— Song selection. It’s what the judges love to mention, the first true
or false step any “Idol” striver makes, before she even opens her
well-glossed lips. Sometimes, in truth, it doesn’t matter that much:
The singer’s presence, tone, or sheer power shines through, no matter
its vehicle.
But on this virgin night of serious “Idol”
competition Tuesday, song selection really did determine the night’s
best performances — in ways that were sometimes unexpected, and which
further suggest that this season will be a tricky, transitional one for
the show and its future stars.
In two hours of song padded with the usual feel-good
bio segments and (mercifully few) dull gags from the judges table, the
top 12 women ranged from the melismatically obvious to the yodel-ishly
surprising, generally aiming to fulfill
felt personal and daring, even if they’d been borrowed from the most
commercially successful band of all time.
That would be the Beatles. Three songbirds opened
the Fab Four songbook in the middle of the show, and it worked for all
of them, to varying degrees. The great blessing of a Beatles song is
that it can always sound fresh; the group defined pop music modernity,
and their melodies and snappy rhythms never sound tired.
sure, but a nice twist on the Moptops’ original Little Richard whoops.
And though the judges didn’t praise her enough,
the kind of pleasurably dramatic performance that once would have been
an “Idol” home run. But maybe not this year.
Instead, the artist’s magic touch in this time of Simon’s departure and
ascent may have little do do with conventional chops and more to do
with … what? Personality? Style? Musical taste? Some quality akin to
all of those but perhaps better captured by that currently overused
marketing term, “relatability.”
own “Idol” hiring as a matter of putting a fan in a judge’s chair. In
fact, “Idol” in general seems a little shrunken this year, and not in a
bad way: The stage somehow seems smaller, and the kids occupying it —
Big Mike aside — hardly emanate grandiosity. No Glambert here! I’m not
sure there’s even a
the big voices still around are strangely overshadowed by those who
have more accessible — let’s call it YouTube-sized — charisma.
The Beatles work with this approach, too, because
singing along with a Beatles song is a universal experience; invoking
them automatically makes you relatable. Fitting the “singer-songwriter”
mold is the other obvious way to project scaled-down appeal. There was
These ingenues stood out because they dared to be
something other than gorgeous. They didn’t necessarily fulfill the
“Idol” bromide of “being themselves,” but they did seem human as they
turned inward, showed little vocal tics or let a meaningful lyric take
them. There’s not a powerhouse among these singers, yet each made a
stronger impression than more conventionally impressive ones like
Michelle Delamor or the stunning
hope she does better next week!). What they do show is intelligence.
They chose well; they sang with intention. And they should all survive
another round.
—
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