American Idol - 2008 (merged)

[SLAB]

From what I saw of the clips and last hour of the show.

1: Micheal Johns....My hands down favorite to be a top guy. There's smething really cool about his voice that I 100% dig.

2: Jason Castro....This guy just has a vibe...May be a bit akward getting interviewed, but he has a voice, a look, and a vibe.

3: Robbie Carrico....Rockers are always good.

4: David Cook....Stage presence...Another guy I've dug since his first audition.

5: David Archuleta....Not my style, per say, but you can't deny this kid can sing with the best of them.

Who's going home?

1: Luke Menard...Tis a shame...I want to see another chance for him.
2: Jason Yeager...I just don't see him getting enough votes to keep up with the rest.

And I think Noriega might be a Sanjaya of this year...Keeping up with the big boys just because the tweens think he's "HOT"

I'll add in a sixth guy after some Youtubeing.

 

[Gary]

What's the deal with the mens hairdos? Garrett Haley's hair looks so friggin dumb. So does Colton's, and Danny's. This year is the hairdo year or something. What ever happened to nice clean cuts? Am i that old? I wouldn't get caught dead wearing my hair like Garrett's. HAH!

 

[Rockmeister]

Here are my top 12 males:

David Archuleta
David Cook
David Hernandez
Michael Johns
Robbie Carrico
Jason Castro

The 2 that I think will be eliminated are Chikezie and Luke Menard.

 

[kennadog]

I did change my mind. I hated Noriega. I won't be able to see the ladies tonight.

 

[Rockmeister]

I did change my mind. I hated Noriega. I won't be able to see the ladies tonight.

I thought Noriego was a bit annoying. I didn't care for him either.

 

[Purple Reign]

Last Night's Show Thoughts

Another year of Idol has kicked off and based on last night’s performances, another year of mediocre at best male talent. I think for whatever reason, this franchise has struggled to find quality male vocalist. Of the six winners, the two males that have won (Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks) have done very little. Hopefully as this season goes forward, that these guys can pick it up. My gut says no.

David Hernandez (B-) “Wait Until The Midnight Hour”
Very poor showmanship. Simon said he was stiff, and I completely agree. For somebody who considers himself a “soul” singer, he did not show much soul.

Chikezie (C) “More Today Than Yesterday”
When Simon called him “Jacuzzi” I was weak. Nothing special at all. Very old fashion. From his dress to his presentation, he was very old acting.

David Cook (B+) “Happy Together”
I actually liked him. Had big energy. I like that song and he sang it well. Has nice stage presence.

Jason Yeager (C) “Moon River”
BORING! At times I could not understand what he was singing. He has a cute son, and that is about it. Paul Anka like. He mentioned that he honored his grandmother. That song was “grandmothery”.

Robbie Carrico (B-) “One is the Loneliest Number”
A Chris Daughtery clone like performance. He was decent. Has talent. Unlike Daughtry, I actually think he can sing other stuff. Looking forward to more.

David Archuletta (A-) “Shop Around”
Young! Innocent! Fresh! And so talented. I selected him before last night as my favorite amle, and he did not disappoint. This kid has a mature voice wrapped up in an innocent charm that is magnetic. You could tell that he was nervous, which affected his stage presence. Hopefully as he performs more, his stage presence will grow.

Danny Noriega (C) “Jailhouse Rock”
Song did not fit his style. Randy said that the song did not allow him to do his thing, and I agree. He has the ability to sing out, and the song kept him in a box. He has an over the top personality that could potentially make him the Sanjaya of ’08.

Luke Menard (C-)
I did not know the song he sang. But he was dry as two day old dry toast. Pitchy and has a high pitch voice that was off and will not cut it in this competition.

Colton Berry (B-) Suspicious Minds
Ellen Degeneres look alike. He can sing no doubt, but did not do much for me. It was all right I guess.

Garrett Haley (C) “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”
He has this 70’s Peter Frampton, Leif Garrett, Andy Gibb thing going on. He drug that song to death. Has a quiet nature about him. He will be gone on Thursday!!!!

Jason Castro (B) “Day Dream”
The sleeper. Castro went into last night the mystery. The Caucasian looking dude with the dreads. He was the most unique performer of the night. Paula said “less is more” and he perfected that. I liked him. He seemed to hold back a little, which makes me want more. Good performance.

Michael Johns (B-) “Light My Fire”
Dude is a Pro. He is not as good as the experts think IMHO. Started the song great, did not end it great.



