I'll raise you, three words.
Celebrity Fat Club

The reviews here were brill. Especially Duncann's. It's just so political. The rock vote, which is very strong in the States is divided though which probably means that neither Bo nor Constantine will be able to win unless they both get into the final when it'll be Hobson's choice. Constantine 'I love me who do you love' is tall but Ryan, bless him is small as he actually pointed out a couple of shows ago when he, quite endearingly, I thought, said 'It's alright folks, it's me that's short'. He immediately went up (pardon the pun) in my estimations. Carrie stands a great chance simply because she's pure American Pie and the only 'country and western' style singer and that's a huge market too together with the fact that no-one like that has ever won this competition before.

I'm still smitten with Anwar. I may not be his 'type' but who gives a .....

He said that?

I honestly don't understand why Scott is still on this show. I know why Anthony is still there - little teenage girls, I can imagine. But Scott? He frightens the hell out of me. He'd fit right in with the backwoods family from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Who is voting for him?

Tuesday's show was just awful. I didn't even bother voting. If I had, I would've voted for Vonzell and now I feel guilty for not doing my part.

Oh yeah, Fantasia sucked big time.

I haven't seen the show yet, but I'd guess, as has been said, that a fairly large section of the US voting public would have more in common with Scott than a lot of other contestants!

Frankly, I can't understand the cheerleading here for most of the contestants!

Whether you like her style of music or not, Carrie is miles ahead in the ability to sell cd's in the US market!

There are a couple of rockers who obviously have a fanbase, but thousands of other rockers would also have made the same impact.

As for Nadia/ Vonzell, I don't see it myself. Latoya and Diana had far better voices.

And the rest aren't up to much at all!

Thats how i feel about Carrie, i think that the reason why she stands out to some people, is she because shes the only person singing her genre type on the show so she stands out as being different. But if you compare her to other country singers shes nothing unique. So you could also say that Carrie has a fanbase, but thousands of other country singers would have made the same impact.

She does have a nice voice though.

[quote=duncannCarrie - rave reviews from the judges who said the song itself was boring. I disagree. They are all out of genre. Go see The King and I and you will see this is a hearbreaking bittersweet romantic song achingly, tenderly sung by a middle aged widow whose beautiful past is behind her. In every theatre for sixty years audiences have wept. Cue Carrie who looked great and came out at one billion deicibells and belted out a rousing drinking version of this song with gusto and all muscles rippling, far too old for her and America went mad for it. Why? Because subtle and art are missing from the American vocabulary. This is a country which couldn't find Siam on a map but carries guns, executes murderers and just lurves cheerleaders. Carrie knows it, so I'm not denigrating her. If they could do intelligentsia Stephen Sondheim would be a commercial success - but guess what - not one Sondheim song sung tonight. Best hair of the series. Result - hit in US, bomb in Europe.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree about that song. I love The King & I, and didn't think she got into what the song is about at all.

How I see it Nikko suffered as he sang too 'black' for America.

If he was the worst performer on the night then I am a Cambodian goat herder wearing straw pants and eating cheesey poofs.

AI is poor this year.

Well, if they pull that one off, we won't have so much of a reason to be ashamed of her as our 'Pop Idol' - at least she wasn't a convicted criminal!

Duncann, loving your work!

I agree. The only future in showbiz that I can see for Scott, is if someone signs him up as the before model, in a before and after anti McSlop campaign. Hey kids, don't supersize it, or you'll end up looking like this bloke.

Scott
Shit vocals. Sounded awful. He continues to put in poor performance after poor performance and to be frank he just doesn't cut it. Kinda good song choice but it's all a bit predictable with him isn't it!? I'm prepared to get abuse for this comment but I think if it weren't for his weight he would have been gone a couple weeks ago. Another bad performance.

Constantine
I didn't like it. His vocals are good in places and he does have definate stage presence, but i thought his rave reviews from the judges were a bit over the top. It was good enough to secure him a place in the next round, not much more to be said about it.

