Lessons from American idol

[Neski]

EEEK! After getting to know D's versions and the real ones I couldnt listen to those!

[KrisLovesDamien]

ok no offence to the american idols...but i reckon australia has way more talent eg- Damien leith ..i watched all those videos and i have 2 say they were..really bad.

[Neski]

The only America I liked was Kelly!

[murfinator]

Yeah same here!

[irishrokit]

dededom said:

Well well well. The most recent winner of American idol (taylor Hicks) is 30, looks just as old (if not older), was the best singer in the competition, was told by the judge Simon Cowell (aka Kyle Sandilands) that he shouldn't be allowed in the competion [for looks] but then recanted, and lo, he won because everyone recognised the talent.

now, where have we heard that all before??

See www.americanidol.com/videos/?cat=6 for their season recap.

comments???

Taylor Hicks does look a lot older than 30 doesn't he? He has an alright voice though just not really much else. Clay's voice is ok but I think he wrecked Unchained melody and he's quite annoying to watch.

Of course I'm gonna say I like Damo heaps more ;D but I enjoy listening to and watching D. Those guys might have ok voices but I wouldn't go see them in concert

[-- Janny --]

Taylor Hicks is a good *performer* but I don't think that his vocal is fantastic. He's great at working the audience and can get into 'upbeat' songs, but that's all there is. He seems like a nice bloke and I'm glad he won over Katherine Mcphee. And yeah... Dammy's YASB is better than his. Dammy's voice suits the song really well (so much emotion and love conveyed)... I want to see the American Idol judges' reactions if they watch Dammy perform!!! (hopefully if Dammy wins this thing, he gets invited to perform there like Guy did)

And don't get me started on Clay Aiken's Unchained Melody... he massacred that song with his oversinging and lack of emotion -___-

[irishrokit]

hehe I just hated the way Clay flicked his head through Unchained Melody and sang the words real fast and weird. I havn't seen him interviewed but he seemed a little strange. I prefer a performer like Damo who just stands and sings rather than all the jumping around but also knows how to get the audience into it. And the emotion of the song is the most important thing. I don't understand how some singers can sing with no emotion anyway.

[irishrokit]

Elliott Yamin sang If Tomorrow Never Comes aswell:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMpDA0JL35A

Could only find that one but I think it sounds worse when your not watching him and just hearing him.

Also someone mentioned Damo singing If I Can Dream by Elvis well Elliott sang that too:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktWr9DMh2OM

Someone mentioned on the idol forums he was excellent but I don't think he's all the great, just ok.

It's strange that Damien has sang so many songs that were on Am idol. Do they always get to choose the song they wanna pick? I remember I think it was the week Bobby got out he said he didn't know the song he was singing. I wonder why you would sing a song you don't know but they seem to do it sometimes. Is it becasue they are told what they will sing?

[dededom]

irishrokit said:

It's strange that Damien has sang so many songs that were on Am idol. Do they always get to choose the song they wanna pick? I remember I think it was the week Bobby got out he said he didn't know the song he was singing. I wonder why you would sing a song you don't know but they seem to do it sometimes. Is it becasue they are told what they will sing?

I think someone said earlier inthe comp when they were doing the "theme" nights that there was a list of songs given for the theme to the singers - my thinking on this is that they need to give the band/orchestra time to rehearse, and know how many they will have to cotnract in advance, but also (and maybe more so) the producers need to have organised licences of the copyright in the music in order to be able to perform and broadcast it, so that would be why they have a list of "preapproved" songs.

And i bet the reason Kyle said Unchained Melody was "piddly" (and ummm he is a singer of some note - not) was that he had seen the Clay Aiken over sung version) - and that is why he put it on the list for Damien (and he knew Damien had it on his personal choice list as well)

[-- Janny --]

And i bet the reason Kyle said Unchained Melody was "piddly" (and ummm he is a singer of some note - not) was that he had seen the Clay Aiken over sung version) - and that is why he put it on the list for Damien (and he knew Damien had it on his personal choice list as well)

You gotta be kidding me, I wouldn't want to hear UM after I heard Clay's version. I had to actually listen to the original again to forget Clay's rendition of it. Gah.. gah... don't get me wrong, I actually like Clay (he's better than Ruben) - he's got amazing range and genuinely nice person. However, it ticks me off to see that he emphasizes technical aspects (by thrilling and shouting) more than emotion...

Bah Elliot Yamin's ITNC is not really got, I hate the arrangement. And his voice does not have the melancholy that Damien's has. Actually... the song sounded worse when I watched the video (Elliot scared me... I felt horror instead of love lol)

[KrisLovesDamien]

AHHH SAME!!!...only kelly clarkson really stood out 4 me....but i listened to all the performances u guys watched and i was getting really annoyed and fustrated on how they were singing them and the arrangments etc.
they all kind of rushed them...or just it wasnt the right songs 4 them 2 sing.
i had 2 listen to Damiens versions like 100 times 2 get there versions out of my head.

And clays version of unchained melody....AHHH i couldnt lsiten to it...his voiuce really annoys me sometimes.

Thank god we have a talented person like Damien

[irishangel]

On the subject of Taylor Hicks, i agree totally with Janny... Taylor was a great performer and got the audience involved in all his songs which was great to watch. i think he seemed like a really likeable guy, down to earth and easy going just like Damien and that's what the public loved about him.
As for the other American Idols i think Kelly and Carrie are both fantastic but i wasn't a fan of the 2nd or 3rd series winners.
{Roll on January to Am Idol starts back }

[-- Janny --]

^

You like Carrie Underwood? Ughh... I think she is one of the most robotic singer in American Idol - like many others she did not inject emotion to her singing, just slapping big looooonnngggg notes in the end, urgh (I must say I hated her arrangement of Angels Brought Me Here). I would have preferred Bo Bice, Anwar Robinson or Nadia Turner to win over her (I loved loved loved Anwar's What a Wonderful World and he's got such a beautiful soul).

Yeah to think about it, there aren't many that stand out from American Idol. I guess that's because American Idol lacks variety, unlike the diversity that we've got here (I mean all the divas they've got sound the same: Latoya London, Kimberley Lockey, Vonzell Solomon, Tamyra Gray and the list goes on). Though I must admit I liked that crooner guy from season 3, John Stevens though he did have many off nights.

[Mi chiamano Kami]

Don't get me started on Carrie doing "Angels Brought Me Here". Nobody but Guy or Shannon should ever sing that song, I think. I hated Carrie while she was on Idol - well I hated her performances I mean - and I grew to like her a bit once I heard a few tracks off her album, but I've got no idea how she won over Bo. I loved when Bo sang the accapella piece in the finals - it was so different to anything that I'd ever seen on Idol before... until Damien of course!

I think Australian Idol is way ahead of American Idol as far as the talent that contestants get to show off, and how the show is put together. There have been some brilliant contestants in America but a lot of them have been shot down in favour of more traditionally marketable singers - from the third season, the only one I've seen all the way through, I was a big fan of John Stevens and also Jon Peter Lewis who at least tried to be different, but lost out to an overload of divas. Good for people who only like that kind of thing I guess...

[hyperrune]

janny said:

Bah Elliot Yamin's ITNC is not really got, I hate the arrangement. And his voice does not have the melancholy that Damien's has. Actually... the song sounded worse when I watched the video (Elliot scared me... I felt horror instead of love lol)

Everyone has a favourite version of UM, I think Damien really redefined it, despite what Kyle said. A couple of years ago I saw Gareth Gates do it on Rove and it almost made me cry; as a comparison, I watched him do it on You Tube recently, and the whole time I was playing Damien's version in my head, going "yeah, that's so much better!"