Tuesday Night’s American Idol is the last chance for 12 semifinalists to perform and make their pleas to American Idol judges. A lot of young talent is being showcased this night on American Idol, with some contestants being only 16 years old.
Ju’Not Joyner and Felicia Barton are the oldest in this contestant group, both at 26 years old. Scott MacIntyre, Kendall Beard and Lil Rounds are 23 years old, while Kristen McNamara and Von Smith are both 22 years old.
Tuesday night is very important for American Idol because it is the last chance to fill up remaining three spots. Wednesday night’s show will have the winners announced. Thursday night is American Idol’s “wild card” night, when 12 booted contestants have one more chance to perform for last 3 spots.
Jorge Nunez is 20 years old. Alex Wagner-Trugman is 19, while Nathaniel Marshall is 28 years old. Arianna Afsar and Taylor Vaifanua are both only 16 years old.
Von Smith sang You’re All I Need To Get By, and he kicked off Tuesday night’s American Idol with a bang! Von’s performance was hot, it was fun. I expect to see Von Smith proceed without a hitch after Tuesday night’s American Idol performance.
Taylor Vaifanua sang If I Ain’t Got You. This song by Alicia Keys is beautiful to listen to, but hard to sing. Taylor did okay, but managed to turn the song in to a bore. Nothing stood out, she was kind of lost in the song and there was no Taylor’s personality in it. The judges agreed.
Kara made comments about not being able to see Taylor’s personality in the song, she wanted to see what it’s like to go shopping with Taylor. Simon had to jump on that comment and make fun of Kara, asking Taylor what her favorite cereal was. Randy asked Taylor if she preferred soy milk or regular milk.
I hate to see any American Idol trying to imitate Alicia Keys, or Mariah Carey. It just cannot be done.
I did like Taylor’s dress though. Rarely do I pay attention to American Idol fashion, but her dress was beautiful and trendy. I’ll be looking for Taylor’s Tuesday Night Dress online.
Alex Wagner-Trugman sang I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues, and he murdered the song. May I just say, I love this song. It is a classic and Alex butchered it.
Simon was right when he said it was fun watching Alex, but not fun listening to him. Simon even made a remark that Alex was “like a hamster, trying to be a tiger”. There was too much growling, microphone kicking antics, and overall a disturbing amount of dork mode. Alex Wagner-Trugman is too much of a Clay Aiken, with his legions of screaming girls in the background, who are fawning over the dork.
Overall, Alex’s Tuesday night performance was terrible. He looked like a 19 year old, attending a college party and making a fool of himself.
Arianna Afsar sang The Winner Takes It All but altered it to sound more contemporary and in her words “unbuttoned”.
The judges all agreed that her song choice was bad, and her performance was terrible. Arianna tried to sing a grown up song, but it turned depressing and sad. There was no spunk to it, or anything to enjoy. Paula tried to compliment Arianna, saying there were “some bright moments”. It seems that the damage was done though, the judges were not happy.
Ju’Not Joyner sang Hey There Delilah.
I love Ju’Not’s voice. His Hey There Delilah performance was wonderful, his voice was in great control. Beautiful, memorable American Idol performance for sure.
Randy complimented Ju’Not’s perfomance, and Kara liked Ju’Not’s “spin on it”. Simon again had problems pronouncing Ju’Not’s name. Simon called the song choice “safe”.
I found Ju’Not’s rendition of Hey There Delilah by far the best at this point of the night.
Kristen McNamara sang Give Me One Reason, and it was a fun performance. American Idol needs more fun songs like the one Kristen performed.
I like Kristen because she has that American Idol look. The judges also compliment her on her looks, including her new hairstyle. Simon and Randy both said that they are not sure who Kristen is yet. Randy felt like it was too much karaoke.
Nathaniel Marshall sang I Would Do Anything For Love and he would certainly do a whole lot for votes, including crying. The performance was okay, it was nothing spectacular. Nate’s voice wasn’t very strong though, there was no attitude behind it.