Carrie
Randy made a very valid point about brilliant singers being able to turn a mediocre song into a decent performance. Carrie achieved this and I think that's a true mark of a very good vocalist, which I think she definatley is. That said, you can't excuse bad song choices forever....

Vonzelle
I absoloutley loved it. She just keeps getting better to me, and I think this is one of her strongest performances to date (I still like her version of "Best of my Love" the most though). She's got a real charm about her and while her vocals can lack control in places, she does have an appeal with the audience that even the finest vocalists can sometimes not achieve. Lots of potential with her!

Anthony
Remind me again why this guy's still in? At the start of the song his vocals were so bad they were barely audiable. He cannot sing that low at all. Unfortunatley, that wasn't the only problem. Boring song choice and vocals never improved, despite his attempts to "show-boat" half way through. Really bad.

Nikko
Good song choice, but his vocals were weak in numerous places. He lacks control vocally and he verged off tune at some points. He still doesn't really own the stage.

Anwar
I was kinda bored with this performance, it wasn't one of the best. His vocals were fine as normal but he still hasn't given the American people a reason to vote him as the winner. He needs to bring something new to the table.

Bo
He always leaves me kind of cold but he's a very good performer. This was probably an impossible theme and week for him but I thought he did OK. And the people seem to love him so he's solid with me.

Nadia
As usual, she looked like a superstar. Absoloutley striking and stunning. Her vocals were just fine, but I feel she was nervous. She actually messed up the last note and didn't hit it but nobody seemed to notice. It was a good performance though.

My Top 3 This Week
1. Nadia
2. Vonzelle
3. Carrie

Who Should Have Gone?
Anthony or Scott

I agree with everything you've said!

My rankings for this week were:

1. Carrie
2. Vonzell
3. Nikko
4. Nadia
5. Bo
6. Constantine
7. Anwar
8. Scott
9. Anthony

My sentiments exactly. Scott is obviously outclassed by the others.

Who is voting for Anthony and Scott and WHY?! All right, fair play, everyone is entitled to their own opinion...but Scott frightens small children - actually he frightens ME and I am 23! And Anthony? Can't stand the kid...his teenage girl appeal and his sob story are the only things that have carried him this far. Yeah, he's got a good voice...but not a GREAT one.
I liked Nikko too, but he just reminded me of Steve Urkell from Family Matters a little too much!

jmsjmsjms,

Probably a little late in the game to post a reply, but here goes:

I am an American (I'll get back to this), but nevertheless enjoyed the sardonic tone of your review. Here are some random comments:

First of all, a blanket statement:
The theme seemed to throw most or all the contestants off, and was definitely not one that Simon enjoyed. So I think comments about the performances should be taken in this context.
I am dumbfounded by (and agree with your statement) that these young contestants are sadly lacking in the musical background and taste to have made better choices. The potential selection of material is vast. I have to write this off to being young (not neccessarily being American youth).

Scott: (I think, a good singer) made a very bad song selection. He will not be around much longer.
Constantine: not my favorite, but gaining my respect for his shrewdness in playing this game.
Carrie: Good song, good performance, but a victim of the theme.
Vonzell: Good choice, good performance. I didn't compare it to Streisand, because so many others (eg. Nat King Cole) have done versions
Anthony: Ughhh
Nikko: For some reason, my favorite performance, though he is not usually a favorite of mine.
Anwar: Many will hate me for this, but in spite of his great range and good looks, sounded too clinical and unpassionate. You have a point about his gayness, but I think this is mostly lost on middle America, so I don't think it will be a factor. After all, it wasn't a factor for Clay!
Bo: Anyone who believes his statement that he plopped his finger down on the page to choose the song is deluding themself. The song was very deliberately chosen as one he could "rock out" on, but it just didn't work for him.
Nadia: looked good, sang well.

Also just wanted to add that I thought you have a bit of an anti-American slant going on. OK, we deserve it in general, but I personally resent it.

Don't take it personally. Generally speaking most of the American finalists would knock spots off ours so we're probably just being a bit defensive.

