American Idol 5/6/08

It's really embarrassing on Idol when the cameraman cuts to a former contestant sitting in the audience but, for the life of me, I can't remember the person's name. "Hey," I think to myself, "there's that guy who sucked from a long time ago."

Tonight's theme is the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Methinks the producers are running out of ideas.

David Cook chose Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." I can only assume people all over America were thinking, "Duran Duran is in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame?" Why does Paula continue to make mildly sexual comments to the male contestants after she barely survived the alleged affair with Corey Clark years ago? If it wasn't sexual then her "Your Hungry Like the Wolf gave me an appetite" or whatever the heck she said, was really lame.

For his second song, Cook picked The Who's "Baba O'Riley" which most people call Teenage Wasteland. I thought he was going to end the song by saying, "Let's hear it for the bride." Inexplicably, the judges liked his performance. Paula was "humbled to sit here and watch your soul." Perhaps next year the producers can hire a smart person to dub in her lines.

Syesha Mercado talks about herself in the third person just a little too much for my liking. For her first song, she-- or as she would say Syesha-- chose Tina Turner's "Proud Mary." In the pre-performance interview, Mercado said she was worried about the choreography. Her dancing proved she had reason to be. Never let yourself be compared to Tina Turner. There's a reason Ms. Turner is in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame.

"A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke was her second choice. Only Syesha Mercado could take a song from the Civil Rights movement and somehow twist it to be an anthem for her journey as a singer. Plus only an egotistical nitwit could be brought to tears by a Paula Abdul compliment. Most people can't even understand what she says.

Jason Castro said that he recognized a few of the songs from the Hall of Fame list. A few? I'm really annoyed that none of these kids seem to know their pop history. He picked Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff." He should have picked something else. Simon was right when he said the only similarity is the hair. Perhaps they also have ganja in common. What else could explain his decision.

From the beginning, it was obvious that Jason Castro bears a striking physical resemblance to Bob Dylan so it sort of made sense that he picked "Mr. Tambourine Man" for his second song. But, I doubt Dylan would ever forget the words and fill it in with a La-La-La-La. I don't think I've ever seen a contestant flame out on two songs in one night.

David Archuleta actually did Ben E. King proud with his rendition of "Stand By Me." That little munchkin kicked some Idol ass.

How could Archuleta not be familiar with Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender"? I don't care if he is twelve. But, I have to give him credit for managing to do an Elvis song without sounding anything like The King. That is not easy to do.

Usually American Idol becomes more and more exciting as the finals approach but, this year, it's getting more and more boring. Besides David Archuleta, the only good thing on tonight's show was Paula's hair and those are probably extensions.

Predictions: David Archuleta will be voted off, making this year even more ridiculous than the Taylor Hick's season.


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