Reality Singing Show & American Idol 7

Yes, I watched these shows. From the start when there're just American Idol, Astro New Talent (Chinese), then to Malaysian Idol (now defunct), Akademi Fantasia (I just watched the finale of the 2nd installment) to the Taiwan's One Million Star. There're more that I didn't follow, just watched a few episodes e.g. Project Superstar, One in A Million etc.

Reasons to watch?

1. Some great wannabe-singers belting out nice songs.
2. Some great songs given new lease of life or unnoticed songs/singers getting their overdue recognition...well, underdogs/under-appreciated artists' stories are intriguing
3. FUNNY esp the audition time.
4. CONFIDENCE has nothing to do with capability.

American Idol is one that I try to follow and watch whenever I can. However, my constant travelling didn't help at all. So, since this week I'm gonna be stationary, I made a point to watch.

American Idol - Last 7

The mentor this week is Mariah Carey. Yes, the Ms. Carey which her 5-octave range of voice, which can communicate with dolphins if I remembered correctly read from somewhere. Previously it was known that both Carey's and Houston's (Whitney) songs are not allowed in the competition, or rather in the audition cox a lot of aspirants will KILL the song and the judges at the same time haha....

So, when it's announced it's Mariah, I was surprised and expecting a great show. Her songs will give a chance to the contestants to showcase their voice and of course, it will be a test to those less gifted ones. Another big obstacle is the comparison with Mariah herself so it's extremely vital to be original and authentic to avoid it.

David Archuleta scored with When You Believe. He's tackling two diva in the same song and it's a good way to start the show with higher benchmark, said Simon. I think Archuleta starts to felt boring for me. He has to do things differently, diversifying his genre and style.

Carly Smithson's version of Without You was OK. It's very evident that she wanna do something different to the songs, being one of the most sang in the competition. Oh.... tat reminded me of my previous post, a clip of the audition in Bulgaria Idol, "Ken Lee" hahahahaha......

Syesha sang Vanishing. She took a risk albeit a calculated one, choosing a less known song of Mariah's huge vault of immensely popular hits. The song was difficult, technically like Simon said and I think she did a good job. Being a mass-vote show, I hope she won't be in the bottom 3 singing tat lesser known number though I think she'll be safe.

Brooke came out playing the piano and sang Hero. She depended on the talented musician card playing the piano. It's done lovely but I think she has limitations.

Kristy couldn't shake off her country-music persona which is not really a bad thing. Look at Carrie Underwood, though Carrie won the Idol and I don't think Kristy will. She sang Forever, which Mariah said not a lot of people know. Hm... I thought that was one of her popular hits?

The night DEFINITELY belongs to DAVID COOK!!!! I know he's gonna rock the show when he chose Always Be My Baby. I mean, the song is a cheesy love song with sweet saccharine lyrics and I still have this mental picture of Mariah's MTV swinging on a tyre hang on the tree in her usual trademark skimpy clothes and it's really interesting to see how can David man-nified the song and he did. I think Chris Daughtry will do the same thing as him as well, injecting some band sound and manly-rocker style. Wow.... For me, it's one of the best performance in the season along with Michael John's (eliminated last week) version of Dolly Parton's It's All Wrong But It's All Right.

Jason still sporting the dreadlocks and he sang another lesser known Mariah's song I Don't Want To Cry. He will be safe.

My bet? It will be Kristy's turn tomorrow to be eliminated.