American Idol Final 10

Another week, another American Idol on Fox. This week’s theme was The Songs of Motown—something that has become a recurring theme in every season of Idol so. In my opinion, the best thing that a contestant can do is change a song into something different enough from the original so they can’t be accused of sounding karaoke. If they sing it too much like the original, the best they can do is qualify for a retro band. Of course, it’s important that they perform something that we like too. So here’s what I thought of tonight’s performances.

One of my favorite contestants, Matt Giraud, started off tonight’s performances by singing Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” I really liked Matt’s reserved introduction with piano and voice only, but once the band kicked in, it was very much like Marvin Gaye’s version and I don’t think I’ll remember much about it in the future.


Kris Allen sang “How Sweet It Is” which I think was a good choice because, although it’s originally a Motown song, it’s also a very popular James Taylor song which lends itself well to Kris’ guitar strumming. Just like the last time he performed with his guitar, I was disappointed that I couldn’t hear his guitar at all. It was fun to see him play, but it would have been nice to be able to hear it better. Ultimately, his performance was like a cross between the original Marvin Gaye version and James Taylor’s. Not bad.


Next up was Scott MacIntyre playing his piano and singing “You Can’t Hurry Love” originally by Diana Ross and the Supremes. This song is such a signature song for the Supremes so it was interesting to see him slow it down in the beginning and I was wondering if he was totally going to make it into a ballad, but the beat quickly picked up into the style that we’re all very familiar with. While it wasn’t terrible and it was nice to see him do something that’s not one of his inspirational ballads, I didn’t think it was the best choice of song for him to break out of his shell with.


Quirky Megan Joy (sans Corkery) sang “For Once in my Life” by Stevie Wonder. Watching her, it’s plain to see that she probably doesn’t put much time into practicing what she’s going to do with her limbs while she’s singing. Often she looks a little out of sorts. Vocally, I think this was probably the weakest I’ve seen her for a while since her quirky style did not fit with this song. Maybe she needs the flu back?


I think Anoop Desai tried to suck up to tonight’s mentor, Smokey Robinson, when he sang the Miracles’ song, “Ooh, Baby Baby,” I think that after Anoop’s fiasco of singing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” that he’s hesitant to sing anything other than a ballad. Unfortunately, I was totally bored within 10 seconds and before it was over I was fighting back hitting fast-forward on my Tivo remote. It’s possible that he might be the reason Megan Joy doesn’t get eliminated tomorrow.


The next contestant up was Michael Sarver who sang who I’ve always seen as a more country singer, but he definitely has a soulful sound to his voice too. The song he picked was “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by The Temptations. I think he did a fairly good job and I like the sound of his voice, but it sounded like he was just slightly behind the music a lot of the time and trying to catch up. He’s someone who was one of my favorites in the audition weeks, but I’m not expecting him to last much longer.


Lil Rounds decided to do Martha Reeves and the Vandella’s “Heatwave,” which was a very good choice of song for her style, but I can’t say that her performance was anything that I’ll remember in an hour. It seemed like she too was having a hard time keeping up with the band in parts. I’m sure she’ll stick around for a while, but I don’t think she’s anywhere near as good as some past American Idol contestants like Fantasia, Latoya London, or Jennifer Hudson.


I have to say I was wondering most of the night what Adam Lambert was going to do with his Motown song tonight. He always does exactly what I think all of them should do, which is take the song and change it up and make it his own. The problem is, I usually hate what he changes it into—but he does get points for not being boring. Tonight he sang Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears” looking quite a bit like Elvis. I loved his interpretation the song though. I love acoustic “unplugged” versions of songs, and this one was great! Made it his own in a great way.


Okey dokey Danny Gokey was up next singing “Get Ready” by The Temptations. He definitely didn’t have a problem keeping up with the music like Lil and Michael did, but it was so much like the original that unless you’re a fan of him specifically, there’d be no other reason to listen to his version. I thought he did a good job, but there wasn’t anything memorable about it for me. There are plenty of weaker performers so I think he’ll be around for quite a while, still.


Another one of my favorites, Allison Iraheta, sang “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” by The Temptations. I could tell from the sound of the guitar in the beginning that she was sticking very closely to the original, which was a bit of a disappointment for me because he usually has a nice rock vibe that I like. I’m still a fan and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t stand out as much as I’d hoped.


The best of the night was Adam Lambert. The worst was a toss up between Anoop Desai, Michael Sarver and Megan Joy. I’m sure those will be the bottom 3 tomorrow.

What did you think? Leave a comment and let me know.