Six-sational!
Another week, another stellar Live Spectacular. It's a tough one this week. Who will I vote for? Who do I think should go home? So hard to choose...
First, let's start off with my favorite performance for the evening. Clawing her way into my good graces once again, we have V Lalouette. You might remember this line from my song selection rundown regarding "Call Me": "You know what I think would work for her? Stick a mic on the stand, give it the rockstar deathgrip, and put all of the energy (and she has plenty of it) into her singing, and less into her performance." Turns out that is precisely what V did, and man, did it ever work well. Technical perfection combined with an excellent performance earned V the top spot in my rankings tonight. And many, many thank yous to V for sparing me tears by avoiding the much-feared "fingers-by-the-ears" telephone trick.
In the same article, I also wondered whether V would be able to pull off a captivating performance for her KT Tungstall number. I have to say, I can't imagine what she could have done to make it work. While we can't place the blame at her feet this week, with it being Judges' Choice, I have to say that song selection was the biggest failure here. I think she'd have been much better served if she had been able to sing "Call Me" as her second number, and recuperated some of the damage done by the first song, but apparently she didn't have a choice.
Coming in at second place was Gift's rendition of (and I can't believe I'm going to say this) "Back at One". He took everything that I hate about that song away - the whiny desperation that Brian McKnight gives the song was nowhere in sight - and turned it into a fabulous number that suited his voice perfectly. He followed up with an equally impressive take on the song that was a hit for both Billy Joel and Westlife. There were some definitely tricky notes in there, and he hit them perfectly. The more time goes by, the more convinced I am that Gift will be in the Top 3. Of all the contestants, I think Gift is the quintessential example of the much-ballyhooed "X-Factor".
Karin snags third place with her beautiful work with "Do You Know". I do believe she sang the song better than Diana Ross herself. From the opening notes, I was just in awe of the beauty of her voice. She makes it seem so effortless to sound so melodic, and she is one singer that I could just listen to a capella and be perfectly happy. She also handled "If I Can't Have You" with an excellent performance, spot-on vocals, and a great look. In a word, splendid.
Picking number four was a little difficult. I actually enjoyed Nicky's "Brass in Pocket", and thought she handled it well. But even more amazingly, I was just thrilled with the way she managed "Underneath Your Clothes". I felt almost certain this song would trip her up (just like I was wrongly certain that My Immortal would prove her end) and instead, she just blew me away, and did the song better than I would have expected from any of the contestants. So I eat my words on Nicky once again. Very, very well done.
If picking fourth place was difficult, fifth place was nearly impossible. On one hand, there was a contestant who impressed me vocally, but left me hanging performance wise. And on the other, a contestant who did the exact opposite. So in no particular order, because I really can't choose between them:
Nhlanhla's "Walking Away" was, for me, exactly what I was afraid it would be. He just sounded extremely sharp and piercing tonight, and I didn't enjoy his first song at all. "All Night Long" started out much the same, but he softened it up a bit towards the end, making it a little bit better, but overall, I just wasn't very pleased. However, his performance for all night long was excellent, and for all the things I find lacking in him, he is definitely an excellent performer, and a lot of fun to watch.
Ayanda did very nicely vocally, especially with "Another Sad Love Song", but performance wise she simply wasn't compelling in any way. Again, I blame this mostly on song selection, because both songs are, to put it simply, just about impossible to perform visually. But her vocals were definitely pleasing.
And it's vocals that count the most in this competition. Based on that, and taking other factors into account, I think (close your eyes, bat) it just might be Nhlanhla "walking away" tomorrow night. However my record of late hasn't been very good, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
--
Tonight was another fun evening. I took a friend to the show this time, and we both really enjoyed ourselves. And thankfully, it was nice and cool outside, so sitting in the Hippodrome was much more pleasant. A few local celebs made their appearances in the audience, most notably the always-handsome Heinz Winckler, as well as the highly energetic and entertaining Ferdinand Rabie. Heinz is so recognizable that as he took his seat in the very back row of the auditorium, fans a good distance below in the standing circle recognized and him and cheered. Also in attendance was Lisa, who you might remember from the Cape Town auditions. Lisa is the one who showed up bearing her (handwritten) book, claiming to be an 8 year old girl, and managed to drive Dave out of the room. She's an interesting person to talk to, though, and even sang a line of Madonna's "Like A Prayer" for me. I took quite a few pictures of everyone, and even managed to snag a few of the previously elusive Nicky. I'll do my best to stick those up tomorrow.
Also, if you've been puzzling over the math (5 contestants after tomorrow, and only 3 shows left), I did get confirmation that there will indeed be a double elimination coming up, though I couldn't get an answer as to when that will be. As always, the Idols team just loves surprises, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
All in all, another excellent night, full of both talent and surprises. Pretty soon it will be very difficult to choose at all, and I'll probably end up voting for everyone on the stage ;)
Check in tomorrow for post-results show updates!
