Elimination Night and Elliott Yamin in Idol gives Back

It was the night to pick the top 10, and Kristy Lee Cook managed to sneakily charm her way out of being eliminated by acting all cutesy-tootsy again the night before, even after butchering two Beatles Songs (one into a drunken country techno song, the other into a mediocre, off-key performance).

Eliminations aside, I think my favorite part of the show tonight was the Idol Gives Back clip. There is no doubt in my mind that Elliott Yamin is THE nicest Idol ever. Despite his rise in fame, and his successful first album, he remains to be the humble nice, sensitive guy we saw him as before. It was a truly touching sight when I heard the baby boy was being named after him. His reaction was priceless, humbly saying "You didn't have to do that", taking off his hat, and rubbing his teary eyes.

Fantasia (Idol Gives Back Preview clip)
Uploaded by 1laren

I am truly blessed to have watched him perform live. He was amazing, really down to earth, and his amazing voice and soul captured me all over again, just like that memorable night back in AI when he sang "Moody's Mood for Love". I wish him all the best in the many years to come.

I would also like to wish that Kristy Lee Cook finally gets kicked off the show next month. We don't need "musical wallpaper". We don't need another Kelly Pickler singing these mediocre country tunes, and banking on charm and blonde hair.

This season's American Idol lookalikes!

It's time for me to make a lame attempt at showing this season's celebrity lookalikes. ;)

Luke Menard - Orlando Bloom




David Hernandez - Elliott Yamin (before he got his curls)




Jason Castro - Sonny Sandoval (from POD)
And they're both donning dreads!




Alaina Whitaker - Carrie Underwood
No wonder Simon loves her so much enough to call her the "dark horse" in the competition. You know how Simon loves these blonde country-style types.




Colton Berry - Ellen (he said it himself)




Joanne Borgella - Queen Latifah




Garrett Haley - Jacob Kraemer (just a little)
Lest you don't know who Jacob Kraemer is, he played Ben Harrison in Naturally Sadie. If you don't know what show Naturally Sadie is, there's always wikipedia ;)




And finally.....





Amanda Overmyer - Ursula
Wahahahahahahaha ;) Sorry couldn't help it, there's a similarity, no?

Elimination Songs from American Idol Season 1 to Season 6

I'll admit it. I'm crazy. I spent some time off my busy schedule to figure out all the elimination songs from season 1 to season 6 and figure out if there are artists that future AI contestants should probably not attempt to sing; that is, songs made by artists that have caused the most number of contestants to be eliminated.

And here are the results!

#1 Killer: The Supremes
Hit List:
Season 2 Where did our Love Go - Julia
Season 6 You Can't Hurry Love - Brandon
Season 2 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Vanessa
Season 3 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Leah
Speaking of Diana Ross, another one on the hitlist by Diana Ross is Season 2's Rickey singing Endless Love

Tied at #1: Donna Summer
Hit List:
Season 1 Last Dance - Ryan
Season 5 Last Dance - Brenna
Season 4 On the Radio - Vonzell
Season 3 No More Tears - Diana

Big Contender: Stevie Wonder
Season 4 All in Love is Fair - David
Season 6 If You Really Love Me - Jared
Season 5 Overjoyed - Sway
This is of course excluding Mellisa during Stevie Wonder Night since one would have inevitably been eliminated because of a Stevie Wonder song that night.

And then a few other contenders with 2 eliminations each:
Alicia Keys
Season 5 If I Ain't Got You - Shontai
Season 4 You Don't Know my Name - Aloha

Bonnie Raitt
Season 6 I Can't make you love me - Amy
Season 6 Something to Talk About - Sanjaya

Elvis Presley
Season 3 Jailhouse Rock - Jon Peter
Season 5 Suspicious Minds - Chris Daughtry

Faith Hill
Season 2 Breathe - Julia
Season 4 When the Lights Go Down - Celena

Gloria Estefan
Season 3 Music of My Heart - John Stevens
Season 6 Turn the Beat Around - Haley

Lonestar
Season 3 Amazed - Matt
Season 4 I'm Already There - Anthony

Nat King Cole
Season 5 That's All - Ace
Season 5 When I fall in Love - Kevin

Nina Simone
Season 6 Feeling Good - Leslie
Season 6 Feeling Good - AJ
Same song, same season, same night... creepy!

