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Matt Giraud was sweet and more engaging than I expected during his exit interview.

He kept his answers short enough that I even got to ask a follow up!

I asked: Did you even want to win “American Idol”?

“I never came on wanting to be the ‘American Idol.’ My dream was to play the piano on that stage and sing jazz and meet the mentors. Those dreams came true. If i win, there’s definitely a lot of perks. I’d like it and fight for it. But it wasn’t the goal. I’m not kicking myself for not winning. Obviously, we’ve seen past Idols finish fourth and fifth and …

Continue reading 4/30: Matt Giraud exit interview, ratings, Sanjaya promo for “I’m a Celebrity »

So Matt Giraud is gone. No surprise. He acquitted himself well through most of the competition (though I still can’t quite get his awful “Viva La Vida” out of my head.

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He had good vocal skills, a decent look but was ultimately a Justin Timberlake wannabe. Just not enough originality to get any further. I don’t think a lot of you guys will miss that fedora.

Next week’s theme: rock, with Slash as mentor

The Ford ad: Pretty to look at but not terribly memorable

Group sing: Proof positive this is the best top 5 in terms of overall quality we’ve ever had.

The cake cooking food fight: Felt a bit staged.

Natalie Cole: Looking abfab. Sounding snazzy until a few pitchy notes at the end.

Taylor Hicks: “Seven Mile Breakdown.” Bluesy rock, shorter hair, …

Continue reading 4/29: American Idol recap, top 5 results show – Matt Giraud leaves »

With five excellent vocalists left, we got five good to great performances on Rat Pack night. Having sturdy classic songs and the big orchestra helped. And Jamie Foxx was a fairly good mentor, helping Matt and Danny especially.

Tough picks tonight.

Who will be in the bottom three: Matt, Allison, Kris

Who will be in the bottom two if there is only a bottom two: Matt, Allison

Who will go home: Matt

Who should be in the bottom three: Matt, Danny, Allison

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Who should be in the bottom two: Matt, Danny

Who should go home: Matt

My personal rankings: 1- Allison 2- Kris 3- Adam 4- Danny 5- Matt

Early dialidol rankings show nobody is so far off the mark to be a goner. The ranks are 1-Adam 2-Danny 3-Allison 4- Kris 5- Matt. No surprises there.

First up: Kris Allen (”The Way You Look Tonight”) – I recommended Danny sing this but …

Continue reading 4/28: American Idol recap: top 5 Rat Pack performance show »

On an exceedingly quiet day in ‘Idol’ land, here’s the latest bookmaker.com odds on who will win “Idol” continues to be dominated by Adam Lambert. Looks about right to me.

Adam Lambert -350 (same as wk earlier)
Danny Gokey +275 (up from +325 a wk earlier)
Kris Allen +1000 (up from +1400 a wk earlier)
Allison Iraheta +1800 (down from +1600 a wk earlier)
Matt Giraud +2000 (up from +4000 a wk earlier)

-Slash apparently leaked that he will be a guest judge, probably for top 4. Does that mean rock as a theme? I would hope so…

–”My Life Would Suck Without You” peaked at No. 3 (blame Lady Gaga and Flo-Rida, both of whom appeared on ‘Idol’) and is starting to slip. But Kelly Clarkson’s second single “I Do Not Hook Up” might be another top 10 hit. It’s already at No. 22 on the mediabase 24/7 top 40 chart.

Carrie Underwood’s single “I Told You So” is up to no. 4 on the …

Continue reading 4/27: Odds, airplay updates, top 4 theme? »

Last week, I hit the mark with two of the seven singers. Let’s see how I do this time.

The “Rat Pack” sounds like a fun genre, one they haven’t done in years. Will it only be songs sung by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr.? Or will they stretch it to the likes of Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole and Perry Como? I presume the latter.

My guess is this will be another ballad-heavy episode.

Adam Lambert has shown he can sing any genre (save for country) so he’ll breeze through this. It will be interesting to see how Allison will handle this genre especially since most of the known artists in this field were guys. Here is an online radio station that plays this style of music.

