idol top 4

Theme: Viewers' choice (Chris leaves)


When it gets down to four people, you lose someone every week who was good enough to win. This week it was Chris. Pity is wasn't at least next week, as his brother Courtney got to the top three in last year's competition and Chris has said previously that Courtney will be unbearable if Chris is voted out any earlier. :)


This week's theme is another Idol first ~ the songs they sang were chosen by the viewers. The songs were:

Jessica ~ Butterfly and Karma.
Chris ~ Something Beautiful and Mean to Me.
Dean ~ Dare You to Move and Savin' Me.
Damien ~ Crying and Hallelujah.

Mostly I thought the choices were excellent, except for Dean being asked to sing a Nickelback song. Though his performance was fine, it was inevitable that he would come out sounding weak compared with Chad Kroeger's growl. I was keen to hear Damien sing Hallelujah, a song perfectly suited to his voice. I actually prefer the arrangement used on the soundtrack of Shrek ~ Rufus Wainwright's poignant, almost painfully beautiful rendition ~ but he was wonderful none the less. The audience and the judges agreed that he had topped the night and he became the first contestant in Idol history to get two consecutive 'touchdowns' from Mark. And while I think both Mark and his touchdowns are lame, Damien did deserve the kudos.

And kudos also to Jess. I've long said that, though her voice is great, she is not very original or interesting. I didn't think she used the stage well, and when she did move around she had no obvious sense of rhythm. I still think she lacks originality (but hey, so do lots of people in the charts), but I have to say that watching her perform Karma I had to eat my words on all other counts. She looked hip, she moved well, owned the stage and worked the cameras like a total pro. We got to see her perform something that wasn't a power ballad and her arrangement was fresh with a notable absence of 'heard it all before' vocal gymnastics. It was the best performance I've ever seen her give.

Next week the judges are choosing the songs and I'm curious to see what they come up with. They are always rambling on about song choice, so they better get it right themselves. :)