CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

Click here to see our recap of this week’s performances by the men.
Click here to see our recap of this week’s Idol eliminations.

The Girls (Wednesday Night)

Well, tonight it was the girl’s turn, continuing The Sixties theme. All around there were quite a few lackluster performances, and only one standout – Carly Smithson. As for the rest, was it nerves? Bad picks by the judges? Poor song choices? Bird flu? Who knows, but the fact that the judges said as many positive things as they did leads me to believe that they’re scrambling to recover from a poor batch of lady contestants this year.

Kristy Lee Cook

Sang “Rescue Me” in a very uninspired performance. And maybe this was because she’s a horsewoman, but she stood with a Larry-Craig-worthy wide stance throughout her performance…was she trying to dazzle us with misdirection? It didn’t work.

Joanne Borgella

Performed “I Say a Little Prayer for You”, and it was a very flat and forgettable performance. The song has a lot of orchestration and backup singers and her voice kind of disappeared in the mix – which she may have done purposely to hide her nerves, perhaps? All in all very disappointing.

Alaina Whitaker

Covered “I Love You More Today Than Yesterday”. Her performance was technically pretty good, but completely soulless. The judges liked her, but perhaps they see potential there…you can teach performance skills, but if you can’t sing you can’t sing.

Amanda Overmyer

Sang “Baby Please Don’t Go”, which included one of the great performances by the Idol band, but only honky-tonk-screeching from Amanda who also seemed to be hiding any singing ability behind the band – you could only hear her during the screamed parts. We still like her but her voice was too small tonight to take on the song and front the band, but we hope she sticks around so we get to hear more from her.

Amy Davis

Sang “Where the Boys Are”, and one hopes the boys were somewhere else during this performance. It was simply terrible – flat and off key from the first bar to the last. She was so good in tryouts, flawlessly covering “Blue Bayou”, which is a singer’s song of the first degree. Perhaps she was one of the ones with the flu tonight, but she barely managed to squeak and squawk her way through it to the end.

Brooke White

Covered “Happy Together” in an uncomfortable mess of a performance. What is it with the ladies tonight? Flat, pitchy, nervous, and definitely uncomfortable during the bah-bah-bah-bah scat part. But yet again the judges liked her. So far not one of the ladies tonight showed any star power of any type, and Brooke simply blended in to the mediocrity.

Alexandrea Lushington

Sang “Spinning Wheel” in a completely awful mess of a performance. Her wheels spun right off, she ran out of breath and ended up barely pushing out the last few lines of the song. Yet again Paula and Randy liked it, in the face of all reason. Simon had it right…he didn’t get it, and neither did I.

Kady Malloy

Performed “A Groovy Kind of Love” with a country twist. It wasn’t bad, with some pitchy parts, but she definitely can sing. But, again, just completely soulless. I think that people like Michael Bolton and Celine Dion have tainted the music business with their success – each has a big, powerful voice and zero soul. That’s a soul temperature of absolute zero. And Kady’s performance was wooden and she looked a bit medicated, to be frank.

Asia’h Epperson

Oh my god, did she actually try to cover Janis Joplin’s “Another Piece of My Heart”?!?? OMFG, where do these chiclets get the nerve? I think I’m going to have to stop watching 60′s week on Idol because these young pup contestants simply have no idea of the magnitude of the songs they are singing. They don’t do the songs justice and it seems like it’s because the songs are meaningless to them. That may be the nature of things, but to watch these tyros prance around as if they’re worthy of singing some of these songs is infuriating. Oh, and Asia’h's performance was simply lackluster. But the judges liked it. Oy.

Ramiele Malubay

And another one, this time covering “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” by Dusty Springfield. Listen, I’m very okay if someone wants to update a song, make it fresh, and/or make it their own. But, if you take on a classic by a legend you better bring your “A” game. And Ramiela did not. Again, another barely tolerable performance for this stage of Idol. But yet again, the judges loved it. I can’t figure out if I’m crazy, the judges are crazy, or if the judges are simply making the best of it because their ultimate goal is to sell records.

Syesha Mercado

Sang “Tobacco Road” in a completely horrible performance. Her voice was way too small for the song, and the end was completely off-key, horribly so, so bad that I got goosebumps but not the good kind – the kind you get from fingernails on a blackboard. But the judges *loved* it. Maybe my sound system is busted? I don’t think so because the backstory parts with their original auditions and Hollywood week contain a lot of good singing.

Carly Smithson

Covered “Shadow of Your Smile” originally done by Nancy Sinatra, and this was my favorite performance of the night. It was by no means a star-making turn, but it was the best of the lot tonight. Kind of torchy and jazzy it showed what a strong, pure voice she has. I’m not sure it was the best song choice, but she sang it with feeling and power.

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