Welcome to Survivor: American Idol edition! Just a quick disclaimer that everything down below are my personal opinions. I'm in no way affiliated with any corporation, especially Idol or Fox.
What is Survivor? Alright, so I do recaps of performances for various singing shows and I give my two cents but Survivor is where I put my ten cents in and try and give the contestants a bit of advice (even though they're clearly not reading this) about what they can do to stay in the competition. I did this with The Voice and X Factor but I'm trying out a new format so bare with me.
Everything down below is not only referring to said contestant's previous performance, but their overall history in the competition. Pros and Cons are just what you'd think and the Verdict is basically what I think they can do to get through to the next round and whether or not I think they're safe or not. On to Survivor!
AVALON YOUNG
Pros: AVALON IS IN THE GAME. As much as I love Avalon, her vocals have always been a little spotty to me. When she performed "Earned It" last week, there were almost no vocal flaws and she was back in her niche. She looked so comfortable and the way she looked up on that stage I honestly felt like I was at her concert. She was smooth, sultry and found her groove. Goosebumps everywhere. She also knows where the break in her voice is because as Keith said, she dodged the higher notes but it felt more like a creative change and not a limit. She knows her voice, she knows her style and knows who she is.
Cons: Her vocals are shaky sometimes but there were virtually no flaws in her performance so...what is a con?
Verdict: Well, it seems like America isn't with her? It's crap because she's by far one of the most original contestants we've seen on Idol in a very, very long time. She managed to smooth her way back into her R&B comfort zone and absolutely killed her performance on last weeks show. Hopefully she made a few fans or her other fans got a wake up call and voted because it would suck to lose someone else so talented (R.I.P. Olivia) this early in the competition.
DALTON RAPATTONI
Pros: What else can I see? He's an amazing performer, he gives you a memorable show every week and he clearly knows what direction he wants to go in.
Cons: I think I gave him a little too much last week. The performance of "Radioactive" was alright but I didn't get that happy feeling I usually get when I watch him perform. It just felt like there was something missing. Maybe it was because he looked especially brooding this week, maybe his nasally vocals are starting to get to me but something felt off and not as original as he's been in he past last week.
Verdict: I mean, if you told me to shut up after reading everything I wrote up there I wouldn't be mad because there's no doubt in my mind he's coming back next week. He has a built in fan base, all these little girls (and JLo, who I'm sure is dialing the phone for him as much as she can before the calluses takes her thumbs over) are fawning over him because he's cute (I guess?). If Idol has anymore truly shocking eliminations it will be him because I don't think there's a chance he isn't zooming to the top six (Although I wouldn't be mad if I was wrong).
LA'PORSHA RENAE
Pros: She's an angel. Literally. The screen behind her projected wings and it looked like she was meant to go on top of a Christmas tree. What else can I say about La'Porsha? Sure, these past few weeks have looked a little visually similar but who cares? Unlike other performers, there is something extremely unique about every one of her performances. The vocals are flawless and the way she stands there, looks at the camera and clearly knows what a bad ass she is just gives me goosebumps every time I see her. AND THAT KISS AT THE END OF "Halo"?!!?!?!?!?! ICONIC. STUNT. QUEEN. SLAY.
Cons: Huh? Okay...um, well, maybe people would get bored of her just standing there and singing? But I don't care because whatever she's perfect so lets all just put on our hater shades to block the hate-ahs.
Verdict: It's still La'Porsha's competition to lose (as the judges remind us every week). I think she's safe as long as we don't have a Pia Toscano situation and everyone thinks she's safe so no one votes for her. VOTE PEOPLE.
LEE JEAN
Pros: Lee's voice is absolutely beautiful and I really applaud him for doing something that not many do: step out of their comfort zone. He had something to prove and instead of just letting it marinate and have him compared to MacKenzie again, he came out swinging and tried to give us something different that we could work with.
Cons: The con? The keyword was tried to give us something we could work with. It pains me to say this but Lee's vocals were really weak this week. He didn't sound awful but his voice was clearly straining and wasn't comfortable in the genre.
Verdict: If he stays on this path we won't compare him to MacKenzie anymore. There's good to that and bad to that. The bad is that we'll continue getting sub-par performances. My advice after he tried something new out? Go back to what he's best at and do well enough that everyone starts comparing MacKenzie to him. He has it in him it just won't come out for whatever reason! I don't think he's incredible safe tonight, so, we'll see.
MACKENZIE BOURG
Pros: Original, beautiful sultry voice and he's one of the ones in the competition who knows where he's going after he leaves Idol. I also really liked his version of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," despite being scared it wasn't the right song choice for him.
Cons: When I like his voice I love it, when I don't I hate it. I don't know what it is but his higher register is just a pet peeve of mine. That's the only con I can think of.
Verdict: I think he's safe. People like him and I like him, and I know that if we keep pulling we can get something awesome out of him.
SONIKA VAID
Pros: Beautiful voice. Beautiful face. Beautiful gowns, great gowns.
Cons: Sonika has absolutely no idea what works for her and I applaud her for trying something new but it just didn't work. She's still robotic, her bark is much bigger than her bite. Every week I feel like she's finally going to let loose and chew us up and spit us out with her performance (in the best way possible) but I'm always underwhelmed. Take this week for example. She sounded amazing, her body language on the stage wasn't bad either, but her face made you think she was taking out the garbage. We gotta put her after La"Porsha every week because she. Will. FIGHT.
Verdict: ...I honestly don't know? She's a mixed bag, it's way too early to tell. She's clearly got one of the best voices but she doesn't have the buzz that La'Porsha or the other front runners have, in my opinion. I'm not sure if she'll be this weeks Olivia because she had one slip up but...we'll see tonight. I hope not.
TRENT HARMON
Pros: I'm not a woman and Trent's voice impregnated me last week. I don't know who I rated first last week but I was wrong because I know it wasn't Trent. Him and La'Porsha are the most consistent and giving quality emotional and vocally powerful performances. I look forward to seeing him every week. I had to ball my fist up and I shivered when he hit that extremely high falsetto note. Whenever Lee gets exited watching a performance, he goes bananas in the lounge. Look at Lee next time because that's me. Trent is just...yes. In the words of JLo "I love eeeet."
Cons: No.
Verdict: Safe. Please. I'm just going to speak it into existence.
TRISTAN MCINTOSH
Pros: Her biggest pro this week is that I'm a petty bitch and ranked her lower than I should have. Tristan cleaned herself up, took off her Bambi outfit (aka deer in headlights confused look on stage) and delivered a solid, emotionally compelling performance that could be considered strong. Tristan? What? This was a gigantic recovery from last week. After watching the performance again, it gets a solid 8-8.5 from me. Brilliant song choice and brilliant performance of it. SCOTT BETTER PICK TRISTAN'S NEXT SONG TOO.
Cons: She actually has a very, very strong voice. Her problem? She has no idea how to control it. It worked for "Go Rest High on that Mountain" because it was basically just belting and it really worked...did I say it worked? Because it did. When she takes a few vocal lessons she will be fantastic.
Verdict: Ugh, I don't know. On one hand she's Tristan, but on the other hand America saved her last week and the fact that she actually did a fabulous job this week might have bought her an extra week or two so we'll see tonight.
FINAL PREDICTIONS:
Bottom Three: Lee, Avalon, Sonika? (I don't know, okay)
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