American Idol 2008 – Top 4 Performance (5/06/08) Recaps

Week twelve of American Idol 2008 live performances brought us the end of three months of live performances and double performances from each of the Final 4 contestants. This week’s theme was songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With so many songs to choose from there’s no way the Idol hopefuls could screw song choice this week, right? Well…

Let’s just say that I think they could have done better. I think this week was a good example of what we would probably get if theme weeks were done away with – and I actually think that would be a good thing. With so many song choices, each of the contestants was able to choose the style of songs they felt were right for them. Did I agree with all of their choices? No. But each of them did perform songs that were closer to their own style than we’ve seen in a lot of the previous weeks. I figure if you can’t perform a song well in your chosen style then you probably aren’t going to be a star so why keep you around. We should have been doing this from day one.

At any rate, we’ve put last week’s strange Paula Abdul controversy behind us and the producers once again went back to the tried and true method of having the judges critique after each song. Paula must have skipped her medication yesterday because she actually spoke in fairly coherent sentences for most of the night.

The performances were…well, the whole night was a bit odd for me. From David Cook’s mediocrity to Syesha’s civil rights comparison to David Archuleta’s zombie like facade to Jason Castro’s couldn’t-care-less attitude… A truly strange top 4 for me. It’s actually difficult for me to rank these this week because I found fault with pretty much all of them. But, I guess I’ll give it a go…

This is how I felt the performances this week ranked:

The Top 4 Performers For May 6, 2008

1. David Archuleta – “Stand By Me” and “Love Me Tender”
2. Syesha Mercado – “Proud Mary” and “A Change Is Gonna Come”
3. David Cook – “Hungry Like The Wolf” and “Baba O’Reilly”
4. Jason Castro – “I Shot The Sheriff” and “Mr. Tambourine Man”

The American Idol 2008 Top 4

1. David Archuleta – “Stand By Me” and “Love Me Tender” – David Archuleta is about as exciting as a bowl of corn flakes. I’ve accepted that. I’ve also accepted that he comes out every single week and sings pretty much exactly the same way as he did the week before. His song choices were safe and uninspired as usual. However, he still sang them almost technically perfectly even if his performance itself was a bit stiff and he failed to convince me that he has any idea what romantic love is all about. The reason he’s tops this week is because everyone else did worse and David A is a stone. He has fans that like what he does and he gives it to them week after week without fail. It’s not my thing, but apparently someone likes it.
   
   

   David Archuleta – Stand by Me

   [youtube QV_cNPcyOrQ]

   David Archuleta – Love Me Tender

   [youtube cHVGRa1QmG0]
   

 

2. Syesha Mercado – “Proud Mary” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” – Syesha gave the best stage performances of the night. I definitely agree with the judges comment that she has shown up to win the last few weeks. I’ve said all along that she has one of the best voices in the competition and now that she’s actually performing well and making better song choices she’s really starting to stand out – especially since everyone else is screwing up. I’m not sure I understood her comparison of the civil rights movement to her American Idol journey when she spoke of the second song, but I guess she knew what she meant. She probably overdid it a little bit on the second song or I might have put her in first place for the week.

   UPDATE: Syesha’s second video has been pulled from YouTube because of a copyright claim by someone. I’ll keep looking for a copy of it elsewhere
   

   
   

   Syesha Mercado – Proud Mary

   [youtube UU9cgoWapRo]

   Syesha Mercado – A Change Is Gonna Come

   [youtube Sz1cvWMy7WQ]
   

 

3. David Cook – “Hungry Like The Wolf” and “Baba O’Reilly” – After demonstrating refreshing originality and singing circles around his fellow competitors for most of the competition, David Cook stumbled badly tonight. It’s not that he sang all that badly. It’s just that his song choices were actually really poor. Out of all the songs he could have chosen I have a hard time understanding why he would choose “Hungry Like The Wolf,” especially when he didn’t even do anything original to it. His second song choice was better and he sang it better but the song didn’t easily lend itself to such a short version and it caused it to sound really disjointed (the bridge was like 2 seconds long). It was a very poor showing in a week when David C should have been blowing the others away if he plans to win this thing. By the end of his first song I couldn’t help but recall Chris Daughtry’s lackluster performance during Elvis week at this exact same point last year that helped him get kicked off the show.
   
