‘Idol’ Top 10: Chikezie checks out
-
- March
- 26
It’s been an up-and-down adventure for Chikezie, whose highs (“I Believe To My Soul” and “She’s A Woman”) and lows (um, almost everything else) were so polar, “American Idol” voters gave up waiting for him to be a steadier performer.
Still, I’m happy the affable man who described himself as “very single” during the call-in segment made the touring top 10. For a guy who flat-out annoyed me the first week of voting by snapping at Simon Cowell after a below-average performance, I’ve come to really like the guy and celebrate his talent. Good luck, good man!
I’m not surprised Syesha Mercado was in the Bottom 3. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s talking about her in sweeping terms, good or bad. If you don’t have buzz six weeks into the voting process, you’re probably not going to get it randomly in week seven. Between Kristy Lee Cook pandering and/or appealing to Red State voters on “God Bless the U.S.A.” to the point that she escaped the Bottom 3 for the first time in weeks, and Jason Castro still getting the squeeeeeeeeals when he’s announced, I think Mercado’s a goner next week.
One encouraging sign about the Bottom 3: Carly Smithson, not among them. I’d like to think that her fans had been complacent in previous weeks and decided to rally in her favor after last week’s Bottom 3 results and Randy Jackson’s unnecessarily harsh comments. But part of her safe haven this week might have to do with the votes she secured once rocker/nurse Amanda Overmyer stopped singing rock on the “Idol” proscenium arch.
Either way, this competition needs Carly. I personally would love to see a David Cook-Carly Smithson finale, with two David Archuleta songs mixed in to please the tweens and grandmas.
After the break: The mysterious popularity of Ramiele Malubay explained, a surprisingly entertaining call-in segment, and the disappointment of knowing that the footage of my interview with Kimberley Locke wound up on the cutting room floor.
I’m still perplexed at Malubay’s popularity at this point. I’m guessing part of it has to do with the fact that she’s the only remaining Asian contestant and that her hyperpop style probably appeals to the young “Idol” voting demographic—one that doesn’t seem to mind adolescent moping when the judges criticize her. On top of that, the only song I thought she did really well on (“In My Life”), the judges panned. So I just don’t get what’s going on there.
After two weeks of yawn-noying call-in segments, I have to say this week’s was actually pretty entertaining. That Cowell’s a funny cat.
Kimberley Locke did a good job on her new single, “Fall,” although it was a little uncomfortable watching Ryan Seacrest send the show to commercial without hearing Cowell’s assessment of it. (The judge described Locke as an “overweight librarian” in his book, so that doesn’t help things.)
Speaking of Locke, although my interview of her for RNN and The Journal News was filmed by the “American Idol” crew for last night’s taped montage, none of the footage of me was used in the segment. I’ll admit, I was a little bummed. I mean, how many chances does one have to appear on television’s top-rated show? Oh well. Hooray, though, for Somers resident Julia Mee, 12, who made a cameo in the same segment as Locke signed her CD!
Dolly Parton (pictured right) is on next week and will serve the remaining nine contestants as one of the mentors—remember those? I’ve missed the mentors, more for coaching contestants and offering analysis before and after finalists’ songs than for the mentors’ results-show performances. Gwen Stefani and Jon Bon Jovi were particularly fun and honest mentors last season.
And if you don’t like Dolly Parton on at least some level, I don’t want to know you.
(Photo of Chikezie by Frank Micelotta/FOX; Photo of Parton courtesy of Fox.)
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 11:46 pm by Chris Serico.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
