Nasally is a form of singing

America finally got it right. All it took was 38 million votes for the country to realize that Sanjaya was the worst remaining contestant.....or, maybe it was the ringing endorsement of bitterness from Paris Bennett that did him. Or maybe it was Hillary's very tough stance she took on Sanjaya.

Regardless, Sanjaya lasted longer than any of us predicted. Any of us, that is, except Chris Serico. Chris had Sanjaya going out this week. What a prediction!

Where Sanjaya will fall in with the likes of Scott Savol, Anthony Federov, and John Stephens remains to be seen, however. Was he truly the worst contestant to get this far? What do you guys think?


Before we get to the comments, you should know that blogger is acting up tonight, so I can't post the standings as a separate entwry. Instead, I will list them old school at the bottom of this post.



Here's a big pet peeve of the American Idol Pool staff - when you claim a song you didn't write is yours.

Now, I don't know whether to point the finger at Martina McBride or at Tim McGraw, but Tim, why did you reportedly tell Martina that you hoped someone did "When the Stars Go Blue"? And American Idol, why did you call the song Tim McGraw's?

For those of you looking for info on the song, McGraw released it on his Greatest Hits Volume 2 on March 28, 2006.

However, there's a well known version of that by the Irish group The Corrs (hot (couldn't find a good pic with the brother, and I really tried)) and Bono from a Live 8 performance in 2005. Here it is:



Of course, The Corrs first recorded that song for a VH1 album that was recorded in Dublin in 2002.

However, The Corrs didn't even write the song!

Every alt-country fan knows that Ryan Adams wrote "When the Stars Go Blue" for the album Gold which also included his well-known song "New York, New York" and was released just after September 11, 2001, which is 1/2 a decade before Tim McGraw did his version.

This just goes to show you - don't try to pull the wool over AI Pool's eyes. We are always watching....So, Dave Matthews, you better not hope to hear someone sing "All Along the Watchtower" for Dave Matthews week. And Jessica Simpson, don't you dare let us hear that you want someone to do "These Boots Are Made for Walking" on some future Jessica Simpson week. And, Obadiah Parker, do we even have to mention "Hey Ya" for Obadiah Parker week?


Funny thing about the video for "New York, New York". It was recorded just before September 11, 2001 at a location extremely close to American Idol Pool Member Damian Stafford's apartment and includes footage of the World Trade Center every time Ryan Adams is shown performing. You can watch it here.

Here at AI HQ, we seem to remember questions in rock publications questioning why the video wasn't re-shot to show other scenes of NYC. Remember, it was released just after 9/11. And the cynic in us would remember that "New York, New York", a song about a failed romance, was quickly scooped up by MTV and every radio station on earth as an anthem to the city during that time - pretty much because the words "I'll always love you, though, New York" make up the refrain.

Was the label eager to cater to the nation's sensitive sentiment of the time?



That brings us to Tuesday night's (by now) infamous remarks by Chris and the reaction (or non-reaction depending on who you believe) of Simon's:

For those of you who don't know this story by now, and for those of you who didn't see Wednesday's show, here's the recap:

1. Chris Richardson "chose" to sing nasally. Supposively, it is a form of singing.
2. Simon and Chris have words about Chris singing nasally.
3. After exchanging words with Simon, Chris says his thoughts are with the students, faculty, and staff of VT.
4. When the camera cuts back to Simon, he's shown rolling his eyes.

So, the questions of the day are/were:
1. Was Chris using the VT shooting as a vote-getting measure after getting ripped by the judges?
2. Was Simon rolling his eyes because Chris mentioned VT, or was he rolling his eyes because, as he said, he thought Chris' nasal argument was bogus?

Regardless, it was pretty obvious that the producers realized they had caught the eye roll right after the VT comment, because Simon made a comment about the VT shooting later in the show after Blake performance.

Without wasting anymore text about it here, if you didn't catch the bit on Wednesday night's show, and if you didn't see it live on Tuesday night, here's a link that explains the whole episode and the fallout since (along with the video clip of the whole thing).


Recapping Tuesday night's show......wait, we just need to say this about Wednesday night's show - where else do you get Martina McBride, Fergie, Antonio Banderas, AND Emma McBride all on one show? It's just incredible entertainment.

OK, recapping Tuesday night's show, we at AI HQ were pleasantly surprised with country week much like we were with J. Lo leading master class. Jordin and Phil were extremely strong, and Melinda was her rock solid self.

