American Idol 5, February 28: Song Choice!

Ryan welcomes us to another episode of American Idol. He thanks the viewers for keeping the show at the top of the ratings, even on last Thursday’s huge night of television. Even though Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, and women’s figure skating were on, Idol was still #1. I know it took some deft Tivoing on my part!

Ryan introduces the women who will be singing tonight, then the judges. He asks how it can be that Simon is on such a different page than Randy and Paula. Simon says that he is on the correct page. He adds that he re-watched last week’s performances and stands by his criticism. Randy and Paula, Simon thinks, are wrong 60% of the time. Paula sighs and says that Simon is “the brother I never had and don’t want.” Randy and Paula joke that the two of them and Ryan have but a small part to play on the show where Simon is king. Sometimes, that feels true.

This week, the contestants will talk about their “defining Idol moments. Katharine McPhee is up first. She says that she is having a great time with her roommate Kellie Pickler. We see the two of them jumping on the bed and giggling, making funny faces, and as Katharine puts it, being “silly and dumb together.” They also have fun doing girly things like putting on makeup. Katharine says that it’s fun to not be competitive all the time. She’ll be singing “All In Love is Fair.”

Randy: This was a safe choice – not that Stevie is easy to sing, but there were no runs in it. It wasn’t the best song choice and was “just okay.”

Paula: Paula agrees with Randy. That said, she says, “You move me. You move America.” She doesn’t think the song made a connection, but she still likes Katharine.

Simon: The show is not just about singing, but also about personality and song choice. Katharine can’t be off in her own world and hope the audience joins her.

Betsy: I agree with the judges. Katharine did a decent job, but it just wasn’t something to get excited about. She absolutely lacked the spark she showed last week.

Ryan asks Katharine what she thinks about when planning a performance. Katharine says she thinks about song choice, what to wear, and how to portray the song. She admits that partway through it, she had her doubts about the song, but it was too late to change her mind. She says that she doesn’t feel destroyed. Paula calls over that she’s still a star.

Kinnik Sky is next, wearing a cowboy hat that really doesn’t suit her. She’ll be singing “Here for the Party” by Gretchen Wilson. She admits to have performed the song “about a million times in my living room.” In her video, she says that she was unprepared for how emotional she’d be seeing the performance stage for the first time. This has been a longtime dream for Kinnik, and she wept tears of joy.

Randy: Enjoyed her energy, but didn’t think it was a good song for Kinnik. The song didn’t show her range.

Paula: The song was fun, but Kinnik should choose songs that show off her range, that take some risks.

Simon: Simon liked that she tried to stand out, but said it reminded him of something you might see in a theme park. Paula adds that she cannot imagine Simon on a roller coaster and asks, “Would you smile?”

Betsy: Kinnik worked the stage well, but this song didn’t impress me.

Ryan says that part of Kinnik’s song was a rebuttal to Randy last week. She smiles and says that Randy gave her a six out of ten last week. The song has a line about not being a ten, but cleaning up well. Kinnik flirtily plays with her cowboy hat while Ryan gives her numbers.

Lisa Tucker says that there’s a lot of nervous energy in the red room right now, especially with the judges being so tough tonight. In her video, she says that she was in The Lion King on stage when she was ten, so she’s used to performing for large audiences. But when she saw the Kodak Theater, she was blown away by how big it was. She hopes to be standing in the confetti at the end. Her song will be “I Wonder Who’s Loving You.”

Randy: It was a different song choice, but it really didn’t show off her abilities. It was just all right.

Paula: She disagrees- Lisa’s got it. She can’t believe she hasn’t been signed already.

Simon: Lots of people will vote for Lisa, but she needs to avoid coming across as a young girl singing grown-up songs.

Betsy: Lisa is a good singer, there’s no doubt about that. The ending of this song was really fantastic. But I’m just not excited.

Lisa tells Ryan that she’s loved this song since she was a little kid- not so long ago. She used to sing it in her bedroom mirror.

Melissa McGhee bemoans how hard it is to choose the right outfit to sing in. She has a massive heap of clothing on her bed. She says that since she’s from Florida, she wears flip flops all the time. She was horrified when they did a press day and showed her ratty flip flops. Her song this time will be “Why Haven’t I Heard From You?”

Randy: He admits he’s been tough tonight. This song fit her well, and he can see her doing a record like this. He’s happy to hear her smoky voice again, and adds that this was hot.

Paula: Melissa is coming out of her shell every week. She’s unique, and Paula loves the tone in her voice.

Simon: Simon leads by asking what the problem with Melissa is. He loves her voice, but thinks this was the wrong song and did not connect with the audience. Randy disagrees. Simon starts to speak again, but Paula interrupts him by hanging on his arm. He gets annoyed and calls her a precocious child. He thinks Melissa needs a wow factor. Melissa says that last week, Simon said her personality was overshadowed, so she wanted to do a fun song to show what she can do.

Betsy: I really liked this. Melissa desperately needed a good performance, since we’ve seen so little of her before. I hope this was enough, because I’d like to see her for a little while longer at least. It’s funny that the song is about someone asking for a phone call, as I’m sure Melissa would really appreciate a whole lot of phone calls right now!

Paula asks Randy to switch seats with her so she doesn’t have to sit next to Simon. She says she’s frustrated that Simon has to be right all the time. I am totally intrigued by this new arrangement. Paula has a hard time sometimes being critical, and now she’ll have to go first. I can’t wait to hear how this goes.

Heather Cox tells Ryan that she is going to perform Mariah Carey’s “Hero” because it has never been done on the show before. Ryan teases her that of course she’d know it, because she already said she watches the show like a stalker. Heather owns up to taping every episode and watching them over and over. Of course, if Heather is a true Idol stalker, that must mean she reads Reality News Online. Hi, Heather! In her video, Heather talks about seeing a giant snake on Hollywood Boulevard. This is not a euphemism.

Paula: Paula thinks Heather improved from last week and looks beautiful. However, the problem with singing Mariah Carey songs is that you risk being compared to her. No one, Paula says, is hotter than Mariah right now, so Heather really came across as not being that great.