Thursday, April 28, 2005

American Idol Shocker

I'm still stunned that the fans of American Idol kicked off Constantine last night. I felt sure he was safe. I'm not saying it was a bad decision--he gave the worst performance on Tuesday--just that it was shocking.

There were six contestants left, and only two had never been in the bottom three, Carrie Underwood and Constantine Maroulis. Both gave weak performances and I figured at least one would be in trouble, but they'd still come through. I thought the loser would be the unprepossessing Scott, who's already had a few close shaves, but he wasn't even in trouble. (It'd be a lot easier to predict these things if the show would release the vote totals, but they're top secret.)

Constantine, in fact, had the weakest voice of the finalists, but the best stage presence, and I didn't think his fans would let him down. In fact, he was so popular, his old rock group was just signed to a label. (Will they find some clause to cut them now?) I'll miss the spark he added--I was hoping he'd make it to the finals.

What's interesting about Idol is as they toss people off, the voting patterns change. It seemed only a matter of time before one of the two rockers, Constantine or Bo Bice, lost--the show couldn't support both indefinitely. (It's never even had one before.) It appears no one is such a favorite that he can survive a bad performance.

Those left are the most diverse final five in Idol's short history. There's rocker Bo, country lass Carrie, Whitneyesque Vonzell Solomon, blue-eyed soul singer Scott, and Clay Aiken-style balladeer Anthony Federov.

It's hard to predict who will get to the finals from such a varied group, but let me try. I think Federov, who has the best pure voice of the five (during original tryouts I said that guy will win), but the worst stage presence, will not last long--he's been a mainstay of the bottom three and can't last forever. Same for Scott.

Though Vonzell has a popular style to herself, and is also the only African-American left, I don't think she'll make it all the way. I think Bo will get the rocker vote and Carrie the surprisingly large countrified vote. I find Carrie the least interesting singer in the bunch, but she's never been anywhere near the bottom, so it's hard to bet against that. The only way she won't make the finals is if the soul vote goes to whoever's left of Vonzell and Scott--then we'll see if rock and soul can take down country.

6 Comments:

Blogger Brin said...

When I saw Anthony Fedorav first audition, I wrote his name in my journal to prove that I thought he would win too. He has been my favorite idol throughout the season. It is a shame that he has such weak stage presence because I really want him to win!!

Bo and Carrie are definately the most popular of the idols left and will probaby be the finalists. I personally hoped that Bo would be voted first because Constantine was my fave rocker. Oh well, if his band has a label, I'll be able to buy Constantine's album anyway. I hope Scott gets booted off soon. He has very weak performing skills and doesn't have the best voice of the five. Go Anthony!!!

~Brin

--
http://bitzofbrin.blogspot.com - Listen to my podcast!

8:52 PM, April 28, 2005  
Blogger LAGuy said...

Thanks very much for your comments.

In late-breaking news, over at The Smoking Gun, where they love to check into American Idols' pasts, they've discovered Bo Bice was arrested on a drug rap. Check out http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0427051_bo_bice_american_idol_1.html.

I wonder how this will affect voting.

9:02 PM, April 28, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is indeed surprising that Constantine has been eliminated, but I wasn't that big a fan. A comment I found appropriate was him "batting his child-molesting eyes." By any reasonable standard, Scott was clearly the worse contestant and I'm shocked he wasn't in the bottom three. However, all this still doesn't touch Tamara getting eliminated before Nikki McKibbin in season one...and I'm not even that big a Tamara fan (although she's done very well.) The thing that Anthony has working against him is Clay Aiken. They're very similar and I don't think Anthony has the power or has been as consistent. That said, I think he's been very underappreciated by the judges on certain weeks. Carrie vs. Bo seems like the reasonable showdown and I'd say it seems very likely that the top four will be two males and two females, unlike an earlier prediction on this blog.

3:30 PM, April 29, 2005  
Blogger LAGuy said...

I made no prediction about how fast the women would disappear. I merely stated that I thought the men were, almost to a person, better singers and personalities than the women, and I still stand by that.

8:13 PM, April 30, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi

10:59 AM, May 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey everyone! I think that Scott and Anthony are weak singers overall, that don't have stage prescence or star quality! Personally, I am a huge Voznell Solomon fan, so obviosuly I hope that she makes the final. Truthfully though, it is embarassing that Scott and Anthony have made it this far, and I think Bo, Carrie and Vonzell all have good enough vocals to make it in the music industry despite whatever happens to them on American Idol!

11:08 AM, May 06, 2005  

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