   

   David Cook – Hungry Like The Wolf

   [youtube hrDyMZJi5mI]

   David Cook – Baba O’Reilly

   [youtube 3H1AHNpaQz8]
   

 

4. Jason Castro – “I Shot The Sheriff” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” – What had looked like a downhill slide a week or two ago looked like a full fledged self destruction last night. Rumors have been rampant that Jason Castro has been wanting off the show for a couple of weeks now. In fact, he actually told Entertainment Weekly that he’s “kind of ready to go home.” At one point last night it actually looked like Jason was mouthing the words “Don’t vote” when they were showing his phone numbers after the second song. I don’t know for a fact that any of this is absolutely true, but if his performances last night are any indication, Jason couldn’t care less about being on this show. His first performance was just horrendous while his second performance was better but he actually forgot the words. He’s in the top 4 and he forgot the words to his song! The judges had little mercy on him which kind of makes me think that a lot of the rumors are true. Jason himself barely seemed phased by his bad performances. While I have been a fan of Jason in the past, this sort of behavior is unacceptable. I have no respect for someone who doesn’t try their best. He might think that being tied down to an American Idol contract would be bad for his future plans, but committing career suicide before he ever has a contract would be much worse. I’m completely at a loss as to why anyone would act the way he did or perform as badly as he performed. His song choices were just absurd. Complete failure on every level.
   
   

   Jason Castro – I Shot the Sheriff

   [youtube Y3J6WZ3KnH8]

   Jason Castro – Mr. Tambourine Man

   [youtube VI7cHDQ4odI]
   

Who’s Going Home?

It’s no big secret that this is the point of the competition where we said goodbye to one-time frontrunners Tamyra Grey, Latoya London, and Chris Daughtry – all in surprising fashion. Could this week bring yet another upset vote out? I would like to say yes, but I don’t think it’s likely.

Before watching last night’s show I had almost convinced myself that we could be in store for a momentous upset this week on the scale of David Archuleta. I was thinking this is the point of the competition that the fan base gets relaxed and think their Idol is safe so they don’t vote. David hasn’t been overly exciting lately so I thought maybe his fans would get lax and he would be ripe for the upset. I no longer really think it’s going to happen. It could, but I doubt it. The media has made a big deal of this being the week that Daughtry went out and Ryan pointed it out on the show so it seems unlikely that any of the contestants fans would just sit back and allow their Idol to get voted out without trying.

In addition to the above, we have the fact that Jason Castro was so completely terrible. David Cook wasn’t his usual great self either, but he was decent – downright brilliant when compared to Jason. There’s a slim chance that David C could be the upset vote out as he runs the same risk David A does, but, again, I don’t think that will happen.

We might see him and Jason on the stage for the reading of the results, though. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but last week they never actually said that Syesha was in the bottom two. There’s been a lot of talk this week that Idol sort of fudged the whole thing for dramatic effect. It seems they would have chosen someone other than Syesha to stand up against Brooke if they were going for drama, though, right? Not necessarily. According to some reports, Syesha was actually the top vote getter last week, not the two Davids. If that is actually true, it makes sense that Idol would stand her next to Brooke, never say that she’s in the bottom two, and play the whole thing for dramatic effect. Everyone who voted for her would be on the edge of their seats.

All of this is pure speculation, of course. It seems silly to be speculating on who they’re going to stand on the stage for the elimination when we haven’t even discussed who will be eliminated. But then I think you know who I think will probably go. I’m sure his fans dialed their little fingers off last night, but I can’t imagine enough people called in to save him after those performances. But then, I’ve been wrong before…many, many, many times…

My prediction to get voted out this week: Jason Castro.

The American Idol Top 4

• David Archuleta, 17, Murray, UT
• Jason Castro, 20, Rockwall, TX
• David Cook, 25, Tulsa, OK
• Syesha Mercado, 21, Miami, FL
• Brooke White, 24, Van Nuys, CA (Top 5)
• Carly Smithson, San Diego, CA (Top 6)
• Kristy Lee Cook, 24, Selma, OR (Top 7)
• Michael Johns, 29, Los Angeles, CA (Top 8)
• Ramiele Malubay, 20, Miramar, FL (Top 9)
• Chikezie Eze, 22, Inglewood, CA (Top 10)
• Amanda Overmyer, 23, Mulberry, IN (Top 11)
• David Hernandez, 24, Glendale, AZ (Top 12)