First, let's start off with my favorite performance for the evening. Clawing her way into my good graces once again, we have V Lalouette. You might remember this line from my song selection rundown regarding "Call Me": "You know what I think would work for her? Stick a mic on the stand, give it the rockstar deathgrip, and put all of the energy (and she has plenty of it) into her singing, and less into her performance." Turns out that is precisely what V did, and man, did it ever work well. Technical perfection combined with an excellent performance earned V the top spot in my rankings tonight. And many, many thank yous to V for sparing me tears by avoiding the much-feared "fingers-by-the-ears" telephone trick.
In the same article, I also wondered whether V would be able to pull off a captivating performance for her KT Tungstall number. I have to say, I can't imagine what she could have done to make it work. While we can't place the blame at her feet this week, with it being Judges' Choice, I have to say that song selection was the biggest failure here. I think she'd have been much better served if she had been able to sing "Call Me" as her second number, and recuperated some of the damage done by the first song, but apparently she didn't have a choice.
Coming in at second place was Gift's rendition of (and I can't believe I'm going to say this) "Back at One". He took everything that I hate about that song away - the whiny desperation that Brian McKnight gives the song was nowhere in sight - and turned it into a fabulous number that suited his voice perfectly. He followed up with an equally impressive take on the song that was a hit for both Billy Joel and Westlife. There were some definitely tricky notes in there, and he hit them perfectly. The more time goes by, the more convinced I am that Gift will be in the Top 3. Of all the contestants, I think Gift is the quintessential example of the much-ballyhooed "X-Factor".
Karin snags third place with her beautiful work with "Do You Know". I do believe she sang the song better than Diana Ross herself. From the opening notes, I was just in awe of the beauty of her voice. She makes it seem so effortless to sound so melodic, and she is one singer that I could just listen to a capella and be perfectly happy. She also handled "If I Can't Have You" with an excellent performance, spot-on vocals, and a great look. In a word, splendid.
Picking number four was a little difficult. I actually enjoyed Nicky's "Brass in Pocket", and thought she handled it well. But even more amazingly, I was just thrilled with the way she managed "Underneath Your Clothes". I felt almost certain this song would trip her up (just like I was wrongly certain that My Immortal would prove her end) and instead, she just blew me away, and did the song better than I would have expected from any of the contestants. So I eat my words on Nicky once again. Very, very well done.
If picking fourth place was difficult, fifth place was nearly impossible. On one hand, there was a contestant who impressed me vocally, but left me hanging performance wise. And on the other, a contestant who did the exact opposite. So in no particular order, because I really can't choose between them:
Nhlanhla's "Walking Away" was, for me, exactly what I was afraid it would be. He just sounded extremely sharp and piercing tonight, and I didn't enjoy his first song at all. "All Night Long" started out much the same, but he softened it up a bit towards the end, making it a little bit better, but overall, I just wasn't very pleased. However, his performance for all night long was excellent, and for all the things I find lacking in him, he is definitely an excellent performer, and a lot of fun to watch.
Ayanda did very nicely vocally, especially with "Another Sad Love Song", but performance wise she simply wasn't compelling in any way. Again, I blame this mostly on song selection, because both songs are, to put it simply, just about impossible to perform visually. But her vocals were definitely pleasing.
And it's vocals that count the most in this competition. Based on that, and taking other factors into account, I think (close your eyes, bat) it just might be Nhlanhla "walking away" tomorrow night. However my record of late hasn't been very good, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
--
Tonight was another fun evening. I took a friend to the show this time, and we both really enjoyed ourselves. And thankfully, it was nice and cool outside, so sitting in the Hippodrome was much more pleasant. A few local celebs made their appearances in the audience, most notably the always-handsome Heinz Winckler, as well as the highly energetic and entertaining Ferdinand Rabie. Heinz is so recognizable that as he took his seat in the very back row of the auditorium, fans a good distance below in the standing circle recognized and him and cheered. Also in attendance was Lisa, who you might remember from the Cape Town auditions. Lisa is the one who showed up bearing her (handwritten) book, claiming to be an 8 year old girl, and managed to drive Dave out of the room. She's an interesting person to talk to, though, and even sang a line of Madonna's "Like A Prayer" for me. I took quite a few pictures of everyone, and even managed to snag a few of the previously elusive Nicky. I'll do my best to stick those up tomorrow.
Also, if you've been puzzling over the math (5 contestants after tomorrow, and only 3 shows left), I did get confirmation that there will indeed be a double elimination coming up, though I couldn't get an answer as to when that will be. As always, the Idols team just loves surprises, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
All in all, another excellent night, full of both talent and surprises. Pretty soon it will be very difficult to choose at all, and I'll probably end up voting for everyone on the stage ;)
Check in tomorrow for post-results show updates!
posted by Julie at
12:57 PM
