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American Idol

The Top 7 Finalists Perform Live

Season 8, Episode 29, Aired Apr 14, 2009

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The American Idol finalists take the stage to perform live for the nation. The contestants will sing their hearts out in hopes of winning America's vote and surviving another week in the competition. Tune in to see who impresses the judges and who buckles under the pressure. Tonight's Theme Is: Songs From The Cinema Performing Tonight Are: Adam Lambert Allison Iraheta Anoop Desai Danny Gokey Kris Allen Lil Rounds Matt Giraudmoreless

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Solid all around.

7.5

"Good"

By birkoff1, Apr 15, 2009

Almost all of the performances tonight were solid, which makes it all that more difficult to judge.

The performances, more often than not, were just a confirmation of some things I've been saying for weeks, at least to me.

1) Adam's hands down the best vocalist in the competition, but he struts and he shrieks and uses odd, skewed arrangements, and that makes me decidedly less interested in hearing him sing. It was nice to see Simon acknowledge that these idiosyncrasies will alienate a portion of the public.

2) Danny's almost as good, just as consistent, and clearly more marketable.

3) Matt hasn't found his zone yet, which makes him inconsistent, a poor artist, and as Simon would say, forgettable.

4) Alison's got a great voice, but it's deep and it's husky and it's edgy, and she picks songs that require a girlier voice, and I don't like them reimagined in this way. Aerosmith is a step in the right direction but not by much; Stephen Tyler could sing women's opera if he wanted to, which is why he's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she's just a kid with a very bright future who isn't going to win AI.

As for the rest:

Anoop stuck to his core zone as a balladeer and ladies man and it paid off. Great performance. Which is good, because with the riff-raff thinned out he's a risk for the chopping block every week. I really like him, though.

Kris didn't give his best, but it was very far from his worst, and farther from the worst of those others. I'm glad he ignored Tarantino and went out sans guitar.

The judges whined at Lil' rather fiercely, but I thought her performance was decent. The singing wasn't perfect but I enjoyed the song choice and arrangement for a change. Not great, but not warranting simon's "I'm done with you," either.

Prediction: Matt, Lil, and Alison/(poss. Kris) for the bottom three. Say goodbye to Matt; he's a goner.moreless
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The contestants had some surprisingly good performances.

7.0

"Good"

By JaCkKbAuEr2424, Apr 15, 2009

I usually only watch this show to see the performers that I consider to be legitimately good singers. Sometimes, there's singers that really aren't the greatest, but get through based on population. However, so far, I think the singers that are remaining are all good in their own ways.

Every singer had their redeeming qualities. I personally found Anoop, Adam and Kris to all be excellent. The fact that Kris chose Falling Slowly from the movie Once impressed me and Adam was Adam. Also, it was awesome to have Quentin Tarantino directing. He's made some amazing movies (Pulp Fiction is also my second favorite movie, so I was pumped to see what he brought to the table

I was actually a little disappointed in Danny. His vocal performance was good, but for me, it was same old same old. The last couple of weeks, he didn't have the same qualities I saw when he sang Hero during the Top 36 or so. I still think he's going to be right up there in the Top 3 (probably top 2), but this wasn't my favorite week of his

I was pretty surprised by how solid the group was as a whole. I still think Adam will win, but there will be a lot of successful singers from this Season.moreless
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