We agree with Amy's assessment on the blog today - Blake's voice just isn't that great, but there's something about the way he performs a song that tricks everyone and their mom into thinking he's the best thing ever.

LaKisha and Sanjaya were clearly the worst two of the week, and then I think a case could be made for either Chris or Blake being in the bottom 3, so America did well this week. Jordin, Phil, and Melinda were the cream of this week's crop.

So, it should have been no surprise that LaKisha and Sanjaya were the bottom 2. One quick note though - did anyone notice that when the bottom 3 were Sanjaya, LaKisha, and Blake - and they were standing in that order from left to right - that Blake and LaKisha were holding hands but LaKisha and Sanjaya were not? But then, after Sanjaya got the boot, LaKisha and Sanjaya hugged for an awfully long time......give you something to talk about, and it's not hair.....


Looking at the standings:
As we said yesterday, the loss of Sanjaya means that the pack tightens considerably.

Yes, Lisa is still in first place with 168 and a max of 298, and yes, Matty is still in 2nd with 168 and a max of 250, but the field behind them is catching up. Both Lisa and Matty can do no better than 3 for 5 next week which will get them 24 points, while a lot of people behind them can go 4 for 5 and make a pass. So, now Lisa and Matty need some upsets quickly ---- both of them would like to see Jordin out quickly.

Kendra is in 3rd place still, but she's closed the gap. She has 166 points for the week and can max out at 298.

Team Zach & Sarah holds their place in 4th with 166 points and a max of 279.

And behind them, last year's big late-season mover Marybeth Heyd, has started making her move. MB has 163 points and can max out at 303. Marybeth will be 5 for 5 next week if Phil goes out!! Look out!!

Really quickly - There are a lot of people who can go 4 for 5 or better next week....these people would shoot up the standings/be in great shape/be psyched if they have one of the following people go out (it's a lot of Phil bashing). Here they are:

#4 Team Zach & Sarah - need Blake or Phil out
#5 Marybeth - needs Phil to go out to be 5 for 5!
#6 Will - needs Phil or Chris out
#7 Damian - needs Phil or Blake out
#8 Missy - needs Phil out to be 5 for 5!
#9 Julie - needs Phil or Blake out
#10 Jane - needs Phil or Blake out
#12 Amy Y. - needs Phil or Jordin out
#13 Paul P. - needs Phil or Chris out
#14 Kristin - needs Phil or Chris out
#16 Mike - needs Phil or Jordin out
#18 Crystal - needs Phil or Jordin out
#19 Meredith - needs Phil or Chris out
#21 Jennie - needs Phil or Jordin out
#23 Jen - needs Blake or Jordin out - yes she still has Phil alive!
#26 Marsha - needs Phil or Blake out
#27 Adele - needs Phil or LaKisha out
#29 Lance - needs Phil or Jordin out
#32 Dave - needs Phil or Jordin out
#34 Yvonne - needs Phil or Jordin out
#35 Marsha - needs Phil or Jordin out
#36 Jon - needs Phil or Jordin out
#38 Lisa's Mom - needs Phil or Jordin out
#40 Heather - needs Phil or Chris out
#41 Grant - needs Phil or Jordin out

Who wants to guess what the duet is next week will be? Our first thought was this, but we doubt this is it. I can't wait to see Borat, Jack Black, and Celine Dion on stage at the same time. In fact, if the mystery duet is Celine Dion and Borat, American Idol will become the best show in the history of the world.....I'm talking about the future world, too.

The Master

Here are the standings. We'll get the separate post up as soon as Blogger starts cooperating:

