Gavin's Eleven
He's better looking that George McClooney, in my opinion, and he's pulling off the biggest heist of them all. In broad spotlight, right under our noses, Gavin Wratten and his current eleven contenders for the Idols throne are busy stealing the hearts of South Africans across the country.
If it isn't clear, I thought last night was the best Idols show yet. Recovering from a less-than-stellar show last week, the Top 11 came back with a vengeance and erased any doubt that they belong on that stage. Maybe I was in a more forgiving mood because the Hippodrome wasn't nearly as hot as last time. (Don't get me wrong, it was still hot, but it was much more tolerable.) But that was only a small factor, and last night I enjoyed the show to the fullest. Even Collin seemed more at ease than in weeks previous (and even made what seemed to be a lighthearted poke at himself for his mistake last week).
It's getting harder and harder to find fault with these contestants, partly because the more I sit and talk with them, the more I end up liking them, and hate to have to criticize. However, I'm all about impartiality, so here's my complete and impartial rundown on last night's events...
The star of the evening was, once again, Karin "South Africa's Greatest Diva" Kortje. Aside from an ever-so-slightly weak intro, she delivered a spotless performance. Toni Braxton is a phenomenal singer who can dig into both ends of the range spectrum without batting an eyelash, but Karin makes it look effortless. She delivers the full package - the emotion, the power, the control. There's little else to say. No matter what happens in this competition, Karin will be around for a long time to come.
Seemingly determined to make Randall eat his words, both of the male competitors also pulled off near-perfect displays. Gift's voice is so bright and clean without a hint of sharpness, and his rendition of All 4 One's "I Swear" was amazing. I have to say, I had a few doubts before he sang... I wasn't sure the song would hold itself without the harmony (one of the complaints that I had about John Michael Montgomery's version). I always thought that the harmony was the key to the song. Gift proved me wrong though, and definitely gained high marks from me for the evening.
Not to be left behind, Nhlanhla delivered an excellent vocal and stage performance. Of all the current contestants, I believe Nhlanhla has the strongest stage presence. He carries himself with such enthusiasm and energy, and gives off that infectious smile, it's hard not to enjoy anything he does. If this keeps up, Randall just may have to eat his words.
Martelize's "Don't Speak" was stuck in my head all evening. I told her so after the show, and she reckoned that was a good sign. She captured the ache and angst of the song perfectly, both vocally and visually, which is critical. She breaks her voice at the exact right spots, in just the right way, adding a layer of sincerity that makes one wonder if she isn't singing it to someone specific.
Bringing back one of my favorite songs from the 90s, Deidre handled "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" very nicely. I think part of her success was that she didn't try to hide the youthful, sweet character of her voice; instead she made the song work as her own. Infusing it with her special brand of bubbly innocence, she carried it off beautifully, and I have to say, I think this was an excellent song choice for her.
And Kesha's "Stay" was also well performed. She handled the tempo changes fairly well, however I found her enunciation a little bit too muddy at times; during some of the more rapid-fire singing bits, words all just ran into each other. Otherwise, her stage presence, her youthful energy and her talent make me certain that she will be in this competition for at least a few more weeks. I did think I detected a very faint hint of a nasally quality, making me wonder if she isn't getting over a cold or something. Just very slight, but it's there.
V stayed true to her gift, and knocked another powerhouse performance out. One thing that strikes me about her is she seems to sing with every ounce of her being. She has an amazing voice, and spotless control at both ends of the scale. Of all the contestants, her sustained notes are consistently the strongest and her stage performance is both polished and poised. However, she still fails to deliver the emotional connection; I still can't figure out what the problem there is. I get the feeling that she blocks out the audience, and peforms to an invisible wall just in front of her. As I've said before, she really is the most personable, outgoing person you could hope to meet, but she seems unable to reflect that in her performances. If she can't rectify that, I don't think she's going to continue on the Idols road for much longer.
Pume did better this week than last, but I still find that she struggles with the low notes. I don't think that picking songs with such wide ranges and such deep lows is going to be to her advantage; hopefully she'll start picking things more suited to her strengths. And she does have strength; when singing within her best range, she delivers loud and powerfully, with excellent clarity and sustain, and perfect control over the higher end of the scale.
