So Gina Glocksen goes home. She didn't deserve to, but she didn't deserve to win, or even come close, either, so no big loss. Sanjaya ends up in the Middle Three with Blake and Chris, so he's clearly going to be tough to stamp out. Penishead and Haley live on to make me wince yet another week. The good news is that, with the exception of poor Gina, everything seemed just fine to me. The order of my own personal Top Nine was barely disturbed.The best part of the night was ... Michael Bublé! Naw, I'm kidding. He did not sound great. He sounded ... bored. Like he could Give a Fuck. He mumbled and smirked in places that suggested he was forgetting the lyrics. Plus, he sounded massively French Canadian. Or possibly Eastern European. I was actually sort of floored when Ryan started chatting with him after the song (title already forgotten by me - some standard), and he sounded like your average guy from NY.
No, the Real best part of the night was the (apparent) Top Three. Shockingly, especially given the whole racial angle of my entry (and the comments) yesterday, the top three were all black. They were also, objectively, the three best singers, so their success shouldn't be that remarkable.
But on a show that saw Tamyra Gray go home before Nikki McKibbin, Jennifer Hudson AND LaToya London go home before Diana DiGarmo, Kimberly Locke go home before Clay Aiken, Sabrina Sloan go home before Haley Scarnato, and Elliott Yamin go home before Katharine McPhee ... well, the current high standing of Lakisha, Jordin, and the amazing Melinda is, historically, remarkable. But wait, you say ... Elliott Yamin was a white boy! True. Technically true. But every song he sang was black black black black. The kid was working Donny Hathaway, for god's sake. So I count him. He had his teeth done and he has an album now, which actually sounds good. So good for him.I have a feeling that there will be several more weeks of ho-humness until the chaff has been brushed aside and we get down to top 5 or so. And then it's on.
2 comments:
Go Sanjaya!
I agree (in my limited musical capacity) that the top three this week are the best singers. The vocal talent drop-off is steep compared to the rest of the pack...
The only provocative point I would make is this: Celebrating the skin color of the top three ahead of their talent is as racially loaded as your assumptions about the Idol voting audience. As long as 'black people' have to be treated with patronizing kid gloves because they're black, equality is a pipe dream.
If this was purely a singing competition, the other 5 could just cash it in right now. It's that darn popular But since most voters don't tune out, but turn their votes to someone else, that can change the game. Who's going to pick up Gina's votes? Upsets happen because it's a democratic process... vote that keeps it interesting. If Lakisha & Melinda are cannibalizing votes from each other, neither are safe. One stumble from your favorites and they'll go down like the '86 Red Sox.
PS - Like the Stamford stuff you posted... That's crossword puzzling way over my head. And since fair is fair, you are cordially invited to go to my website and beat me up over my writing. www.goodisthenewbad.com
Yay Melinda! Trying my hand at a Red Sox blog, but don't know if 162 entries will be a realistic possibility.
http://tragisox.blogspot.com/
if you're interested.
Matt
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