Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Semi Finals night: Beyonce as Mentor

What a boring show. Without James, there was nothing special happening. Everything just seemed ordinary and predictable. The song choices were mundane. Beyonce's mentoring seemed absurd, because her style had nothing to do with these singers. I liked her advice to Lauren however about psyching herself up before going out on stage. That was useful, otherwise, what was the point? Oh, I know what the point was! So that Beyonce could promote her new video, which seemed to have nothing to do with singing. It was all auto-tune vocals and there was no melody whatsoever. Very disillusioning.
My favorite performance of the night was Haley's rendition of Zeppelin's What Is and What Should Never Be. Especially with her father playing lead guitar with her. That was unpredictable, interesting and fun. Besides that, nothing thrilled me. Who should be voted off? Does it really matter anymore? They are all equally talented I think. If I had to guess who will be, I'd say Haley. Who do you think should go home tomorrow?

Scotty McReery

Baby I'm Amazed By You
He sang that well, but his style gets a little tiresome to me. Every line he starts low and slides up to the note. It's an annoying habit that gets on my nerves. But he sang it well for the most part.

Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not
That was a good performance-good song choice for him.

She Believes In Me
Such a corny pop song, hard to enjoy even Scotty singing it, but he did a good job wiht what he was given b the judges.

Lauren Alaina

She's a Wild One
She sang that very well, with confidence. Good job.

If I Die Young
Oops, poor Lauren, got lost at the modulation, but she recovered quickly. It definitely threw her and she missed a few notes at the end because of it, but the first half was beautiful. What depressing lyrics! I didn't think the song matched her youthful age.

I Hope You Dance
Nice singing. What more can I say?

Haley Reinhart

What Is and What Should Never Be
She really sang that song from the bottom of her soul. I've never heard a woman sing this song before. It was so cool having her father up there playing guitar with her. It was a great performance. She tore up the house! And she even tripped in those ridiculously high heels and didn't miss a beat. That's got to count for something too.

Rhiannan
She sang it well; kind of slow at the beginning, but it picked up at the end. The wind machine added a lot. I think everyone should always have wind when they're singing. It puts you in the mood for the song. I'm going out to buy one right now!

You Ought To Know
This wasn't a very convincing rendition of the song, although she did nail the choruses. She didn't have the right attitude for the lyrics, not angry enough. It all seemed contrived.

2 comments:

cdecotis said...

Regarding Beyonce: Nice woman, mediocre mentor at best (though, I also felt her advice to Lauren was valuable), and lousy new song...Ack! I agree, what's with all the auto-tune? blah

The semi-finals, I guess would have been more exciting for me if I cared at all about country music.

My fav of the night was Haley's Zep song. That took guts to take on Robert Plant vocals...I was so happy to see her (and dad!) tear into that song. Regarding her shoes, I was nervous watching her come down the stage staircase from the very top! 20 steps! I counted. I laughed when she took on the steps that tripped her up on the first song again with her last song...and made it! I also really enjoyed Haley's take on Rhiannon too. Hahaha, you made me smile about the wind machine. Not only would it make you tres cool, but it would feel nice under those hot stage lights!

My least favorite song of the night was Haley's Alanis song. Not executed well, poor pick from the judges.

I also thought the judges chose songs that lyrically were too old for both Lauren and Scotty. Overall, those two did very well all evening, unfortunately, I just don't care for the songs that much.

I'm not sure which two will make to the finals. I think the voters tend to like the country artists most...so Scotty and Lauren, maybe?
Definitely, Scotty because I think he's going to be the season's winner.

Vickie said...

I'm with you on all counts. We'll see who goes tonight.