I think I said this last week, but last night’s American Idol performances show was the best one of the season thus far. Not one singer was terrible and most were above average. I have a feeling that we’re going to be in for a surprise tonight. I recapped the show last night for Popblerd.
Here’s my top and bottom three from last night:
Top 3
1. Elise
2. Joshua
3. Phillip
Bottom 3
1. Heejun
2. Deandre
3. Skylar
In a cool moment, after talking about the tweets some of the contestants received from their Idols, Eric Benet came out to tell Deandre how well he did with his song. No matter if you like Benet or not, you have the respect him. My man was married to Halle Berry.
Ryno brings Elise, Phillip, and Hollie to the center of the stage. Hollie is in the bottom three. My friend Tiffany (@TVProducerLady), who I have done a couple American Idol podcasts with, thinks Hollie could be gone tonight. Phillip and Elise are safe. I’m rooting a little harder for Elise lately. She was my favorite last night.
Nicki Minaj is on stage singing Starship. As long as Nicki turns around a couple times, I’m all good even if I don’t pay attention to her music. She didn’t really show the badonkadonk all that much, but could barely stay in her top.
Ryno brings out Colton, Joshua, and Heejun. I have a bad feeling about Heejun. Colton is safe. You have to imagine Joshua is safe too. Heejun is in the bottom three.
Last year’s winner, Scotty McCreery is performing his latest single Water Tower Town, which his a nice little ditty.
Ryno brings Skylar, Deandre, and Jessica up to the stage. This one is tough. My guess is that Deandre is in the bottom three. Jessica is safe. Nope, it’s Skylar. She goes to the bottom three. Hollie, Heejun, and Skylar are in the bottom three.
Ryno sends Skylar back to safety and it’s Heejun vs. Hollie. And Hollie is safe. Heejun is going to sing Song For You again tonight for his American Idol life.
I can’t imagine they save Heejun here. His act was getting stale. But he was also Tiffany’s favorite. So I was rooting for him a bit. And, he’s a goner. I was hoping that he’d stay until next week because I was sure that he was going to wear Jason Derülo’s blinged out neck brace.
Whitney HoustonIt’s the 54th edition of the Grammy Awards. And with the sad passing yesterday of Whitney Houston, I imagine it’s a much more somber celebration than usual. Our own Paul Lorentz wrote a nice piece on Houston earlier this morning. I participated in Popblerd’s appreciation piece earlier today as well.
They always say the show must go on. And it will, though I’m not sure I’m ready to remember Houston yet.
LL Cool J is the host for the show. Yes, a guy who was one of the first hip hop stars is hosting the music industry’s most celebratory day. I don’t imagine many would’ve predicted that when DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince won the first ever Rap Grammy in 1989, that 23 years later, a hip hop star would be hosting this show.
(While this show has already happened since it started 3 hours ago and I get the West Coast tape-delayed version, I’m going to pretend this thing is live.)
7:59 – How many times will LL lick his lips tonight? I think the over/under is 100. I’m going over.
8:00 – The Boss opens up this show. I count three earrings. I once had an earring too … when I was 18. Come on Bruce, the gray hair, receding hairline, and earrings together aren’t a good look. Plus, you don’t need them bruh.
8:04 – In a matter of seconds after the Boss finished his song, the cameras cut to Katy Perry with blue FU Russell Brand colored hair, Lady Gaga wearing a veil, and before I could anticipate it, Fergie’s face popped up out of nowhere. I could take Perry and Gaga, but I haven’t been that scared after seeing Fergie’s butter-face since watching The Poltergeist.
8:08 – LL just gave a classy speech about “his sister” Whitney. Who says hip hop can’t be classy?
(I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through this show with all these Whitney clips.)
8:15 – Holy ****! Bruno Mars just sold a whole lotta albums tonight with his performance.
8:16 – And can we just be clear about one thing? Mars’ pompadour is nothing more than the Brandon Walsh/Dylan McKay hairdo from 1992. I may have to bust that out too. It’s coming back.
