gave it her best shot with Without You. Our take on it is mixed, to say the least. On pure technicals alone, it was good; Carly hit the power notes without sounding like she was shouting, and the rest of the song was quite respectable. However, emotionally, it just didn’t have the impact the original has. Why? There was no sense of vulnerability or sadness in her performance; and to pull this song off you need to express either of those things. Brilliant vocal, but the impact just was not there.

Apparently Syesha did not get our memo a while back that winning Idol is not about the ability to hold notes and/or syllables for the longest time possible. We thoroughly disliked this performance; all we heard was a series of loud screeching noises. Syesha is barely pretending to be a well-rounded musician; her act is all about the glory note. There is precious little else to her act, and while that may well win plaudits from the judges, it won’t from this corner.

All in all, it was something of a ho-hum night, but it wasn’t the worst of the season. Considering the theme, that’s probably as much as we viewers could get away with this week.

All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again: Long-time readers will note that many times, we point out that something that happened in a particular week has parallels in previous seasons. Of late, we’ve noticed striking parallels between this season and what has come to be one of the best-regarded seasons: Season Five.

First similarity: at the top end, they both had very talented and diverse contestants. Season Five had the top four of Taylor/Katharine/Elliott/Chris; as talented and diverse a mix of contestants you’ll find in any season. This season is similarly diverse; the remaining six contestants are all quite different from each other and have all had good, well-regarded performances. The one area where this season does not stack up as well is consistency; the Season Five foursome (with the exception of Katharine) were generally quite good at producing consistently above-average songs., something that has largely eluded our current group (excepting David Cook, and even he had Innocent).

The other similarity might come from the status of the eventual “winner”, and the respective levels of post-show success. One reason for Taylor’s lack of success was because the other finalists in his season received levels of promotion that were unusual for their eventual placings. Even the Idol machine has limited resources, and some of the time and effort that went into the other contestants would have gone to the winner in other circumstances. The same thing is probably going to happen this season, though for a different reason - in all likelihood TPTB will be happy with the winner of this season, unlike Season Five.

Let’s break down what this means for most of the field, particularly post-Idol. David Cook is still better off winning than not winning, but on the other hand it’s not essential for him either. Anyone with a brain can recognize the potential gold mine in David; win or not he’ll be signed and probably have a new album out this time next year. There’s no downside to winning, however, so David should still try to win, even if it’s only icing on the cake. Being an Idol winner in itself may not be worth as much as it used to, but it still helps.

David Archuleta is in a similar situation. It’s no secret that the Idol PTB are chasing the teen/tween market that’s sold millions courtesy of Miley Cyrus. Our inner music critic has something to say about that genre in particular (nothing positive), but that’s for another day. He, too, will have his album out, though we’re much more skeptical about his long-term success.

The two people who need to win to have a good shot at a music career are Carly and Syesha. Neither are sure bets to succeed. To have any realistic chance, they need the title. Carly actually has a chance if David the Younger falters, but we can’t say the same for Syesha. Failing that, both might not even get signed post-show.

Their futures on the show may not be all that bright, but Jason and Brooke are slightly better off. Both actually have a decent shot of being signed post-Idol, though expectations there will be far more limited. They’re both unique and talented enough that with the right material, they could do surprisingly well. The ideal here would be Kellie Pickler - Small Town Girl has sold about 750,000 copies last we checked. If Kellie Pickler could do that… it’s not unreasonable to think that other contestants just as unique and even more talented can sell decently as well. Maybe not the platinum-level success that the two Davids are capable of, but success at any rate.

The Idol Power Rankings: David Cook’s successful navigation of Mariah Carey week keeps him atop this week’s charts. It’s a long way down to the next group of four - Brooke, Carly, Jason, and David Archuleta. Not much separates those four. They’re all capable of doing brilliantly, but of late they’ve been putting out some woeful performances. Kristy’s exit leaves Syesha all alone at the bottom of the rankings, with little sign of improvement.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
David Cook’s biggest problems may well be the themes, not the rest of the field. However, if a rocker can handle Mariah Carey so deftly, then Andrew Lloyd Webber and Neil Diamond shouldn’t be much of a problem.

2. David Archuleta (Last week: 3)
We’re not his biggest fans, but as things stand David Archuleta should make it to the finale. He should not rest easy, however: the rest of the field has not been at there best of late; a resurgence could easily create trouble for him.

3. Jason Castro (Last week: 4)
The good: except for Fragile Jason has delivered a string of solid-to-good performances since the top 12. The bad: up against much stronger vocals, Jason really needs to deliver an unquestioned showstopper to have a chance of getting into the finale. Over The Rainbow was too much of a hate-it-or-love-it song. In short, Jason needs a second Hallelujah.

4. Carly Smithson (Last week: 5)
Enough voters liked Without You to keep Carly out of the woods this week. However, her long-term prognosis is still bleak. She has brilliant vocals, but so far has not really delivered much of an emotional impact with them. It may be too late for her to figure out how.

