Chaska Herald - American Idol: Beatles redux - Comments

Tonight, contestants will

Mollee Francisco — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:36:56 -0500

Tonight, contestants will reportedly sing songs from their birth year which, for all but Michael Johns and David Archuleta will mean more 80s music.

Micheal will take a crack at the tunes of 1978 (a great year if I say so myself), while David A. gets the first chance to sing a tune from the 90s (1990 to be precise).

(Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.)

And God help us all, if

Mark Olson — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:50:17 -0500

And God help us all, if someone decides to sing "Heartlight."

Neil Diamond! I wonder who

Mark Olson — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:46:40 -0500

Neil Diamond! I wonder who will belt out my favorite song lyrics: "And no one heard at all, not even the chair."

Celebrity mentors on this

Mollee Francisco — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:13:30 -0500

Celebrity mentors on this season's Idol will include Mariah Carey (which has been rumored forever and is not something to look forward to), Andrew Lloyd Webber (Hello Broadway night! Get your "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera" cds out and at the ready), Dolly Parton (country night perhaps and me thinks she'll be a fun mentor for the contestants and the viewers - how can you not love Dolly???) and finally Neil Diamond (which was totally included in my list of potential theme nights after the Bee Gees disaster last May).

That means two of my suggested theme nights (Beatles was the other one) are being fufilled this year. Woo hoo! You can read my other suggestions here: http://www.chaskaherald.com/community/mfrancisco/american-idol-songs-mad...

Which theme night are you most looking forward to? Any songs from those mentors you're hoping to hear? What theme night do you think Idol should consider.

I have to admit that I read Carly suggest an Idol duet night which would probably be very interesting. Certainly something to consider spicing up the old routine with!

(Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.)

I didn't love Amanda, but I

Ruth Anne Maddox — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:40:15 -0500

I didn't love Amanda, but I didn't hate her either, and I'm sorry to see her go.

Kristy Lee has been in the bottom three for the past three weeks -- I think there's a good reason for that.

Amanda would have been such a better performer on the AI tour and she should have been in the Top 10.

And did you notice Kristy's

ChicChick — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:18:21 -0500

And did you notice Kristy's reaction when she found out she was safe? I'm pretty sure she volunteered to take Amanda's place being voted off. She KNOWS she shouldn't be there! That must be very uncomfortable.

I second this idea. If you

ChicChick — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:15:43 -0500

I second this idea. If you are getting kicked off, that means that people don't want to see you anymore.

And who wants to sing after you just found out you lost, anyway?

I have no idea why I didn't

ChicChick — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:13:38 -0500

I have no idea why I didn't do this in the first place. I really must learn to put my Tivo to better use!

I'd like to vote that if

webMonkey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:06:17 -0500

I'd like to vote that if someone loses, we don't have to hear them sing at the end. I mean... they probably got kicked off for a reason, that reason being they weren't as good as those that remain. Why then do we have to hear them again?

Let's hear the person with the most votes sing again - after all, we liked that performance.

"Another frickin Haley

Mollee Francisco — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:58:42 -0500

"Another frickin Haley Scarnato" - that was the quote out of my fiance's mouth when Kristy Lee Cook was sent to safety tonight.

AI lost a bit of variety tonight (certainly for the girls) as they said goodbye to Amanda Overmyer.

After her "You Can't Do That" performance last week, I'm genuinely sad to see her go. She wasn't my fave by far, but she had a lot more to offer than KLK.

(Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.)

Anyone else disappointed not

Mollee Francisco — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:32:04 -0500

Anyone else disappointed not to hear a certain Beatles song over the last two weeks? I was really hoping someone would tackle "Hey Jude," "Nowhere Man," or "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."
P.S. You should resist that iPhone urge until the rumors come true that the entire iTunes catalog will be free to iPhone users. Talk about perks not just any cell phone provider can offer!
(Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.)

Note: If you're going to do

webMonkey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:05:39 -0500

Note: If you're going to do a terrible product placement advertisement by pretending to use a phone... turn the phone on.

I enjoyed David Cook last night (again) - I'll be pleased if a rocker can go all the way and win the competition.

Meanwhile... I have this strange compulsion to go buy an iPhone.

One word (actually an

Ruth Anne Maddox — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:09:03 -0500

One word (actually an acronym) -- DVR.

I have yet to watch AI in live time and the DVR lets me zoom through the commercials and the droll parts so I will have far less than 2 hours invested when I look at last night's show tonight while tonight's is being recorded. Then I can skip all the recaps and get to the meat of the show.

If I decide I want to start voting, I can watch the show after it ends and still have time to push some numbers.

Wouldn't it be nice if next

Mollee Francisco — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:06:38 -0500

Wouldn't it be nice if next week featured a theme that lends itself to music from the last 20 years? To date, these kids have been saddled with music limited to the 60-80s. That's a tall order for a group whose olded member was born in 1978.
(Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.)

This night was absolutely

ChicChick — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:08:43 -0500

This night was absolutely painful! I want those two hours of my life back.

I enjoyed the Hobbit's performance again this evening, but that's about it. Jason was creepy; Brooke was out of control; Ramiele was boring; and Kristy and Amanda once again overstayed their welcome in my living room.

I'm really looking forward to a different genre next week, but I do hope we can finally cut it down to an hour since we'll only have ten contestants.

And I would like to know why there was so much discussion about song choice and explanations after the judges had their say, aside from the fact we had to run for two hours. If the judges said it wasn't your best performance, take it all in and move on. Don't go for the sympathy vote and feel like you have to explain your song choice and dance moves (*ahem* Brooke, Carly, and Michael). I really find it off-putting when people feel the need to constantly defend themselves against the judges. You are there to perform. They are there to give their opinion. End of story.

And a final observation...with all of the Davids in this year's competition, I just now realized that there are two Cooks as well! Are Hobbit and Cowgirl related??

American Idol: Beatles redux

Mollee Francisco — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:08:41 -0500

Ok, time to close the Beatles book now and "get back" to business. Two nights was WAY too much of the Fab Four (when the Fab Four aren't present to deliver the music).

Beatles part II, produced uninspired performances across the board and did a disservice to the vast depth of the great catalog.

Advice to producers: the next time you get clearance to a cabinet of hundreds of songs (many of them timeless) let the contestants do what they will with it. Don't handicap performances by limiting choices to songs "people will know."