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IDOL DIVA UPDATE: KRISTY LEE COOK VOTED OFF :-)
Thursday 04-17-2008 12:11pm ET
The Idols kicked the evening off by singing the Mariah Carey/Boys II Men smash hit “One Sweet Day”. I remember when that song came out…it broke all kinds of sells and chart records. The Idols sounded okay singing it. Jason kicked if off with several bad notes and they all seemed to have a bit of trouble sounding harmonious together. Anyway…Ryan’s using the old “this group to my left and that group to my right” tactic for the results. I’ll venture to say that whichever group Archuleta and David Cook are in, is the group of safe contestants. Here’s how it went down…
Jason Castro’s sent to Ryan’s right, followed by Carly Smithson. David Cook is sent to Ryan’s left, followed by Kristy Lee Cook.
So far my reaction is, ‘Oh no, Kristy Lee Cook is in David Cook’s group…which means she’ll stay on the show another week!’ Oh no!
Aww, Elliott Yamin returned to the Idol stage to perform. I was so sad to hear that his mom passed away a few weeks ago. You’ll recall that he and his mom were extremely close. And at the end of his performance, he raised his hand and showed the message “We miss you Mom.” Just heartbreaking. On another note, I read somewhere that Elliott wants Archuleta to win Season 7.
Back to the Idols…Syesha Mercado was sent to Ryan’s right to join Jason and Carly. Brooke White was sent to Ryan’s left to join the Cooks. And little David was left backstage until after the commercial break.
 
Then they took phone calls from fans, followed by a performance by this week’s mentor, Mariah Carey! Btw, I’m LOVING Mariah’s crystal-encrusted microphone and mic stand! Gotta get me some! Also, I love her new song “Bye Bye”. Touching song about losing a loved one and appropriate for Elliott Yamin being on the show since he just lost his mom. I couldn’t tell though…was Mariah lip-synching? At times it seemed she was. Hmm. And did I see it correctly, was there a fan somewhere in the audience blowing on Mariah so that her hair would blow in the breeze? Lol, classic and priceless! Another commercial break.
Finally, David Archuleta was brought to the stage…and was told he was safe! Yay! OMG…Ryan tricked us all! He moved Syesha over to the group to the left and moved David Cook over the group to the right! Then he tried to make Archuleta choose the group he thought was safe! But I knew it…Archuleta and David Cook would be safe. Also safe…Carly Smithson and Jason Castro.
So that means that this week’s bottom 3 were Kristy Lee Cook, Brooke White and Syesha Mercado. Another commercial break.
Back from the break and Ryan sends Syesha to safety. So happy about that because she sounded great singing “Vanishing”. As I said before, she could stand to loosen up a bit, but she sang it beautifully.
So the bottom 2 are Kristy Lee Cook and Brooke White. Of course, my pick to go home would be Kristy Lee…but here’s the final vote. Whew! And finally Kristy Lee is outta here! We’ll still have to see her on the Idol tour, but she’s off the show. The “Sanjaya of this season” has finally been voted off!
And Omg, I can’t believe she sat on the judges’ table and sang to Simon, lol! I will admit though, she became a slightly better performer in the last couple of weeks. She was once far more boring onstage than she is now. That’s good news for the fans who’ll go to see the Idol tour!
So here’s your Season 7 Top 6:
David Archuleta, David Cook, Jason Castro, Carly Smithson, Syesha Mercado and Brooke White. Do you think the right person went home? EMAIL ME!IDOL DIVA UPDATE: MARIAH MENTORS THE IDOLS!
Wednesday 04-16-2008 11:17am ET
MiMi! I love Mariah Carey. I’ve always been a Mariah fan ever since she broke onto the scene. I know a lot of people identify her with being a diva and all…And I guess she is in some ways because she’s always gotta be “on” in front of the cameras. Every single pose has got to be just right and every time she goes out, there has to be some sort of big production with cars and bodyguards. But she IS Mariah Carey, so I guess that’s necessary in most instances. I have to say though, each time I’ve met her, I’ve felt nothing but kindness from her. I once asked her advice on something and she gave me her Blackberry number. And the few times I emailed her, she emailed me right back! Her number’s changed since then cuz when you’re Mariah…you need to change your numbers now and then, lol! But my point is, she was gracious and giving of her time. And when I was performing on a regular basis, Mariah Carey songs were in my staple of “must do’s”, right up there with the Whitney songs. So I think you get the point…I’m a Mariah fan and I’m extremely excited that she’s mentoring the Idols this week!
DAVID ARCHULETA: Aww, I think it’s cute that David said he wasn’t worthy to be in Mariah’s presence, lol. Ooh, “When You Believe” from “The Prince of Egypt” soundtrack is a tough one to sing. I remember when this song first came out. Everyone made such a big deal about it because it was a duet between The Divas! Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey! And I guess that was a big deal! I love this song though and I think that Archuleta can pull it off. Wow, he sounded GREAT singing that! He made it his own and he sang it from his heart and soul! LOVED IT! I actually almost cried because I was so moved with how sincere and pure he sounded singing that. I know that sounds extremely corny, but it’s true! And I liked that interesting, behind-the-scenes tidbit Ryan gave us about Archuleta sometimes not eating during performance night because of his nerves. Very interesting indeed!
