Historically, the first actual competition night of Idol has not been a great one. By that standard, the top 12 girls actually did fairly well – sure, there were a couple of trainwrecks, a few middling/forgettable songs, but overall it was a respectable effort. Certainly, it went down smoother than last year’s opener, or the one two years before that. Let’s run down all the performances.
Aside from being able to sing, to do well on Idol you have to be able to pick good songs. Poor Paige Miles was a perfect example: her vocals of All Right Now were pretty good; for the top 24 I’d call it a solid effort. However… she chose such a lousy song it was hard to tell. It wasn’t particularly memorable, it was just… there. In Idol-land, that’s worse then being a bad singer. Simon may actually have been a little too optimistic for Paige.
Paige wasn’t the only one suffering from Bad Song Choice-itis. Ashley Rodriguez, if anything, had a worse case. Of course, at least Paige could sing. Ashley… couldn’t. This was like walking into a den of hungry lions armed with nothing more sophisticated than a slightly sharpened wooden stick. If she had picked anyone other than a diva-type of singer like Leona Lewis, she might at least have avoided trainwreck status. However, she did. And that was enough to put her well and truly into disaster status.
Heart isn’t quite in the same degree-of-difficulty area as Leona/Mariah/Whitney, but it’s not that far off, either. What Heart songs tend to do on the Idol stage is make an elite singer look really good, and embarrass anyone else. Unfortunately, Janell Wheeler isn’t really an elite singer; by Idol standards she’s solidly average. It was competent karaoke, but neither just “competent” nor “karaoke” will do. If she makes it to the top 12, I’d be surprised.
Lily Scott was, by far, the most intriguing contestant of the night. Out of anyone in this field, she may well have the best appreciation of where she is as an artist. The vocals on Fixing a Hole were middling at best, but it didn’t matter as much as it normally would because the whole performance was sensible, fit together, and felt real. Keep an eye on her – she could get further than people expect if she plays her cards right.
Katelyn Epperly was also quite intriguing. I don’t know if it’s a one-time thing due to her outfit and song choice, but she came across as very old-fashioned. Unlike Lily, who did better than her vocals really deserved, Katelyn was actually not as good as she could be. Her vocals, overall, were very respectable – she needs some work when she reaches for the power notes, but that’s about it. She could go very far.
The judges were very, very, kind to Haeley Vaughn. “Verging on,” Simon? It was far beyond that. It was as complete a disaster as we’ve ever seen on the Idol stage. Nothing about it made any sense. It was a bad song choice – the song doesn’t suit Haeley, either in style or lyrics. The arrangement was nails-on-chalkboard bad. Her vocals were screechy. Who in the world thought this was a good idea? What were they on?
If Haeley Vaughn was disastrous, Lacey Brown was… weird. The vocals weren’t really bad, they were strange. One can see why she didn’t make it last year (aside from the blatant manipulation then). It was really the type of performance than leaves one scratching their head and asking, “what was that?”
Michelle Delamor was really asking to be either a giant success or a giant flop. Somehow, she managed to get away with neither. The rearrangement worked around her lack of pure power (last-second glory note aside), but her great vocal control during the subtler sections of the song mostly carried the day. It was a competent performance, but that’s about it. It wasn’t a disastrously bad song choice, but there’s a good amount of potential there.
The word I’d use to describe Didi Benami: subtle. It was well-executed – very well-executed, in fact – but is subtle really the way to go in your first go-around with America? I’m not so sure. There was a very strong indy-singer feel to Didi, and she’s really on the bubble as far as the top 12 is concerned. Let’s not take away anything she did, though: that kind of subtlety and vocal control is a rare thing (especially on the Idol stage).
The first legitimately good and well-rounded performance of the night: Siobhan Magnus. The vocals were good, but more importantly it perfectly complemented the song. She was able to connect with the song and audience. That’s really what you’re looking for particularly this early in the show. It just didn’t have that one aha! moment that sets good performances from the great.
Far and away, the best executed performance of the night was from Crystal Bowersox. It was, dare I say it, a pro-level performance. You don’t expect that this early in the show. However…. Simon is right: it wasn’t a very original performance. Take away Alanis’s own vocal stylings, add in Crystal’s… and that’s about what you had here. You can’t take away from what she did, though: it was a good performance, with great vocals and good stage presence.
For all the hype she received since the season began, Katie Stevens was a huge disappointment. It’s not that she was bad, but she was middling at best. Fundamentally, though, she made her task much harder than it ought to be. Like most 16/17-year-olds, she doesn’t do subtle well. So why do Michael Buble? She ended up trying to turn a non-power song into one, with a very mixed result. Her pre-show popularity should get her through this week, but beyond that I’m not so sure.
Here our rankings for the night:
- Siobhan Magnus
- Crystal Bowersox
- Lily Scott
- Didi Benami
- Katelyn Epperly
- Michelle Delamor
- Katie Stevens
- Paige Miles
- Janell Wheeler
- Lacey Brown
- Ashley Rodriguez
- Haeley Vaughn
More or less you had about four kinds of performances: the good-but-not-great (Siobhan and Crystal); the good-but-with-serious flaws (Lily, Didi, and Katelyn), the okay-but-not-much-more (Michelle and Katie), and the trainwrecks (Janell on downwards). Paige is really in a zone of her own – her execution was right around Michelle and Katie, but overall her bad song choice just dragged her down too much.
Overall, it was an okay episode, as I said above. True, there were four true trainwrecks in the show, but that’s kind of normal this early in. The other singers did make up for it, but there were too many maddeningly bad song choices and too much untapped potential overall to call it a good episode. Still, it’s not a bad way to start the season for real.
Calling the pick here isn’t as easy as it might seem, though. If you look at the What Not to Sing numbers, there’s a strong tendency for one of the bootees on results night to be legitimately worst, but the other vote to be someone in the midfield. With that in mind, one pick is obvious: Haeley Vaughn. The other pick? Harder to say. is vulnerable – going by the count of pre-show followers on the social networks, Michelle has a weak fanbase. Simon’s comments might well have caused those few fans to relax. Neither was her performance good enough to win lots of people over. On the other hand, Paige just didn’t sing all that well, and she has fanbase issues as well. With that in mind:
TIG pick: Haeley and Paige to go home.