Luke Menard and "Jacuzzi" will be gone.

 

[Merdiesel]

I'm going for that Asia'h chick.. Her voice is really unique, not to mention shes hot as hell.

 

[VF21]

I just finished watching the girls and revised a couple of names. Having heard the explanation of Carly Smithson's "record," I'm satisfied she's a legitimate contender for this program. And her voice is very good.

As far as Danny Noriega goes, I think he's gonna be this year's Sanjaya but with a little better voice.

 

[Rockmeister]

Here are my top 12 females:

Alaina Whitaker
Syesha Mercado
Amanda Overmyer
Brooke White
Asia'h Epperson
Ramiele Malubay

The 2 that I think will be eliminated are Kristy Lee Cook and Amy Davis.

 

[Rockmeister]

I just finished watching the girls and revised a couple of names. Having heard the explanation of Carly Smithson's "record," I'm satisfied she's a legitimate contender for this program. And her voice is very good.

I have yet to hear Carly sing. I must have missed it everytime I kept switching back from the Kings game to American Idol.

 

[VF21]

She was the last one last night. She has a good, strong voice. I don't think she'll win but she's definitely one of the better hopefuls.

You might be able to hear a clip of her on the American Idol website. I never bother checking because with my incredibly fast dial-up it's just too time-consuming to even try.

 

[Gary]

Get your female picks in!

 

[Purple Reign]

Male
1. David Archuleta
2. Jason Castro
3. Michael Johns
4. Robbie Carrico
5. David Cook
6. david Hernandez

Females
1. Syesha Mercado
2. Carly Smithson
3. Asia'h Epperson
4. Ramiele Malubay
5. Alexandrea Lushington
6. Alaina Whitaker

OVERALL WINNER - Syesha Mercado

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I like (as far as liking an AI contestant goes) Jason Castro, Ramiele and Alexandrea. I don't think either will win. I cannot pick 6 of each.

I suspect Carly will come in 3rd or 4th and be the "shocking" exit of the year, a la Daughtry or Tamyra. I'd be happy if she goes tonight, I thought she was awful last night, worst song choice ever and there were some doozies this week. And VF, her story last night was a very half-telling of the story. Her label wasn't some rinky dink fly by night that went under, it was MCA, and they got consumed by Geffen in 2003, two years after she was signed. But if you asked me a pretty good way to run a label into the ground is to invest 2 or 3 million on an artist that only sells a few hundred copies. I do believe she has a place in this contest, but I wish they would tell the whole story and not try to make it into nothing.

 

[VF21]

NOTE: I've merged the two threads since they're going to overlap anyway.

 

[VF21]

And the first casualties are:

Garrett Haley
Amy Davis
Joanne Borgella
Colton Berry

 

[SLAB]

Garrett Haley...Disliked him since Day 1.

Amy Davis...She deserved to go...She was pretty bad this night...You have to be able to leave a mark, and sloooow ballads aren't the way to go unless you can 120% nail them.

Joanne Borgella...I missed her performance.

Colton Berry...Disliked him since the day he went over the goofy politician kid.

All in all, killed two birds with one stone on my guy list. And none of my favorite girls are gone.

My Current Tops..

1: Jason Castro
2: Micheal Johns
3: Robbie Carrico
4: David Cook
5: David Archleta

And sadly, I really don't know enough about the girls...So this is an *extremely* rough list.

1: Carly Smithson
2: Ramiele
3: Alaina Whitaker
4: Kristy Lee Cook
5: Kady Malloy

 

[Rockmeister]

Gary - I'm a little confused with this game. Are we just supposed to pick the top 12 for males and females and that's it? Do we keep picking on who will be eliminated?

 

[kennadog]

David Archuleta is freakin' amazing. When they said he'd do a Lennon song and he started singing "Imagine," I thought, whoa, this could be a huge mistake. It was incredibly beautiful, tho and he made it his version, not an imitation. Amazing and utterly moving. I can't even talk about anybody else right now. He just blew me away.

 

[Rockmeister]

I agree, David Archuleta was just amazing. He was the only one that I liked out of all the males performing tonight. Well, I did like David Cook and that's about it.

 

[SLAB]

Man, school has me missing most of the guys...

