I just watched American Idol’s top 6 show and it’s the very first and most probably last show I’m going to watch of this season. The only reason I decided to tune in was because of Shania Twain. I love her music and I think she’s a terrific songwriter. As it turned out she’s also a pretty good mentor as she teaches the contestants to really connect with the emotion and story of the songs she wrote. Going by the judges’ opinions, Shania and the Idol wannabes did a good job overall. For me I didn’t think any of them did justice to Shania’s music except maybe for Lee Dewyze’s take on ‘You’re still the one’ , my favourite Shania tune. The gravelly quality to his voice gave the song a new edge and made it different enough to sound new.
I agree with Kara DioGuardi when she said that one of Shania’s strengths as a singer was the way she connected with her music. She feels her songs through and through – quite naturally enough one might say as she wrote them herself. After all if you can’t be emotionally invested in the songs that you write, then who else? This brings to mind singers like David who before his debut album didn’t write too much of his own material and had to do cover versions of songs that were already performed by other artistes. But David’s interpretation skills are what sets him apart from a whole host of young singers with no original material written for them. After watching the top 6 show of this season where the contestants were universally praised for their interpretation and connection to the songs, I respectfully insist that none of them can hold a candle to David’s performance during his top 6 week where he sang a beautiful version of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Think Of Me’. Even Sir Andrew himself was taken aback with David’s take on the song. He took a musical number written for a soprano and turned it into a gorgeous, pop ballad flushed with a tender yearning that gave the song that much more poignancy. With a clear, vulnerable tenor voice David weaved a tale of longing and pathos that till this day ranks it as one of his most stirring performances on Idol.
A capella Crush – Orange Appeal After Hours Spring 2010. Good stuff! 🙂
This a capella group has also sang an arrangement of Stand By Me / Beautiful Girls
As have this choir on BBC tv plus a few other vocal groups
Hm, I always thought that David came up with the original idea of sampling Sean Kingston’s song when he sang Stand By Me on American Idol. It seemed that way with the ruckus that erupted about Jeff’s meddling hand in insisting that Beautiful Girls be sampled during David’s performance. But from the video evidence it’s apparent that Stand By Me / Beautiful Girls had been performed by other musical groups well before David’s turn. So I wonder what the fuss was all about?
Music to soothe your soul – according to 16 yr old Mithra Susan Simon. I must say I wholeheartedly agree with Mithra’s first choice.
2010/04/28
By Mithra Susan Simon, 16, Klang
1. Imagine (David Archuleta) — Not only does the melody have a calming effect, the lyrics are great as the song talks about world unity.
2. Relax, Take it Easy (Mika) — The title says it all.
3. Just Dance (Lady Gaga) — The song just makes me want to dance all around the room which does help release the stress.
4. The Bird And The Worm (Owl City) — It’s a fun sing-along song.
5. Keep Holding On (Avril Lavingne) — When I’m down, this song reminds me to never give up.
6. Home (Michael Buble) — His baritone voice has a soothing effect and talks about the comforts of home.
7. Tick Tock (Keisha) — The lyrics are catchy and are fun to sing along to when I’m stressed.
8. Unwritten (Natasha B.) — It’s just a song that reflects on life. It’s a kick-back song.
9. You Raise Me Up (Josh Groban) — It is one of the songs which you can just listen to over and over again at any time of the day.
10. Break Free (Queen) — I can shout it out whenever I am stressed.
11. Let It Be (Beatles) — When I find myself in times of trouble (or in this case stress), I just let it be.
12. Faith (George Michael) — When stressed I listen to this song to keep the faith that things are not always going to be stressful.
………..from of all people Nigel Lythgoe! Nigel has always been too snarky for my taste just like his fellow Brit, the infamous Simon Cowell but here it seems Nigel at least appreciates talent when he hears it. There’s hope for Mr. Lythgoe yet.
This is my personal favourite pic from Brit Week. Here David is more natural and at ease unlike the earlier ones that were posted where he seems to have plastered on his ‘fake’ photo smile:
And in other news……….
