It's getting down to the wire. I agree with this analysis.
Bo knows a cappella
By Ken Barnes, USA TODAY
You've got to hand it to Bo Bice. In fact, you probably will be handing him the title of American Idol next week, unless he blows it next Tuesday. He, or some shrewd adviser, had a smart idea: sing one of his three songs Tuesday night a capella.
Singing unaccompanied qualifies as a gutsy move, especially this late in the game. But considering some of the inadvertent sabotage perpetrated by the band arrangements on certain performers earlier this season, we may see more contestants adopt Bo's gambit.
Anyway, he pulled off an obscure ballad by British rock band Badlands from 1991 called In a Dream. It may have helped his performance that no one had a familiar version to judge Bo's performance against. It certainly overshadowed the two songs he didn't choose.
This show's theme was the same as last year's at this time: Each contestant gets three songs: One from guest judge Clive Davis, who will produce the winner's album; one picked by a judge and one of his or her own choosing.
Clive is probably breaking out in hives trying to figure out how to market an American Idol to the rock community, so it wasn't surprising to see him pick a ballad for Bo to sing. Bo didn't really add much to Elton John's Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, which was also sung by Jasmine Trias last year on the Elton John theme show, but you would have thought he was the second coming of St. Elvis from the judges' rhapsodizing. Simon Cowell seemed to be positioning Bo for that strategic move away from rock as well, professing to prefer him singing non-rock numbers.
Paula Abdul picked Bo's third song: the old Rolling Stones warhorse (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. It was memorably covered by Otis Redding, and Bo's version was pitched somewhere between the two, though equal to neither. Although Simon sounded one of the few unflattering notes of the night, Clive practically anointed Bo the winner then and there.
Carrie Underwood, regarded as either the front-runner or at least Bo's equal in popularity, didn't do much to bolster her position. Clive made an interesting selection for her, the soaring Roy Orbison ballad Crying. It's a song few singers can pull off. I once heard k.d. lang sing such an emotional, roof-raising version at Canada's Juno Awards that I decided she was entitled to get away with that pretentious lower-case e.e. cummings-ripoff name-spelling riff. Suffice it to say that Carrie's version fell well short of that one. Although she has a powerful voice, she didn't attempt to scale the pseudo-operatic heights of Orbison's finale, and the song suffered for it.
Continuing in a vaguely operatic vein, she chose not a country standard, as you might expect, but Air Supply's Makin' Love Out of Nothing at All, a top 5 hit on Clive Davis' Arista label in 1983. It was written by Jim Steinman (Meat Loaf's bard), whose pretentiousness and penchant for vocal bombast makes him a favorite of Idol contestants. But Carrie sounded shrieky and awkward, and despite judicial raving, it was a weak performance.
Randy chose Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, possibly figuring the two exclamation points would inject some zest into Carrie's increasingly wooden stage persona. But it didn't work —this was as close to pure karaoke as Carrie has come, and not very good karaoke at that. It's a song of limited melodic interest and a lot of sass. In other words, it requires attitude, and Carrie's still not very good at that.
Although Vonzell Solomon is regarded as the underdog, a good night might just propel her ahead of Carrie. I thought she had a pretty good night, so it's hard to predict. Clive did her no favors by picking the stodgy Dionne Warwick ballad I'll Never Love This Way Again, which was a top 5 hit on his Arista label in 1979. Vonzell is not an accomplished ballad singer, and sounded awkward in places.
Her own choice, Chain of Fools, was performed spiritedly, but reminded me of Fantasia singing it last season, not to mention several other versions from earlier auditions and shows. Aretha Franklin had other hits, people.
Simon thoughtfully chose Donna Summer's On the Radio for her, knowing disco is Vonzell's forte. She handled it zestily, slight song that it is.
All in all, I think she did herself some good, but I still expect to see Carrie and Bo in the finals. Only now I'm switching my winner prediction to Bo.
This will be my last online screed this season—I'm out of Idol range next week and I anticipate that USA Today will be taking a different approach to the final show anyway. So thanks to all who have spent the time reading these gripping missives. It's only American Idol, but—for whatever reasons, mostly the thrill of the race—we like it.
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