The lesser of two bores: The AI Final 2 sing-off

One night before Clay Aiken and Michael Sandecki provided the defining moment of AI Season 5, there was a competition between the two finalists.

As I had said elsewhere, I lost a lot of interest after Paris left, and almost all interest after Elliot departed. I watched the finale mainly to hear the horrors of the new "original compositions" being inflicted upon the finalists. Now, that's a scary thought.

Overall Impressions:

Taylor Hicks:
Same old, same old. Sartorial disaster coupled with twitchy dancing and his trade-mark 'Crouching Taylor, Hidden Talent' style of delivering slower songs. He seemed in good enough spirits and primarily interested in having a good time. I got the sense that he knew he would win. Not that he was being a tool about it, but he seemed uninterested in what the judges had to say and focused his attention on calling out to the Soul Patrol, as if he was acknowledging that they had done their'job and delivered him the AI title.

Kat McPhee:
Looked the best I have ever seen her, although her dress during the last song was just wrong for her body type. She was more likeable last night than she has been all season. For the first time, she seemed completely genuine, in her response to the judges and her gratitude to her fans. I think she was resigned to losing to the Taylor juggernaut. Having made peace with that, her usual craving for approval was less in evidence.

Round by round

Round I:

Kat was vocally fine on "Cherry Tree and Black Horse" (or is it the other way around?) but the performance was a non- event.

Taylor did a typical Taylor rendition of "Take it to the City". Seen it before and this was not more interesting the 2nd time out. There was a whole lot more of performing than singing going on.

Round 2:

Kat did Somewhere Over The Rainbow again one week after her supposed 'moment'. I thought it was over-rated last week and haven't changed my mind. SOTR is pretty hard to screw up and most half-decent singers sound good doing it. I think the OTT response to this performance is mainly due to it being a great song. It's like hearing Nessun Dorma in the opera house; any tenor who can sing in tune and push out that final "Vincero!" would get a tremendous response because audiences are just swept away by the swell of melody in the chorus. It doesn't take a Pavarotti or Domingo to get them out of their seats. SOTR is that sort of song. Don't get me wrong, Kat sounded good but she is no Eva Cassidy or Judy Garland.

Taylor sang "Levon" which is apparently a song about planned parenthood. I lost interest after the first verse. There was something off about this; Taylor is usually spot on with pitch, but this was a somewhat uncertain performance from him.


Round 3:

Ah, original compositions! How horrid are they? Would these new songs lower the bar set by "Inside Your Heaven" last year?

Katherine was saddled with a monstrosity called "My Destiny". She didn't sing it very well which certainly did not help, but I think even vintage Whitney Houston would have trouble making this song sound decent. Apart from the insipid title. it has no melodic build up and a chorus that sort of meanders from nowhere to nowhere else. It is also a horrible fit for Katherine's voice - the verses scrapes the bottom of her range then transitions into a chorus that is sung at the other end of her register. Her comfort zone is hardly called into use at all. I don't know if Katherine was just defeated by the song, because she seemed to make no effort at all and was variously sharp and flat, and overpowered by the choir.

Taylor fared better with "Do I Make You Proud?". It is a superior song to "My Destiny" and at least has some some semblance of a melody and structure. Sure, it sounds like something out of the "Song Composition by Numbers" manual. But as these things go, it is not horrific. I don't think this sort of song suits Taylor's soul-infused style at all, but he made a go of it and invested the song with as much emotion as can be expected. Props to him for taking the music seriously, even if it is not particularly good music. I also have to credit him for knowing himself musically and understanding what he can do with his talent. I had thought that he would be too limited a singer to pull off this sort of sappy inspirational ballad but he figured out how to do this sort of song in an essentially Taylor-Hicks style. It was still rather boring, but I guess that was as much the song as it was Taylor.

Dare I say it? I think "My Destiny" is possibly worse than "Inside your Heaven". Which would make it the worst of the coronation songs from the Idol franchise (of those I have heard).

Sidetracking for a bit: I really wished that there was an English version of "Gemilang", the coronation single for the first Malaysian Idol, Jacqueline Victor and that this could be brought to the attention of the other national Idol competitions. This is a genuinely good song, even without the Idol context. Those of us who watched Malaysian TV during the Commonwealth Games heard it a million times, and it holds up very well on multiple listens.


Rounding up:

Taylor knew he would win. Katherine knew it. The judges knew it (and Simon hated it). Ryan Seacrest knew it. Nigel Lythgoe knew it (and hated it). The audience in the Kodak knew it. I knew it.

It was like watching an 1st round match at a tennis Grand Slam tournament, when the defending champion is pitted against a qualifier ranked 500 in the world.

American Idol 5 Finale: The Return of Clayton

It is reported that there was serious glitterati at the 2-hour extravaganza that is the AI5 Finale. Al Jarreau, Mary J Blige and the less-creepy royal one, Prince, were said to have taken the stage. Observers noted that Carrie Underwood put in an appearance, and all the top 12 from this season sang. And oh, apparently Taylor Hicks is the new American Idol.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know, I wasn't paying attention because .... CLAY!!

Clay Aiken turned up! And he sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"!

It was as if time rolled back three and a half years to the Wild Card show from Season 2. This freckled-face lanky kid opened his mouth and out came a clarion-like voice that hit me straight in the solar plexus. He took an Elton John song which I have never particularly liked and just smashed the sucker all over the park. I have been a fan since that day.

I did not even mind the lame jokey set-up for his appearance tonight, with the annoying FauxClay Michael Sendecki receiving an "award" for Best Imitator. Sendecki's awed reaction when he saw Clay was priceless, a truly human moment in the increasingly grotesque circus that is AI. The entire segment was also a darn sight funnier than most of the skits that we have suffered through during result shows.

There is some commotion over Clay's new hair-do, apparently. I don't know; he certainly looks very different from the Clay we saw in AI2 but I don't have an opinion one way or the other. The boy can go all Ace-Constantine greasy-haired if he wants, as long as he continues to sing and target that solar plexus. I was just happy to see him on TV again and to hear his voice in such great shape. The distinctive phrasing, the wonderful bell-like clarity, the mellow lower notes - all back and better than ever. It got me all nostalgic for Season 2, still the best, most enjoyable, most exciting and most competitive season ever. After this season of largely decent but unmemorable contestants, it was nice to have someone showing them how is SHOULD be done.

Now, Clay, just get that 2nd album out, will ya?