Last night’s American Idol saw the exits of two contestants, as well as a bunch of weird stuff that made me wonder if Paula Abdul had secretly added producing the show to her choreography duties. There was a little bit of old (the disco medley that trotted out a bunch of disco-era stars, who were definitely not lipsyncing), a little bit of new (Lykke Li’s “I’m Good, I’m Gone” soundtracking the Ford ad), and a ghost of last year’s Idol (David Archuleta, who was forced to fill a minute with an awkward pep talk about Idol-derived “opportunities” for this week’s elimination candidates). Lil Rounds, as expected, went home, and was informed that she would be doing so in an elimination sequence that was as awkward as it was short. And then there was Anoop Desai, who had an off performance this week but who really deserved better from the judges during the course of the competition.
After all, the awkward thing about Idol is that it’s slightly out of touch with what’s actually going on in pop music–not that being on top of it is always easy, mind you, but given that the Idol powers-that-be do get paid a lot of money to be arbiters of these sorts of things, you’d think they’d have the ability to at least turn on the radio once in a while. (Or to hire interns who could do so.) In a year where the producer-divined top two are working in genres that are either outdated (Danny Gokey’s Boltonish take on “inspirational music”) or unproven on a mass level in the States (Adam Lambert’s glammed-out mini-revues), Anoop was one of the two members of the Top 12 whose overall “thing” is close to what’s actually happening in one part of the pop charts, with Kris Allen’s Mraz-y charm being the other. He not only had the chops to play with falsetto on certain tracks, he had enough respect for songcraft to show restraint in his phrasing when it was called for–which, of course, is the kiss of death on Idol, a show that’s all about this big, bloated country that we call home. (In a lot of ways, the dorky, mawkish, utterly annoying Gokey is the perfect contestant for the show, but I’ll leave that depressing postmortem for another time.)
Anyway, farewell, Anoop; you will be missed, and your shout-outs to the band as you were being shown the door proved your classiness even further. There is one good thing about your elimination: Idol‘s Top Five this year won’t be a sausage race. But then again, if Gokey had been voted off…
American Idol [Official site]
[Pic via Top Idol]
I didn’t see it, but can somebody please explain to me why Freda Payne was there when her last hit was a pre-disco anti-Vietnam number from 1971?
@bcapirigi: blame paula?
In that picture, Anoop’s eyes make it seem he’s stoned out of his gourd.
I dunno; he’s obviously a good singer and hey, stylish! Guess his schmoop-ballad strategy didn’t work. He really shoulda stuck with the “dorky Indian guy does New Jack Swing covers” schtick.
Interesting, though, that Alison was in the bottom 3. As much as the judges praise her and as good as her voice may be, there’s something really lacking that’s preventing me from feeling the love, and I think it’s that she could be anybody. She doesn’t seem to have anything resembling a personality, and it’s really stopping anyone from forming a connection with her.
Gokey, of course, has the opposite problem.
@KingofPants: I think that after “Beat It””s poor reception, and the good reception of “Always on My Mind,” Anoop decided to stick to ballads. Some think he’s this year’s Castro- the unappreciated, designated punching bag.
As for Allison, I don’t get this “no personality” thing. Carrie Underwood had no personality. I find Allison to be quirky and cute and accessible, and I saw personality from her second performance with the “It’s not like I’m cutting myself” comment. I know it’s allegedly a “boy’s year,” but I think Allison deserves to last a while, and she’d be in a better position if they’d given her more praise from the start.
@Varina: I think the “no personality” thing comes from her youth and the fact that she’s been thinking about this for a while. I also think she’s muzzling something, frankly. She obviously have quirkiness and a personality, but it like the song choices she makes, and the general Idol-ness of her persona (for lack of a better term), get in the way? Like she’s trying to cram herself into the “designated female belter” camp, but it’s not the best fit for her?
I never saw any Idol before this, so I don’t know about Castro (Fidel? LULZ) or Carrie Underwood. This is all a strange new world to me.
I’ll just miss saying his name.
ANOOP!
@sicksteanein: so will ryan!
