American Idol Top 7 Recap - Inspirational Songs

American Idol Top 7 – Inspirational Songs
April 20, 2010
By Brian Holland

Intro: We get another introduction of Ryan walking past the finalists. He mentions this is our turn to save lives with Idol Gives Back, blah blah blah.

CUE AMERICAN IDOL THEME

This week, the judges are already seated and are not introduced by the announcer, nor is Ryan. Instead this week we get the old traditional introduction of each judge by Ryan. The Idols come out to the stage.

Our guest judge gets an intro and montage. It is Alicia Keys. She greets the contestants and Big Mike lifts her up, haha.

First up is Casey James. He is singing “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac. Very good song. It’s one of the more well-known song choices this week, I’m sure.

Of course, he has the guitar. He’s doing a pretty good job. The chorus is decent, but not spectacular. The backup vocalists were just to his right (our left). He did a pretty good job.

Randy: Good performance but not your best. Give me more of something else, something different.
Ellen: Great guitar playing. You have to be great and it wasn’t great.
Kara: You didn’t stand out tonight and it paled in comparison to “Jealous Guy”
Simon: That wasn’t particularly inspiring and had no emotion. No originality and was a lazy song choice.
Me: I agree with Randy, you need to do something different. You’re supposed to be getting better and better each week but you are right now just standing pat.

Lee DeWyze up next.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Ryan is on the stools with Lee. They talk about how Andrew went last week and how they were really good buddies. He also talks about his song choice, “The Boxer”. And funny moment: The tape of Lee with Alicia was delayed, causing Ryan to ask “Do we have the tape with Lee and Alicia?” right before it came on. LOL. American Idol fails.

Lee, like Casey, goes with the guitar as usual. The song starts out slowly. There are quite a few violinists on the stage to the side with Lee. He does ok, but nothing outstanding or anything. (Comment later added) Or so I thought. LOL.

Randy: You are a big artist ready to have a big career and I thought you did a great job.
Ellen: We are seeing better and better from you. Best performance so far by you.
Kara: I think you had your moment tonight. Keep picking things you feel connected to.
Simon: That was sincere, emotional, and inspirational. You made it sound like it was written a week ago and that was absolutely brilliant.
Me: You have just gone from dark horse to favorite. I would be surprised if you weren’t in the final.

Tim and Aaron are up next after the break. The two boys. I don’t know which is going first, though.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Captain Sully is in the audience! Ryan shakes his hand. Tim is up next. He is singing “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Alicia said his singing felt really good. We’ll see. Tim becomes the third straight performer to use a guitar. I think he is doing a great job, actually. His vocals are a tad weak but this has gotta be one of his best performances. Let’s see if the judges agree with me.

Randy: It was just ok good karaoke. It just sounded… ok.
Ellen: To me you’re like the soup of the day, but today I didn’t like the soup.
Kara: This is where you belong but it wasn’t your best performance.
Simon: You have improved over the weeks but it was a little bit of a let down.
Me: I liked it. (Applause) I felt you connected to it really well. However, the vocals were a little weak and that may have been too tough of a song for you.

NEXT is Aaron. No break.

Aaron is singing “I Believe I Can Fly”. Oh wow. Alicia stressed the point of him connecting to the song. His vocals are a bit shaky and weak like Tim’s. The crowd is waving their arms again but stupidly totally off the pace of the song, LOL. He however hits a big note at the end. And hits it pretty well.

Randy: You picked a giant song—You’ve got a huge voice, pure vocal talent. Good job with such a giant song.
Ellen: I believe you can fly and I thought you handled it real good.
Kara: Watching that was like taking off. It took a while but you got there.
Simon: If I had heard that on the radio, I would have turned it off in ten seconds. It was good but not something that I’d prefer to listen to.
Me: YOU CAN FLY MY MAN! I love your courage to pick that song.

Siobhan takes on Whitney and Mariah next. Oh boy… that’s a risk.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Ryan reminds us of Idol Gives back, and then we have Siobhan. She is singing “When You Believe”. Alicia was very impressed with her voice. Siobhan does a very good job with the song. She hits a few high notes, but no screams.

Randy: You picked the toughest song of the night—and it was just ok for me.
Ellen: I disagree I thought that was a good job.
Kara: It’s starting to feel too dramatic. I still don’t know who you are.
Simon: Not the right song for you. Old-fashioned, odd, all over the place.
Me: You took a risk but it didn’t pay off. In baseball terms, you probably got a sacrifice fly. You did something right, but it’s not always what you want to do.

Big Mike is up next which means Crystal gets the pimp spot AGAIN! Before Tim even gets it once. I wonder who the producers are supporting and who they want off the show? Well if Tim survives this week he BETTER get the pimp spot next week as he is the only contestant to not sing last. Even with going back to the Top 24, he has yet to sing last. Poor guy is getting screwed over.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Michael starts out on the stools with Ryan. They talk about his song choice. He is singing “Hero” by Mariah Carey. Danny Gokey did this song last year and it is the song that catapulted him into being a favorite. Let’s see what Mike does with it.

I beg your pardon, this is not Hero by Mariah Carey. It is another song with the same name. Michael is also the fourth contestant (and probably not the last) to use a guitar. He finishes with a long note. It was ok. Nothing great IMO.

Randy: You held you own and it worked out.
Ellen: I thought you did a great job with it.
Kara: Not my favorite performance and it was all over and it became unrecognizable.
Simon: I thought you sang it pretty well. It felt a bit artificial to me. I still think you’ll be around next week.
Me: It was very ok but I agree with Simon. It needed a better story and to be more inspirational.

After the break Crystal goes without an instrument for the first time. So I was wrong about Michael not being the last to play the guitar. But I’ll believe it when I see it.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Crystal is singing “People Get Ready”. So she is doing another song I don’t know. And like I said, she is singing last again. Alicia says she knows people are going to love her performance.

Crystal starts without any backup instruments at all. After about 20 seconds, they finally start up. She really gets into the song. She is doing very well. And oh my gosh…. She starts crying at the end. I AM NOT KIDDING. I can’t tell if it’s real or fake but she was indeed crying. She could barely get out the last few words of the song.

Randy: That was unbelievable and I gotta give you a standing O.
Ellen: You just keep getting better and better and it was so beautiful.
Kara: You were on another level and you just schooled everyone.
Simon: THAT was inspirational. I was happy to see you emotional in a strange way. You sang it fantastically. It was in a completely different class to everything else we’ve heard tonight.
Me: That was indeed one of the most heartfelt performances we’ve seen maybe ever on here.

So that’s it. I think it’s clear that our finale may very well be Lee vs. Crystal. They keep dominating week after week. They were the best of the night tonight. I predict the bottom 3 (if they reveal it) to be Casey, Tim, and Michael, with Tim’s journey coming to an end tomorrow night. And I will see you tomorrow night for Idol Gives Back, which I will write a blog on. I usually don’t for results shows but this upcoming one is special. See you guys then.