1. Lisa W. - 168
2. Matty - 168

3. I went to Tuck - 166
4. Team Zach & Sarah - 166

5. MB - 163
6. Don't you wish you were this guy? - 163
7. New Shirt Guy - 163

8. Orlando Bail Artist - 161

9. Tucker - 160

10. Mrs. LeBlaBla - 159

11. Serico - 157

12. Making the move back to NYC! - 156

13. Natick's one and only - 155

14. Kristin - 154

15. Stags - 153
16. Mr. LeBlaBla - 153
17. How's BC apps reading treating you? - 153

18. Karakoe Superstar - 152
19. Stamford, CT - 152
20. Souch - 152

21. Jennie - 150
22. I speak statistics - 150

23. Jen in Seattle - 147

24. Lisa W.'s cousin - 146
25. Miss I get paid $ to blog (well aren't you special?) - 146

26. Marsha - 143
27. Smelly Adele-y - 143

28. Richy B - 141

29. Lance - 140
30. Little Miss "Macs Suck" - 140
31. The Karen Lane - 140

32. Uncle Burt - 139
33. Christy - 139

34. Yvonne - 138

35. Marsha - 137
36. Jonny G - 137
37. Dinabug - 137

38. Lisa's Mom - 136
39. Chris P. - 136

40. "I think you need a new hobby" Heater - 133

41. Grant "we're no longer a team" Gosselin - 132

42. The Don Lane - 130
43. Milly - 130 - everyone below this point is losing to a child!

44. Larvag - 128

45. NofeMob - 126

46. D-Rice - 121

47. Fitz - 119

48. Paul F. - 118

49. Big Pops Beekman - 113

50. Jaime - 100

51. Suzanne - 98 (almost to 100!)

Country Music Sucks

I mean, we JUST had Country week in Season 4. We really have to do it again?

What we're going to do with the post this week is, instead of harping on how much country music sucks over and over again, we're going to post some links about Idol that hopefully you haven't seen yet (including the story behind the picture above). There are just a lot of links that we accumulate here at HQ, and sometimes we forget to get them to you. No day like today! Forget regret or life is yours to miss! I hate the fall.


Wait - let's touch on country music really quickly....besides sucking, country music also really isn't a fit for any of the remaining contestants. Back in Season 4, the episode shared a theme with country music & the music of Gamble & Huff, so everyone did one country song and one Gamble & Huff song. Of course Carrie was a shoe-in.....but the bottom 2 that week (it was the final 4 epsiode) were the 2 remaining contestants who obviously were the weakest and the most incapable of singing a country song - Vonzell and Anthony Federov.

So, translating that to this season, can we expect to see the people who you'd think would have the most problems singing country in the bottom 3 (I'd say that'd probably be LaKisha, Sanjaya, and maybe Phil/maybe Jordin)?

I'd venture to guess that LaKisha could be especially vulnerable this week. She did not do a great job with "Conga" last week, and Latin music was obviously outside of her comfort zone. If she mails in another performance on an blah song in a genre that isn't a strong suit of hers, she could be in trouble.

Want to know what I'd rather watch than an hour of country music?

An hour of this:




OK, back to Clay in Afghanastan. Turns out he's now a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador (and he didn't even go to SIPA!). And as part of his trip, he is trying to raise $100,000 in 10 days to support UNICEF in Afghanistan!

And Clay says this:

If you contribute $50 or more by April 22nd, UNICEF will e-mail you my exclusive field report, in a PDF file format, with some of my own photos from the trip that won't appear anywhere else. As my personal thanks to those of you who are able to donate $1,000 or more, we'll mail an autographed copy of my report.

Yes! An autographed copy of his report, people!

Wondering what some other of your past favorite contestants are up to? Check this out. I can't believe William Hung has made that much cash off his "fame".

While we're on the "where are they now?" track, it seems like you can't surf the net without finding something about Alaina Alexander. Her voice might not be taking her places, but her hair is. I mean, how does dying your hair black make news?

If I were Alaina, I'd be cashing in as quickly as I can....because those rumors of her and Chris Richardson dating have taken a nasty turn now that he's been seen hanging with LC!

Great, the blog has turned into a TMZ fuelled tabloid.

Speaking of tabloids, it turns out Jennifer Lopez is a craaaazy Scientologist!

On to smarter things, did anyone else see that Simon was once on a daytime quiz show in 1990 called Sale of the Century where he won kitchen utensils?!?!



OK, seriously, this blog wouldn't earn my own respect if we didn't mix the trivial with the interesting.

Here are two links that I find fascinating:

Do you know who Michael Orland is? He's the accompanist during master class and is the show's composer. Ever wonder how much input the finalists have on their arrangements? Ever wonder why it seems like the contestants don't take the master class master's advice? Check this out!

Ever wonder what the contestants do on a daily basis? Like when they pick their song, when they do the master class, when they film the Ford commercial, etc., etc.?
Check this out!


OK, that should be enough links for all of you for the day, right?

