American Idol

Finally after so long, Idol is going to have a girl winner and I'm happy with most of the choices!

I'm happy with the choices too. I think Candice's voice is phenomenal but I don't know that she'll win either. There's a reserve there that might be shyness (I don't know, I haven't seen every episode), but for the casual watcher it could possibly be interpreted as haughtiness. But Kree isn't exactly over-the-top PERSONALITY Y'ALL WOOHOO!!!!!! either, so who knows? I can't see any of the other three winning it. Amber's certainly cute, as is Janelle, but I don't see them beating out the top two.

Angie's kind of a wild card. I don't find her appealing in the least, but I've read she has a pretty big fanbase. I'm not invested either way, though, so whatever.

I'd rather watch The Voice anyway. This is my first year watching and I'm finding the interactions between the judges as entertaining as the contestants!

Biggest facepalm moment of the night (or possibly any night): After Amber sang, Keith Urban briefly lost his shit and enthusiastically said "I'm putting out an AMBER ALERT!" Then he goes "Hm, I don't know why I said that. ...I wish I hadn't." *facepalm*

I thought it was kinda ballsy (if calculatedly bet-hedging) of Amber to pick a Streisand song for the "diva" theme. And not even like, The Way We Were or something super standard. Since usually you hear "diva" and it's the usual Celine-Mariah-Whitney kind of stuff. She sounded really good too.

Everyone was slightly bizarro tonight. Ryan seemed extra spazzy.

Oh Keith.

Fantasia did "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" during her season and I actually liked it more than Best. Performance. EVAH! "Summertime". I really wish TPTB would ban retreads for a whole month or even a season once they get to the live rounds.

Paula Abdul's made an appearance tonight and Clay sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Fantasia's coming up. They've been bringing old Idols back to perform since S2 but it really feels like an attempt to up the "nostalgia" factor in order to boost the ratings.

It's Kree and Candice in the finale next week. Randy's leaving, or "leaving" before he got fired, but he's out for S13, for real this time.

I'm pretty shocked. I've thought Angie was basically a lock to win since the top 10. Dare I hope that Candice wins? But really I think they both seem lovely and I'd be happy with either.

Randy's leaving, seriously? Wow. I think I'm actually going to miss that goober.

Kree is from Texas and spent years working her way through the Nashville music scene. What's left of the typical Idol viewership still skews Southern and country. Angie's from Boston and looks like the old Miley Cyrus. She didn't have a chance.

This actually works out in Angie's favor, as she has the exposure, but is not tied into the draconian Idol contract, and can control her own career. I have a huge soft spot for her, as we are from the same hometown, and studied under all of the same (awesome!) teachers. I think she will do well. I am proud of her, and of the Beverly music program. And the fact that Beverly, MA holds music in schools as such a high priority.

Angie will probably follow the idol tradition of doing better than the winner.

No more Randy...does that mean the end of idol?

I was sad when I thought Randy was leaving last year, but now I am cool with it. There are rumors that they will scrap all the judges (including my sweet baby Keith) and start over. Nigel Lythcoe is the one that really needs to go. His meddling has just about ruined this show for me.

That being said, I am really happy for Candice and Kree!! They have been my favorites from the beginning!!

So far I'm ready to give Harry Connick Jr. a medal. He used an actual music term (that was a complete mystery to the other two) (and to me, I'm not trying to pretend I'm a music expert over here), and then he said he wasn't particularly moved by the kind of melisma frippery that I hate, and then when a kid did an acoustic version of a Katy Perry song and the other two swooned over it he said "well, obviously if you take a production-heavy song and strip all the frills out of it it'll sound totally different and give you a different feeling..." THIS WAS JUST WHAT I HOPED. When I thought about this at all, which was not a lot, but, you know. I just constantly want American Idol to be taken down a peg, which so far HCJ is doing nicely for me. Oh, he also got skeptical about a 15-year-old girl singing an overly sexual song, instead of like, slipping her his hotel room key like Simon would have done. So that's also fine with me.

I'm not convinced Seacrest is even IN Boston; he's not at the door when any of the contestants emerge. Usually he loves to be all up in the family hugging and shrieking. You faker, Seacrest. Speaking of that guy, he was so off his game at the Globes. He is NEVER like that. He sounded like he had a cold and I think he must have just been super out of it. Also, I am a huge stalker apparently.

Anyway. I was feeling sort of done with this show but the DVR recorded it for me, I'm not feeling well, so, I'm watching it for the moment.

P.S. Confidential to last year: I'm so glad Candice won. (She did, right? I get so into Idol and then forget it like three days after it's over.)

So I think the judge situation on American Idol is maybe the best it's EVER been, with judges who actually know stuff about music, are not interested in being mean just to show off, are not wasting everyone's time in dumb stupid rivalries that literally no one cares about, and can put sentences together that make sense and kind of impart information and stuff like that. HCJ is a freaking gift that this show doesn't deserve, I have a newfound love for Keith Urban, and JLo feels like she fits in fine.