Sounds like Eman and his writing team are brewing something extraordinary for David.
Ever since David Archuleta appeared on our radar screens, he’s been a lightning rod for controversy and drama. What he does and how he does it has been debated, dissected and discussed ad infinitum. The lively and often acrimonious exchanges has engaged fans and non-fans in an endless cycle of verbal swordplay and his polarizing effect on the people who follow him is well documented. Not David’s fault of course but there’s something about that cherubic demeanor that invites overwhelming parental protective instincts coming into direct confrontation with those who are equally determined that he should break free from all that mollycoddling and just grow up and be a man!
From that immortal moment when he sang ‘Imagine’ on Idol – where he was chastised for, apparently, choosing not to sing the first 2 verses which included the lines “Imagine there’s no heaven/and no religion too”, to ‘Daddygate’ where supposedly David was terrified of his father’s verbal abuse, to that controversy of ‘Stand By Me’ which included a sampling of Sean Kingston’s ‘Beautiful Girls’ where again supposedly David’s father insisted that American Idol had to pay extra royalties in order for David to sing that line during Top 4 night, he has attracted a litany of views both sobering and vitriolic. Let’s not forget about the speculations on his sexuality then and still ongoing. And what about David’s apparent inability to hold a decent interview? Well we all know the answer to that by now.
In short David Archuleta has had to wade through a minefield of public perception both positive and negative, very often not of his choosing. The latest brouhaha occurred recently when David innocently accepted an invitation from Charice to attend her show which was held in a gay club in New York- which David had no idea that it was such a place. Of course the minute people saw him there, tongues started wagging and fingers started tapping on handphones. Tweeter did more than just tweet and soon the internet was ablaze with the news that David Archuleta was spotted at a “gasp!” gay club. Many of those who tweeted the ‘news’ did clarify that David was really there to support Charice. The situation would have calmed down quickly if not for the fact that David decided that he had to clear the air on why he was there by tweeting that he was there to support Charice and that he “would never intentionally go to such a place“. The result was a firestorm of condemnation and accusation from the gay community that he was homophobic. Poor David had to scramble and try to mend fences and soothe ruffled feathers by tweeting that he was not homophobic and the club was just not his scene but the ‘damage’ had apparently been done and he was vilified.
For me I truly believe that David meant it, without any malice, when he said that he would never frequent a gay club on purpose, not because he’s anti-gay but simply that it was not his thing, pure and simple. Just like many heterosexuals would not frequent strip joints simply because they had no taste for it. It’s not a judgment but a preference. The only ‘crime’ that I would find David guilty of is that he didn’t leave well enough alone. In his eagerness to NOT offend anybody he felt he had to explain the situation which made it even worse for him. There’s a saying “Let sleeping dogs lie” which in this case he would have been well advised to do just that. Instead the beast woke up and gave him a not too subtle bite! There’s a valuable lesson from this. Sometimes it’s much better to just keep silent until and unless one becomes much savvier in handling such sticky situations.
It’s very interesting that David would immediately choose Marina and the Diamonds “I’m Not A Robot” as his song of the week:
You’ve been acting awful tough lately
Smoking a lot of cigarettes lately
But inside, you’re just a little baby
It’s okay to say you’ve got a weak spot
You don’t always have to be on top
Better to be hated than love, love, loved for what you’re not
I am checking in from LA today, and I’ve had some good writing sessions this week already. I worked with Guy Chambers, who wrote Angels with Robbie Williams, and Erika Nuri from The Writing Camp. I also had writing sessions last week with Sam Hollander and Sluggo, who my friend Travis from We The Kings actually told me about because he has worked a lot with them. I also worked with a bunch of other really great writers, who you’ve probably seen me talk about on Twitter. But I actually have another writing session today with the Nexus lol. And I’ll let you guys know how that goes too!
So I was able to go home for a couple of days, and I got to spend time with my family!! Sunday was my cousin’s birthday, and I had all of my mom’s sisters and some of my cousins over visiting from out of town. It was so great getting to have them all there and hanging out with them! A lot of them have birthdays near each other so we just celebrated all of them at once. But family is such a great thing to have, and to have them supporting you and just being there to lift each other up makes a big difference. Having family or friends who are basically family there to do that for you is a huge blessing.
