Apr 30 2008
Not Memorable Enough?
Syesha Mercado chose "Hello, Again" and "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime." Neil Diamond was "very, very pleased" with her in rehearsals. Her first performance was termed "old fashioned" by Simon, but Randy found that she was "in the zone" (catchphrase!) and had very "strong vocals." Randy found her rendition of "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" also to be "in the zone" (catchphrase!) and that she could have been "on Broadway" with the performance. Paula liked Syesha's "vulnerable" performance of her first song but felt the second was better because it was more suited to Syesha's style of "performance theater." Simon thought that Syesha could be an "actress/singer" type but he thought she "might be in trouble" because her second performance "was not really memorable" and since it was down to the last five contestants, that could be the deciding factor.
Major Flub
You may have noticed that we omitted much of Paula's comments relating to the contestants' first round performances. This wasn't intentional on our part. Rather, Paula was in "rare form" last night and messed up badly. After the first round was completed, Ryan called all the contestants out on stage and asked the judges for a "quick hit" on their thoughts. Randy and Simon obliged and gave concise, one-word comments. Paula, however, rambled as usual. In fact, she rambled right into Nostradamus territory. While giving her critique of Jason, she said that she felt his second performance felt as if "he wasn't even trying to make the top 4." Which wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that Jason hadn't sung his second song yet! Ryan tried to make light of it, joking about Paula's ability to "see the future." Paula only managed to wave her arms and look around in confusion. Mercifully, someone told Ryan to cut her off and she didn't get to give any further critiques of the first round, except in her roundabout way while commenting on the second performances. She was off the whole night, even calling Syesha "Brooke" at one point and it's pretty hard to mistake Brooke for Syesha or vice versa. Simon, looking at Paula pointedly at one point, said that "officially, this is the strangest show we've ever done." That sums it up.