5. Brooke White (Last week: 2)
Brooke’s future is on a knife edge. She’s capable of being very good, but she’s been on something of a month-long slump. It’s a classic case of shape up or ship out: a good performance now will go a long way; but anything else will get her sent home.

6. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 7)
If we’re looking for a singer capable of breaking a glass with her voice, Syesha just might be the person we’re looking for. But for singing we’d actually listen to… no.

We sentence you to: We’re tempted to find the nearest airlock and toss whoever came up with the current themes out of it. Mariah Carey, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Neil Diamond may well be the worst one-two-three combination of themes in recent Idol history. We’ve laid out why we didn’t like this theme, so let’s move on to the rest. ALW week is a dismal theme in its own right; it’s even more limited than Mariah’s material, and for what it’s worth it was meant to be recorded and performed on its own merits. In Broadway, the song is subordinate to the show; how is this going to result in good music? Neil Diamond… before our time, frankly. We don’t know what to expect, but we’re not holding our breath.

Out of town before sundown: Kristy’s been on the receiving end of the most fire from Idol pundits of all this season’s contestants, including quite a few comparisons to the unmissed Sanjaya Malakar. However, she was definitely on the upswing, and based on this episode alone she probably didn’t deserve to go home.

Analyzing Kristy’s exit has to be done in two steps. Kristy’s survival up to the point where she started getting better is an intriguing point of analysis by itself. The other half is how come she left when she was on the upswing; you can argue that she was even in the better half this week. The answer to both questions is the same: the strength of her fan base.

Early on, Kristy had a strong fan base because she was the only country singer left. Being the only singer in a genre is no guarantee of success, but it doesn’t hurt either. Once in the finals, the strength of that base was tested quickly with Beatles week, and managed to keep Kristy safe, but not out of the bottom three.

However, God Bless the USA kicked four okay-to-good performances which, considering her early form, was an achievement. It should have helped her, but it didn’t: instead she went out practically at her peak. Why could the same fanbase that kept her through Eight Days a Week not help her out after Forever?

The answer lies in the mentality of the Idol voting audience. Fundamentally, voters are more open in the early stages of the show: the semi-finals and the earliest shows of the finals. Beyond that, the fan bases have mostly hardened and it’s that much harder to win new fans over. For Kristy, this was a problem: her performances during the formative period were dreadful; and for many voters her “trademark” songs were during the Beatles weeks. She didn’t get enough credit for what she’s done lately, because the power voters had made up their minds, and she wasn’t good enough to win over that many independent voters not affiliated with any particular contestant.

Fundamentally, she handicapped herself because she left such a bad early impression. Even when she did get better, it wasn’t nearly enough to offset the earlier damage. She did win over some new voters - enough to keep her in a few weeks, but not enough to save her. This was probably as far as she could have gone - she was up against six other contestants who had mostly established their bases early on. It was a big hurdle to overcome - too big, as it turned out.

To close things out, it’s our bye-ku.

Look! A country girl!
Bad at the start, got better
But not quite enough

The theme this week, to fit in with the whole Idol Gives Back week, was supposed to be “inspirational” songs. Unfortunately, the only thing it inspired us to do was nap and put off writing this article. It was perhaps the most lifeless episode we’ve seen so far this season, with singing that ranged from the just slightly above average, a few more that were okay, but a few total trainwrecks.

There were only two good performances of the night, both of which could be classified as controversial. The version of Over the Rainbow Jason did by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole was familiar to us, though for unusual reasons: a local radio show uses it as their theme song. With that in mind, we thought this was Jason Castro at his purest - with all the strengths and weaknesses of such. On the good side, he can connect with the emotions of a song better than anyone else. However, it also showed his primary weakness: his vocals aren’t all that strong, which is probably why there’s a sizable contingent of people who out and out hated it. Still, for us it was a definite highlight of the night - and given how few of those there were we’ll take it.

The other highlight can be called controversial because of who delivered it. Yes, that makes it three straight weeks without a trainwreck - and, to be fair, this was actually a good performance, the first time we can apply that tag to her. The past two weeks may have given her an invaluable commodity: confidence. She made a good song choice, and sang it reasonably well. The only downside to the performance was the inevitable comparison to the Martina McBride original done on Idol last year by Martina herself, but Kristy did enough to avoid the karaoke comparison.

After those two, you have three performances that we’d describe as okay. Normally, we’d talk about each performance in detail, but not this week, because they were all the same in the essentials: reasonably well sung, song choice was okay - not bad, not exceptional, but okay. The key element was, however, they were all unexciting and frightfully dull. The three not even worthy of getting a long mention are: Michael, Brooke, and David Archuleta. They couldn’t even inspire us to write anything longer about them!

