Ever since Simon Cowell last week on American Idol said something to the "saved" contestant Matt Giraud along the lines like "I have good news for you, you're saved but this won't help you because the bad news is, next week will be disco night" I was all giddy. Not because I dislike Matt Giraud that much nor because I would love disco that much but because of its relevance to me.
Aside from The Beatles' Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da which is some sort of my earliest music memory - I must have been 5 back then - I actually grew up with disco music, and by that I mean my childhood and very early teenage years. There was a show in German TV hosted by a young guy called Ilja Richter which carried the title "DISCO" together with the year's date. It was aired from 19970 until 1979 and and it was all rather exciting. (That's what YouTube is about, you find such old childhood gems) I didn't quite understand the show back then and since I didn't speak any English, I didn't understand the songs either but I remember the show very vividly to this day.
I am mentioning this all to set the mood, the mood I was in tonight. Ready for some serious disco. Well, I should have known better after having watched at least one other American Idol season, season 7 that was. Of course the contestants would do anything but disco. But did they really?
LIL ROUNDS was reliable in that sense that she did an almost 1:1 version of the Chaka Khan classic "I'm Every Woman". The only problem? It was by far not as good as the original and rather a classic Karaoke rendition. I am sorry to say. I so wish there were stronger women this year!
The judges did a poor job in not bringing in better girls!
KRIS ALLEN was nice and predictable. He performed Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For Her Money" in a very stripped down, certainly Non-Disco arrangement. Nice and predictable. He's just so cute. And nice and predictable. Did I mention that already? Next contestant please!
Ah... "September". The song I learned to dance Cha Cha Cha on. DANNY GOKEY is trying his luck with an Earth, Wind & fire classic. Hey, dude, didn't quite work out. You weren't half as good as the original! And while the judges still all kinda liked you, I did not. Not in the slightest. Your vocals are okay, but the whole look and feel? Dreadful. Gimme Kris instead!
And then there was ALLISON IRAHETA doing "Hot Stuff", another Donna Summer classic. My friends from STATUES OF LIBERTY do a fantastic cover of this song and I wish Allison would have sung THEIR cover and then she would have absolutely nailed it! Instead, she was just okay. Nothing to go home, but nothing to really shine and stand out either.
The movie Saturday Night Fever got released at a time when I was not quite in the age yet to see these sort of movies. (There used to be a strong rating system in Germany). So, I never went. I grew old, or simply put I grew a mature adult, before I finally watched it and absolutely fell in love with it. Actually, I saw it for the first time a couple of years ago in New York City. How appropriate! I love the soundtrack, and in a way, I love the movie. It's so iconic and it should have been Oscar nominated. John Travolta even. That all said: ADAM LAMBERT picked a song from Saturday Night Fever. Of course! The question only is, which song did he pick and how did he make it his own? He picked Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" in a Non-Disco, more Rock&Soul version. It was certainly very Adam Lambert. And it was sung beautifully. Was it my personal fav? No. Will it get him through another round? - That's a rhetorical question! At this point it always is and besides, there were two more contestants...
For one, there was MATT GIRAUD, the guy who earned the "Judges Save" who chose yet another Saturday Night Fever song: "Stayin' Alive'. My difficulty here is that I am not neutral with Matt. He's simply not my kinda guy, no matter what he does. There's no more "Idol's Save" left. End of story.
Finishing the night off was ANOOP DESAI with a lesser known Donna Summer number: "Dim All The Lights" and I finally started to like this guy! Quite charming, actually. He did a very likable performance which would get him through another round wasn't it for some other show stoppers.
Conclusion? Enjoyable evening but not really a disco night out. My prediction for tomorrow: Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai go home. And we prepare ourselves for an Adam, Allison and Kris finale, or don't we?!
-- Elke
Please Note: I've taken the two images with my iPhone from my TV (this is basically a first on nydiscovery.com!). This will inspire another blog post about images, fair use and copyright laws. Stay tuned...
