American Idol Top 4 - "Let's go to the Movies"

Sorry this took so long but when the excitement of the night turns out to be a song from Caddyshack you know your in trouble! About two columns ago I predicted that the singers would get standards and Movie theme. I've decided to play the lotto this week as I now have the power of seeing into the future. Seriously out of nine seasons the only repeated themes that we did not get this year was disco and songs from the year they were born. I really wish that next year with everyone jumping ship they decided to do a year of themes never before done on Idol. I think themes of One Hit Wonders, The Songs from Hair bands, Song from Current Broadway shows, Songs on the radio this year would be much better choices the what we've gotten this season. Anyway tonight is songs from a movie and a little secret I haven't told my reader is that this year after each week's performances they announce the song list that the contestants can choose from for the next week. So I run down the list and think which song will so and so pick and which song is there just for a joke. Movie Night's theme had these classic winners and death marches: (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, A Whole New World, Arthur’s Theme, Beauty and the Beast, Bohemian Rhapsody, Danger Zone, Don’t You Forget About Me, Evergreen, Eye of the Tiger, Footloose, Gangsta’s Paradise, Ghostbusters, Jai Ho, Let the River run, Lose Yourself – Eminem, One Night Only, Purple Rain, Separate Lives, Superfly, Up Where We Belong, We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) just to name a few. I can't understand how anyone presented with a list like that could ignore the moment of the season a song like "Purple Rain" could have provided. Some songs have to be jokes Lose Yourself, Jai Ho, Ghostbusters????? But there were songs on the list that would have been better the what these kids sang tonight. So with that said let's see how they did.

Lee DeWyze A Kiss from a Rose (from Batman) - You know I think people forgot how easy a song Seal and the studio made this sound. This is a song that you need someone completely in control of what they can do with their voice. They have to be able to move easily from their low, middle, and high range in a second and Lee just isn't able to do that. Lee hasn't been able to do in a single performance on much easier songs so as soon as I heard he was ding this I knew this was going to be a disaster and I was right. It's funny though after watching it back I realized this was the first time that Lee worked the camera. He looked up, smiled, used his eyes, I think he has spent so much time working on that he didn't bother with the notes. It was probably one of the worst vocal performances of many a season but I thought that he did a great job with his performance skills so it felt like a seesaw.

Michael Lynch Will You Be There (Free Willy) - His opening speech made me think that he was pandering for votes. His video made me think that this was his first time singing and his performance made me think that I should have thought this was a moment but was just a desperate please to stay in the competition. He seemed ahead of the music at one point but had some nice notes (note) in there but the song is about emotion and Mike has issues with that. It just felt like it was a so what performance that I had to watch twice to even remember it. I did remember Jennifer Hudson sang this at Michael Jackson's memorial and that was moving this was blah.

Crystal Bowersox & Lee DeWyze Falling So Slowly (Once) - I bet my sister Julie a diet coke that they were going to sing this song. Yay for me!!! This song just got them into the top 2. I love this song, I loved Kris Allen's version last year and I loved this version too just not as much as Kris's. I think it was a great song choice for them though I didnt care for the face to face because the standing was a little odd but it was smart enough that it kept the camera on them the entire time. There were times I thought Lee tried to overpower Crystal a bit but I think Crystal understood that there are some songs you just don't overpower and sang it softy and achieved more from it without powering though it. Also did you notice that when the judges were giving their comments Lee kept lifting his guitar in front of Crystal and she kept having to push it down.

Casey James "Mrs. Robinson" (The Graduate) - On the internet I've seen Casey has a fan base called Cougars for Casey and I think that was the reason he picked this song. He wanted them to get out and vote for him this week and since I'm already posting late it was obvious that worked in his favor. With that said I thought this was an interesting arrangement of the song. It was nice, and even parts were moving I just didn't think it was a wow type of performance. It was probably the best male solo of the night but on another night would have easily sent him home. What I think helped him is with Mike's song we expected that out of him and the pandering for the votes was a turn off with Casey I got the feeling he was trying something for himself and at this pint that does mean something.

Crystal Bowersox "I'm Alright" (Caddyshack) - I was hugely disappointed that Crystal didn't try "Purple Rain" since it was on the list and I think she would have killed that. I thought this was simply amazing. Crystal took a fun upbeat song that everyone knows and has a good time with but no one thinks of as a song to use in a competition and made it completely her own and tied it in with her Idol journey. I felt like she even confronted her feelings toward Idol with the lyrics ''I do what I like, doing it naturally/ But if it's too easy, then they're gonna disagree/ Who do you want, who's it gonna be today?/ And who is it really makin' up your mind?'' This was taking a song that felt like it was put on the list as a joke song and Crystal being the blues singer star that she is was able to make it sound like a hit song.

Casey James & Michael Lynch "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" (Don Juan De Marco) - This is the song that every straight guy seems to sing to impress a woman because it's romantic and shows the emotional side (which makes me wonder why Casey is singing it.) I worry for the two of them because this was the song that killed Matt Giraud last year right before the judges save. I like that they start the song right in front of the audience bringing it closer to home then Lee and Crystal did but there's something just not right with it. I thought as a duet type of song they should have gone bigger since both their solo songs were low key. It would have been smarter on their parts to finish the night off with a bombastic type of duet to remind us why they're still there. This felt like a smoke break and I don't even smoke.

All in all I don't understand on Movie Night Theme the best they could come up were songs from Batman, Caddyshack, Don Juan, and Free Willy!! I also thought it was interesting that on results show it felt like Idol was hammering home to the remaining contestants that they really have to step out of their box and perform like their life depended on it because at this point I feel like all of them are on the show to be themselves and nothing more.

On Friday They will annouce the judges pick for each of them which usually means each judge gets to pick a song for the contestant to sing. Whoever gets Simon gets the golden ticket. As he picked "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for Katharine McPhee, "On the Radio" for Vonzell, and One for Adam Lambert. It used to be whoever had Paula had the song of death so I'm interested to see who gets what and from who.

I can't wait to see what the judges pick for the final three. I'm thinking Crystal is going to get a little Melissa Etheridge, Lee will get a Creed song and Casey will get something to do with Penguins, remember when poor Syesha Mercado had to sing Hit Him Up from Happy Feet because the judges wanted her out and then they spent the time complaining about the song choice that they picked for her. I'm thinking for Casey they're going to give him a kiss of death song and then complain about how he performed it.