American Idol wants a female winner worse than Simon Cowell wants you to believe in the steroid-induced relevance of The X Factor: USA. It wants a female winner more desperately than Randy Jackson needs to repeat his fifth-grade vocabulary lessons. It wants a Kelly Clarkson-Fantasia Barrino-Carrie Underwood-Jordin Sparks “I Believe This Is My Moment in Heaven” moment with the burning intensity of Jennifer Lopez’s jealousy listening to the dulcet tones of Haley Reinhart. (File that last memory under: #YouAndI #NeverForget.)
Ryan Seacrest wasn’t bashful about pushing this agenda, either. “It’s clear Idol has never seen this much talent from the lay-dees,” he chirped, pronouncing the last word of that sentence like The Bachelor host Chris Harrison watching 25 mildly inebriated chicas exit rows of limousines in the hopes of snagging a marriage proposal from some blandly handsome lugnut.
Except in Idol‘s case, the stakes are so much higher. (Oh come on, let’s not pretend scoring a major-label recording contract and a platform on which to build a life-long career making music doesn’t trump a fake marriage proposal, a very public breakup on the cover of People magazine and a grotesque turn on Bachelor Pad.
Idol went so far tonight — during an episode devoted to the women of Season 12 tackling their Hollywood Week a capella solos and group performances — as to give us a couple of women so vocally exciting that they might be able to shrug off the weight of runaway hyperbole and excessive pimping to turn themselves into true fan favorites come the live voting rounds. Yep, I speak of Candice Glover (pictured) and Janelle Arthur, who appear to possess not only lethal instruments with which to cut down the competition, but the kinds of outsized-yet-sweet personas that speed-dialing crazies can get behind.
Anyhow, I’ll be back overnight to update this post with a full episode recap — bookmark, refresh, and enjoy! — but until then, let me turn things over to you. What did you think of the American Idol Season 12 Hollywood Week: Ladies’ Edition? Did you call “foul” at any of the judges’ decisions? And who was your favorite contestant? Sound off in the comments, and for all my Idol-related news, recaps, interviews and videos, follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV!
Follow @MichaelSlezakTV
No comments:
Post a Comment