American Idol Final 7: Take Two

Tonight’s American Idol on Fox had a traditional theme that is usually quite a challenge for vocal and dance competitions alike, and that is Disco. The missing element of tonight’s show was that there was no mentor to coach the contestants in their song choices. Either someone had a head cold or the producers are trying to keep the masses from revolting by ensuring that they don’t go overtime like they have the last couple of weeks. With how many people sang from the Donna Summer songbook, she could have been the coach, though.

Lil Rounds started out singing a predictable song, Chaka Kahn’s “I’m Every Woman,” for Disco night in a traditional way that didn’t show much originality. I think the problem is that there have been so many R&B/Soul performers that there isn’t much that someone with the singing style of Lil has that can be much different from Latoya London or Fantasia.

Kris Allen picked what seemed like an odd song, Donna Summer’s “She Works Hard for the Money,” and did one of my favorite things with it, which is to take it into a totally different genre in a way that transforms it into something entirely different. I absolutely loved it. This just goes to show that “Disco Night” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be able to dance The Hustle to it.

Bringing the Disco beat back into the show was Danny Gokey singing Earth Wind and Fire’s “September.” After Kris’ performance I couldn’t help but be disappointed by how close to the original Danny’s version of this song was. Yes, he had very good vocals, but he might as well have been singing with the original band. I actually don’t think he did much better than Lil.

Allison Iraheta rocked it up with Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff,” which I loved as well. I can see a real division forming between contestants who will be content to perform other people’s music and those who will make their own unique mark in the music industry.

Adam Lambert was up next with another transformed song with his version of “If I Can’t Have You” by the Bee Gees. I liked the way it was going for the most part, but I wasn’t crazy with the chorus—I wanted it to speed up a little. But all in all, I thought it was good and justified his continued presence in the competition. I love the unique takes on these well known songs!

Hoping to stay alive, Matt Giraud chose to sing the Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive.” For his version he chose to do a funkier version of the song that I liked quite a lot, but I doubt if it was earth-shattering enough for him to shake the cloud that’s over him from his near-elimination last week.

Finishing up the night was Anoop Desai singing Donna Summer’s “Dim All the Lights.” At first I thought he was going to sing it as an altered version like Kris, Allison and Adam—which might have been good because then it wouldn’t have been so similar to the original, but by the time it was over I was feeling pretty bored.

I think that tomorrow we’re going to see a rerun of last week’s show with Lil, Matt and Anoop being in the bottom three. This time I think Matt Giraud will finish what was started last week and will go home, and I think he’ll take Anoop Desai with him.

In the end I think that the three who will finish out the competition will be Kris, Adam and Allison with the possibility of Danny and Kris swapping places. My favorite tonight was Kris. What did you think?

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