1: Archulta ... He's not my style at all, but he's that good.
2: David Cook ... The real rocker. I really like this guy.
3: Micheal Johns ... Missed his performance, but sounded decent from the clip. More of the same, which is fine with me.
4: Jason Castro ... Needs to expand, I think. Good voice, but show me more.
5: Robbie Carrico ... I missed his song...Sounded just okay in the clip.

Most Improved: Chikeze Eze ... What a bounce back from last weeks attempt. I like this guy, so good job!

.Eliminated.
1: Luke Menard ... Just doesn't have the voice to stick around much longer...Really to bad because he has a good look about him.
2: Jason Yeager ... From last weeks problems, to even more porblems this week. I was thinking "CORNY!" his entire performance today.

 

[kennadog]

I liked David Cook, too. Carrico wants to be rock, but Cook just IS rock. I think Randy might be right in telling Carrico he just may not have a rock voice, altho I thought his performance was pretty good. And I think Simon is wrong in saying Cook has no charisma. He needs to amp it up a bit, but I think he's rock sexy.

The only other performances that I liked were Hernandez (rally liked it) and Chikezie performance was good. Nobody matched Archuleta, tho. Not even close.

Johns was really disappointing tonight, IMHO. Yeager just doesn't have it. Nice enough voice, but forgettable. Noriega didn't bug me as much tonight and he has a decent voice. Just turns me off, tho. Menard only so-so. I'm on the fence about Castro. There's something I really like about him, but he seems like he's holding back.

 

[kennadog]

.Eliminated.
1: Luke Menard ... Just doesn't have the voice to stick around much longer...Really to bad because he has a good look about him.
2: Jason Yeager ... From last weeks problems, to even more porblems this week. I was thinking "CORNY!" his entire performance today.

I agree on Yeager and probably Menard, too, Slab.

1. Archuleta
2. Cook
3. Hernandez
4. Chikezie
5. Johns, Castro, Carrico all about the same to me tonight. Might give the nod to Johns.

 

[Gary]

Just the top 12 boys/girls.. Thats it I will post every week who still has players in.. My bad. I haven't finished from last week..

Next time I will come up with better rules, and a points system based on weekly picks.

 

[Gary]

I am going to post what we all still have left, and minus 1-2-3 for however many we have left (i.e. 6/6 or 5/6 or 4/6 as our picks get voted off). I am going to change it on the top 12 and we will get points each week for getting the picks right. Than next year we can adopt the points system so we can vote each week, and keep a running tally.

First week tally.

Gary: 6/6 men - 6/6 women
Rockmeister: 6/6 men - 6/6 women
Purple Reign: 6/6 men - 6/6 women
VF: 5/6 men - 6/6 women
Kennadog: 5/6 men - 6/6 women

Slab: I didn't know who your top 6 men, and 6 women were.

 

[VF21]

Of the performances tonight, I was most disappointed in Michael Johns. His performance just didn't meet the standards he's already set. Most improved has to go to Chikezie. Of the others, the Davids all deserve to stay, as does Robbie, although I think he's gonna run out of "rock" real soon. Jason Yeager just isn't gonna make it. I'm still undecided about Luke, as I think he's improving each week. Danny Noreiga is gonna be around for a while, I think, because he's just so darned cute but he's not the next American Idol.

I think Yeager is going home and I suspect he might be joined by Robbie who just isn't unique enough to stick around much longer.

 

[SLAB]

Of the performances tonight, I was most disappointed in Michael Johns. His performance just didn't meet the standards he's already set. Most improved has to go to Chikezie. Of the others, the Davids all deserve to stay, as does Robbie, although I think he's gonna run out of "rock" real soon. Jason Yeager just isn't gonna make it. I'm still undecided about Luke, as I think he's improving each week. Danny Noreiga is gonna be around for a while, I think, because he's just so darned cute but he's not the next American Idol.

I think Yeager is going home and I suspect he might be joined by Robbie who just isn't unique enough to stick around much longer.

Danny Noriega, IMO, is this years Sanjaya...He's going to stick around longer than some because he's 'cute' and over the top...Unlike Sanjaya, though, he can actually stay with some of the top dogs.

 

[Purple Reign]

I have not watched the show from last night yet. Between Kings game and Obama versus Clinton, I could not get to it. Will give my thoughts on Thursday with both boys and girls.

 

[Rockmeister]

I don't think Danny Noreiga is cute so I might be in the minority.

I agree with Slab regarding Menard and Yeager being eliminated.

 

[Gary]

I have no idea what the deal is with Norriega, and people thinking he's "cute" either.