American Idol: Carly Booted From Great White Way
After Tuesday’s train wreck, how would the six Idol hopefuls fare? The musical theater songs of Sir Andrew Lord Webber, as the judges rightly noted, are more complex than most of the pop hits the contestants have so far taken on; the bigger voices carried the night, and the more musically adept performers seemed closest to making it to the next round. But how would America vote?
To begin, the six Idols gave a pneumatic performance of “All I Ask of You,” the famous love duet from Phantom of the Opera. It’s a giant, emotional song, and unsurprisingly, was not particularly convincing from the sextet of nervous singers. But they plunged through it credibly enough. The evening’s other new performance, “Bleeding Heart” by Simon protégée Leona Lewis, dwarfed it easily—not that there was much competition.
A montage of scenes from the night before reminded viewers of the performances: the good, the bad, and the worse. Syesha surprised with an excellent rendition of “One Rock ‘N’ Roll Too Many,” the evening’s best; Carly did well with “Superstar,” a song suited to her enormous voice; the Davids did fine, as usual; and Brooke and Jason were poor. Sad Brooke took the majority of criticism on Tuesday, which was unkindly reprised last night: she forgot the lyrics to “You Must Love Me” less than a minute in, paused, composed herself, then began anew and sang the song straight through. It’s the kind of gaffe that any rational mortal would pardon and ignore—the pause was literally seconds in, and barely disturbed the performance at all. But Idol, including the usually merciful Paula, was aghast. Brooke, looking shell-shocked and terrified, clearly thought tonight was her night to go.
But, as it turned out, it wasn’t. On the contrary, Brooke was not—to her clear surprise—even in the bottom two. Neither were the Davids (of course). Syesha found herself once again in the hot seat: while discussing her performance with Ryan, she looked blissfully at ease and confident in her performance. But once again she found herself at the bottom, and off she trotted to the perilous chairs.
The other obvious candidate for the bottom two was Jason, who spent last night butchering “Memory” from Cats. The performance was, all admitted, abysmal, and Jason looked haunted as he waited to hear his fate. But his teen girl fan base had spoken, and Jason was safe. Instead it was Carly, Tuesday’s other strongest performer, who found herself in the bottom two.
In the end, Carly was sent home. As one of the strongest, most consistent voices in the competition this season, Carly seemed destined for a place at the top, and her removal this week feels unjust, a vote based more on popularity than on talent. It may be inevitable that after watching the contestants for so many weeks, personalities (or physical attributes) assert themselves more strongly than singing voices. But it’s a low week for American Idol when a genuinely talented performer is sent home while at least three less qualified contestants carry on to sing next week with Neil Diamond.
–Matthew Schneier
April 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
April 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
[...] Karen [...]
April 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I’m fed up and I’m not watching Idol anymore because it seems that it’s a big popularity contest for all of the teeny bop girls to vote for their favorite “boy” even though they are less talented than some of the others who have enornmous potential. There’s no doubt that Carly’s career will soar after all of this exposure and the weaker will just fade away like years past.Good luck, Carly!
April 24th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
[...] Vh1 Blog added an interesting post today on American Idol: Carly Booted From Great White WayHere’s a small reading [...]
April 24th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[...] VH1 wrote an interesting post today on American Idol: Carly Booted From Great White WayHere’s a quick excerpt… hits the contestants have so far taken on; the bigger voices carried the night, and the more musically adept performers seemed closest to making it to the next round. But how would America vote? (more…)American Idol, Music, Television. [...]
April 24th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I’m with you Rachel! I said the very same thing last night. I do not care to watch Idol because it isn’t about the talent anymore. Then I started thinking about past seasons and how many of the ones voted off outperformed the winners in the years to come. So Carly, I’m hoping that this is the best thing that could happen to you and you go on to become a HUGE star. I would buy your album. Best of luck!!
April 24th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
this was a huge mistake letting carly go,,,,,,,,, i think jason castro and david aucheltta should go,,,,,
with david A,,hes only 17,,this isnt high school musical,,its american idol,,for that matter he should have been disqualified for this,,he was on star search ,, a few years back,, also his father allegedly bullied his contender on that show and was ultimtely banned from returning,,,,,david A,, should go,,,and jason castro,, they dont have the IT factor,,,,and as far as letting kristy lee go,,another huge mistake,,,,,,i agree with rachel,,,i think the teeny boppers cell phones should be taken from them…look at it this way,,,,carly will be huge,,, just like kelly pickler is now,,,,and she didnt win,,,and daugtry,,he didnt win,,taylor hicks did,,and nothing came of it,,he played here at the house of blues in myrtle beach and the ticket sales were low,,,,,,
so again.. vote off david aucheltta,,hes just too young,,and let jason castro go,,,,,,,,,
have a nice day
April 24th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
maybe you like to go to ~intimatemingl.com~ that is a free interracial dating club. american idols all like to go there, chatting and dating. they can relax themselves. maybe they have found their soul mate here.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:50 am
WTH are you all on crack!? Carly clearly did not do well on Tuesday, otherwise the votes would have poured in for her and she would still be there.
The public has spoken; they do not want an already-recorded FAILURE as their American Idol. Therefore, TCO David Archuleta will win the entire thing, as he is the ONLY decent person left that hasn’t had a career involving music [sure, the kid was on Star Search...did anything come up of it? nope!] or commercials [Syesha].
The order will go as follows:
5. Jason/Brooke
4. David Cook [they have to have another rocker shocker, i.e. Daughtry]
3. Jason/Brooke
2. Syesha
1. David Archuleta
Or something to that effect.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
i just wanted you to know it was a very sad night when you got voted out i called over 20 time promis me one thing dont QUIT keep going the best of luck to you