I also thought Nicky delivered a nice, clean performance, but still think her stage performance leaves a lot to be desired. Her outfit for the night suited her perfectly, and gave me hope that she'd dug up some energy for her performance to match. However, she stayed firmly rooted to the spot. Maybe this was due to first-up jitters, which are never easy to overcome, but she really needs to work on this if she wants to go much further. I think she's safe for this week, but if she doesn't "up her game" performance wise, she's going to unglue herself from the spotlight and land squarely in yesterday's news.
Before last night's show, I had Ayanda and Bonolo pegged as the biggest risks for the week, and unfortunately, I don't think they did anything to save themselves last night. While neither's performance was terrible, and were decently enjoyable, the disparity between their talent and the rest of the group is just a little too great, and I think they will be neck and neck for this week's elimination. Both of them have such terrific personalities, and deliver excellently in the performance arena, however their vocal talent just doesn't match up. I will be sad to see either go, but if I had to pick, I think Bonolo will be saying goodbye tonight. That's hard for me to say, because as I mentioned earlier in this post, I'm getting to like these contestants more and more, and Bonolo is truly a sweet, amazing person that I really enjoying talking to.
OK, that wraps up the contestant side of things. Now on to the other aspects. I already said that I thought Collin did much better this week; whether that improvement carried over onto the small screen, I don't know, but I hope it did. He just seemed much more at ease, and less awkward, and I hope that this is a sign that things are steadily improving on that front.
And all around pleasant surprises on the judging front. Not much change in Dave, though I've never really had any complaints about him anyway; he really does know his stuff. Gareth seemed to have more of a voice of his own, which is always good. I think he is learning a lot from the other judges, and is starting to figure out how better to express his own thoughts without sounding like a carbon copy of the others. Whether in response to the recent focus on her, or just by coincidence, Mara gave out fair and even-handed criticism and praise, leaving little to be questioned. Whatever the reason, this week was a definite improvement over last week. And in the best turnaround of all, Randall had fresh, interesting comments to deliver for nearly all the contestants. I don't think I heard "The difficulty is..." once during the entire show. And that, my friends, is a very good thing indeed.
I took plenty of pictures, and hope to grab some more tonight. I will be posting them as soon as I can (hopefully that will be soon!) so be sure to check the Photo Shoots blog (link on the sidebar) for some new pics of the Top 11.
All in all, a very good Sunday. They're all busy stealing my heart... hopefully soon one will steal my breath away.
If it isn't clear, I thought last night was the best Idols show yet. Recovering from a less-than-stellar show last week, the Top 11 came back with a vengeance and erased any doubt that they belong on that stage. Maybe I was in a more forgiving mood because the Hippodrome wasn't nearly as hot as last time. (Don't get me wrong, it was still hot, but it was much more tolerable.) But that was only a small factor, and last night I enjoyed the show to the fullest. Even Collin seemed more at ease than in weeks previous (and even made what seemed to be a lighthearted poke at himself for his mistake last week).
It's getting harder and harder to find fault with these contestants, partly because the more I sit and talk with them, the more I end up liking them, and hate to have to criticize. However, I'm all about impartiality, so here's my complete and impartial rundown on last night's events...
The star of the evening was, once again, Karin "South Africa's Greatest Diva" Kortje. Aside from an ever-so-slightly weak intro, she delivered a spotless performance. Toni Braxton is a phenomenal singer who can dig into both ends of the range spectrum without batting an eyelash, but Karin makes it look effortless. She delivers the full package - the emotion, the power, the control. There's little else to say. No matter what happens in this competition, Karin will be around for a long time to come.
Seemingly determined to make Randall eat his words, both of the male competitors also pulled off near-perfect displays. Gift's voice is so bright and clean without a hint of sharpness, and his rendition of All 4 One's "I Swear" was amazing. I have to say, I had a few doubts before he sang... I wasn't sure the song would hold itself without the harmony (one of the complaints that I had about John Michael Montgomery's version). I always thought that the harmony was the key to the song. Gift proved me wrong though, and definitely gained high marks from me for the evening.
Not to be left behind, Nhlanhla delivered an excellent vocal and stage performance. Of all the current contestants, I believe Nhlanhla has the strongest stage presence. He carries himself with such enthusiasm and energy, and gives off that infectious smile, it's hard not to enjoy anything he does. If this keeps up, Randall just may have to eat his words.