~Sidebar~ I totally agree with Simon…there’s not as much pressure on the boys during Mariah week because nobody’s judging them because they’re trying to sound too much like Mariah. The women will be judged on it though. Not fair, but true.
CARLY SMITHSON: I imagine that with her lovely singing skills, Carly should knock this one out of the park singing a Mariah song. “Without You” was even a remake for Mariah, so she actually did a great job making it her own back when she recorded it. So the test for Carly is to make it her own and not sound exactly like Mariah, or even Badfinger. Of course she sounded great and hit some strong notes, but for some reason…I wasn’t highly impressed. And I think that it was because it’s Mariah night. If it weren’t Mariah night, maybe I wouldn’t be so judgemental. And I agree with Simon, Carly just seems like she can’t let go and just sing like she’s never sung before. I think that, much like Syesha, Carly wants to make sure she’s hitting the right notes, so she pays more attention to that instead of just singing from the soul. Fantasia was excellent at just letting go and singing from her soul. I guess not everyone’s able to do that though.
SYESHA MERCADO: I think this’ll be a tough one for Syesha. She’s definitely got the gorgeous voice, but out of all the contestants this week, she’ll have the most pressure on her to just kill this one because she’s the one that typically sings in the Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston tradition. OMG “Vanishing”! True story…I once performed this song at an open mic night in Houston and seriously got booed! It was the first time I was booed, but it was my fault because I knew that I had no business TRYING to sing that song, lol! I actually told Mariah about that once and she laughed! I thought it was a brilliant song choice for Syesha because not many people are familiar with “Vanishing”. It was an abstract track at the end of MiMi’s first cd I believe. I agree with Paula about that and totally disagree with Simon. If Syesha would have chosen a familiar Mariah song, she would have been harshly judged. I think she made a great call on this one. And she sounded great. She hit some great notes. The problem with Syesha is that she’s technically on point as usual…but she could have let go and sang that with so much more soul. Again, Fantasia would have brought me to tears if she would have performed it. Just let go of all the technicalities and sing the song as if your life depended on it…from the soul. Mariah sang it like that originally and it was very moving. But since I tried performing the song years ago, I can attest to the fact that it’s extremely hard to sing and Syesha sang it well.
BROOKE WHITE: Oh, it’s so sad that Brooke had to miss her sister’s wedding :-( Wow, I had no idea that Mariah had originally written “Hero” for Gloria Estefan! Wow! “Hero” is a good song choice for Brooke. I was a little surprised to see Brooke performing the song with a piano. I thought she’d use a guitar since she had one during her session with Mariah. She sounded good singing the song. I enjoyed the pared down piano version. It came from her soul, so I appreciated it. Unfortunately, it’s hard not compare her singing to Mariah’s. Mariah sang the song with such spirituality that you get goose bumps hearing her version. Brooke’s version wasn’t so motivational though. But again, she sounded good. Lol at Simon with his hamburger and bun comment!
KRISTY LEE COOK: Kristy Lee said that she can’t believe she gave Mariah goose bumps. Well I can’t believe it either, lol! She actually sounds pretty good singing “Forever”. I can’t say that I’m familiar with this Mariah song. But of course, Kristy put her country twang into her version. It was a good song for her. Didn’t give me goose bumps, but it was a good song for her. I agree with Randy, she had a few off notes. What Paula? Blown away? I wouldn’t go that far. But I haven’t been so offended by Kristy Lee’s presence on the show the last couple of weeks, lol!
~Sidebar~ I agree with Paula that all the girls looked beautiful...including Mariah! I love Mariah’s all-black ensemble. I also like that she’s not showing her boobs and legs like she tends to do sometimes. I’m happy she took the more conservative look. She looked great! But I am curious about that band-aid on her hand. Wonder what happened…?
*DAVID COOK: I was trying to figure out if I thought David Cook could pull off doing a Mariah song. But he’s proven that he could put his own unique spin on songs in the past, so I’m sure he’ll do well. Hmm, an acoustic, guy version of “Always Be My Baby”. He sounded okay singing it. I didn’t find it “haunting” like Mariah said and he didn’t blow me away like he did when he sang “Billie Jean”, but it was cool. I also didn’t find it brilliant and standing ovation-worthy like Randy did. The judges were blown away, but I wasn’t. It was a cool performance though. Wow, I found it moving that David cried at the end of his segment. I think the fact that his sick brother was in the audience and witnessed the judges' positive comments on his performance, moved him to tears. His brother’s health situation is so sad :-(
JASON CASTRO: Wow, Jason’s version of “I Don’t Wanna Cry” is such a departure from Mariah’s original version! He had a few off notes, but I think he sounded pretty. It’s funny that Randy said he thought he felt like he was at a weird beach luau when Jason sang…that’s exactly what I felt about Jason’s performance of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, lol!
I agree with Simon that the boys out-performed the girls for Mariah week. And you would think it would have been the opposite. The girls just couldn’t let go and sing from the heart though, and it hurt them. But I don’t think any of the Idols gave a bad performance. My fav performer of the night was David Archuleta. He sang that song in such a moving way. Jason Castro’s performance also stood out for me. My pick to go home would be Kristy Lee Cook. Who were your favorites and who do you think will go home? EMAIL ME! Can’t wait to see Mariah’s performance during the results show!A TOUR OF MARIAH'S FRIDGE!
Tuesday 04-15-2008 9:41am ET
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