Coming into the results show there was only one sure thing: whatever happened, outrage and wails of “he/she wuz ROBBED!” would result. And so it was with Joshua Ledet leaving Idol stage this week.
Joshua had a lot of positives – if you make it to the top three of any Idol season, you’re doing something right. Joshua may well have been the best Idol contestant of this particular type – the big-voiced male contestant with strong R&B leanings. He may well have had the biggest male voice in many, many years of American Idol. He does what he wants to do supremely well, as we saw just last week with his James Brown song.
But for all his talent, there are good reasons why he didn’t reach the top three despite Jessica having an off night. One Joshua couldn’t do anything about. More than Jessica, and maybe even more than Phillip, Joshua’s brand of music is very much an acquired taste. When he brings out all the tools at his disposal, the results can sound off to people who may not be particularly fond of his style. See Imagine this week and You Raise Me Up last week. His voting base may not have been all that strong, certainly not against two strong fanbases in Phillip and Jessica. (His patently retro style did not help, either.)
What definitely did not help was all the constant overpraising that was far, far, far exceeded anything we have seen on Idol before. Joshua was good, but not “best singer in decades” good. All it did was annoy other fanbases (and inspire them to vote hard), cause an oh-god-not-this-again reaction from more casual viewers, and expose the judges for being utter idiots. None of those were good for his chances.
Ultimately, though, none of the things that led to Joshua’s exit were his fault. He sang well, his song choices were not terrible, and he kept to his artistic roots. He made a few missteps, but none of his mistakes were all that threatening to his Idol tenure. I’m not sure anything he did would have changed things. He got caught between two rabid fanbases, and there’s not much someone can do about that.
Boys versus Girls, too?.
From the pure point of view of the season’s “storyline”, this had to be the most appealing scenario. Think about it. (Read this and the next paragraph the way, say, Ryan Seacrest would.) Jessica, torch-bearer of what was argued as a field of women decidedly better than the men. The last female standing, with golden pipes worthy of big-noted divas like Mariah, Celine, and Whitney. Singing since she was a little child, she’s now on the brink of achieving her dreams.
On the other hand, Phillip. Heir to the WGWG mantle, displaying persistence in the face of injury, doing his own thing stylistically – and being praised for it. He has been a juggernaut, not ending up in the bottom two or three at all this season.
It’s as powerful a contrast of two contestants as you could find this year, especially so if one recalls last year’s Country Idol finale. This should be a better finale than that one, and we shouldn’t see a ratings dip from this week to next (like you had for last year’s performance show.)
I’ve been saying for a while that Phillip is the prohibitive favorite to win. I stand by that statement. For top 2 voting, how well they sing is basically irrelevant. The fanbases are locked in and will vote like mad. Can Jessica win? Sure, but it’s a hard path to win. The theme will not help: it’ll be a reprise song, a Simon Fuller pick, and their single (if they win). None of those are likely to produce an all-time performance from Jessica.
If her fans are looking for some reason to believe she will win, here’s this. Nigel Lythgoe basically confirmed something that I’d suspected earlier: the voting this year is very tight.
RT @akrands: @dizzyfeet did jessica and phillip dominate the votes each week!?[NO IT HAS CHANGED WEEK ON WEEK, JOSH, SKYLAR, COLTON, ELISE!]
— Nigel Lythgoe (@dizzyfeet) May 18, 2012
So this year’s vote totals are higher overall, but relatively close together – meaning Jessica has less relative catching up to do. It may be that it’ll end up a case of “too little, too much” for Jessica. Still, it should be interesting to watch and see how the finale turns out. If Jessica can pull out the win, it’ll be the most remarkable run in the history of American Idol.
The Fourth Epoch: What Is It?
Let me shamelessly plug my upcoming end-of-season editorial. Idol history tends to run in three-year epochs. Each epoch tends to have, as you’d expect, a distinct flavor of its own, both good and bad – but a recognizable one. Season 11 represents the midpoint of the Fourth Epoch, so by now we should know what kind of time we’re in – which is what I’ll talk about, and what it means for the future of Idol.
