Follicle Flubs
What is up with Ryan's hair? That little triangular tuff of hair standing straight up atop his head is way distracting! It also makes his head look weirdly disproportionate.We Will Rock You
This week's theme is songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (located in Cleveland, Ohio). Not surprisingly, the selection is quite extensive, especially when you consider that there's more than 50+ years of rock and roll songs to choose from and from artists that range from Ike Turner to Elvis Presley.Paying Attention, Paula?
Ryan noted that like last week, each contestant would be performing two songs each. However, given Paula's premature critique (some may even call it prescient) of Jason's second song last week, the producers wisely decided to go back to their original format and have the judges give their critique after each performance. Ryan stressed this point to all the judges, although we know he was talking about Paula when he said, "is everyone clear on that point?"Hungry Wolf and 'Teenage Wasteland'
David Cook opened the show with Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." He noted it was released in 1982, the year he was born. Man, did that make us feel old. Randy noted that he was interested to see how the contestants were going to do tonight, given the vast array of songs at their disposal. Randy said that "it's a huge variety and a great body of work," and given that, David's choice was "okay." His performance "wasn't amazing." Paula said his performance "left [her] with a big appetite." Yeah, we're not going to touch that one. She also noted watching him perform was one of the reasons she "tolerated being the only girl in a boys' club." Hmmm, we often thought it was the boys (and many of us) tolerating her but tomato, tomahto. Simon found the performance "a little bit copycat," but predicted that it was "good enough" to get David through.For his second song, David picked The Who's "Baba O'Riley." He told Ryan before performing it that he agreed with the judges' critiques of his first song, noting that he could have "done more with it." But he vowed to "erase that performance from [his] memory" and go all-out with his second performance. Randy thought it worked, because David "shook whatever it was off" and gave a good performance. Paula said that she "want[ed] more, I want more David Cook." Simon simply stated, "Welcome back David Cook."
Judged to Tears
Syesha Mercado's first song choice was Tina Turner's "Proud Mary." Before her performance, she told Ryan that she was "excited" about the tour because she would "get to meet all [her] fans" and that the performances would be fun, especially since there would be "no judging." Syesha confessed that she was initially "scared" about taking on Tina's song, but she looked at herself in the mirror and told herself to "just do it" and she was going to have fun with it. Randy said that for the last three weeks, Syesha has "showed up in the zone." He thought it was a "very nice" performance. Paula said Syesha "looked like a star" and that she had a "magnetic voice and presence." Simon said he hated to put a "slight damper" on things, but he found her performance "bad [and] shrieky" and that it was a "bad impersonation of Tina Turner."For her second performance, Syesha chose Sam Cook's "A Change Is Gonna Come," which Syesha said resonated with her because she felt that she had changed a lot, and the song was written during the civil rights period, which was a pivotal time and she was at a "pivotal moment" in her life. We're hoping she was not comparing the civil rights movement to competing on American Idol because that's like apples and giant, mutant grapefruits. So we're going to assume she was making a rather bad analogy and leave it at that. Randy said he liked her first performance better, noting that the song has such a "great melody" and that he felt Syesha tried to do too much with it. It felt "disconnected" and "fell flat' for him. Paula gave Syesha a standing ovation, and said that she gave a "superstar performance." Paula noted that the change had already come for Syesha and said, "welcome to your dream, Syesha," which brought Syesha to tears. As Syesha was crying, Simon declared that he "had to be fair, and [he] agreed with Paula." This caused Ryan to jump on Randy, accusing him of making Syesha cry, although technically, it was Paula's comments that set off the waterworks.
