American Idol (May 18th and 19th) – THE SEMI-FINALS!!!

[PeterG]

Random news until show time...


Casey remains Vote For The Worst’s pick


Idol FINALLY Cuts Its Results Shows To Half An Hour For Season 10


Idol Contestants Can't Sleep with the Judges, Don't Make Much Money

...interesting info in the above story about how little the contestants get paid.


Matt Giraud Signs With ASCAP, EP Coming this Summer


Simon Cowell to become Sir Simon – Knighthood on June 12




Bo Bice’s new CD


Chris Daughtry and His Wife Deanna are Expecting Twins

[Allskate]

People has a report on this week's rehearsals, though they don't name the songs:

http://tvwatch.people.com/2010/05/18...-their-choice/

I'm not loving the report on the arrangement of Lee's judges' choice. Sometimes less is more, particularly for that song.

ETA: A reminder of the judges' song choices for the contestants this week:

Spoiler

Simon chose Hallelujah for Lee. Kara and Randy chose Daughters for Casey. Ellen chose "Maybe I'm Amazed" by McCartney for Crystal.

Has anyone seen any spoilers for the contestants' own song choices?

[Fridge_Break]

Idol FINALLY Cuts Its Results Shows To Half An Hour For Season 10

Didn't they try this a few seasons ago only to have them bumped back up to an hour mid-season? I have a hard time believing that we'll have an entire season full of 30-minute results shows, especially if the show they have to fill the extra half hour with tanks.

[rfisher]

They are also cutting the performance shows to 90 minutes. That means less fluff and less Ryan nonsense. I guess the decline in ratings means Fox thinks they can generate more ad money with other shows. They also don't have to pay acts to play on results night. I think both cuts are an excellent idea.

[Catherine M]

Has anyone seen any spoilers for the contestants' own song choices?

Haven't seen anything official but there has been some talk on the AI sites that Lee's song is "Simple Man". Its one of his favorite songs and he has been wanting to do it on the show and would fit the People Mag clue.

[Allskate]

Haven't seen anything official but there has been some talk on the AI sites that Lee's song is "Simple Man". Its one of his favorite songs and he has been wanting to do it on the show and would fit the People Mag clue.

Interesting. That would work well for him. I'm curious about Casey's own song choice. I hope its some rocking blues, but it doesn't sound like it from the People spoiler. The People spoiler also made me wonder

Spoiler

if Casey decided to slow down Daughters so that he could put in some more guitar and sing fewer schmaltzy lyrics. . It's not a fast song to begin with. I guess they thought that John Mayer equaled guitar, but there's not a ton of great guitar in Daughters. Maybe he'll do the entire intro or even extend the intro. They usually cut the intros out on Idol.

ETA: Ah. The L.A. Times has some more spoiler info from rehearsals:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/amer...-final-2-.html

Spoiler

Yay! So, it sounds like Casey is doing some rocking blues for his choice! I think I'd prefer to see him rehearse than see his show performance.

[PrincessLeppard]

You couldn't have warned us about the very unflattering and slightly scary pic as well as very large picture of Lee?

[Cyn]

Casey up first with his own personal song choice....."Okay, It's Alright With Me."


Blues/rock is right in his wheelhouse, but damn, his goat-throat was in full-force tonight .

[soxxy]

Casey sounds good on Okay, It's Alright with me....not setting the place on fire, a laid back choice.

[PrincessLeppard]

CASEY!!!! LOOK OUT FOR THAT BUS!!!!

[Allskate]

Casey up first with his own personal song choice....."Okay, It's Alright With Me."

Is this the Eric Hutchinson song?

CASEY!!!! LOOK OUT FOR THAT BUS!!!!

There's no avoiding it. And it's going to back up over him in half an hour. He's just got to hope that there's some EMT nearby.

[Cyn]

....Randy says that the performance was just "Okay and Alright." Ellen agrees, saying that he needed to blow them away (and didn't). Kara disses the song choice as it wasn't known to the mainstream. Simon says he's lucky to have two song choices and likens his performance to a salad course of a dinner.

I have to agree with them. It didn't suck, but it did nothing to wow me into wanting to vote for him.

[kylet3]

Casey was a whole lot of to me

[Fridge_Break]

AWESOME song choice for Crystal, I can't wait to hear this! "Come to My Window"

ETA: WTF was Kara saying about people not having heard the song before? I don't consider myself hip on today's music because the only new stuff I listen to is country, but even I've heard it enough to actually know the chorus.

[PrincessLeppard]

I have to agree with them. It didn't suck, but it did nothing to wow me into wanting to vote for him.

I may vote for him. Just cuz I hate people being thrown under buses, like Syesha in the David season (okay, she didn't deserve top three, but that song from Happy Feet? ) and Kris last year. It was lovely watching Danny get kicked off.

Not that I really hate Lee or Crystal. But they're both about to get tongue baths even if they stink up the place.

[kylet3]

This is a great choice for her, but not my favorite for Crystal but still decent

[Allskate]

Perfect song choice for Crystal to show what kind of contemporary recording artist she will be.

When Casey looks back over the competition, I think one of his biggest regrets (in addition to letting the nerves get to him) is going to be that he listened to much to the judges and Idol advisors instead of going with his strenghts and what he loved. Surely he could have gotten a decent rocking blues song cleared. That song choice is a big WTF.

[PrincessLeppard]

That was just sort of meh as well.

[soxxy]

Crystal hits Come to My Window out of the park. She should win it all. Randy being picky with the arrangement.

[Cyn]

Not my favorite from Crystal, but that's likely due to the fact that I detest Melissa Etheridge's music .