Martelize's "Don't Speak" was stuck in my head all evening. I told her so after the show, and she reckoned that was a good sign. She captured the ache and angst of the song perfectly, both vocally and visually, which is critical. She breaks her voice at the exact right spots, in just the right way, adding a layer of sincerity that makes one wonder if she isn't singing it to someone specific.
Bringing back one of my favorite songs from the 90s, Deidre handled "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" very nicely. I think part of her success was that she didn't try to hide the youthful, sweet character of her voice; instead she made the song work as her own. Infusing it with her special brand of bubbly innocence, she carried it off beautifully, and I have to say, I think this was an excellent song choice for her.
And Kesha's "Stay" was also well performed. She handled the tempo changes fairly well, however I found her enunciation a little bit too muddy at times; during some of the more rapid-fire singing bits, words all just ran into each other. Otherwise, her stage presence, her youthful energy and her talent make me certain that she will be in this competition for at least a few more weeks. I did think I detected a very faint hint of a nasally quality, making me wonder if she isn't getting over a cold or something. Just very slight, but it's there.
V stayed true to her gift, and knocked another powerhouse performance out. One thing that strikes me about her is she seems to sing with every ounce of her being. She has an amazing voice, and spotless control at both ends of the scale. Of all the contestants, her sustained notes are consistently the strongest and her stage performance is both polished and poised. However, she still fails to deliver the emotional connection; I still can't figure out what the problem there is. I get the feeling that she blocks out the audience, and peforms to an invisible wall just in front of her. As I've said before, she really is the most personable, outgoing person you could hope to meet, but she seems unable to reflect that in her performances. If she can't rectify that, I don't think she's going to continue on the Idols road for much longer.
Pume did better this week than last, but I still find that she struggles with the low notes. I don't think that picking songs with such wide ranges and such deep lows is going to be to her advantage; hopefully she'll start picking things more suited to her strengths. And she does have strength; when singing within her best range, she delivers loud and powerfully, with excellent clarity and sustain, and perfect control over the higher end of the scale.
I also thought Nicky delivered a nice, clean performance, but still think her stage performance leaves a lot to be desired. Her outfit for the night suited her perfectly, and gave me hope that she'd dug up some energy for her performance to match. However, she stayed firmly rooted to the spot. Maybe this was due to first-up jitters, which are never easy to overcome, but she really needs to work on this if she wants to go much further. I think she's safe for this week, but if she doesn't "up her game" performance wise, she's going to unglue herself from the spotlight and land squarely in yesterday's news.
Before last night's show, I had Ayanda and Bonolo pegged as the biggest risks for the week, and unfortunately, I don't think they did anything to save themselves last night. While neither's performance was terrible, and were decently enjoyable, the disparity between their talent and the rest of the group is just a little too great, and I think they will be neck and neck for this week's elimination. Both of them have such terrific personalities, and deliver excellently in the performance arena, however their vocal talent just doesn't match up. I will be sad to see either go, but if I had to pick, I think Bonolo will be saying goodbye tonight. That's hard for me to say, because as I mentioned earlier in this post, I'm getting to like these contestants more and more, and Bonolo is truly a sweet, amazing person that I really enjoying talking to.
OK, that wraps up the contestant side of things. Now on to the other aspects. I already said that I thought Collin did much better this week; whether that improvement carried over onto the small screen, I don't know, but I hope it did. He just seemed much more at ease, and less awkward, and I hope that this is a sign that things are steadily improving on that front.
And all around pleasant surprises on the judging front. Not much change in Dave, though I've never really had any complaints about him anyway; he really does know his stuff. Gareth seemed to have more of a voice of his own, which is always good. I think he is learning a lot from the other judges, and is starting to figure out how better to express his own thoughts without sounding like a carbon copy of the others. Whether in response to the recent focus on her, or just by coincidence, Mara gave out fair and even-handed criticism and praise, leaving little to be questioned. Whatever the reason, this week was a definite improvement over last week. And in the best turnaround of all, Randall had fresh, interesting comments to deliver for nearly all the contestants. I don't think I heard "The difficulty is..." once during the entire show. And that, my friends, is a very good thing indeed.
I took plenty of pictures, and hope to grab some more tonight. I will be posting them as soon as I can (hopefully that will be soon!) so be sure to check the Photo Shoots blog (link on the sidebar) for some new pics of the Top 11.
All in all, a very good Sunday. They're all busy stealing my heart... hopefully soon one will steal my breath away.
posted by Julie at
12:19 AM