8:23 – The first Grammy Award is for Best Pop Solo Performance and it goes to Adele. I think Miss Adele is going to have a big night tonight.
8:25 – I go away to check on my dinner and I miss Chris Brown’s performance. Oh the horror. Chris Brown has a very special talent. His talent is to do some pretty impressive and athletic dance numbers and make them seem so unimportant. I don’t remember any MJ performance ever being so insignificant.
8:36 – Kanye West and Jay-Z win for Best Rap Performance and you’re telling me Kanye isn’t there? Well, he did get screwed by not being nominated for Album Of The Year. I guess I’d skip too.
8:58 – I could say that Rihanna’s wig is very Tina Turner-esque, but I’m going with Farrah Fawcett’s dry perm. I think I just dated myself twice. By the way, if you didn’t know based on the hook that was repeated about 75 times, “We found love in a hopeless place.”
9:14 – The Foo Fighters win for Best Rock Performance. New York Giants wide receivers Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham presented them with the award. I wish they had numbers on their suits so I could tell who was who.
The Grammys, where Maroon 5 does “Surfer Girl” and everyone dies a little inside.
9:37 – From Paul McCartney to Common shouting out Gil-Scott Herron? This must be 2012.
9:37 – Chris Brown wins R&B Album Of The Year and shouts out Team Breezy. Yawn. El DeBarge was robbed.
9:45 – Give out more awards, give us less Taylor Swift performances.
9:51 – Adele and producer Paul Epworth win Song Of The Year. Epworth says that he couldn’t have done it without Adele. Really Paul? You mean you couldn’t have won this without Adele’s star power and voice?
9:59 – Lady A won for Country Album Of The Year and I’m happy just so that we don’t have to see Hillbilly Taylor come up with her banjo again.
10:10 – So Adele performed and she put boots to asses on everyone. It’s her night. She better win the whole damn thing.
10:24 – Talk about catchy. “Like a rhinestone cowboy…” From @IAMJericho:
Watching McCartney clapping along to Glenn Campbell is true class. #rocknrollisfamily
10:31 – Carrie Underwood is on stage singing “It Had To Be You” with Tony Bennett. Another Tony, Tony Romo just pointed at the TV and said, “Me?”
10:33 – That’s how you pronounce Bon Iver? And I’m so confused how they are a new artist, but oh well.
10:45 – I really wanted to like Jennifer Hudson’s performance and I’m sure it came straight from the heart. But I don’t think it was very good and it was the wrong song to sing. Also, Melanie Amaro channels Whitney better than Jennifer does.
11:04 – Common presented earlier and now it’s Drake’s turn. Sweet. I mean, um, yeah.
11:08 – I think Nicki Minaj thinks this is her Lady Gaga moment. Sadly, it’s not.
11:11 – This is Adele’s year. You can’t stop Adele. You can only hope to contain her. She also wins Record Of The Year.
11:21 – And she wins Album Of The Year. She gives a raw reaction and not something preconceived or prepared, unlike a lot of what’s wrong with music in 2012.
11:25 – Sir Paul McCartney goes HAM to end the show. See you next year.
Chelsea HandlerWe’re live! Ok, well, I’m kind of lying. I’m blogging this while watching the West Coast MTV feed, so it’s really the earliest I can watch this show. But those of you on the East Coast have already seen it. So you can either watch with me, or reminisce with me, whichever you prefer.
Refresh every 15 minutes or so as I’ll be updating the blog as much as possible.
I don’t know Chelsea Handler’s work well, but she has a little bit of buzz because of her talk show on E! and I guess that’s what happens when you get some buzz. You host the VMAs.
– An Eminem performance to start the show? You sure are not very predictable MTV.
– What I find hilarious about Not Afraid is that baseball players and fighters everywhere use it as their batter walk-up/entrance music. Don’t know they it’s about an addict who is trying to make a comeback? Or are they saying they’re former addicts?
– I wonder if MTV knows that Recovery is a terribly overrated album?
– I swear, if Chris Brown shows up on stage with Rihanna for Love The Way You Lie, I’m never watching MTV again.