I’m going to try my best with suggestions based on my relatively limited knowledge:

Kris Allen
“Beyond the Sea” Bobby Darin
“I Left My Heart in San Francisco” Tony Bennett
“I’ve Got the World On a String” Frank Sinatra

Allison Iraheta
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” Frank Sinatra
“Who’s Sorry Now” or …

Continue reading 4/24: American Idol “Rat Pack” theme pondered »

Lil Rounds, in her exit interview, was pleasant and bland.

I asked her if she expected to go last night. She did.

“I actually had a good feeling that it might have been the right time to get ready to go,” she said. I kind of started coping with the idea of leaving before the show.”

And did she ever felt she could make the music “her own”?

“I thought I did make ti my own vocally. I think they wanted me to change as far as the music. Whenever I would do a song, I always stayed true to the way the music went with the song. But I felt vocally I did do some changing. I wanted to it to fit me as an artist. That’s me being an R&B soulful singer. I wanted to make sure I get that vibe in there. As far as making it my own, I did do that.”

She also felt the judges’ comments were inconsistent and sometimes confusing. And her hubby got her a puppy she’s looking forward to seeing when she gets home.

Here’s the best of Anoop Desai, who threw out the standard cliches of how everyone got …

Continue reading 4/23: Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai exit interviews, “Rat Pack” theme next week, Taylor Hicks on results »

Lil Rounds is first in the bottom three. And the first out. They just pulled the Band Aid quickly on that one.

Why? She started strong in the early audition and Hollywood rounds But since she got to the big stage, she’s been okay vocally but lacking in artistry, as Kara might say. She simply never stood out in a way that could distinguish her as an individual. That’s a killer on “Idol.” She got about as far as she deserved. I guess we can say she finished “seventh” or “sixth” depending on your point of view.

Anoop Desai was the second out just beating out Allison Iraheta, who was in the bottom three a third time. Anoop is the earliest person I think in the history of “Idol” to get eliminated while getting the pimp spot.

Continue reading 4/22: American Idol recap, top 7 results – Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai out »

Sorry this is so late. I’ll keep this one short before tonight’s results.

-Rumors are rampant Paula Abdul has yet to negotiate a new deal and may not come back next year. Read this item on MJ’s big blog. She’s choreographing tonight’s group sing so this should be fun. Maybe she’ll join them! (NOT! She hasn’t sung live since God knows when…)

-American Idol ratings last night was 24 million. That was down from 24.7 million a year ago for the comparable episode.

-Former metro Atlantan and season four runner up Bo Bice will be co-headlining a show May 2 at the Concert in the Quarry in Suwanee in Forsyth County – literally in a quarry. It’s a fundraiser. Here’s info from the North Fulton Times:

Music, food and fireworks will be rocking at Georgia’s largest outdoor event 300 feet below ground in a quarry overlooking a small lake. The fourth annual Concert in the Quarry will be held on Saturday, May 2, 2009 at the working Martin Marietta Forsyth Quarry. Headline acts include …

Continue reading 4/22: Mid-day report with Paula Abdul, Bo Bice, Idol Ratings, Vince Neil »

Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!

This night was not the trainwreck we expected because most of the contestants avoided the cliches inherent in the genre. There were no utter disasters tonight. And yes, as Randy said, this is probably our strongest vocal top 7 in the show’s history.

And they finished the show on time! (Like that should even be noted but it has to after the past two weeks.)

Who should go home: Lil Rounds Matt Giraud

Who will go home Wednesday: Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud

Bottom three: Lil Rounds, Allison Iraheta, Matt Giraud (because Anoop should be okay given his pimp spot locale. But I’m getting busy signals for Allison at 9:07 p.m. That’s a good sign for her. Then again, Lil is getting busy signals, too.)

Ranking: 1- Kris 2- Danny 3- Anoop 4- Allison 5- Matt 6- Adam 7- Lil Rounds

Note that Dialidol has tended to underestimate Kris’s support (no text messaging) and overestimate Lil Rounds. Very tight on dialidol in the early minutes.