AMERICAN IDOL RECAP: The Rise of She-Lambert?

‘Twas ladies night on American Idol yesterday, and overall I’d say things were a smidgen improved. Sure there were some full-out duds, and sure I disagreed with the judges on occasion, but it looks like this season is inching ever so slowly in the right direction. I still don’t see any superstars in the group, but maybe once we’ve whittled the pack down to twelve contenders, things will open up.

Kicking off the show after some forced and strange banter between Kara and Simon was Crystal Bowersox, the woman at the center of this week’s great Idol intrigue. Would she be healthy enough to perform? Or would her Idol dreams go down faster than Ryan during Fleet Week? Well, Crystal most certainly was able to take the stage, and she delivered a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing performance of an old Creedence Clearwater tune. Like Michael the night before, she opened the show by setting the bar high for the other contestants, and like Michael, I don’t think anyone ultimately topped her. It would have been a travesty (relatively speaking, in Idol terms) had Crystal been DQ’d due to illness.
On the other end of the spectrum was poor Haeley Vaughn, who took on Miley Cyrus’s lame ballad, “The Climb.” The good news was that it was an appropriate choice, and Haely sang it just as well as Miley. The bad news was that she sang it just as well as Miley. Yes, Haely sounded terrible. Actually, she sounded worse than Miley, and if you’re making Miley Cyrus sound okay, then that’s a problem. It’s a shame, really. Haeley’s sweet personality is truly infectious, and I admire her humble goals of being the first breakthrough black female country star, but like Kara said, she needs to work on her “instrument.” Haeley kind of has no business being in this competition anymore, but her personality might just carry her through another week.
That same clemency might not be granted to Lacey Brown, the antique-loving quirky singer with the Sharon Osbourne mom haircut. Taking Kara’s recommendation last week, Lacey sang “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer, and while it was a marked improvement over last week’s abomination of “Landslide,” it still left quite a bit to be desire. Yes, I get that her voice is unique, and yes, she’s different, but is she really superstar material? Are we to expect that out of that quirky voice will emerge an American Idol? The answer is no. Lacey’s rendition of the song started off decently — despite the glaring appearance of lofty shoulder pads — but then once the drums kicked in, the whole thing turned into major, major karaoke. It became dull and boring, and Lacey’s timid bopping and bouncing across the stage did little to inject energy or personality into the performance. A definite contender to go home.
Faring a touch better was Katie Stevens, who took the judges’ advice and went younger and hipper. Of course, since last week she sang Nina Simone by way of Michael Bublé, she could sing the National Anthem and still sound younger. Nevertheless, who did Katie choose to young-ify herself? Corinne Bailey Rae — beloved poster child of all things adult contemporary. GREAT. Full disclosure: I hate Corinne Bailey Rae’s music, and I’m biased against any Idol aspirant who channels her, and as such, this is not going to be a glowing review from me. It didn’t help that Katie was pitchy, dawg, and despite certainly having a strong voice, she was a little all over the map. But again, song choice! How could she think this was a youthful selection? Don’t these people know how to turn on a Top 40 radio station and listen to what’s actually playing? Luckily, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. The judges across the board lambasted Katie for skewing too old yet again, and when Ryan later asked her if she liked any artists under twenty, Katie just sort of stood there and smiled embarrassedly. So…. no. Truth is that she doesn’t need to sing something by a teenager. She just needs to sing something that would appeal to a teenager. I can only imagine what her choice will be next week. Gloria Estefan? Barry Manilow?