It's unfortunate then that I truly think that contestant-wise this is the worst season of all time. Like, only one or two of these people meet my BARE MINIMUM requirement for a singing competition: BEING ABLE TO SING. By which I mean CARRY A TUNE, RELIABLY. And not get out of breath after two seconds. It's embarrassing. I know people say that every year, but I DON'T say that every year, but I am saying it this year. It's still a novelty when someone gets through the song without it being painful to listen to. I keep waiting for someone to like, break out and be awesome, and it just hasn't happened. I realize it's also about "stage presence" and stuff (and I don't really feel much of that from this crew either), and they all seem nice, but you know. THE NOTES.

Don't mind me, just cringed my way through the medley at the beginning. It's not just that they "don't have any big belters," it's that they "don't have anybody who can hit the majority of the notes." SOMETIMES they do, and I'm like "thank goodness," and then that person does horribly the next time. Caleb can carry a tune, but he is very generic to me. Alex is pretty good I guess. Jessica's OK but she's so offputting. I was into Majesty at first and I want her to be awesome SO MUCH but she keeps falling short. Just MEEEEHHHHHH.

I'm thinking of also-rans of the past who would be just slaughtering everybody else in this season. Syesha. Hollie. Haley whatshername on Casey's season. CRYSTAL, YOU WERE ROBBED CRYSTAL. Lee effin' DeWyze. (yeah, I know he won; remembering that is still weird) ALISON IRAHETA, she was one of my favorites ever. HEEJUN. Every girl from last year. That country girl who looked like Rachel Dratch. Adam Lambert. (hee)

Also, Ryan Q. Seacrest, you're still my favorite.

(Meanwhile, I fell asleep on the couch while writing this post, and watching AI, so, I think it's time to go to bed, and, yeah.)

I haven't watched AI in years. I think the last season I watched was the David Cook season. But I love HCJ so gave it a shot this year. You are SO right about the judges. Such a great panel. I knew Keith would be good because he was just so darn likable and fun when he coached on The Voice Australia but HCJ is just such a breath of fresh air!

I started out rooting for CJ because he is just so lovable and he has a raw talent that I think with a bit of good coaching can flourish but he seems to be standing still week after week. And Caleb *is* generic but I have found myself rooting for him anyway. The dude can sing.

Of course, after I posted that I watched the rest of the show (the next day) and it was better than usual and I found myself legitimately liking several of the performances, including Caleb's, Sam's, Jessica's, and Jena's (kinda). I really, really HATE the Delilah song and I actually liked it this time. I was like "This has a nice tune" instead of "I want to punch this song in the face."

It was time for Majesty to go. I really liked her a lot in the beginning and she really just has not gotten there for me.

I LOVE how HCJ keeps gently but firmly pointing out to CJ that he needs to learn how to stay on pitch and that it's just not possible to overlook that.

So, I'm pretty sad about TWoP shutting down, and most of my TWoPping has been done on the XF boards, as I said, but I haven't been there in a long while and I have other outlets for XF geeking. I'm already processing that whole part. (Honestly, the fact that a whole bunch of the threads got ERASED a couple of months ago -- YEARS of posts -- means that a lot of it was already lost so I feel like I'm already a little detached.) Last night though, while watching AI I remembered again that TWoP was shutting down and felt this like, sad and frightened void feeling. (I mean, that's an exaggeration, but you know.) For some reason, I pretty much have always read the AI recaps and gone to the forums after the episode. Of course it started when Jacob was doing them, and I unpopularly love Jacob, at least on recaps of silly shows like Idol (for something more srs bzns like BSG I have tended not to get into his recaps). But Joe R's were also great and now M. Giant is doing them (or was) and those are good too, and I don't think I've missed a single one in years. And I realized that, like starting NOW, I can't go to TWoP afterwards and read the recap. I don't know anywhere else that does AI recaps (even though I'm sure someplace does). But it's not even about having a recap of the show, it's just like, checking in on what TWoP is saying about AI is part of my viewing of AI. And that's more the case than with any other show. And now it's going to be over. The recap part is already over. It's so, so weird.

There was a time when I would have stopped watching Idol if it weren't for Jacob's recaps, like I more or less watched the show so I could have the necessary context for his recaps. (We also shared a fondness for/fascination with Seacrest.) I've been legitimately enjoying the show this year, but part of why I watch it is still definitely habit/familiarity. But the idea of AI and TWoP no longer being connected is making me feel unmoored, more so than I would have thought.

I liked Caleb's performance, and really I think he's the best of the season. I don't actually like him very much! I just think he has talent and the most charisma of anyone on the show. I really really wanted to like MK and Majesty, but like you said, they just…never came through. You can't win a singing contest if you don't sing well and you stare at your feet or the wall all the time.

I adore the judges and they are really why I've continued to watch this. JLo is the weakest of the three (I think she's so interested in being nice that she doesn't give useful feedback unless things are REALLY bad). HCJ always says interesting things, and I feel like I'm learning something from listening to their criticisms. Pop music appreciation 101.

HCJ is too good for this show. Music in New Orleans is serious and a tradition, not makeup, hair and autotune a la Paula and JLo.

So, there's a contestant on this season whose mom hit hard (but unsuccessfully) on my husband back when we were living in San Diego. Daughter's crazy talented. It's a little bizarre to watch her.

Who? Who? I want to know!

Loren.