I meant to have this entry posted by yesterday evening but the servers at blogger.com weren't very cooperative at that point in time; Not only was my long entry un-published, it was un-saved too -- I was f***ing frustrated initially but... oh well, nothing works perfectly all the time, rite?? ;)
1. Scott Savol - The Impossible Dream (Man of La Mancha)
2. Constantine Maroulis - My Funny Valentine (Babes in Arms)
3. Carrie Underwood - Hello, Young Lovers (The King and I)
4. Vonzell Solomon - People (Funny Girl)
5. Anthony Fedorov - Climb Every Mountain (The Sound of Music)
6. Nikko Smith - One Hand, One Heart (West Side Story)
7. Anwar Robinson - If Ever I Would Leave You (Camelot)
8. Bo Bice - Corner of the Sky (Pippin)
9. Nadia Turner - As Long As He Needs Me (Oliver)
Anywayz, this week's Musicals theme must have had everyone feeling a little perplexed and even slightly miffed. All the contestants, with the exception of Bo Bice, performed droopy, monotonous ballads which had the same basic formula i.e. starting off slow and draggy and ending with a few big notes. However, rest assured that not ALL songs from musicals are sad, torchy ballads about love-lost or love-found -- the problem lies with the contestants' uninspired song choices, and the pop-influenced spin of their respective songs.
Song execution is also an important factor to consider -- Showtunes can be worth a listen to when sung by an able singer or interpreter. For instance, who can forget Latoya London's spirited take of Don't Rain On My Parade from the film musical Funny Girl or Fantasia Barrino's heart-wrenching Summertime from Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess? Indeed, while all of this season's finalists are talented singers in their own right, none of them seems to possess the sheer range and control of Latoya, the magnetic exuberance of Fantasia or the astonishing lung-power of Diana Degarmo.
I wasn't very surprised with Nikko's "untimely" elimination from the show. For one thing, his performances thus far have never been truly awesome and in my honest opinon, One Hand One Heart is his best vocal work to date. It's such a pity that the latter came abit too late and he has not garnered a fan-base large enough to sustain him further in the competition. Scott too, is at a great disadvantage in this department and clearly, his vocals isn't as impressive as some of the others. Vonzell's placing in the bottom three, nevertheless, was abit of a shocker considering the tremendous improvements she has shown over the last couple of weeks. In this respect, I think, Vonzell is a little like Trenyce from season 2; clearly, the talent is evident but the chameleon-like quality of the performances does not have that personal, distinctive (x-factored) flavour that might win over many dedicated fans in the long run.
And as we all know, fan-base is all that matters in Idol competitions, whether you're in USA, Poland, Britain, Malaysia or Singapore. Intellects may curse and swear but "heart-throbs" like Constantine and Anthony will forever have adoring tweens who will overlook their strident flaws and vote senselessly to make sure they won't end up in the bottom three positions. HOwever, if Constantine performs another ballad next week, complete with faux-sex-god eyes, I swear I'll jump out from my window~!!!
