I like being right as much as any other analyst/pundit, so allow me to do the Happy Dance at calling Group 2 perfectly. It might well be the only chance I get to do it, given how unpredictable this season is likely to end up being.

Just like last week we’ll do Winners and Losers.

Winners

Kris Allen: If there was one surprise of the group, Allen was it. Few would have thought he would have secured a slot in the top 12 with the kind of performance – and while in most nights it wouldn’t, in the midst of so many unimpressive and disappointing performances it was.

Allen was a little lucky, but the reality is luck plays a part on Idol. If Allen is a smart guy, he should take this golden opportunity and run with it. If there’s anyone who can take the underdog-who-got-much-better role this year, Allen appears to be it.

Allison Iraheta: Iraheta was also relatively unknown before this week, and her version of Alone came in for high praise from a lot of quarters. I wasn’t as impressed by it as most, though. However, she’s impressed a lot of people which will help her build the fanbase she needs to last into the competition. Given how little pre-show publicity she received, she needs it. Still, her distinctive looks, good performance ability, and decent enough voice should put her in good stead to last long.

Losers

Meghan Corkrey – Was there a bigger disappointment on Wednesday night? As I said after the performances, Put Your Record On is a classic trap song. It’s to her credit that it wasn’t a complete train wreck – she has a wonderfully unique, maybe even quirky voice – but she needed to be smarter about song choice.

Factoid of the week: Put Your Record On has now been sung twice and ended up not advancing its singer both times. I wish it was unique in that, but no. There are at least a few other songs in the same category. The worst offender in that list, though: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which has been done four times and never advanced anyone, with only one wildcard callback. (The singer called back didn’t advance past the wildcard, either.)

Adam Lambert: I seem to be establishing a trend here. For the second week in a row, the top pick of the guys has ended up in the losers side of the aisle. That’s not normal, is it?

Well, there’s a reason for this. Going into the semifinals, both Lambert and Danny Gokey were both regarded as favorites and frontrunners. In both cases, however, there’s now a large “yes, they can sing, but…” attached to both of them. With Lambert, it’s his overall performance style that could hurt him. He’s not a bad singer at all, but his style is so divisive that he might not go as far as people think. Forget the “he could win” lines I’m seeing – he won’t. Taylor Hicks notwithstanding, you cannot win with the kind of mixed reviews Lambert got, and probably will get in weeks to come. He’s a candidate for the “favorite that goes too soon, many say” spot.

Kara DioGuardi and Paula Abdul: As I said: the whole Paula-Kara spot has taken on a life of its own, and didn’t things look… just a wee bit awkward? It was almost like there was this huge, transparent wall between them. Whatever the case, it made for some awkward TV. Had this happened any other week, it would have been written about everywhere – but with the ghastly shows this week it didn’t get any, with so much else to write about.

Pre-season predictions: There’s a good reason I haven’t speculated much on who’ll do well in the semifinal rounds before the actual group rounds. There just isn’t enough information. Youtube clips, a brief audition, soundbites from Hollywood… I’d rather wait for someone to sing “in anger” before making any judgments.

There’s also the big issue of looking like a giant idiot when predictions turn out to horribly, horribly wrong. Look at what happened to all the predictions that Jasmine Murray and Matt Giraud would do well. Instead, they both occupy the Sanjaya Zone -  our own version of a hall of shame.

Tags: Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta, Kara DioGuardi, Kris Allen, Megan Corkrey, Paula Abdul, Results

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 2:57 am and is filed under Season Eight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.