Thoughts and Impressions from American Idol, Week 9

Well, it's been quite a week for American Idol. We've had one singer become too stressed out and end up getting the boot, accusations of fixes, good singers being voted off before bad, and talk of a conspiracy. But we also had some singing. If you want to read about the other issues, check out these articles:

• American Idol: How Did Christina Lose?, by Sting7
• The Linkin Park Factor, or why American Idol's Nikki McKibbin is Still Getting Millions of Votes, by Peggy Keller
• American Idol: A Christina Christian Conspiracy?, by yours truly.

We started out the week innocently enough as we looked back at the Big Band era. In discussing this choice, one of the hosts noted that this is the type of challenge the singers need at this point in the competition. I had to wonder: Why? How often does a popstar today sing a big band hit?

Anyway, the contestants came up one by one, decked out in their finest big band attire. Tamyra was first and was great, as usual. She had complicated lyrics and got through them all without a hitch. Remember this - it comes up later.

Justin was similarly great, as usual. As Randy said, Justin is back. He was in his element. But when Simon once again brought up the incident of a few weeks earlier, I cringed. As Dana noted in her article last week, reminding the American public of what happened is a bad thing. Justin didn't this time, but Simon did. I had to wonder if it would end up hurting Justin.

Speaking of Justin, I've been meaning to do a special feature segment on him. In particular, a number of people have noticed that he reminds them of somebody. So I give you:

OK, moving on, Nikki was third and she actually sang -- well, part of it, anyway. She started off well, but eventually morphed back into standard yelling mode. There's not a lot of call for shouting in big band, though.

Christina was very impressive. No vibrato! Probably one of the best I've seen her, though she is still not Tamyra or Kelly.

RJ. Wow. Well, on the plus side, Randy - for the first time ever - didn't mention the fact that they have the same initials! I think, though, it's best to turn over my description of his turn to my parents, who were visiting for a few days and who had never seen American Idol. As RJ began, my mother asked, "Can he sing?" She later answered her own question with, "He can't sing." In between, my father asked, "So, out of the 10,000 people who tried out, they couldn't find 10 good singers?" Ouch. And then RJ forgot the words. Mind you, Tamyra managed to remember complicated nonsense words. RJ couldn't remember fairly simply lyrics. RJ was dead. Everybody knew it. Except everybody was wrong.

Kelly came out next, looking adorable and singing as good as or better than anybody else. She just keeps getting better and better. She has moved up the rankings in my eyes and could easily win it now, I think. Even if she doesn't, I'm sure she'll get a contract.

Kelly continued to show how much better she is than most of the others on the results show when the group of them (minus the "ill" Christina, of course) sang "American Bandstand." Kelly just killed them - especially RJ and Nikki.

But having them sing as a group is better than those hysterical clips of the group running around the house (that was sarcasm, in case there was any doubt). This time it ended well, though, as Nikki was left locked in the car. Alas, it looks like somebody let her out. She probably shouted loud enough to get some neighbor to help out - she's certainly had enough experience in that regard.

When we got to the actual results, it was good to see that the three best singers were indeed voted that way this week. Justin, Kelly, and Tamyra were safe. Certainly RJ would be going, right? Wrong. RJ, who sang poorly and couldn't even remember the words, has his legions of teenaged girl fans on his side. Despite what the judges thought, Christina was voted off.

In a way, I view this as an appropriate revenge against Simon. Remember, it was Simon who booted people off based not on their singing, but on their appearance. He got rid of anybody overweight, for example. Now he's upset because viewers are voting not only based on singing. Hmmm. Where do you suppose they got the idea to do that, Simon? I'm just sorry the rest of us are paying for your mistake.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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