Seventeen year-old Hawaiian, Jasmine Trias & freckly, sixteen year-old John Stevens are the latest additions to AI3's last group of finalists. Coincidentally, John Stevens is only the second male contestant to make it to the final twelve so far after Matthew Rogers from Group Two. This is rather worrisome because in the past AI seasons, the proportion of male finalists to females has always been equal. Will the producers actually let the male to female ratio be unbalanced for this season?? we shall just have to wait and see....
In the meantime, let's flashback abit to see how Group 4 had performed on wednesday night;
First up, Susie Vulaca's Unbreak My Heart was easily one of the better performances of the night. However, she doesnt really have that xfactor which could make her distinctive... John Preator, on the hand, is a refreshing, pretty boy affair (it's funny how this season's AI is totally lacking in male talent) but his rendition of michael bolton's That's What Love Is All About managed to convince me that THAT was what AI is certainly NOT about; i.e. pretty boys who think they can sing but actually they cant.. or at least, not really. ;p Anyway, he was a tad more tolerable than our next contestant; Heather Piccinini! Previously denounced as a Kimberley Caldwell clone, Heather had gotten rid of her blonde tresses for a.. erm.. less blonde look but unfortunately, her oooh-oooh-oohs in the song New Attitude sort of killed all my hopes for her. Ok.. so maybe it wasnt THAT bad but her facial expressions were quite painful to watch nevertheless. John Stevens was our fourth contestant for the night with his take on Billy joel's Always A Woman To Me. I've always had a softspot for Stevens (yes; i'm a sucker for pple who can sing like one of the rat-pack i.e. sinatra, dean martin and what-not) but he was actually pretty boring and mundane. Wrong song choice perhaps?? Truthfully speaking, i am having some doubts about him; he's certainly not AI-winning material but i think he deserves a shot at it somehow..
Our fifth performer was Jasmine Trias and replete wif flower in hair, she belted a credible version of whitney's Run To You. It wasnt the best performance in AI3 but it was the best for this group. Jasmine may be a leetle too young but she's got a wonderful vocal tone and texture and i'm sure all she needs is some polishing up before she could really blow us all away with her vocal chops. After sweet & pretty Jasmine, George Huff was abit of an eyesore... He looked at least ten years older than his age and he seemed to have left his fashion sense at home somewhere. However, i guess he more than made up for his lacklustre looks with his almost-excellent rendition of Always And Forever. But then, is it just me or does he sound like he's got a sore-throat??? Up next, Lisa Wilson's Come To My Window proved to us that the size of her open mouth is more than a match for the size of her heaving bosom. Her unexpectedly gruff & hoarse wailing was indeed very disturbing to listen to. In short, her performance was absolutely ghastly! (this last comment to be made in faux english accent.. LOL) kimberley caldwell's version from last season was definitely much, much better. Last but not least, Tiara Purifoy attempted to wow us with a very spritely rendition of whitney's Wanna Dance With Somebody but with disastrous results. It was all very splendid up til the middle parts when she all but massacred the last twenty seconds of her song. (i very much prefer elizabeth letendre's version from last week) Oh well; at least she was confident enough to let America decide her fate... Thankfully for all the rest of us who were not able to vote, America did not think she was eligible for the final twelve. Hurrah~!
So once again, my heartfelt congrats to Jasmine Trias & John Stevens; two worthy contestants to make it the final twelve of AI3... ;-)
