MBADC American Idol
Armchair Quarterback 2006
American Idol from
the perspective of someone who's booked artists at the national-level: who we like in the
competition, what works, what doesn't work, what contestants can do to improve
their chances of success, and advice you can apply to your own performances.
Week Fourteen:
The Top 6 Sing Greatest Love Songs
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Guests: Andrea Bocielli and
David Foster
Katharine McPhee: Katharine McPhee’s version of Whitney Houston’s “I
Have Nothing” had a fairly good vocal, but some of the high notes were a
little too high for Katherine, producing an overly-throaty sound. She also
unsuccessfully broke a cardinal in terms of song choice: doing a Whitney
Houston song in a talent competition is always an artist’s nemesis because
of the obvious comparison. In terms of stage presence, it was Katharine’s
best performance of the competition, but she’s still doing the thing that
drives us nuts: smiling her way through a sad song. The song’s lyric is
about begging the guy not to leave, so it looks insincere when the singer is
smiling though it. The wardrobe malfunction was unfortunate, but she handled
it well. Tips for success: 1. Don’t sing Whitney Houston in a talent
competition. 2. Pay attention to the lyrics and be sure your facial
expression conveys the same mood as the lyrics. What is the song saying? How
does the character feel? Is a smile congruent with that feeling? You can’t
make the audience feel it if it’s not believable.
Elliott Yamin: Elliott Yamin’s version of Donnie Hathaway’s “A Song for
You” was an excellent vocal, and was his best performance of the competition
thus far. But as we said about Katharine’s performance, it’s a song of
longing, so smiling doesn’t come off well. Tips for success: Pay
attention to what the lyrics are saying, and convey the emotion of them
100%--facial expression and all.
Kellie Pickler: Kellie Pickler’s “Unchained Melody” was an unfortunate
song choice, and the arrangement was too slow for her voice. She was also
pitchy—except for the big note, which shows she was focusing too much on
that one and not the rest of the song. In terms of stage presence, she’s
come a long way, but the rest of the performance just didn’t work. And the
hair was…unfortunately not the AI hair guru’s best work. Tips for
success: Song selection, song selection, song selection. And, never put
all your focus on just one note. The whole song has to come together for
that note to count.
Paris Bennett: Paris Bennett’s choice of Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We
Were” was too “old” of a song selection for her, because the lyrics are
about looking back on a long relationship to a time when the characters in
the lyrics were young. Vocally, it wasn’t her best because she oversang the
soft part and had too much vibrato. In terms of stage presence, like
Katharine and Elliott, she smiled her way through it…a mistake, because “The
Way We Were” is a song of longing and pain. We take it she hasn’t seen the
movie? Tips for success: Connect with the lyrics.
Taylor Hicks: Taylor Hicks’ choice of James Ingram’s was an excellent
choice for his voice, but the arrangement, to be blunt, absolutely sucked
and was so out of synch with Taylor’s vocal style, it just didn’t work. Had
he been singing with just a piano, it would have been great. As it was…it
was vocally pitchy, and the band seemed to overshadow him and drown him out.
Since Taylor’s usually vocally on point, we think he probably couldn’t hear
himself. Tips for success: A good song can be killed by a bad
arrangement. Make sure it doesn’t outshine you, and know in advance how
you’ll handle the vocal if you’re stuck with it.
Chris Daughtry: Chris Daughtry’s version of Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever
Really Loved a Woman” was an excellent vocal, and although it’s not one of
our favorite songs, Chris really made us believe the lyric. We loved the way
he ended the song, and it was definitely the performance of the night.
Musically, we liked the band’s performance on this one, and the fact that
the acoustic guitarists were down front with Chris. Tips for success:
Song selection could be a little better, but we love Chris’s voice so much,
that’s quibbling.
We voted for: Chris Daughtry. Close second: Elliott’s vocal was close,
but Chris’s overall performance was more believable.
Ryan Seacrest Smart Quip of the Night: None, but his wailing attempt at
singing opera was hilarious. Ya gotta love a guy who’s not afraid of
possibly making a fool of himself.
American Idol
Armchair Quarterback
The MBADC American Idol Armchair Quarterback is intended as commentary and
is not affiliated with Fox Television, American Idol, or its producers or
judges in any way. Tips should be taken as a suggestion only and are not
intended as a substitute for qualified vocal coaching or artist management.
The official American Idol website is
http://www.americanidol.com.
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