Top 6 Performance Show Recap By Jillian Kuras
April 26, 2006
Welcome to Tuesday night on American Idol! Tonight, the top six contestants are going to tackle Love Songs with help from the legendary Andrea Bocelli. The contestants will also be getting advice from record producer David Foster who worked with Andrea on his newest album "Amore".
After Ryan welcomes us to the show and introduces the judges, we see a clip that highlights Andrea's singing career as well as him working with the contestants this past week. David appears to be the tough guy of the two and I love that he is completely honest with the contestants. They definitely need to hear it.
First up tonight is Katharine McPhee. She is singing I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston. Her session with Andrea and David seems to go very well and both are very impressed with her and her singing. They describe her voice as powerful and clean and David says she has a very big, bright future ahead of her. That's my girl, Katharine!
This performance seems to go great for Kat. The first thing I noticed is that she really varied the arrangement from the original version. I like that she really tried to make the song unique and her own. We've heard this song sung a few different throughout AI history (Trenyce, Jennifer Hudson, Leah Labelle and Vonzell come to mind) but Katharine's arrangement is definitely my favorite.
Her vocals and performance were amazing to say the least. We finally saw some of that power that we first heard from her back in the Hollywood round. The performance was very convincing and heartfelt. I actually think this was not only her best to date but one of the best of the season so far.
Randy tells Katharine that the song was too big for her and she in no way compares to Whitney. Paula says her pitch was off and that she over sang the song. Simon concludes by saying that the performance was old fashioned, cabaret, and that she is no where near as good as Whitney.
Katharine and her family (voice teacher mom included) look absolutely shocked and I definitely am too. It was like the judges chose random negative thoughts before the show and decided to use them before even seeing the performance. I think it is beyond clear that the judges and producers see Katharine as a threat to possibly break into their magical top three of Taylor, Chris and Kellie. So obviously they want her out as soon as possible. The producers chose to put her first tonight and the judges chose to rip apart a performance that was pretty damn good. You can draw your own conclusion.
Anyways, the night continues and shock of all shocks, Elliott is next. Tonight he is singing A Song For You by Donnie Hathaway. In his intro, Andrea and David encourage him to vary the song from the original and they both agree he sings very well.
The beginning of the song starts out a little slow for Elliott and the first half or so was not very exciting. It did pick up more by the end though and I liked the bigger notes he was going for. Overall though I thought his dynamics could have been a lot better. I was expecting big things from Elliott tonight as this is clearly his comfort zone but I would only give this performance a 6 or 7 out of 10.
Randy tells Elliott the arrangement was bad but that he sang it well. Paula, who is in tears, says she was moved, that he looks handsome and that tonight, he is an American Idol. Simon says that 7 weeks ago he told Elliott he potentially had the best male voice ever to be heard on AI and that tonight, parts of his performance was like a master class in singing. I agree that Elliott sounded good vocally so maybe it was the song I didn't connect with.
Next up is Kellie Pickler who is singing Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. I immediately cringe because I know this is Simon's favorite song and he very rarely compliments someone who sings it, no matter how good they are.
In her intro, Andrea and David encourage Kellie to sing part of the song in her falsetto voice. Kellie admits that she has never tried to sing falsetto before but is pleasantly surprised, as are Andrea and David, that she does it quite effortlessly. Andrea describes Kellie as upbeat and 'blond' which makes me laugh considering the circumstances.
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