And so we have three people left that stayed right in the basement. Syesha… what was she thinking? No one has done well picking an Idol winner’s song. Lisa Tucker got the boot after singing Kelly Clarkson, while Lakisha managed to survive butchering both Carrie Underwood and Fantasia, but picked up two bottom three spots along the way. This was the dumbest song choice we’ve seen this season - which, considering Ramiele’s efforts in that direction, is saying something. Also, why would you even want to touch any of the winners songs with a ten-foot pole? They’re all intolerable pieces of musical rubbish that are best forgotten.

Neither David Cook nor Carly did themselves any favors song choice either. We’re not into following the themes that closely, but there is something to be said about picking an “angry” song on an “inspirational” night. Indulgent, anyone? As for David… every one is entitled to one off night. Even front-runners. Nothing about it made sense: the outfit was too over-the-top, we could barely understand what he was singing, and that gesture with the hand? That was a cheese moment worthy of the other David.

All in all, it was a very bland episode. Save for Jason and Kristy, no one really seemed to be putting their whole effort into the performances. Maybe it was because Idol Gives Back, mostly taped over the weekend, had cut into both their energy and preparation time. Either way, the word we’d describe the show is lazy. It’s almost like some realized, at the last minute, that they actually had to do a real show this week and not just Idol Gives Back. Whatever the case, it was an utterly forgettable night of music.

The new American Idol: We promised last week that we’d talk about how, in effect, the rules for Idol have changed. Traditionally, to be successful almost all Idol pundits have believed that a contestant had to be capable of singing multiple genres. This gave us priceless sounds like Fantasia trying to do Gloria Estefan and Queen, just to mention one of many combinations of theme and singer that went poorly.

That was then. However, things have changed since the early days of Idol. In many ways, in fact, the rules have changed so much, one might be tempted to say we’re in a “new” American Idol. Like many trends, however, this has been building up for quite a few seasons to come. A short history lesson would be in order.

Back in the first few seasons, Idol could be described as the Great American Karaoke Contest. To be fair, most so-called singing competitions are just that. It was hardly unique to Idol. The hallmarks of talent in such contests really favor straight power singers. Consider the much maligned Season 3. Set aside the trio of Fantasia, LaToya London, and Jennifer Hudson. The rest of the field weren’t all that varied either: Diana DeGarmo and Jasmine Trias were also in the same broad variety, albeit a slightly different flavor than what ultimately won.

As anyone with any appreciation of Idol history knows, Season Three was not exactly a stunning success. To their credit, TPTB made changes. The most important one was the age limit, which got raised from 26 to 28. The idea was probably to bring in more experienced singers to serve as a counterweight to the younger, power-note singers that had been prominent in seasons past.

The end result of that age limit - and the increasing allure of more than 25 million viewers to any musician - was, for the first time, to produce contestants that seemed to have an inkling of what they wanted to do musically. The top two was a good example of this. All season long, you knew that Carrie Underwood was a country singer; there was no mistaking that fact. Then, of course, you had Bo Bice.

Even within the confines of Idol then - which didn’t offer contestants the kind of latitude they have now - Bo Bice managed to show that he was an exceptionally well-rounded musician. Good song choices, arrangements that highlighted his strengths, and, like Carrie, you knew right off the bat what kind of musician Bo was. In a very real way, Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood both redefined what it meant to be an Idol contestant.

The trend continued into Season Five, helped out by an album by the name of Breakaway. If Bo and Carrie proved that you could be a good singer on the show, Kelly’s sophomore album showed that finalists could also break out of the Idol mold post-show and sell millions of records along the way. The end result was perhaps the most well-regarded final four in Idol history. To us, it produced two more stepping stones along the route to the New Idol. Taylor did not have the most powerful voice, but made the most of what he did have: a sense of showmanship unrivaled before (or since then) and smart song selection. Like Carrie, Chris knew exactly what direction he wanted to take, and his choice reflected that very well.

Thanks to the most inept manipulation in Idol history, Season Six was a step back in many ways. It gave us a winner who was a throwback to the old Idol: Jordin Sparks. However, it did give us one more person on the road to the New Idol: Blake Lewis. Early on, he established his style (the most important part of the new Idol). He also managed to make the themes work for him in a way that was completely unprecedented. Just like Taylor, Blake made the best of what he did have: in his case, it was a willingness to take risks that would not have worked for anyone else, but did for him.

Perhaps the best summary of the change to the new Idol regime was made at the end of the season by FORT’s dpiranha at the end of the last season.

Whether Simon and Nigel care to admit it, after the entertainingly bad auditions are over, AI is no longer treated by the viewers as a Reality TV show. It has become a legitimate singing competition, and (especially after the excellence of AI5) America is demanding a level playing field and first-rate talent every Tuesday night. Either deliver on this demand, or a rival show will deliver it for you.

