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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: American Idol

  • 3 Sonic Clashers Pick AI’s Top 12!

    I always knew Sonic Clash had folks with great ears for music.   What I think is great and so indicative of the community here is what happened with our American Idol Top 12 contest.

    We asked the community to start with the remaining 20 finalists and pick the top 12.  Every single artist in the top 20 got at least one vote, and there were some who got lots.  But get this:

    3 Sonic Clash readers picked 9 of the Top 12.

    That’s good for bragging rights for a long time so congratulations to Hea Jin, Shantel and Michelle!   Each of these smart folks had to dump 40% of a pool of singers to go from 20 singers to 12.   And they all got 9 of the 12 correct.

    We had a random contest earlier today, and Hea Jin wins a $25 Amazon gift certificate!

    The winning picks from all three:

    Michelle:  Aaron Kelly, Alex Lambert, Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Crystal Bowersox, Didi Benami, Katelyn Epperly, Katie Stevens, Lee Dewyze Lilly Scott, Siobhan Magnus, Tim Urban

    Shantel:   Aaron Kelly Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Crystal Bowersox, Didi Benami, Katelyn Epperly, Katie Stevens, Lacey Brown, Lee Dewyze,  Lilly Scott, Michael Lynche, Todrick Hall

    Hea Jin:   Aaron Kelly, Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Crystal Bowersox, Jermaine Seller,   Katelyn Epperly, Katie Stevens, Lacey Brown, Lilly Scott, Michael Lynche, Paige Miles, Tim Urban

    Congratulations, everyone, and way to go, Hea Jin!

    Here are some things to consider as the Top 12 live shows start:

    • 83% of our contestants picked Lilly Scott and Katelyn Epperly to move forward.  (Lilly wuz robbed!)
    • Siobhan Magnus’ early days didn’t appeal to 2 of our 3 top pickers.  That may have changed given the last 2 weeks.
    • George and Double G both tried for the upset bid.  George picked Big Mike to miss, and GG tossed Crystal Bowersox out.
    • Only Casey James got a vote from every player.   Stripping for a judge will do that for a guy.

    Now that we have our top 12, wait ’til you see what we have planned next!

  • American Idol Contest Winners Soon!

    Three folks tied with 9 correct picks that made up American Idol’s top 12 this year.

    We’ll be announcing the winner later today with maybe a surprise or two.

  • Oh Ellen Part Two

    Last week, I blogged that Ellen DeGeneres was close to a failure on her first week of live American Idol shows. But I did give her an out.

    I said:

    To be fair to Ellen DeGeneres, it’s only been two shows. But it hasn’t been a great start.

    And it wasn’t.

    But this isn’t the most successful television show for the last ten years for nothing. All it took was a change in the judge order and Ellen went from terribly unprepared and unable to riff with the judges to exactly what makes her so successful. She was funny, charming, and almost fit in perfectly.

    Last week, Ellen was in the lead judge slot though she didn’t talk first every time. But she looked like a deer in headlights. She doesn’t have the musical knowledge to say anything critical about the actual singing. So it was idiotic to have her lead in the criticism.

    This week was very different. Randy Jackson was moved into the first slot, Ellen the second, and my wife Kara DioGuardi was followed by Simon. I still don’t think it’s the best order, as I think Ellen would be perfect right before Simon. Randy and Kara could get music nerd on us, Ellen could piggy back on what they say and then tell a joke, and then Simon could hit clean up like a ‘roided out Mark McGwire.

    But it seems that they want Kara to play the old Paula Abdul cat and mouse game with Simon, which doesn’t work as well because Kara is married (to me). She won’t flirt with Simon like Paula would. But I guess it wouldn’t be believable for Simon to flirt with Ellen, though Ellen would play it up for laughs really well. I think they need to figure out how to hit on that dynamic before Simon leaves.

    I commend the producers for understanding how bad the shows were last week and in being proactive enough to switch it around. It made for such a better week of shows (even if the talent is still lacking any kind of star power whatsoever). Ellen is still BS’ing her way through the musical critiques, but that’s what comics do best anyway.