Where are the good white girl singers?

[jlh]

Thinking about last night again, it reminds me of what a great singer Elliott is, because the folks that did Elliott songs weren't nearly as good as he was last year.

Recap boys, rules, yadda. I have had my feminist hat on all week for various reasons and I just want to point out that only six of the girls (as opposed to ten of the boys) are wearing jeans. As predicted, Ryan was more relaxed with the girls (they aren't as potentially dangerous as the boys) and the sparring with Simon was minimal and not too harsh—until, that is, that crack about Ryan trying to date one of the girls. And it started off so well. Their afterglow has a half life of about five minutes, apparently.

1. Stephanie was fine for me. A lot better than anything last night, and a great performance, but I personally didn't love the song.
   
2. The judges were totally right about Amy—totally boring! No one should really be singing "I Can't Make You Love Me" anymore, I'm thinking.
   
3. Leslie sang "Natural Woman" more like Carole King than Aretha Franklin, which was the move for her, I'm thinking, even if it did sort of drain the song of color. And no, she didn't move about the stage particularly well.
   
4. Sabrina was completely great on "I Never Loved a Man." I love how she did her homework. Smart cookie.
   
5. Antonella sucked. You know you're dead when you sing "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" and all Paula has to say is that you're pretty. But I like that rather than talking back, she asked for what she could do, and Simon gave her great advice on what kind of song she should have picked.
   
6. Jordin sounded nice on "Gimme One Reason to Stay Here" but she should have turned it on earlier as Randy said. That said, I really like her a lot and I'm pleased she got that praise from Simon.
   
7. Nicole picked the wrong song. Randy was right that it was too urban; Paula was right that at least she could sing it. I'm not sure I'd go as far as Simon to say that it was self-indulgent, but hopefully she'll pick a better song next time.
   
8. Haley sounded like a Miss America contestant, seriously. So MOR that it ran up on the median.
   
9. Melinda was piles and piles and piles of awesomeness on "Since You've Been Gone." She's fast becoming a favorite.
   
10. Alaina was incredibly boring, and I didn't think you could make "Brass in Pocket" boring.
    
11. Gina was great singing "All By Myself" but Simon was right—she didn't quite hit that note.
    
12. Okay, about Lakisha singing "I'm Telling You I'm Not Going": that has nothing to do with the movie. Girls, especially big black girls with big voices, have been singing that song since Dreamgirls was on Broadway. Right, so now that that's straight? OMG she was fantastic.

So what have we learned? Basically, that the thrust during Hollywood week to put through all those young slender cute white girls is a desperate attempt to keep the entire girl side from being awesome black girls with great voices but low crossover potential (think Fantasia). Sorta like how they force the finals to have an even number of men and women, also to fix the third season where they ended up with eight girls and four boys. I don't really mind this practice because the cream still rises to the top and the rest go quickly, either in the semis or in the first couple of weeks of the finals. Still, this meant that other than Gina, all the white girls were mediocre at best while all the black girls (Stephanie, Sabrina, Jordin, Melinda and Lakisha) were good at worst and my favs, Lakisha and Melinda, were amazing.

Comments

[toastoos.livejournal.com]

Jordin, Lakisha, and Melinda were my faves tonight.
Melinda's my #1 pick to win overall this season actually.

AmyLeslieNicoleAntonellaHaley can just go on home.

Simon and Ryan weren't awkward tonight. Someone made up last night.
And Randy, early on, just refused to stop the "sweetheart". More power to him. lol That's a nic that should stay around for Ryan.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

No. I felt like the weird joke about Ryan trying to pick up on whoever was like a present for Ryan and his Straight Quest.

I really do hope that all those boring white girls leave quickly. None of them are really hot enough to make it over and above their voices. I would love a win for Melinda, too.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Neither of us have ever watched American Idol, but my husband caught a snippet of Lakisha last week and was immediately transformed into a fanboy. He had the show on tonight waiting for her to come on, and then dragged me down to watch her with him. *g* And yeah, she was awesome. WOW. Seriously.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

She is totally amazing. It's stunning how the voices of the women break down along race lines.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It was really noticable the way there were all these black women-and Gina--and then whenever another skinny white girl went up it was like her voice matched her body.

Loved LaKisha's daughter telling her it was her birthday today and she was four.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

That was a totally adorable moment. I'll be really blue if the final six aren't the Fantastic Five Colored Girls plus Gina, which prolly means I'll need to be voting next week.

[zorb]

I agreed with Simon on just about everything tonight, although I think I liked Gina more than he did. I hope Leslie picks it up with some better song choices, too, because she and Gina don't seem pop princessy like a lot of the other white girls (all of whom can just get out right now). The ones who could belt it out did best tonight; it'll be interesting to see how they adapt to the theme weeks later on.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I can't decide who I would rather have as my White Girl of Choice, Leslie or Gina, but I'm hoping none of the Fantastic Five falter in the coming two weeks, or that Simon picks on one particularly hard. Also, if he doesn't stop loving on Lakisha she's not going to make it, and he should know better than that. So I'll have to use my superpowers as a Cingular customer to text like crazy.

[praetorianguard.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for all those awesome black girls to make it to the final and starting picking off the boys one week at a time.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

If they don't, I'm going to be irritable.