In a nutshell, that’s the biggest difference between the old Idol and the new Idol. In the early days, it was easy to regard Idol as a glorified talent show, with limited chances of actually succeeding in the real world, and the voting audience reflected that. However, along the way we got people who went far and beyond the usual confines of a cheesy TV show. Once the audience had been exposed to well-rounded musicians, there was no going back.

Strategically, what this means is that the traditional requirement of being able to sing multiple genres well is now largely obsolete. Singing many genres does not help project an image of a “well-rounded” singer; instead it generally results in a confused image. Instead, what’s more important is to pick your genre or overall feel, and perform well within it. Once again, this is “musical identity” at work. This can be distilled into question: do the public know what kind of album you will release? If yes, well done, your identity is established. If no, you are in serious trouble, and a session with the prayer beads would be in order.

Let’s be clear: this is not a license to sound the same week in, week out. What is important, though, is that your progression make sense. You can’t be a soulful balladeer one week and a disco queen the next. Take David Cook: there’s no mistaking he’s a rock singer, but his arrangements are different enough from week to week that it’s interesting to listen to.

More broadly, the evolution of the old Idol to new is just Idol reflecting the real-life music industry more closely. Not everyone has a Celine/Whitney/Mariah power voice; there are plenty of singers who have sold records without having the big, booming voice that Idol has favored in the past. There’s more than path to good music; and under the new Idol rules the same is true for winning.

Of the seven remaining contestants, you can say that at least three are products of the new Idol: David Cook, Brooke White, and Jason Castro. They’ve all established what kind of music they are about. Brooke and Jason, in particular, would never have gotten far under the old rules: neither has truly powerful vocals. They’ve made their way using their uniqueness, good song selection, and emotional connection.

The prime example in this season of the new Idol, however, is David Cook. He has a good voice, but that’s not what has powered him to front-runner status from out of nowhere. His dismal performance this week aside, he’s usually able to pick good songs and arrangements week in and week out. He’s established himself as a clear, undisputed front-runner - something that eluded Chris Daughtry. David is as well-rounded a musician as any we’ve seen on the show to date.

What about the rest? Syesha is pretty old-school; she would have been perfectly at home in previous seasons. That severely limits her appeal right now, however. Carly is just plain confused; she can’t decide if she’s a rocker or not. Kristy has established her niche, but she’s hasn’t shown any particular uniqueness and creativity.

And then we come to David Archuleta. He would have been perfect on the old Idol. Good vocal talent, check. Backstory? Check. Likable? Check. If you took a robot and programmed him with what you thought was every desirable characteristic for an Idol winner, David would be it. One could call him Number Twelve and not be too far off.

However, that was the old Idol. The old rules don’t quite apply. If he had a strategy going in of using safe “message” ballads going in, it’s not working - but it’s too late to change it anyway. David may have a good-sized fanbase, but he’s not winning over new fans, which is essential to succeed - particularly with no one else (except David Cook) being particularly outstanding. David’s stuck to his genre, but too much: every ballad he does is the same, and every non-ballad is just plain bad. On talent alone, David will go far - but he’ll fall short of the finale, demonstrating that the old rules - which many pundits still believe apply - have been swept aside.

No we’re not cynical! Just… realistic: Idol Gives Back made its re-appearance this year, and we can probably say it’ll be a regular fixture for seasons to come.

We’ll give credit where credit is due. Last year, we criticized the Idol publicity machine for patting itself on the back a little too much and not giving enough credit where it was due. To be fair, they have done a much better job of directly crediting the viewers at home, who deserve most of the credit for the success of IGB. Also, pre-empting the grumbling that was bound to come in, a separate foundation has also been set up, something that, as far as we know, did not happen last year. This means that, like every other reputable charity in America, IGB will have to have transparency in its finances, as mandated by US law. Well done on both counts.

Normally, we don’t get partisan here. Good singing, after all, is neither liberal nor conservative. Unfortunately, though, “giving back” is not as simple as one would think. We will get a bit… political here. We’re bringing out the soapbox. If this offends you, scroll down, and we’ll pretend this never existed. However, if you want to know why we’ve been uneasy with the concept from the beginning, read on.

Idol Gives Back doesn’t really undertake any independent projects on its own. Instead, it donates money to other reputable charities. Idol lists all of these charities on their website. The main beneficiaries, as far as international giving is concerned, are The Global Fund and Malaria No More.

What’s missing? One word: corruption. Africa undoubtedly suffers from diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, but next to bad government it’s chicken feed. Most of Africa is ruled by governments that are either inept, corrupt, or both. Bad governance is an even bigger problem than any disease in Africa, but how much is Idol spending for this? Nothing, as far as we can tell. Not one cent.

