Wednesday, February 18, 2009

About last night: Will the real Tatiana please stand up?

So there's no way to get around the fact that this was an extremely odd night. Not only was Group 1 supposed to be the best of the three groups, but it was supposed to be the best by a mile. There were so many promising semifinalists, and yet we were left with Tatiana being one of the best of the night. Yes, that Tatiana del Toro.

Jackie Tohn led off the night with a vocally rough but spunky performance of "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley, which showed she was more interested in appealing to voters than she was impressing the judges, but she still earned somewhat alright reviews. she might not make the Top 12, but at least she had fun.

Another "fun" performance came from Brent Keith, as his vocals were perfect for the kind of "hick" song he did (in spite of the intro package mishap), and he was able to smile some in an effort to make it believable. But most of the night was full of boring performances, as underwhelming performances from Stephen Fowler and Ann Marie Boskovich failed to excite anyone.

Anoop Desai's take on Monica's "Angel of Mine" was a pleasant surprise, even though Simon wasn't all that impressed. Besides the performance, Anoop showed he could carry himself as a class act when he handled Simon's rude questions without even raising a (bushy) eyebrow.

There were two main trainwrecks tonight, as Stevie Wright killed Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" relatively easily, while Casey Carlson's gender-swapping "Every Little Thing [S]he Does Is Magic" bombed faster than the audience could turn its heads away from her winking and facial expressions.

The night's lone showstopper was Danny Gokey, whose rendition of Mariah Carey's "Hero" was an interesting choice and beckoned back to David Cook's take on the aforementioned's "Always Be My Baby." He dealt with the over-pimpage from the first three judges fairly well, but Simon was thankfully there to bring things down to earth. And what was up with the random shot of Jamar in the audience? Talk about the producers trying to play with the audience's emotions.

Alexis Grace and Tatiana (color me surprised) were also bright spots of the night, as Tatiana left her drama queen alter ego for the less exciting robot she brought tonight. And Michael Sarver wasn't good but he was better than most, and apparently the judges really are pulling for him despite his lackluster performance of "I Don't Wanna Be."

As for who will be advancing out of this group, it seems that Danny is the sure bet, while Tatiana will duke it out with Alexis for the top female vote-getter, and then either Michael or Anoop will take the next highest vote recipient. Look for official IDOL LIVE predictions later on today.

As for what to do now, we recommend looking ahead to next week as fast as possible. Like, start now.

No comments:

Search & Win