So, here’s my ranking of how the guys did tonight:
1. David Cook
2. Danny Noriega
3. Jason Castro
4. David Archuleta
5. David Hernandez
6. Michael Johns
7. Chikezie
8. Luke Menard
Luke Menard started off the night with an upbeat “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”. At least it wasn’t as embarassing as his sister dressing him up like a ballerina. Actually, I didn’t think it was horrible. I think fluffy pop suits him better than slow, in a way. Randy was on the fence about the performance, and Paula liked it (she liked everything tonight, by the way, so I’ll just tell you that now). Simon thought it was weak and girly— what do you expect from a Wham! song?
Up next was David Archuleta, whose most embarassing moment was when his Mom had to finish a song for him during a concert. He sang Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise”. I don’t think this was a particularly song for Phil Collins, so I definitely didn’t think it was the smartest choice of songs for David. I’d like to see some variety in his choices. It’s okay to sing a song just because it’s fun and entertaining— not everything needs to make a poing. Randy was on the fence on this one, as well. Simon thought it wasn’t as good as past performances and that David runs the risk of being a bit gloomy.
The lamest embarassing moment goes to Danny Noriega who once tripped down the stairs at the movie theater— I have a hard time believing that’s REALLY Danny’s most embarassing moment. 80s night was pretty much made for Danny, and I really liked his performance of “Tainted Love”. The judges were split on him tonight. While Randy and Paula liked him, Simon thought everything about it was horrible. Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Simon?
David Hernandez had one of the better embarassing moments. He did a photo shoot and only learned when he got the proofs back that he had a huge booger hanging out of his nose the entire time. That makes you wonder why the photographer couldn’t have pointed that out, doesn’t it? He sang a song that I associate with Celine Dion, although Meatloaf sang it, as well, so I guess it’s not completely girly: “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. It was just okay for me. It showed off his voice, but something about it was weird to me. All of the judges liked it, although Simon said it wasn’t as good as last week.
David Cook was supposed to go next, but when they returned from the commercial break it turned out he was having guitar issues, so Michael Johns got bumped up in the lineup. He once did a gig as a kangaroo mascot and got beat up in front of 20,000 people by some guys who jumped the fence at the game. That’s a pretty good one. Tonight he chose to sing “Don’t You Forget About Me”. Something was still off about this to me. Something about his vocals and his performance just seems out of synch to me. Randy seemed to mistakenly attribute the song to INXS when he compared Michael Johns to famous Australian Michael Hutchence. I suppose it’s possible that’s not what he meant, but that’s how I took it (it’s a Simple Minds song, by the way). Other than that, all the judges liked it for the most part. (For the record, I thought Michael Johns SHOULD have sung an INXS song.)
After the break, we finally got to David Cook. When he was a kid he was in a talent show and forgot the second verse of a song. Instead of skipping the verse, he just stood there frozen. Fortunately, tonight’s performance of “Hello” went much better than that. It was a really interesting song choice that I questioned at first, but it was very, very good. I think David Cook is one of the only ones who really knows who he is as a musician. He’s always going to bring himself to the songs, which is great. Rand and Paula were enthusiastic about his performance and, surprisingly, so was Simon. He said it was very brave, and he LOVED it!
Jason Castro was up next. Once on a date, he accidentally ripped off a dreadlock. So, is that more embarassing because you have to eat dinner holding a braid or because you have to admit to your date that you have fake hair? He sang “Hallelujah” without the guitar tonight. I thought it was a good song, but I didn’t think it had a lot of spark. The judges LOVED it, though. Simon even called it brilliant! Well, I don’t know about that.
The final singer of the night was Chikezie. He spent the first several weeks of high school going to a very clean bathroom that turned out to be the girls’ bathroom— oops! He made the same mistake that Syesha made last week, choosing to sing a song that was readily recognized as being recorded by the opposite gender. He sang a song made most famous by Whitney Houston: “All The Man That I Need”. Like last week, I wasn’t really bothered by this. It’s not really my favorite kind of music, but I thought he sang it well. Randy and Puala weren’t bothered, either, but Simon really hated it.