If you don’t believe us, look at the numbers. In 2004, the African Union estimated that losses from corruption totaled $148 billion. That’s not since some arbitrary date - that is an annual number. Let’s put that in context. All government-sponsored aid to Africa from the thirty members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), made up almost exclusively of the world’s richest countries, totaled $43.4 billion in 2006. Aid from private sources in the United States came to $33.5 billion in 2005 - and that’s for the whole world, not just Africa. No matter how you slice it, all the charity money in the world can’t make up for what’s being lost to bad governance. Yet how much is going to stop corruption. Nothing. Nada. Zero.

Of course, IGB is hardly alone in this. There are no rock stars saying we must “end corruption now”. All of the attention - and most of the money - is going to the highly visible problems. Why? The answer takes us to the heart of what is wrong with the giving in the world today.

To raise money, charities today play on the emotions of would-be donors. We’ve all seen the videos of suffering this week, and who wouldn’t be moved to act? By itself, this isn’t a bad thing at all. There’s no doubt that there are serious problems with poverty and disease around the world; awareness is the first step towards solving the problem.

However, sooner or later logic has to be brought in. Resources are limited: there’s only so much money, personnel, and time to go around. Without logic, the allocation of resources depends on emotional reaction, which results in inefficiency. Yes, people are helped, but not as many as could be ideal. Yet that’s exactly where we are in charity giving: the most successful charities are those capable of engaging the public. For example, Bono has been very successful in highlighting African poverty, and as such aid money to Africa has increased, paying particular attention to AIDS. Other foundations have done the same for other diseases like malaria.

The obvious, instinctive, reaction to seeing suffering is simple: how can we help? And that’s fine. However, someone has to ask the question - why are they suffering in the first place? The answers are usually even more depressing than the actual problem. It could be because the money supposed to pay for basic health care paid for kickbacks and bribes to some government bureaucrat, ending up in some Swiss bank account. It could be because the head of the local hospital isn’t so much a good doctor, but more the relative of a powerful politician. It could be because the health minister is in denial about what causes AIDS in the first place. In far too many cases, the deeper causes can all be blamed on bad governance.

We’re not saying that spending money to fight disease in Africa is bad, or that people who give money to such causes are wasting their money. All we’re saying is when you’ve got more than $100 million to give away - as IGB probably will - would it really hurt to give some money to trying to fix the underlying problem? Otherwise, chances are we’d still be raising money for Africa 50 years from now. Now that would be a real tragedy.

We get letters: We asked for letters, and we got them. Keep sending them in, though: we’ll be more than happy to answer them all season long. First question is Cathy, via e-mail. She asks:

First: why does everyone treat Archie’s “Imagine” as so spectacular when it is one of the songs he sang on Star Search, and I’m sure many other times, so he, at least, was very familiar with at least one Beatles tune.

Secondly, I read that Brooke had previously put out an Indie album, but no mention of that or accusations of “plant”.

Easy one first. Yes, Brooke did put out an independent album, but that’s not terribly unusual anymore. Many previous contestants have had indie albums released, or deals with some minor label, or some other behavior that, if you think about it, rules them out as pure amateurs. This is nothing new, and it doesn’t bother us at all. The only reason that the “plant” noise has been louder this year is you do have, for the first time, contestants that were signed to major record labels: Carly to MCA, Michael to Maverick. That still doesn’t bother us, but it is different from what’s happened before.

Now, David Archuleta’s Imagine. The bit about him doing it on Star Search is news to us, but had people known about that we doubt it would have changed any minds. David is probably not the first Idol contestant to pick a familiar song; Carly has admitted to doing just that this season. We’re not bothered by this revelation either: if a singer is already familiar with a song, and picks it so he can focus on other parts of his performance, good luck to him.

The question you can ask about that song is: several weeks after first hearing it, does it sound as good now as it did then? In short, has it stood the test of time? To be honest, we’re not sure. The vocals are as good now as they were then, but the song selection… not so much. Maybe because it was the first of the safe “message” songs that he’s chosen since then, but whatever the reason the whole performance does not seem as natural now as it did then.

By PM, famita asks:

who is your favorite contestant for all seasons?

Keep in mind, this takes into consideration what she’s done post-Idol, not just the show itself: Carrie Underwood. Clichéd answer? Maybe, but it’s the truth.

The Idol Power Rankings: Courtesy of Carly’s second bottom three stint and and Michael Johns’s exit the charts got a good shakeout this week. Here go the rankings:

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
David should look at this week as a test of his fanbase. With a performance as bad as his was this week, his fan base is strong enough to keep him out of serious trouble. Next test: Mariah Carey week. This could get interesting real soon for David.

2. Brooke White (Last week: 3)
She moves up the chart largely because Carly stumbled pretty badly, we remain skeptical about David Archuleta, and Jason Castro’s vocals are too weak. However, of late she’s turned in a series of competent, but not outstanding, performances. We thought her bottom three stint would energize her, but it didn’t. Like David, Mariah week will be interesting for her.

3. David Archuleta (Last week: 5)
This is the highest we’ve ever had David up, but like Brooke it’s more because of our doubts about the rest. The theme should help him, but can he win over new fans?