First, I would like to know why Phillip has not been in any of the Ford commercials? I hope he has a good reason because if not, it appears as though he thinks he is too good to film them…..another of his laid back, I don’t care attitude. How can an American Idol have absolutely no range at all unless tweens and teens only want to vote for the “Hot Guys”
I have absolutely no respect for these judges and am really sad to hear that Jennifer Lopez is coming back next year. As stated before these judges just seem to call in their vote and pick up their enormous paychecks….for what….to make sure they don’t hurt anyone’s feelings? Bah humbug
That was really rude. Go check out TMZ and read up on Phillips health issues.
Someone’s a little sensitive. And TMZ? Really?
I know Philip has been faced with some kidney stone issues but seriously, this is not American Idol material. For him to forgoe his duties on more than half of the ads is really lame. Add to that the utter mass of suck that has followed him around half the season and everything the original comment referred to was correct.
He is on medical restriction by his Doctor. He has a stint in his kidneys. Very painful especially when he moves.
It has been mentioned several times that Phillip has kidney problems – so maybe he just needed that time to rest. Why would anyone even assume the worst of him? He has never come across like he is too good for anything – he is a humble and gracious guy and an awesome singer!
Not so much that we assume the worst from but objectively, his Top 8 to Top 5 game was a mess. And I feel for whomever was eliminated instead of him that week. Nice guy? Sure. But based on his whole run, the likes of Colton, Elise, Skylar, Hollie and Joshua should’ve been in his place. Why he suddenly stopped cruising and upped his game the past two weeks makes me wonder: Was it all some elaborate ruse to hold back and then bring his guns at crunch time?
I don’t think that’s necessarily the case – I think it’s more that it wasn’t until these past two weeks that they (Idol voice/music coaches) really figured out how to get the most out of Phillip.
I don’t get it: so TPTB finally figured him out and gave him the pimping and all that jazz: the best song choices, arrangements and whatnot? Why do that now when he had been underperforming for about a month now?
Thank you Idol guy!
I think his improvement is mostly hype–take out “Volcano” and I don’t know that there’s been much difference. But it’s helped Phillip in particular that the themes have gotten less restrictive. No more “Fat Bottomed Girls.”
Did you see Philip diss the lady from the Ice Age clip as they were leaving? Not sure if that is what we are looking for an Idol in America.
I thought Joshua was the cream of this year’s crop, but it’s unclear if there’s any path to victory for a male in the current era of Idol other than 1) playing a musical instrument, which automatically spells “artist” to the judges and a certain segment of the voters; or 2) being a country singer. Some people might think Josh should have tried to be more current, but the recent songs that fit his vocal sensibility are few and far between. At any rate, he’s going to get signed, so his “loss” doesn’t hurt as much.
I agree that it’s going to be hard for Phillip and Jessica to show us something new next week, with one repeat song and the sure-to-be-terrible coronation song. My advice to Jessica would be to avoid either the Whitney or the “And I Am Telling You…” for her reprise, since the coronation song and probably Simon Fuller’s song also will be in that same boring vein. I would advise her to go with “Sweet Dreams,” which Jessica did do as a ballad, but has the dual advantages of being a recent hit and not being a diva song. Likewise, Phillip might want to avoid going back to “Volcano,” which was just 2 weeks ago, and revisit “Still Rainin’” instead, which would lend next Tuesday a sure to be welcome jolt of rock energy.
Phillip is certainly the favorite. But while you can’t ignore that Jessica was voted out once already, ever since being saved, she has been just as bullletproof as Phil. I’m not sure how she had a weak enough fanbase to get temporarily tossed from the show 5 weeks ago, and gain fans from there despite occasional so-so performances (she hasn’t had Haley’s run, that’s for sure) and intermittent criticism from the hear-no-evil panel, but she’s been able to do just that. Phillip being the favorite is really based on his not needing to be saved, and the perception that he’s the type that always wins this thing. But there’s not much evidence that’s both recent and objective to indicate he’s actually stronger in the voting than Jessica.
I’ll be rooting for the girl next week, but making my bets the other way.
Interesting suggestion about Sweet Dreams… and I’ll take it a step further…
Since Jessica did the ballad-ized Sweet Dreams during her run on the live shows, in the finale she should do the original uptempo version. Kris Allen scored with strategy – for his Aint No Sunshine reprise he changed the instrument (from keyboard/organ to piano) and went with a slightly more tender arrangment.