AI Review, 2006/03/21

Good night. Lots of strong stuff, very entertaining.

Winners

• Chris: Not the best vocals I've heard out of Chris - he was a bit shaky/awkward in the lower register bits. However, his original take on the song and performance of it puts him in the top of the heap. After he was finished, my husband turned to me and said, "Where can I buy that single?" :)
• Katharine: Laying aside for a moment the fact that Katharine cannot seem to find outfits that don't billow pregnantly at the front, this was a wonderful performance. Her performance abilities are really growing - she owned that stage and everybody in the audience, and looked like she had all the time in the world there to do her thing. And she sounded very, very good. And how pretty is this girl, eh? If I were a lesbian I would be totally hot for her, especially since she has curves and isn't a skinny stick. Anyone else think she looks like Madeline Stowe?
• Mandisa: I just felt so sorry for everyone else after she was done. :) What a show opener! I don't know how she can just turn on that VOOM every time she gets on stage, it's great. She sounded wonderful, the song showed off her voice, the performance was sexy, womanly, classy, strong and empowered. And her hair looked so pretty.

Pretty good

• Ace: There were some very good moments in this song, and I really liked his original take on it. What bumped it out of the 'winners' category for me was all the moments where his voice went too sharp and I went 'ouch'. He has GOT to get better control of his voice, and also take more advantage of his soft tone.
• Elliott: Beautiful vocals. I adore listening to him. And he's starting to open up - he turned on a little bit of charm this week, which was great to see.
• Kevin: I can't believe I'm putting him in this category, but I did actually like his performance last night. He sang something VERY appropriate to his voice and his style, and with Manilow's help did a good job performing it. (Barry's instincts were right on the money - the soft bits were my favourite part of the song.)

Fine

• Kellie: I have no idea what the judges were raving about. Vocally it was mostly the best thing I've heard out of Kellie (except for a bit around the middle of the song) but what the hell was with that performance? I mean, I know the song was about walking...at midnight...but does that mean the performer simply walks...and walks...and WALKS all around the theatre as their 'moves'? Her face was expressionless and there was no heartache in it at all, despite Barry's coaching. Also I would like to slap whoever put on her blush.
• Paris: I was actually kind of disappointed. I saw bits of when Paris did 'Fever' during the auditions, and it looked totally hot and original and she seemed like she was really getting into it. By contrast, this was kind of bland. She kind of got into it at the end, but it could have been really hot, and it really wasn't. Plus vocally at the beginning it was a bit too low for her. However, I don't think she'll have any problems sailing through to the top 10.

Enh

• Bucky: Argh. This was a frustrating performance because this was Bucky's opportunity to grow and shine. This whole song is all about "I would be such a good boyfriend and you should totally be with me, c'mon, you know you wanna..." Bucky should have opened up and brought out a flirty, sexy side. Combined with his nifty 'country crooning' take on the vocals, that would have been KILLER. Instead he just played it normal, and like Simon said, it was complete karaoke. I like Bucky (which is weird, since I'm pretty anti-country) but he's just being outclassed here. He could go tonight.
• Lisa: The best vocals I've heard out of her so far. However, I'm not sure what's happened to Lisa - Her debut performance in top-24 week was fantastically strong, and since then her performance quality has consistently gone downhill. This week she seemed extremely unfocused on stage, there was a disconnect between her and the song, and she just didn't shine. She could go tonight, depending on how rabid Bucky's fan following is.
• Taylor: Quite a disappointment. I agree with Simon - if you viewed that out of context as the first time you'd seen Taylor, without knowing how great Taylor was beforehand, it would kind of suck. Which was a real disappointment, because in his rehearsals with Manilow he sounded KILLER. I don't know what happened - somewhere between that rehearsal and the performance, the arrangement stopped being something which highlighted Taylor's vocals beautifully and became something which was actually kind of unflattering to his voice. Plus the whole thing was just this boring repetitive chorus while Taylor ran around the theatre. I liked it because it was Taylor, but otherwise it did nothing for me. He may be in the bottom three tonight.

Pick to go this week

Bucky or Lisa - hard to say which.