4. Jason Castro (Last week: 6)
Over the Rainbow was just the shot in the arm Jason needed. However, the question for Jason is: what’s the next step? With vote-splitting with Brooke likely to come into play, a good followup would be useful - something Jason has struggled with before.

5. Carly Smithson (Last week: 2)
Carly should be worried. Very worried. Her fanbase knew she was in trouble, presumably voted like mad, but not strong enough to keep her out of trouble. This is not the sign of an Idol winner.

6. Kristy Lee Cook (Last week: 8 )
Kristy is still in the basement, but things aren’t as bleak as they were last week. If she can put together another Anyway-caliber performance and those in front of her stumble, given the known strength of the country voting block, she can go a lot further than most people suspect.

7. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 7)
Just when we thought she was no longer Screamesha, she takes on Fantasia. Oh joy. If she actually wins this whole thing, we’ll eat our shoe.

Frak, frak, frak!: One could hear the screams of anguish and howls of outrage from the Idol pundit class as Michael Johns was announced as this week’s boot. These were also punctuated with claims of rigging, cries of how Idol has jumped the shark, and promises never to watch the show again. We wish we could say this surprised us, but it didn’t.

Here’s the reality check. There’s frequently a “surprising” boot right around this time. The two good examples are Nadia Turner and Mandisa, who left at Top 8 and Top 9, respectively. The reaction back then was pretty similar too, but just as unneeded: there were good reasons for their exits, just as there are now for Michael.

Michael’s key failing was simple: he never established a clear musical identity. Yes, he was a good singer, but what kind of musical direction would he take post-Idol? Michael was a good singer, yes, but that’s not enough anymore. More than singing well, he had to sing uniquely, and he never did. Instead, he had a tendency to turn songs into flavorless, generic songs that weren’t bad, but couldn’t be described as memorable. There was nothing in his performances that could make you point and say “that’s Michael, right there.”

Even when Michael was good, he showed little artistic continuity. Consider his last two performances: the Queen medley two weeks ago, and his blues-ed up Dolly Parton song last week. Both good, but one would be hardly pressed to recognize them as coming from the same singer. Michael failed to appreciate that the rules are different: it’s no longer enough to just sing well in a given week. Michael was good, but not good enough to get votes just for sheer talent (the way Melinda did) and not unique enough to rally many people to his side. Michael’s fanbase was frightfully weak: and when Kristy upped her game enough to put herself out of danger, Michael didn’t have a safety cushion any more. Case closed.

And now, time for the bye-ku.

Too little too late
Queen? Yes. Everything else? Nope.
Back to the outback

We have to admit that we approached this week with trepidation. Country weeks on Idol have not always turned out well, and news that the song choices would be limited to Dolly Parton songs did little to improve our expectations. Of course, all we knew about Dolly was she had big hair and an even bigger chest.

We also knew that there would be one thing certain about the show itself: all of us at home would be treated to the spectacle of an even crabbier than usual Simon Cowell. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Simon understands country music about as well as we understand hormone-driven teenagers. Which, if it’s not obvious, we don’t.

It was something of a strange night for us. On average, the top 9 did quite well. There weren’t any Alone or Eight Days a Week-level disasters, but at the same time there weren’t any real standouts either. That’s not to say there weren’t good, high-quality performances. However, if the average performance level is fairly high - as it was this week - you have to be that much better to really stand out, but no one did so for us. To add to the strangeness factor, we saw very little new stuff from the contestants - style-wise, it seemed to be mostly rehashes.

Let’s take down everyone in performance order. For once, Randy was right - Brooke’s Jolene was an “a’ight” performance. It didn’t deserve the flak it got from Simon, but we can attribute that to his overall crankiness on country-themed nights. Still, it was an average performance from Brooke, but we have higher expectations from her. Given her bad performance on Beatles week redux and a mixed verdict last week, a bottom three stint was not all that unexpected.

Next up, David Cook served up one of the better performances of the night. He adapted well to theme, picking a song and arrangement that stayed true to both the theme and his own background. If anything, the criticism should be aimed at… Simon. What he’s forgotten is that you don’t always take lyrics literally. Sparrows were a metaphor.

Ramiele sung better than she has in previous weeks, but that’s not saying much. The theme just didn’t suit her at all, and even if it was well sung it didn’t feel natural at all. Compared to what we’ve seen from her it was good, but in the big picture it wasn’t exceptional.

Jason’s version of Travelin’ Thru was better than what we’ve seen from him lately, but there was also nothing terribly novel in it either. He connected reasonably well with the song, but again in some spots the vocals were off. In one performance, Jason summarized himself. That’s not a compliment.

Carly went somewhat against type and didn’t try to overpower a song. We actually like this subtler side of Carly; with a voice as powerful as hers she can overdo things, as she did last week. The song showed off her power, without overdoing it and sounding like she was always shouting. This was one of the best performances of the night, and one of Carly’s better ones in the past few weeks as well.