– Ok, he didn’t make it on stage. Thank the lord.
– So far, Chelsea’s monologue consists of making fun of Taylor Swift, black rappers, Justin Bieber, and The Jersey Shore. In other words, it’s pretty lame.
– At least one thing that Ellen DeGeneres got out of being a judge on American Idol is that she’s a presenter on the VMAs. I’m not sure that was a step forward in her career. Did Oprah ever do the VMAs?
– Lady Gaga won the first award for Bad Romance and she walked up on stage wearing a peacock hair-do, looking eerily similar to Ellen DeGeneres’ faux hawk.
– Is it bad of me that I’m rooting for Paramore to win the best rock video all because of my girl Hayley Williams? Damn, they lost. 30 Seconds To Mars won.
– Kim Kardashian just introduced Justin Bieber. Too bad her boyfriend Miles Austin is sad that his Dallas Cowboys lost on Sunday Night Football. Ok, it’s not that bad that they lost. In fact, that made me kind of happy.
– Justin Bieber is lip-syncing the hell out of Baby. He’s pulling a Joey McIntyre on us since his voice is probably changing on him these days. It’s about time.
– He segued into Somebody To Love and I was just waiting for Usher to try and steal his swag. I also find it cute that whenever Bieber’s done with his performance, he ends with a drum solo just to show that he knows a little bit of music.
– Don’t you just hate it when people use the word “myself” when they’re supposed to use the word “me”? I’m looking at you Trey Songz.
– Remember when I jokingly said that I was waiting for Usher to steal Justin’s swag? Guess who’s performing next? I’ll give you a clue. His name starts with a U.
– My man can still dance his tail off. He definitely owes a lot to MJ for the way he moves, but at least it’s not a complete jack like Chris Brown.
– If Nicki Minaj doesn’t make it in rap music, she has a career in modeling for Apple Bottom jeans. Holy cow, you could see it from the front. She might as well change her name to Nicki Badonkadonk.
– Florence Henderson is in a new group called Florence Henderson + The Machine? Isn’t she too old? What? It’s just Florence + The Machine? My bad.
– Lady Gaga just won Best Pop Video and is wearing an outfit that reminds me of Missy Elliot’s rubber ball suit. She won for this video:
– Taylor Swift is singing a song that might be inspired by the Kanye West fiasco from last year that I still believe to this day was party rehearsed. She should’ve gone the Justin Bieber route and lip-synced. She must be going through puberty too. Or else, her voice just isn’t very good.
– Mary J. Blige is making my ears happy after Taylor Swift made them so sad.
– And the Best Hip Hop Video goes too… B.o.B.! Woohoo! Ok, you knew Eminem really won.
– Take J-WOWW’s boobs and Nicki Minaj’s rear end and you have a pretty cool comic book character.
– Bruno Mars is on stage lookin’ like a Filipino Richie Valens with his hair all blown out. Finally. All it took was a red-headed white girl who can’t dance with a big voice and B.o.B. to join each other on stage to put together a performance that I really liked. You go Haley.
– First Selena Gomez and now Victoria Justice? Disney Channel is making it hard for 14-year old boys I tell you.
– Justin Bieber finally won an award and if you just started watching, you’d know it was his first. He couldn’t find his way to the stage and nearly went the wrong way after receiving it. Come on, he’s going through puberty! Cut him some slack.
– Cher is on this show, damn near naked in 2010.
– Gaga says the name of her new album is called Born This Way. Well, that sure is going to help dismiss those rumors that she has a pilly packer.
– Kanye’s performing a song with a hook that goes, “Let’s have a toast for the douche bags, let’s have a toast for the assholes, let’s have a toast for the scum bags, everyone of them that I know.”
– He also did some live beat mixing on stage. He was definitely the most intriguing performer of the night. I think he was even on pitch more than Taylor was. Check out the audio of the song below. Good night!
I think I said this last week, but last night’s American Idol performances show was the best one of the season thus far. Not one singer was terrible and most were above average. I have a feeling that we’re going to be in for a surprise tonight. I recapped the show last night for Popblerd.