I am not entertained by holograms. That is all.
i just wanted to say paula’s dress was smokin’, and also that KC’s performance was entertaining in a way that was probably not intended.
I’ll just say this. If Gokey wins, there is no justice left in this cruel world. I’m just hoping his inherent lack of talent and awful smugness catches up to him, and fast. If Allison, for example, is eliminated before Gokey, I’m going on a killing spree. That said, if Gokey’s there for the finals, it gives it some urgency.
I’m starting to think Kris Allen has a chance, there’s little not to like there.
@LeBron: I am still baffled by Gokey’s popularity. He’s just not that good, period. I’m pretty OK with everyone else left in the competition, but Gokey just drives me nuts.
@ghostyhead: He has a friend whose name rhymes with “Beezus Geist.”
@KingofPants: AND A DEAD WIFE
I guess we now know for sure which Semifinal group-of-12 was the strongest. All three of the Semifinal, Round 2 winners (Allison, Adam, and Kris), as well as one Round 2 Wild Card pick (Matt), made it to the Top 5. (Two other Round 2 Wild Card picks — Jasmine and Megan — made the Top 13.) Only Danny (Round 1) remains from the 24 Semifinalists from Rounds 1 and 3.
I agree with your comments about *how* Lil was informed of the results. That just seemed very classless on Idol’s part, but I know it may have been difficult to come up with an elimination format for eliminating two people from a total of seven, so I won’t be too harsh.
Also, this result provides further validation of my theory that America’s move to text-voting has rendered DialIdol almost useless as a predictor of the week’s outcome. DialIdol had Lil first, with Matt, Kris, and Allison in the bottom three.
@RobMurphy: I think you’re right about DialIdol. It’s time for them to give it up and/or move to a new format. Given the choice between dialing and redialing 10-20 times and just sending a text message, the choice seems obvious.
It was pretty obvious when I came to this site last year that you guys championed generic rocker David Cook(who delivered a turd of an album currently about to drop out of the Top 50 and told his fans to leave him alone),
http://perezhilton.com/2009-03-24-david-cook-is-a-douche
but all I can tell this year is that you hate Danny Gokey. We all have our favorites, but all you’re doing is bashing the guy for either his faith(although you have no problem with Prince being a Jehovah’s Witness) or how Idol exploited his wife passing away just like they did with David Cook’s brother being sick last year.
He’s not the best singer I’ve ever heard, but he’s certainly decent enough to be on the show. Yes, he’s a corny guy, but American Idol is a corny show.
@jonian2008: sensitive much? i actually think danny’s VOICE sucks. it sounds like michael bolton. go read back.
and yeah, david was a lesser-of-two-evils at the end. i actually liked jason castro last year.
@jonian2008: and, uh, how are archie’s sales going? i’m just asking.
also those david cook fans who he asked to back off? they’re actually scary cougars who are obnoxious to other fans. read someone who isn’t perez hilton and you’ll see.
@jonian2008: Oh, we’ve got plenty of problems with Prince being a Jehovah’s Witness. The only good thing about that was that he got Larry Graham to be his bassist. The albums during this period have been a mixed bag, to say the least.
@Maura: Last time I checked Wikipedia, David Cook had sold about 1.1 million vs. close to 700k for Archuleta.
Also, the one reason I was sad to see Anoop go is that I felt like more than any other contestant he was the one who really needed to go far in the competition to prove his commercial potential, simply because if you look at the pop charts, there is no one doing what he wants to do (modern r&b) who, for the lack of a better way to put it, looks like he does. So he had to prove not only that he had the talent to make it in the pop charts, but also that an Asian American could be commercially viable as a mainstream r&b singer (because of his taste in music, he doesn’t seem likely to try to make it on Broadway). Obviously, we don’t know what his post-Idol future holds, but I think being eliminated before getting to the Top 5 or Top 3 just make those prospects that much dimmer.
@jonian2008: Welcome back to the site. I personally couldn’t care less about his faith. He just seems like an unlikeable, smug jackass. The wife exploitation angle makes me want to take a shower. And he’s not a great singer.
Aside from that, I love the guy.
Jealous bastards!