David Archuleta went right back to the ballads this week, with the usual good results. When he’s on top form - as he was this week - David is as good as anyone else. David’s vocals this week were impeccable. However, there was a “we’ve seen this before” element to this. This was the very definition of “safe”. Like Jason, David summarized himself with one song. And it’s not a complement here, either.

Like David, Kristy was right in the middle of her comfort zone. Good song choice, if, once again, safe. That said, it wasn’t really all that good, either. Because it was her “wheelhouse”, as Randy said, she stepped up her game. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. It was better than what we’ve heard from her before, but it would be a stretch to call it good. Fair would be the word we’d use.

In a night of predictable and safe performances, it couldn’t get any worse than I Will Always Love You for Syesha. It would have been interesting if she had stayed with the slower, subtler arrangement, but keeping Syesha from her gratuitous glory notes is about as hard as making a drunk sailor spend his money wisely. (That might be a little unfair - for the sailor.) Reality check: Syesha, you are not Whitney Houston, American Idol is not won by holding a note longer than anyone else, and that song choice was indulgent with a capital I. We’d use even stronger language, but FORT is not Showtime and we’re not Penn Jillette.

As for Michael Johns, a lot of comments have said this was the showstopper of the night. We give him credit: unlike most of the other contestants, this wasn’t a rehash. That said, this was good, but not great. There may really be a gender gap at work here: the Idol audience is known to skew female, and if Kristy’s song choice was pandering to patriotism, Michael’s song choice was pandering to, well, more primal emotions. If you know what I’m talking about. For those of us not in the target audience, we could look at it more objectively. Good vocals, excellent presence, but not quite the exceptional song it’s been made out elsewhere.

Means, not an end: One poster, brierpatch made what we thought was an interesting point about Brooke after this week’s show. Here it is, in full:

The main problem I had with Brooke last night was the guitar - she’s adequate on the guitar, but not great. She doesn’t look comfortable when she’s playing the guitar like she does when she plays the piano, and seems to be thinking so hard about the chords that her vocals suffer a bit.

Simon used the busking word for Jason last week, and Brooke this week when they strummed the guitar while singing, and I’d agree with him. For Brooke the guitar seems like something to do with her hands rather than an integral part of the song backup. Brooke IS good at the piano, and she should play that on occasion, but pack up the guitar for the rest of the competition.

This actually brings up a good point. The biggest rule change has been allowing contestants to use instruments. However, only three people have made significant use of it: Brooke, Jason, and David Cook.

Let’s step back for a moment to look at the bigger picture. Why don’t more singers use instruments in their performances? The answer: by itself, singing on stage is not easy; adding an instrument makes things even harder. Even among professional musicians, the vast majority of solo acts or band frontmen don’t play instruments for most of their songs, if they play at all.

So if instrument use while singing is that rare outside of Idol, why is it more common within it? It boils down to one of the traditional commands of Idol: diversity, diversity, diversity.

Traditionally, contestants have been told that to go far into the competition they needed to be able to “show diversity”, i.e. be capable of singing different genres. That’s something we’ll talk about in detail next week. For now, though, what’s important to know is that that rule has changed. You don’t necessarily need to sing in multiple genres to succeed anymore.

If you’re not singing in different genres, then it becomes more important - and difficult - not to give the same performance every week. This is where the instruments come in.

More than ever, it’s the overall performance that is being judged. The actual singing is a key part, of course, but it’s not the only part. It has to be a “convincing” performance. Song choice, vocal, visuals, emotional impact - they all have to be working in tandem.

That’s where the instruments come in. Let’s not kid ourselves: the instruments aren’t being brought in because the band doesn’t have a good guitarist, piano player, etcetera. What they do, however, is help set the mood for the performance.

The one person who does this the most is Brooke: when she wants a more “folk” sound, the guitar comes out. Jolene and You’re So Vain both fit this mold. When she wants a more “serious” feel, the piano makes it’s appearance: look at Let It Be and Every Breath You Take.

For David, it’s less important, because he relies on his arrangements to do that, but the instruments seal the deal, presentation-wise. That’s not to say he doesn’t do it - Little Sparrow showed that perfectly. The arrangement had to suit the theme, and David could have done that without the guitar. However, the guitar helped set the mood of his song, and turned what could have been just a slightly above average song into a more complete, well-rounded performance.

As for Jason, he does it for a slightly different reason. His key to success is connecting emotionally with the audience at home. Wittingly or unwittingly, that’s what he does with both his guitar and the arrangements: usually, his performances have the feel of someone singing to a small audience, not a concert hall seating thousands or millions watching at home.

So what advice can we give to the three people using instruments? David doesn’t need any advice; he’s using the guitar perfectly for his own strategy. Jason’s problems go far beyond just his guitar usage, but that’s for another day and column.