As far as Scott goes we are definitely on shaky ground criticizing people voting for him, except for the fact that our fattie Michelle McManus appeared to have a much nicer personality than the lovely Scott, who is scarily lacking in that department. His speech at the end of this week's show was horrific and so spooky.

Is it just me, or is the show and this board less interesting this year than last? I haven't felt much compelled to write anthing anyway.

This week isn't really a good place to start, because the theme was so doubtful. But here are my comments anyway.

Scott
I like him, and his singing is very soothing to me. I'm not surprised that he has a criminal record, but for some reason that feels less of an issue than it did with Marc Dillon. He's still quite mediocre, so I don't care when he goes; and wouldn't want him to win at all.

Constantine
I thought he was the second best this week. Which says something about how weak this week was. He's always blaha blaha. Not a big star. But I don't mind if people enjoy him.

Carrie
She felt so good when she was first introduced, on the farm and all. Now... I haven't cared for her once in the finals. She still has the potential, I think, but it could be years off before she's doing anything wonderful and striking.

Vonzelle
I've liked her from the start. This week I found her performance objectionable though. It's so often those smooth modern soul singers don't seem to understand what they're really singing about - just that it's something "really passionate". Streisand has said that when she was first given those lyrics she didn't understand them. And you can hear that in her singing, it's like - "Hear here! This is true when you think about it!". Nothing like that with Vonzelle. By now I don't even mind if she goes.

Anthony
Poor chap! If he goes next week I hope it will be with a better performance, for us to remember him by.

Nikko
He could turn out to be the one I buy records of. But he's been too pitchy and too boring too long. I was almost relieved he went.

Anwar
My first favourite. But now he's just acceptable. I hope he can go back to some laid-back vibe in the future. Something more in harmony with his dreadlocks than this showbiz type of stuff.

Bo
I've started to really like him. He could become everything Michael Bolton should have been but never was.

Nadia
She was so much better than everybody else this week. Real star quality! Real glitz. Her singing isn't that accomplished, but she has character and she has soul. It makes me wonder where she would fit best. If she ended up at Broadway she'd be lost for me. Musicals are more boring than Opera for me. (And Opera is too much an effort to me most of the time. And the Covent Garden tickets are too expensive). But I want to hear Nadia outside of AI. Maybe that's just too much to ask for.

Fantasia was horrific. I play her album all the time and I love it, so she's not a lost case yet.
Last edited by AugustMoon : 10-04-2005 at 14:08

I totally agree, Supasonic. The talent in American Idol is way better than ours here. I don't understand why Scott is still here, but he may well have stayed if he was in our version too - who knows? I agree that he hasn't shown a personality though, whereas our Michelle did seem to be quite nice.

There was no way Nikko was the worst this week. He made the most of what he's got and should have stayed at least another couple of weeks And did I forget to mention I like the guy, very pleasant young man

I think Simon put the mockers on the comeback kid

I hope you mates from America are going to keep us or me rather up to date on Nikko's doings when A1 finishes. I would really like to know how he's doing

I really liked Nikko, too. That makes two weeks in a row when someone that I felt should have made at least the top six was booted.

I think he's someone that will improve with experience and I think we were just starting to see that w/him.

At the very least, he'll be in the tour group.

Tosh.

What is about people when things don't go their way the "race card" comes out? For me Nikko offered zero to the competition, a rather poor purveyor of lame Stars in Your Eyes Boys II Men karaoke faithful renditions.

Maybe the good people of America have had enough of all these "yeah yeah", baggy pants and oversized medallion clichés.

Quite right. Perhaps people are finally waking up to the fact that Gangsta Rap does little for music, and a lot to promote the ludicrous idea of nomark scrotes having musical talent. America, in the not so long ago, had no problem with artistes singing black. From Mowtown and Stax through Bobby Bland, BB King and James Brown, to the 80's genius of Prince.

The problem, is with people who have little or no ability claiming discrimination when they fail. The problem, is when the most famous 'black' singer in the world, has had himself surgically transformed into something that looks like a white alien!

Did Nikko do this?

No, he did not. I thought he took the whole eviction process with good grace.