There is – and isn’t – a pecking order for the girls this year. There are two – Crystal and Siobhan – are pretty good. The rest of the field, though… it’s quite up for grabs. Some who were good one week can stink the next – and vice versa. That was clear from this week’s episode.
Has there ever been a Chosen One that faster and harder than Katie Stevens? It’s hard to imagine, really. Breakaway felt like an amateurish song right out from a karaoke joint. It wasn’t even all that well sung. Granted, the Idol audience will always judge contestants who sing Kelly Clarkson songs harshly, but this was mediocre at best, and awful at worst.
Siobhan Magnus just doesn’t know how to pick safe songs, does she? Just like last week, this was a big gamble that worked, but only just. I’m not sure House of the Rising Sun lends itself well to being cut as drastically as Idol songs are. (After all, the Santa Esmeralda version on the Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack weighs in at over 10 minutes long.) (See ETA at the end.) Maybe because of that, it lacked the special flavor that makes a good song into a truly great one. Give Siobhan all the credit in the world though: she’s such a good singer and performer that even with suboptimal song choices, she can still sing the pants off just about everyone in this field.
Our reaction to Lacey Brown – where on earth did THAT come from? If she’d pulled off something that good earlier in the season, maybe the entire Idolsphere would have given her a little more credit. The song choice was spot-on, the performance felt quite natural… and the vocals weren’t the problem they’ve been in other weeks. Very… interesting performance from Lacey right there.
Katelyn Epperly impressed us last week. This week… no. Not a chance. It wasn’t poorly sung, but it was dull. The range of the song was a little limited, and while Katelyn has good vocals because of that limited range she didn’t really get to show it off. It was just there, and on the other side of things Katelyn is only a so-so performer. Accordingly, it was thoroughly so-so.
Didi Benami went back to what works well: subtlety and control. It worked absolutely beautifully for her. Given the right material, Didi can do remarkably well. The husky accent she has when singing makes her stand out – the comparisons to Dolores O’Riordan are interesting, and there’s definitely basis for that. Just for that… I’d like to see her go far.
It wouldn’t be a semifinal episode without a trainwreck. Paige Miles turned in one. The vocals were all over the place, and even if Paige had sung it well it was still an awful song choice. Terrible all around.
At least Crystal Bowersox was able to wash away memories of that performance with another top-notch performance. The combination of confidence, artistic self-awareness, and vocal ability that Crystal has is… scary. The fact that she’s doing it this early in the season is even worse. Very few people start off this well; the last example I’d cite would be David Cook. Before that, I’d cite Melinda Doolittle. That is some excellent company to be in.
Maybe if Lilly Scott had sung earlier in the night it would have sounded better. Unfortunately, others had done the slow, folksy, quirky sound better earlier in the night. It wasn’t bad, mind you, and the song did suit her quite well. It’s just that it was a safe pick – too safe, in our opinion – and was no more than okay. Others had stepped up to the game and Lilly did not come out on top.
Here’s how we rank the girls:
- Crystal Bowersox
- Didi Benami
- Siobhan Magnus
- Lacey Brown
- Lilly Scott
- Katelyn Epperly
- Katie Stevens
- Paige Miles
It could get ugly: Tempting as it is, you can’t call the next boots just based on the last performance. Idol voters do recognize that there is a fairly large difference between making the top 12 and coming up even one episode short. Overall performance since the season began will be more important than usual this week.
The easy boot to call: Paige Miles. She is just not singing well enough. Everyone else (save Katie) has had their moments to shine, and Paige hasn’t. Period. Throw in her lack of pre-semis publicity and you can see that Paige had very little room to make mistakes even before this week. She had to nail her song out of the park to have a chance of succeeding. Instead, she struck out.
The other girl to go home, though…. that’s harder to call. Before this week, Didi and Lacey would have been fighting for this spot, but they both did quite well this time around. Is it enough to make audiences forget the previous two weeks?
What about the pair who sort of disappointed people this week – Lilly Scott and Katelyn Epperly? In theory, they should have done well enough to qualify for the finals, but given so-so performances it’s not out of the question for someone to overtake them.
Katie also has to be figured into the mix. The hype machine that built her up before a single note was sung live before America is running on fumes now, but it would be unwise to totally discount it. Stranger things have happened.
To us, the weakest in this group appear to be Katelyn and Katie. Katie has probably lost a good-sized chunk of fans since the season began; I’m not sure the kinds of songs Katelyn did before would really win over Idol voters. Neither helped their cause today either. (Some would ask: why not Lacey Brown? My reasoning is this: she has some sort of fanbase which was enough to protect her from two bad weeks. This week’s performance is sure to drive them to overdrive. It should do to keep her safe.)
It’s a coinflip between the two, but I’ll call it against Katie. Why? If Katie had not had favorite status entering into the semis, this wouldn’t be close. Katelyn has sung better every week so far. Katie has yet to deliver one really good song. Three weeks is enough for the pre-show hype to get out of the way and reality to set in. Katie Stevens is a decent semifinalist, but finals material? I don’t buy it. I said back in the top 24 that I would not be surprised if one of the pre-show favorites (Andrew Garcia and Katie) would not make it. That prediction is looking very good.
TIG picks to go home: Paige Miles and Katie Stevens to go home.
ETA: Thanks to Mary for pointing out a brainfart on my part: House of the Rising Sun was not on the Kill Bill soundtrack. Still, the point holds: the Santa Esmeralda version of HotRS is even longer, and I still don’t think it lends itself to easy chopping.)
You’re thinking of another Animals song, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” that Santa Esmerelda covered and was on the Kill Bill soundtrack.
It seems that people are universal in calling this Paige and Katie’s week to depart. The final round of semi-final eliminations tend to be on the mark, at least as far as I’m concerned, so I hope America agrees. I was particularly worried about Katelyn…she certainly deserves to be in the top 12 and the picked a horrible time to have her worst performance. Unfortunately her performance wasn’t horrible enough to scare her fans into voting for her and she was right in the middle of the hour – I just hope that she generated enough goodwill the past couple weeks to save herself.
It’s Crystal alright. She’s the best among the girls.