As for Brooke… well, her bottom three place this week really should be a wake-up call. We happened to like her last week, but most people didn’t, and she has not really been at her best form for the past few weeks. As far as her instruments use are concerned, she needs to mix it up a little. You want some predictability on Idol, but Brooke is going a little too far. She might want to try faster, less serious songs with the piano and going the other way with the guitar. There’s a reason we recommended something from the Vonda Shepard songbook for Brooke last week - she’s proof you can go uptempo, and be less “serious”, with a piano.

How much is too much?: All Idol fans have sat through the torture we call audition weeks, when we get treated to four hours of the judges, Ryan, and terrible singing. Idol Gives Back week, though, is shaping up to be another endurance test: thanks to IGB and the bloated results show, we’re up for four and a half hours of viewing next week. Ouch. To make matters worse, we’re getting the “inspirational songs” theme again; by himself David Archuleta will produce enough cheese to make the combined population of the United States, Canada, and Mexico all lactose intolerant. Double ouch.

However, in the finest tradition of optimists everywhere, let’s make lemonade out of lemons. Because he result show has been pushed to Thursday, we have one more week to put this column together. Add to that the fact that we are now gainfully unemployed, and we find ourselves with plenty of free time. So, here’s an offer: ask us anything Idol-related, and we will do our best to answer them. How do you get your questions in? Three ways. You can post a reply in this thread, drop us a PM, or you can send us an e-mail at: theidolguy@gmail.com.

So, if you or any of your friends have any questions that are Idol-related, and you want to see our take on it, send us a question. Please. If you do, we’ll send you some Idol Guy swag. Uh, wait, we don’t have any. We’ll figure something out. Anyway: Send. Those. Questions!

The Idol Power Rankings: Brooke’s bottom three stint is enough to drop her one spot, but there isn’t much change in the rankings. David Cook is still far ahead of the rest of the field, but the rest of the field is now very close together.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
The oddsmakers have the wrong David as the frontrunner. So long as David Cook keeps up his steady stream of quality performances, he’ll keep the top spot.

2. Carly Smithson (Last week: 3)
Carly seems to have shook off her bottom three stint a while back and is back to top form. Now she can turn her attention to building a fanbase and establishing herself artistically.

3. Brooke White (Last week: 2)
Brooke’s been coasting lately, but the bottom three stint should wake both her and her fanbase up - and keep her safe for a while. A top four spot is still possible, but Brooke needs to up her game.

4. Michael Johns (Last week: 4)
The good: Queen wasn’t a fluke. The bad: Everyone else has had a few weeks to start building large fanbases. Michael has some catching up to do, but it’s not impossible.

5. David Archuleta (Last week: 5)
Like clockwork, David followed up his non-ballad song with a ballad this week. With only one exception, David’s always alternated ballads and non-ballads. David has yet to convince us he’s good enough to move up on the chart.

6. Jason Castro (Last week: 6)
Jason bounced back from Fragile, but he’s still looks vulnerable. Vote-splitting with Brooke may come into play; Jason’s margin of error is getting narrower by the week.

7. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 9)
Syesha reminded us this week that she is not Whitney, but managed not to turn it into a complete disaster. However, she is still on life support.

8. Kristy Lee Cook (Last week: 8 )
Kristy was okay this week, but not really good enough to overtake the real talent left. Still, if someone higher up makes a serious mistake, she’s close enough that she might be able to survive. Maybe.

About damn time: The wonder about Ramiele isn’t how she got booted; it’s how she made it this far. Her best performance was back in the top 24. That might as well be ancient history.

Ramiele’s secret was her ability to build a fanatical fanbase. She wasn’t splitting votes with anyone else, she was likable, she (usually) wasn’t the worst of the night - all these factors gave her a sizable fanbase her overall performance may not have fully deserved. On Idol, however, even a determined group of fanatics can only do so much in the face of so many successive bad performances.

The real question is where it all went horribly wrong for Ramiele. It wasn’t the vocals; hers were actually pretty good, if untrained. So what did she do wrong? Simple: song choice, song choice, song choice. Hers ranged from the overambitious (Alone, Against All Odds) to the strange (I Should Have Known Better, Do I Ever Cross Your Mind).

Could Ramiele have done better? Maybe, but without knowing more behind-the-scenes information we can’t be sure. Terrible as her choices were, with the limited selection available there may not have been any other alternatives. Better arrangements might have helped, but those would only have gone so far and required the musical intelligence and experience Ramiele didn’t have.

And now, a new feature for our weekly articles. We introduce: the American Idol Bye-ku! (We claim no originality; the bye-ku was first invented by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal for failed presidential candidates.) Each week, we say goodbye to the eliminated contestants in 17 syllables of poetry. Here is Ramiele’s.

Shorter than Seacrest
Song choice? Terrible. Dreadful.
Malubay, bye bye.