Let's look at the standings really quickly....we could see some movement in the top of the pack this week since there are a bunch of pool members who can go 5 for 6 if the right person leaves the show this week. They are:

#3 Kendra
#4 Team Zach & Sarah
#8 Marybeth
#9 Will
#11 Damian
#12 Missy
#13 Julie
#21 Paul P.
#22 Kristin

Without looking at it too closely, odds are all these people would go 5 for 6 if either Phil or Sanjaya leaves. If that happens these 8 people would get 35 points for the week while the rest of the field wouldn't get any more than 28. That's some serious points for these people to earn if it breaks the right way.

Now, if that happens, it doesn't mean Lisa Wagner will lose her top spot, but the field will bunch up awfully quickly.

But, if our dark horse candidate, LaKisha, bows out this week on Country Week (ugh), things will go topsy turvy awfully quickly.

Stay tuned!
The Master

Adios Haley Scarnato

Is there a master class curse? First, Tony Bennett gets the flu, and now rumors are circulating that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are separating.

While on the topic of Jennifer Lopez, we here at AI HQ have to eat a little crow for all the bad things we said about her running this week's master class. She was impressive. In fact, I'd say she came over as more helpful than Gwen Stefani. And, she was strong both in her performance and her brief Q&A afterwards on Wednesday night, too. Agree?

Unfortunately, Jennifer Lopez's advice didn't translate on the small screen. Tuesday night's show was just not good as it had terrible all around performances (Haley, Phil), disappointing performances by solid contestants who we usually think of as strong (LaKisha, Melinda?), and creepy performances by losers (Sanjaya). Yo no te quiero.

In fact, the only person who exceeded expectations at Idol HQ was Blake, and that was probably he's been so disappointing recently. But you see, give him a song that doesn't test his range, and his solid voice mixed with his performance-ability can make him a very strong contestant.

Maybe the contestants should have spent more time paying attention to J. Lo while they surrounded her on the floor and looked up at her like she was teaching them kindergarten.


Here's my Sanjaya bit for the week:
Who was that loser that needs to show the world that he owns Sanjaya's sister? I mean, you really need to wrap your arm around her to show the world she belongs to you? That family attracts creeps. I wish there was some way to show that guy that Sanjaya's sister is not that his possession.....but how?


Anywhoo, to no one's surprise, Haley got the boot this week. She had one of the worst performances of the week AND she wasn't very strong to begin with, so it really didn't shock anyone, did it?

Poor Brooke Stafford...She gets this week's booby prize for having Haley the highest out of anyone in the pool (she had her 5th). The loss of Haley knocked her down from 3rd to 7th.

Since everyone almost had Haley out already, not much happened this week in the standings. Lisa Wagner still remains atop of the heap with 140 points (298 max). She is one of a few people who is now 5 for 7.

Right on her heels remains Matty Lane who also has 140 points but with a max of 250. With such a low max score, Matty's going to need some bazookas to shoot down the competition ahead of him.

Kendra picks up the slack left by Brooke and moves up a spot to 3rd overall. Kendra, like a lot of people, is also 5 for 7, but can go 5 for 6 next week! She has 131 points and can max out at 298.

Team Zach & Sarah are still hanging around, too. Like Kendra, they have the chance to go 5 for 6 next week. Currently, they have 131 points and can max out at 279. Right now, they're in 4th.

In 5th sits Jane LeBlanc. Jane also has 131 points and can max out at a very respectable 272. Although, really, finishing in 5th place isn't a lot of fun. Bags full of cash is what you want, and that's what you'll get if you finish in 1st or 2nd.

Finally, Chris Serico has shot up the standings and is now sitting in 6th place. How has he been able to do it? Sanjaya. Serico has Sanjaya higher than anyone else in the standings, and he's been riding his coattails as far as that creepy twerp will take him.....Fortunately, Chris has Sanjaya going home next week. We all hope you're right, Chris. Serico is in excellent shape now with 129 total points and a max score of 298.

Wondering who the top 10 are in max points? Here they are (looks a lot like last week):

1. Marybeth - currently 8th - 303 points
2. Missy - currently 12th - 301 points
3. Lisa W. - currently 1st - 298 points
3. Kendra - currently 3rd - 298 points
3. Chris S. - currently 6th - 298 points
6. Will - currently 9th - 295 points
7. Kristin - currently 22nd - 286 points
8. Julie - currently 13th - 283 points
9. Jennie - currently 20th - 282 points
10. Team Zach & Sarah - currently 4th - 279 points
10. Amy Y. - currently 10th - 279 points

Everyone psyched for country week next week? I'm not. I think I'll just sit at home and eat my homemade fritatas.

The Master

Not much moving around....Here are the standings!