Favourite American Idol Seasons: #1

#1 – Season 7

It would take some serious shit to beat the near-perfection Top 12 from Season 4, right?

Enter Season 7 with the best Top 24 ever. If you think that I am just brainwashed with the marketing propaganda, you are completely wrong. I never cared about all such publicity. In fact, I only knew that it was marketed as such when the season is over. There I said it.

Diversity has always been the main key to an enjoyable season. Season 7 marked an important point as it was the first season to allow contestants to play instruments on stage. In other words, it opened more ways for non-diva/divo contestants to compete.

Aside from the diversity issue, Season 7 is especially special because most the contestants really shown their personalities, which made things much easier for viewers to relate with them.

You want numbers? From the Top 12, there are four contestants that I freaking love, five contestants that I really enjoy, and three others I am indifferent towards. But indifference is a word I would associate with people like Trenyce or Diana DeGarmo in any other seasons, both of which are good contestants with occasional impressive performances.

Take Jason Castro’s Hallelujah, Over The Rainbow, and I Don’t Wanna Cry. Then Kristy Lee Cook’s Anyway and Forever. And Ramiele Malubay’s You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me and, to a lesser extent, Do I Ever Cross Your Mind. Told you what, even the weakest contestants here are that good.

Best Night

Final 12 – Lennon-McCartney impressed the heck out of me.

Initially, I was sick with the thoughts of having The Beatles’ impressive catalogue butchered by the contestants. But hey, these people have proven me wrong again.

Okay, except two. David Archuleta’s meltdown on We Can Work It Out was horrible enough even without the lyrics flub. Then there is the vomit-inducing country arrangement of Eight Days A Week done by Kristy Lee Cook, which was totally inadequate. To be fair, her vocal was pretty good. But man, the arrangement is crappy beyond belief!

Apart from these stinkers, though, the rest was pretty good. Syesha Mercado delivered her worst performance with Got To Get You Into My Life, but she is still decent enough even at her worst. And though I am not very enthusiastic with Ramiele Malubay’s In My Life and Jason Castro’s If I Fell, it was mainly due to my personal taste that did not favour towards such slow ballads.

I love the rest of the night. I really enjoyed David Hernandez’s I Saw Her Standing There and Amanda Overmyer’s You Can Do That. Not mind-blowing by all means, but both of them were very entertaining as they sang these catchy songs. Michael Johns’ take on Across The Universe is very underrated. It was beautiful.

Four other contestants reached an even higher territory. Carly Smithson made her first excellent song choice with the challenging Come Together. At the same time, David Cook’s star presence has finally arrived with Eleanor Rigby. Oh yes, I do think that this is better than his emo version of Hello one week prior.

Chikezie, who has bored us the previous weeks with his R&B ballads, broke the mold and came out with the bluegrass-country hybrid take on She’s A Woman. Whatever the heck that was, I love it!

But the real star of the night is Brooke White, whose piano-driven Let It Be demonstrated a very sincere and heartfelt emotion.

Ranking of Finalists

01. Michael Johns (Best performance: It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright)
02. Carly Smithson (Best performance: Come Together)
03. Syesha Mercado (Best performance: One Rock ‘N’ Roll Too Many)
04. Brooke White (Best performance: You’re So Vain)
05. David Cook (Best performance: Billie Jean)
06. David Archuleta (Best performance: Imagine)
07. David Hernandez (Best performance: Papa Was A Rolling Stone)
08. Chikezie (Best performance: She’s A Woman)
09. Amanda Overmyer (Best performance: You Can’t Do That)
10. Jason Castro (Best performance: Over The Rainbow)
11. Kristy Lee Cook (Best performance: Anyway)
12. Ramiele Malubay (Best performance: You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me)

Honorable semi-finalists: Kady Malloy, Asia’h Epperson, Alaina Whitaker, Alexandrea Lushington, Jason Yeager

Top 10 Performances

01. Imagine by David Archuleta
02. Billie Jean by David Cook
03. It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright by Michael Johns
04. One Rock ‘N’ Roll Too Many by Syesha Mercado
05. Fever by Syesha Mercado
06. You’re So Vain by Brooke White
07. Smoky Mountain Memories by David Archuleta
08. Stand By Me by David Archuleta
09. Come Together by Carly Smithson
10. A Change Is Gonna Come by Syesha Mercado