American Idol: When ‘Inspirational’ Became an Alien Word

Come Tuesday night and the remaining eight at American Idol were to sing songs from a play list of Inspirational Songs. Sadly, that was the only thing the singers seemed to be lacking – inspiration. The songs were great, no doubt, stuff that worked at various levels for various people. However, they did not seem to work for the people that sang them this time around.

Michael Johns’ rendition of the Aerosmith version of Dream On was perhaps one of the good things about tonight’s performances. The fact that Michael has been taking on material by vocal legends and giving them his voice goes to show he is willing to make the effort to go the extra mile, even if it may not always work for him.

‘I Believe’ by Syesha Mercado was a great song to begin with, though she could not quite achieve the desired effect that the audience and the judges may have wanted. On a day of inspirational songs, may be, this was not the right choice in the first place. While the song may have been technically okay in patches, it certainly did not live up to the billing of the night – inspirational.

Jason Castro was, again, not something to write home about. His rendition of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ may have been the best choice considering his voice and singing style. However, that is not what we are all here for; we are here for a great performance, and that is something that he could not give. The judges seemed to like it, though, as all the three of them gave him the heads up. However, while his performance could probably give the romantically inclined the opportunity to drop dead into a faint, but that is not what exactly defines ‘inspirational’ now, does it?

Another good performance for the night was Kristy Lee. Her rendition of ‘anytime’ was just about the right thing. This was Kristy at her best, when the audience and the judges actually got to see what she was all about, and it was certainly a good feeling. The judges gave her the heads-up, and deservedly so.

David Cook has established himself as a strong contender over the past few weeks with his voice and his performance. It is such impressions that help even when things are not exactly going your way. His performance of ‘Innocent’ was not exactly the best David Cook we have heard, but it was certainly not bad, either. He is here to stay a while longer, I think, and with the right song selection and attitude, could be the last man standing here.

Another singer with a fantastic voice, but who disappointed yet again, is Carly Smithson. She has probably the best voice of the lot this season, but has somehow never been able to deliver the knockout punch that she could easily deliver with a voice like that. Probably it is the song selection that is not right, or may be it is that she is not getting enough from the back-end team at American Idol.

It was the same story this week for Carly with ‘The Show Must Go On’. Whatever it is, it has ensured that while she may not sound the worst of all (she couldn’t, with a voice like that), she has not been able to take top-dog position as much as she would have liked to, either. Coupled with the fact that the judges seemed more impressed with her looks than with her song, it could mean trouble and bottom-three land for her this week.

Then, we have David Archuleta and Brook White, two entirely different propositions. David picked a great song, but again like many of his compatriots, could not do justice to it. ‘Angels’ is a great song, but he could have done much more with it than what he delivered as the final vocal product. Brook White with ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ was good, though she could have been far better.

In the final analysis, that is the problem with most of the performances this week. They could have been spectacular, ‘inspirational’, in keeping with the theme this week, but most of them fell way short of that. It remains to be seen what America makes of them and whom it decides it has had enough of.