Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Idol Thoughts

Do you still watch American Idol? We do although our first exposure to Nicky Minaj sent us scrambling for cover.  But I digress.

Even aside from Nicky, the show has been different this year. They are down to the final five contestants, and they are all girls ... or women if you prefer.

In just about every other year, the first few to go home are women ... or girls if you prefer. This is so, even though they are often better than the boys ... or men if you prefer. (We could say gals and guys, or lads and lasses, or blokes and sheilas or ... )

Not this year. After five weeks, each and every ... er ... um ... blokey-guy-lad  has been sent packing, and only ... er ... um ... sheila-lady-gals remain standing or sometimes sitting.

I am so relieved that Lazaro was finally sent home. From his parting song, I figure that the boy can sing, but this was not evident during the competition when I was often seen to be grimacing during his performances. AC does not have the most finely tuned ears in the world, but oh my goodness! As I opined to my lady, I think he has a decent voice but a tin ear.

Anyway, catastrophe averted. I was having visions about Lazaro hanging onto the sympathy vote and winning the whole thing. The Idol executives must have been having fits over that possibility.

Meanwhile, Nicky Minaj really needs to get off Janell's case, whose main fault in Nicky's eyes seems to be that she is not Kree. The other judges aren't that nice to her either. She seems sweet enough on stage, but maybe she is a misery in person and the judges don't like her. Who knows? However, I think she will probably do as well as any contestants and better than most in her post-Idol career.

I have Candice and Kree down as the faves, but they don't have the optics of the other three (pardon me while I picture Amber's legs or Angie's dazzling smile or Janell's cuteness), so who knows how JQ Public will vote.

Before I wander off, let me ask you if you watch the other two vocal competitions — X-Factor and Voice — and how you rate the three. My take is that Idol is the most compelling but X-Factor has the best staging and Voice the most gentility. However, I don't prefer the judges sniping at each other in X-Factor, and Voice is a bit too in-studio for my taste and does not seem to have genuine judging. So I guess, I prefer Idol ... except maybe for that really weird judge.



2 comments:

Ginger said...

Oooh. You could get me going on this one. I, too, am much relieved that the American public didn't do a sympathy vote on Lazaro, and am disturbed that they DID keep him going for so long. Come on, folks! Keep to the point of the show; it's a competition, and only one can win, so let's get on with it!

Candice is my way-ahead favorite, but Kree is very, VERY good, too. I think that most of the remaining girls, if not all, will get excellent recording contracts and become the next wave of vocal artists. And good for them. They are really good, each in her own way.

This is a relief from recent seasons, which had really dulled in energy and expertise. And despite Nicky's spotty performance as a judge (sometimes she NAILS it, and other times she should have saved her words), she's made the judging table interesting again. Good for the show.

Hilary said...

For the first time in about 5 or 6 years, I am not watching Idol. A couple of years back, I wondered how they'd do with the changes - no Simon Cowell, no Paula Abdul.. but I thought that the last two seasons were among their very best. Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez made it a very entertaining show - they were very good judges and didn't have the snide, cruel thing happening.

I wasn't looking forward to this season anyway. After hearing about all of the conflict between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey - I just didn't want to see that nonsense. I watched part of the first show of this season and could not warm up to either of them. I don't miss it.