As I gloomily predicted yesterday, Alexandrea Lushington–the spunky 17-year-old who turned “Spinning Wheel” and Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now” into songs that actually sounded somewhat current, despite the best efforts of the show’s worse-by-the-minute band–was eliminated from American Idol last night, thus continuing my track record of inadvertently voting off the people I’m voting for. (Well, at least Carly made it through. Uh, yeah.)To add insult to injury, yesterday I found out that she lost to David Archuleta on Star Search back in the day!
Anyway, while I do feel bad for Alex, I wonder if getting the early boot from Idol and its wedding-band ways, which emphasize Celine-style chest-pounding over “boring” things like nuance and interpreting lyrics, may not be a bad thing. As Chris Molanphy noted yesterday, she turned one of the whitest songs on Idol’s license-ready list of ’70s tracks into something resembling a believable R & B track; perhaps her early exit will allow her to hook up with some struggling-to-make-it producer and craft a fine little album while Archuleta is forced to sing whatever overly melismatic songs Simon Fuller et al throw at him. In the immediate, I’m just bummed that Alex had to exit the same week that Kady Malloy, whose out-and-out blandness is only exceeded by the craptasticness of her Wilson sisters impersations, was given another chance; the only thing that she should really be starring in at this point is the second-tier touring run of Britney Spears: The Opera.
As far as the other eliminations go: I’m not surprised that Amanda isn’t going home, since Vote For The Worst’s servers are back up and seemingly stronger than ever; Alaina probably wasn’t helped by the way she blended in with last year’s Alaina, who was also given an early exit; Robbie Carrico can now go home and brush his wig; and Jason Yaeger revealed that America is not ready for Josh Groban to cut an album of ’70s soft-rock classics just yet.
One final note–America kept the dude who botched “Bohemian Rhapsody” around too? This makes me afraid of just how large (and vocal, ha ha) the a cappella lobby in the United States is.
[Photo: AmericanIdol.com]
American Idol is a bevy of contradictions. One week they berate the hopefuls for being too safe with their song choices, and the next week, they say “stick with what you know”! Alexandrea had the bad fortune to be a great, nuanced singer in a contest made for belters. I’m glad she got kicked so early. Now she won’t have to go on the Top 12 year long tour/press junket and she can focus on becoming a real performer. Rock on, Alex! BTW, is there anyone else out there who thinks she might be batting for the “thespian” league? That would be awesome!
I actually didn’t mind Alexandrea’s version of “If You Leave Me Now.” What I did hate was that little thing near the end, that was wretched.
Alexandrea’s performance of “Spinning Wheel” was the best thing this whole season. Awesome song choice, great interpretation of said song and an outfit that recalled the early 90s way better than the current screaming neon revival.
As much as I liked Alexandrea, you can’t be shocked she lost after hearing that awful Chicago tripe. That was probably the worst song choice in AI history.
I’m more pissed at America for choosing tune-free pout-face Kady over the more effervescent Alaina. Oh well, I’ll never buy music by any of them anyway. La di da.
I think Alexandrea and Alaina were among the best of the girls, so it figures that they’d both go home early.
Alright, I’ll be the contrarian. I wasn’t impressed with Alexandrea on Wednesday night. I didn’t like her rendition of “If You Leave Me Now” at all. That said, I am sad to see her go, as she did have more personality than most of the other blonde carbon-copies.
Also about last nite, that moment when Alaina got the news, and broke down so badly she professed she couldn’t sing. But when she did finally sing, she sounded even better than she had the night before. That was something.
Luke botched “Killer Queen” - not “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Also, is there any way to vote Amanda off before she sings again next Wednesday? Please???
@Thierry: haha whoops, i’d blocked him out so much that i’d conflated his his ‘background’ video with the actual performance.
Also, so I don’t come off completely like a prick, Alexandrea did not do herself any favors with that outfit on Wednesday night.
You know how these things can go — a strange song choice, interpreted in an unfamiliar way, combined with an unusual hair-or-makeup-or-outfit choice, and you maybe won’t get as many votes as you would have if you’d “played it safe”.
Too bad. She had the best name.
I still can’t believe she’s out of the competition. How come contestants, who have never showed a standing ovation performance, manage to stay on top 12?