New URL for the American Idol buzz blog!
Please go to the new American Idol Buzz blog at http://blogs.ajc.com/american-idol-blog/
Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > February > 28
Thursday, February 28, 2008
2/28: Hometown gal Alexandrea Lushington out, plus Jason Yeager, Alaina Whitaker, Robbie Carrico
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Poor song choice helped do in Douglasville teen Alexandrea Lushington, who picked a lame Chicago song and didn’t do enough with it to survive. In the blogosphere, she was among those targeted to go home after an okay week one and a mediocre week two. She also suffered from relative lack of airtime.
“To me it’s not really the right choice, but you know, listen, here’s the problem,” Randy said. “You’re a great singer, you’ve got great skills. You just picked the wrong song. It was the wrong time for that. You need to shine every time.”
She was very stoic about her departure, no tears during the broadcast. In her farewell, she sang “If You Leave Me Now” again and actually did it with more emotion and improved upon her performance that aired Wednesday.
Her “Star Search” competitor David Archuleta was seen crying emotionally. He beat her five years ago, too. Ouch. The cameras did not close in on any of the gals crying. She went over and hugged Archuleta. Awww….
Alaina Whitaker, the Carrie Underwood lookalike, being ousted was not a surprise. She did a pageant-like version of “Hopelessly Devoted To You” and failed to distinguish herself personality wise from the other blonde gals who got more airtime. She was really torn up over it and said she couldn’t sing. Such a sweet gal. She eventually got her act together to sing Olivia Newton John one more time, with the other gals surrounding her. Despite or because of her emotional state, she did much better than Wednesday. Go figure.
Kady Malloy and Amanda Overmyer were threatened but both had enough personality (and in Amanda’s case, a good first week) to survive.
Among the guys, the first to go was Jason Yeager, who was again one of the pre-top 24 ignored ones. He simply didn’t do anything special. We won’t remember him in about three hours.
And shocking no one, the ex-Britney boyfriend/former boy band/fake rocker dude Robbie Carrico was cut, too. He was simply overshadowed by David Cook, who seems more legit in that arena. Now if only Robbie had pulled off those alleged extensions live on air! That would have made him truly memorable!
So I got three out of four right. That’s not bad after getting only two right last week.
During the group sing, was it just me or was Amanda even worse than she was yesterday? And since it was a Bonnie Tyler song, she should have hit her little portion of the song out of the park.
And as you’ve noticed, I’ve stopped reporting on www.dialidol.com numbers. I personally think with more people text messaging, it makes the issue of “busy signals” less of an issue and ultimately makes the predictions less useful.
The Fox press release sent out at midnight EST notes that Blake Lewis will perform his next single “How Many Words” on the results show March 6. His first single “Break Anotha” went nowhere.
Reality check for the semifinalists who don’t make the final 12. Paula may say this is just the beginning but how many semifinalists have done anything of note?
On a related topic:
Has there been a season where the ostensible likely winner appeared so early in the competition? (I might repeat this blog entry topic on a slower day but I’ll post it now, too.) Justin was the early fave season one before Kelly overshadowed him by week two of the competition. Ruben & Clay had the tightest battle of them all season two and nobody could predict who could pull it off at any point. Fantasia was not necessarily a lock at this stage season three with LaToya and Jennifer Hudson nipping at her heels at this stage, but by the time she did “Summertime” in the top 8, it was over. Season four, Simon nailed Carrie as the winner very very early on and he was right. Bo made a nice run but couldn’t quite reach her. Season five, Daughtry and Taylor were considered the likeliest winners at this stage but nobody could predict who would pull it off. Last year, Jordin hadn’t broken out yet at this stage and even though LaKisha had blown us out of the water with her “And I’m Not Telling You,” I don’t think folks were fully convinced she had enough range and personality to take it all the way home. I don’t think Jordin became the true contender to win until the top 10.
In other Idol news:
Nigel has finally wrangled clearance after years of trying for the Beatles catalog. Woohoo! The top 12 will sing Beatles hits. This should be good! Ryan Seacrest broke the news yesterday on his radio show.
“It’s something we’ve waited for for seven seasons now,” Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe told Seacrest. “Sony has agreed to release the Lennon and McCartney songbook to us.”
Next week, by the way is my decade: the ’80s! And Ruben is singing the farewell song! And for the April “Idol Gives Back” special, guests will include Mariah Carey Snoop Dogg, Daughtry, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus and Carrie Underwood.
Amanda had a DUI. yawn. TMZ reported this and Robbie Castro’s alleged extensions to make him look more like a rocker.
And it seems David Archuleta’s version of “Imagine” was closer to that of the late jazz-pop singer Eva Cassidy. Check this out:
And he apparently sang that version a couple of years ago on “Good Day Utah,” which is probably why it was so smooth and nuanced. It wasn’t like he learned that rendition 72 hours earlier. This is similar to Daughtry two years ago when he sang a cool version of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line,” that was actually similar to that of Live.