Last night I performed at the BritWeek Gala Event honoring Sir Richard Branson, and was supporting the foundations Save the Children and Virgin Unite. It was a really great night! I was asked to sing Imagine, and then I also sang Prayer of the Children. Nigel Lythgoe had asked me to come sing at the event. It’s funny because I actually ran into him at the Atlanta airport not too long ago, and after I saw him there is when he asked me to come sing. Since he was one of the executive producers on American Idol while I was there, I owe a lot to him for giving me the opportunities I’ve been able to have from the show. He’s a good guy haha. But man, Morgan Freeman was there and I wish I had gotten the chance to meet him! I went to use the restroom and kept getting stopped and talking to people, never really getting time to go over and talk to him. But I think he’s just one of the coolest guys.
In LA there are a lot of signs around saying “April is Earthquake Preparedness Month.” I think it’s really important to remind people about how we need to think about what we would do in an emergency like an earthquake, or any other kind of situation like that. I think it’d be great if you have a family to go through what everyone would do in an emergency, and come up with a plan on how to deal with things. Things like food storage and emergency kits can be so useful in an emergency. I probably sound weird right now lol, but I think with everything happening it’s important to get people thinking about it and being prepared for possible events to happen. Keeping a water supply, non-perishable foods, flashlights, things like that. Just to keep in mind I guess. There are websites you can find out more info on. Here are a couple:
I don’t want to sound like I’m paranoid or anything lol, but you never know what could happen. I’m going to try and get back home for the weekend and just go through things with my family and make a plan too. I remember in school they were talking about how Utah is due for a pretty big earthquake too, and with everything going on right now you never know what could happen.
Well sorry for going off on that, but I’m going to get back into this writing session I’ll tweet later and try to get another blog up next week. Adios!
Song for the day: I Am Not A Robot – Marina and the Diamonds
This is probably my favorite song right now lol. Just really quirky
Though most fanatics would agree that this season of “American Idol” is a little lackluster, it has also sparked more debates than perhaps any season since the show debuted back in 2002. How important are the judges? Has Kara DioGuardi improved? Who should replace Simon Cowell? Was the last season the best of all time? Should the show value quality of performance over stuff like vocal strength and musical accuracy? All of these questions have been tossed around all season.
This week’s debate surrounded Crystal Bowersox, the “American Idol” frontrunner whose presence on the show has been surrounded by personal controversy (first involving her health, then the story that she nearly abandoned the show a few weeks back). This week, she delivered a jaw-dropping, emotional performance of “People Get Ready” that tore the house down and lit the Internet on fire. The conversation started: Did Bowersox just deliver the greatest performance in the history of the show? And if she didn’t, who actually has?
In the first poll we presented this week, Bowersox won handily, besting performances by eventual winners Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and David Cook. But “American Idol” fans cried foul, saying that our series of nominees came up a bit short. So we rolled out a second poll that featured nominations from fans who had sounded off in the comments section of the blog.
Now that the long and winding road is complete, we can declare the winner of the latest poll. David Archuleta took home the top spot with his rendition of “Imagine,” which floored the judges, made the fans swoon and turned Archuleta into a favorite a few years back. He scored a whopping 53 percent of the vote, besting even Bowersox’s dominant victory in the earlier poll (this time around, Crystal only mustered one percent). This time around, it was a two man race between Archuleta and the man who finished in second place: Adam Lambert, whose “Mad World” brought in 42 percent of the vote. With 95 percent split up between the top two, the drop-off after Lambert was significant, with only Clay Aiken’s “Solitaire” nabbing more than one percent (proof that the Claymates still have some fight in them).
So the challenge is on to the current crop of “American Idol” contestants: Are you better than “Imagine” as sung by David Archuleta? If you are, then stardom awaits.
What do you think of David Archuleta’s version of “Imagine”? Is it truly the best “American Idol” performance of all time? Let us know in the comments!