Simon said “you probably would”, and he also called the performance “excruciating”. He called the performance “almost uncomfortable”, and said that at least on the positive note people would remember Nate. Randy was curious about the song choice. Nate tried to defend his song choice by calling it “fun”. There was a lot of remarks about Olivia Newton-John headband look. Kara told Nate to pick something more serious.
Ryan tried to get Simon and Nate to get to know each other better.
Personally, I am not a fan of Nathaniel Marshall because I feel that he tries to draw too much attention to himself for his antics and not his talent. You can only whine and cry for so long. After a while, your songs and performances need to stand out and not your whining for sympathy.
Let’s just say that I would not vote for Nathaniel Marshall to be the next American Idol. If he were the only contestant on American Idol, I’d throw my phone out the window in protest.
Felicia Barton sang No One and I still stand by my earlier statement that no one should attempt to sing Alicia Keys on American Idol. Felicia did okay, she had great vocals. There was a few moments where a squealing sound came through, perhaps she was pushing herself too much.
Overall, Felicia Barton’s performance was great for this Tuesday night.
Paula was glad that Felicia Barton was brought back. Simon liked the first part of the song than the last half. He was not as enthusiastic as Paula. Randy thought Felicia had something different than Alicia Keys and felt like she should try to work on that. Kara also pointed out problems with several notes, but also said that Felicia was noticed tonight.
Scott MacIntyre sang a song about moving mountains. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with this song or the name of it. Nevermind, I found out the song name is Mandolin Rain.
Randy loved it, saying he can feel the passion and the power of how much Scott wants to win. Kara said that Scott moves mountains. She loved it too.
Paula liked the performance too, Simon was honest and said he did not like some of the lyrics. Simon however said that Scott’s performance will be the one he remembers from Tuesday night.
Scott MacIntyre has long been my favorite in this competition, and I expect him to be in the finals. He should have performed a different song though. This one was a bore, despite Scott’s beautiful vocals, the boredom of this song was more powerful than Scott. I can’t wait to see Scott perform again though, he’s by far the most gifted one in this American Idol season.
Kendall Beard sang This One’s For The Girls.
The performance was okay, she tried to make it fun but it didn’t really work. It was not anything to go crazy over, but she did alright. Kendall’s yellow dress though was beautiful, and it looked stunning on her.
Kara had issues with the performance, but Paula loved her outfit. Paula called Kendall a country artist. Paula did seem to be giving Kendall the farewell speech though, it sounded as if she was trying to tell Kendall that she won’t be going forward. Simon said that she did the right thing tonight, in terms of her country song choice. Simon did say he could not wait for it to end, he called it “shrilly” towards the end.
Jorge Nunez sang Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, and his performance left me on the fence. At times Jorge did well, and at times he had pitch problems.
Paula complimented Jorge on his dialect lessons and said that he did everything he was told to do. Simon said that maybe they were wrong to tell him that he should not sing with his accent. He called him a very good singer, and different. Randy thought Jorge’s performance was very good. Kara said that he was born to sing, and that he is a singer.
Jorge broke down, which was sad, he even spoke in Spanish because he was so emotional. I do believe that Jorge Nunez can sing very, very well.
Lil Rounds sang Be Without You and she was great. May I just say that her vocal strength was stunning! Lil brought the American Idol house down.
I could listen to Lil Round’s rendition of Be Without You over and over, in fact I’ll be downloading it on iTunes.
Simon had problems with the song choice, saying that Lil sounds too much like Mary J Blige. He did say that Lil is by far one of the best singers they found. Randy agreed, saying that she kept her swagger. Randy loved it. Kara and Paula also loved Lil’s performance.
Lil is by far a star on American Idol, one of those contestants that will go far no matter what. I could even see Lil on the finals of Idol, potentially winning the coveted winning spot.
I predict that Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre and Jorge Nunez will be moving to the Top 12 on American Idol. Ju’Not Joyner should get a shot in the Wild Card night.
Sources:
American Idol TV Show
http://www.americanidol.com/