Also apparently suffering from song choice issues is poor Didi Benami, who got absolutely raped by the judges. Wow. They were not kind to her. This was a shock to me because guess what? I thought her performance of “Lean On Me” was great! Am I on crazy pills? I was totally into it, and I thought for sure the judges would give her mad props — perhaps even induct her into the Dawg House! But no. Far from it. Randy started off saying it was a bad song choice, causing me to scratch his head. Maybe Randy’s just being silly. He does that sometimes. But when Ellen agreed and then Kara said it was not good and then Simon equated it to the sound of Didi’s pre-show meow noises, I found myself totally confused. How could I be so way out of sync with the judges? Usually there’s at least one of them who I’m on the same page with (usually Simon). Huh. Well, for the record, I thought Didi sounded lovely, and I thought her rendition was stirring and emotional. But I guess I’m in the minority on that one. Hopefully she’ll be spared the ax this week. I’m sure she earned some sympathy when she managed only a feeble smile after the judges’ harsh assessments. Poor girl looked like she was ready to bawl. It would have been awesome. (Almost as awesome as Ashley Rodriguez getting voted off last week. The girl looked so pissed off, I’m shocked she didn’t waltz up to the judges and punch them all in the face.)
Next up was Michelle Delamor, a girl with oodles of potential, but none of it realized. She made the bold move to not just sing a rock song, but to sing a Creed song, which meant she really had two things going against her. Taking on “With Arms Wide Open,” Michelle clocked in an average, boring, and occasionally off-key performance. I wanted to root for her and her willingness to challenge herself, but I’m sorry, the whole thing was bland and dull for me. I literally almost fast forwarded over it, and I never do that. Shockingly, the judges seemed to like it. Kara went so far as to say it was Michelle’s best performance yet. How could this be? Two singers in a row where I was in complete disagreement with the judges? Something was fishy tonight.
Thankfully, I seemed to be back in sync with the next performer, Lilly Scott, who was my favorite female singer last week. This time she took on Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” a tune that brought great success to Adam Lambert and Syesha Mercado in the past. Lilly brought her own unique indy sound to it, and it was quite, quite good. I didn’t love it as much as Crystal’s performance earlier in the evening (a point that Simon also noted), but the other judges thought it was the best of the night. Crystal and Lilly are most certainly positioning themselves to be frontrunners, which is both fascinating and scary. On the one hand, it’s cool to have a different type of Idol threat. On the other hand, it could make for a very dull season, what with all the quiet guitar strumming.
In fact, just like the boys the night before, the girls were bringing nothing but dreary ballads and low tempo pop. Surely someone could lighten the mood. It wasn’t going to be Katelyn Epperly though. The pretty blonde sat at a piano and sang a very sloooowwww version of the already slow Coldplay song, “The Scientist.” Pacing be damned, I thought it was actually a very strong and effective performance. Yeah, Katelyn could have sped things along, but her mournful singing matched lazy tempo. The judges gave her positive notices — except for Ellen who claimed she nearly fell asleep. Hey, that’s not nice! Isn’t she supposed to be the nice judge?
Thankfully, Paige Miles woke up the audience with a fun, energetic, and totally rockin’ version of “Walk Away” by Kelly Clarkson. This performance was a million times better than “Free Ride” last week, and even if Paige made the cardinal sin of smiling whilst singing Kara’s lyrics, I still totally dug this. Some of the judges didn’t love the song choice, and Simon claimed Paige had squandered an opportunity for the second time, but I disagreed heartily. Paige was fresh and exciting, and honestly, I think the audience at home will be appreciative of her injecting some life into the proceedings.
Lastly, we had Siobhan Magnus, who singlehandedly delivered the most exciting and memorable moment of the entire semifinals process thus far. THE NOTE. People who watched this know what I’m talking about. At the end of a slightly uneven but generally solid rendition of “Think” by Aretha Franklin, Siobhan opened up her mouth and let out a bellowing, screeching caterwaul. And guess what? It worked! She actually hit the highest of high notes and elevated a pretty good performance to something buzzworthy. I can only imagine what would have happened had Siobhan missed the note. Oh wait. I can:

The judges didn’t really know what to make of Siobhan’s performance, what with the screech totally leaving them speechless. Needless to say, I hope we hear more howling from her in the future (assuming it remains in key). Also, a duet with Adam Lambert would be most appreciated.
What did you think about the girls? Who were your favorites? Who’s going home?