Peggy Lee
Season 6 Fever - Nicholas
Season 1 Glory of Love - Christina

Ray Charles
Season 4 Georgia on my Mind - Nikko
Season 5 I Believe to my Soul - Elliott

Taylor Dayne
Season 2 Love will Lead you back - Carmen
Season 4 Love will Lead you back - Mikalah

The Temptations
Season 4 Get Ready - Sarah
Season 1 My Girl - Ejay

Perhaps this may mean something to future contestans... Perhaps not. If you can sing well, then by all means, sing the risky songs (ie Elliott Yamin singing Stevie Wonder). It's just a tad interesting to see an elimination summary (at least it was a tad interesting for me tallying it)

Elliott Yamin's Movin' On in Three Flavors

Movin' on is one of the funkiest, jazzy beats I've heard ever. You just can't help but move to the beat. It's a very catchy song, and Elliott's funk and soul really shines through.

Check the song out in three flavors:

The album version:



Dang this song is so hot.

The live version with all the instruments:



Elliott Yamin has really grown from the first time we saw him. He's more confident, and that shows in all those runs he gives in his performances. He's not afraid to take chances with the song and he really grooves up the performance even more.

The live acoustic version:
is in


http://www.wired965.com/dm_images/audio/070424123851.wma (10:36)

All I can say is: "Wow".

Only problem now is deciding which is the best among the 3 :)

Favorite American Idol Performances for Seasons 4 to 6

These are my favorite American Idol performances for Seasons 4 to 6:

Elliott Yamin: Moody's Mood for Love.
This was the song that really made me fall in love with his voice. I only listened to the song for the first time and I could not get enough of it. The song never ceases to give me goosebumps and a smile.


Blake Lewis: Time of the Season
First of all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Zombies. And their songs are hard to really sing well, much more sing as your own. But Blake Lewis managed to own that song. He is in all aspects a star, he has a unique talent and good performance skills.


Chris Daughtry: Hemorrhage
Hell yeah. He rocked the house that night. I think it's safe to say he sang it better than Fuel did.


Melinda Doolittle: Funny Valentine
Goosebumps all over. Her interpretation of the song was impeccable


Constantine Maroulis: Bohemian Rhapsody
It's hard to make that song work, but he did.



Mario Vasquez: How Can you mend a Broken Heart
check out time 1:44 especially (loved his performance of How Can you mend a Broken Heart). He was a cinch to win had he not left


anwar robinson: moonriver
His voice was really fantastic but he seemed to have lost confidence on his latter performances (a dang shame)


nick pedro: fly me to the moon
hot. if it weren't for sanjaya, he would have stayed on and showed us what he got.

Country Night at American Idol and Elliott's new Album

I'm really sorry but I really can't appreciate country music all that much. This is a big reason why I do not like Carrie Underwood's music. Because of this, I was not all too excited about American Idol this week.

I'd have to say I only enjoyed Blake's performance. I think Melinda's performance was way too rodeo for my taste; Lakisha's performance was actually quite solid, I liked how she sang "Jesus Takes the Wheel" more than Carrie in my opinion; Chris Richardson wasn't all too bad; I'm not gonna even start with Sanjaya.

I'm wondering why Ryan Seacrest was strongly defending Sanjaya when Simon gave his honest criticisms. Honestly, Simon isn't biased. He gives opinions to every Idol contestant the same way. It just so happens that Sanjaya's performances give way to more criticisms, that's all.

Back to Blake. I just love everything about him. From his looks to his cool personality to the way he dresses to the tone of his voice to the way he performs. He is an idol in every sense and he has miraculously made me like Country music a little more.

On other Idol news, I listened to Elliott's new album and loved it. Wasn't too hot about "Wait for You", but the rest of the tracks were hot!!! "Movin'" On is at the top of my list!!! Gonna buy his album real soon! You can preview the tracks in the american idol official website.

Latin Night was boring

Latin night was a night of boring performances. It seemed that everyone was gasping for breath and was really on the lower range of their voices. The only 2 performances that were worth watching was Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis.

I will have to eat my hat and say that it was Sanjaya Malakar's best performance yet. Still not up to par with my standards, but yeah, as Simon Cowell said, "It wasn't terrible".

Watching last night, I realized that my friend Rom was right. This season's contestants aren't as talented as the Chris Daughtry + Elliott Yamin season last season. Now that was some season.