2009 Adam Lambert's AI 8 Performances

That's not to say, of course, that I can't appreciate it when an Idol attempts an audacious high-wire act, which is about the best way I can describe Adam's perfectly ridiculous but intermittently thrilling ''Born to Be Wild.'' I knew we were in for something over-the-top the minute that Frankenstein crackle of ''lighting'' flashed across the jumbotron, and Adam kicked into the full banshee wail we're getting used to hearing every other week. But as much as I found myself giggling delightedly during the performance, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by Adam's selection of a song that, much like his ''Top Downloads'' night choice of ''Play That Funky Music,'' lives squarely within the borders of Karaokeville. Also disappointing? Paula's backslide into verbose non-critiques: That ''dare to dance in the path of greatness'' shtick made me wonder if by year's end there'll be a Paula Abdul line of fortune cookies coming to a shopping-channel near you.
here's hoping that America judges Allison on the body of her work, not on a single rocky effort; after all, as Paula pointed out, Allison (as well as Adam) possesses ''special sauce.''
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20272592_2,00.html

And now, our grades of tonight's performances:

Kris Allen: A-
Anoop Desai: B+
Adam Lambert: B
Matt Giraud: B-
Lil Rounds: C+
Allison Iraheta: C
Danny Gokey: C
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20272592_4,00.html

Idolatry 1 4/13/09
No Adam Mention
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Idolatry 2 4/13/09
Caller Discuss Simon
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TV RECAP
'American Idol' Recap: Double whammy!
by Michael Slezak | Apr 23, 2009

Lil and Anoop get sent home, and the season 8 finals come down to
Adam, Kris, Danny, Matt, and Allison

In perhaps the first effective fakeout of this eighth season of Idol, though, Ryan actually had me thinking Danny Gokey was going to wind up in the bottom three. After all, The Bespectaled One was sitting alongside Kris and Adam, who'd both been declared safe, and we know how Idol likes to leave the weak impala sitting alone and vulnerable at the end of a row. Then, of course, we had that overly long bit prompted by Ryan asking Danny if he knew what Simon meant when he used the word ''clumsy'' to describe Danny's rendition of ''September,'' complete with Ryan's explanation that ''some of the bloggers'' thought Simon was ''a bit harsh'' when he said Danny's performance lacked star power. (Wha?) Good thing Danny ''meditated'' on the critique and thinks he's figured out how to avoid being clumsy onstage in the future. (Ugh.) At least Simon shut down the nonsense by hissing at Ryan: ''You're being facetious...Go back to the contestants.''

The only moment of the show that gave me more joy, actually, was getting to see behind the scenes footage of Paula Abdul choreographing the group number to ''Shake Your Body Down to the Ground,'' then seeing the top 7 execute what looked to me like a pretty difficult (and jaunty!) routine for a bunch of novices. True, it was 1-866-Hei-nous to have to see the contestants of America's favorite singing competition lip-synch their way through another live set, but they were clearly having so much fun shaking their groove things, I forgot to get indignant till after the show had ended. Side note: Adam and Matt are clearly the best dancers among the top 7; Kris, meanwhile, er, well let's just say his adorable synthetic silver shirt had more natural rhythm than he did.
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20274363_3,00.html

Idolatry 4/25/09
Discuss Lil, Anoop & Allison
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Idolatry: Anoop 1
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Idolatry: Anoop 2
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Idolatry: Anoop 3
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Idolatry: Anoop 4
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Idolatry: Anoop 5
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Idolatry: Lil 1
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Idolatry: Lil 2
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Idolatry: Lil 3
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To the casual observer, tonight's American Idol results show might have seemed as routine and uneventful as, say, a pigeon on a park bench or a Kim Kardashian photo-op. Ryan Seacrest made his usual entrance via the Adam Lambert Memorial Staircase. Randy Jackson booed Simon Cowell's introduction like an 8-year-old who's still learning the difference between what's funny and what's merely annoying. And Matt Giraud, the guy everyone pretty much expected to go home, took his final bows to a heartfelt farewell from Paula Abdul (and one final lascivious look from Kara DioGuardi).
But right from the show's opening moments, you could sense we were in for something strange, something decidedly out of the ordinary. Maybe it was that cryptic — and by cryptic, I mean nonsensical — sound bite from Rat Pack Week mentor Jamie Foxx about ''five people that shock the world,'' which seemed like nothing more than an excuse to get the word ''shock'' into the show opener. Maybe it was Simon declaring the season 8 race as the ''most open competition'' in show history. Or maybe it was simply the fact that, unless Matt and Allison wound up as the week's lowest vote-getters, the other nine possible bottom-two combinations would feature at least one contestant who'd never even cracked the bottom three.

Yes, folks, we've reached the homestretch of American Idol season. Side-effects may include headaches and nausea, mild-to-moderate heart palpitations, cramping, insomnia, depression, murderous rage, dry mouth, a craving for alcohol or unhealthy snack foods, exhaustion, delirium, and in certain instances, fans of Adam Lambert screaming ''Are you freakin' kidding me?'' That's because the long-perceived season 8 front-runner found himself (possibly) on the brink of elimination tonight, standing alongside the self-described ''cat with nine lives'' and waiting for Ryan to either swing the Idol axe, or inform him he'll have a chance to sing some Axl next Tuesday.

That it turned out to be the latter option was really no great surprise. For all his talent and growing likability, this never really seemed like Matt's competition to win. The guy got rejected by America after performing a melody-ectomy on ''Viva La Vida'' in the semifinals, then got a second chance from the judges in the form of a Wild Card win. Booted again during Songs from the Cinema Week, Matt received one more stay of execution in the form of the historic Judges' Save, but here, two weeks later, the Idol boat was all out of life rafts.

The good news for Matt was that he left the show on a high note, nailing the falsetto ending (and mostly everything else) on his exit performance of ''My Funny Valentine,'' and appearing genuinely thankful for and moved by his Idol experience. And so what if the best parting advice Randy could offer was ''continue to make it hot,'' Matt can at least be proud that he got booted after an evening of performances that were so uniformly solid, they even had Simon backtracking and declaring Rat Pack night the best Top 5 performance show in Idol history.
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20275723,00.html

for all you conspiracy theorists in the house who find it hard to believe Glambert did indeed finish fourth in last night's voting, I went back and listened to Ryan's question to Jamie Foxx — ''Did America get this right tonight? This is the bottom two here'' — to make sure he didn't use any intentionally vague language about Adam's position. Granted, declaring a contestant is in the ''bottom two'' is very different from noting that, ''The independent accounting firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers has verified the vote tallies and declared Adam Lambert is indeed the second-lowest vote-getter this week.'' But would Idol work that hard, and that unscrupulously, to deceive us?

No, I'm guessing Adam really did flirt with disaster tonight. For starters, while Adam fans may have a huge and active presence on Idol message boards — not to mention a reported lock on 6 of the top 10 iTunes downloads by season 8 finalists — how much do you want to bet a lot of his supporters got complacent and spent more time surfing YouTube clips of their glam god than actually speed-dialing on his behalf. What's more, with a double elimination last week, that left thousands of Anoop and Lil fans up for grabs — and how can anyone be sure where their votes migrated to?
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20275723_2,00.html

To make it up to poor Kris for marginalizing his bottom-three appearance and directing the bulk of my ''oh-no-they-didn't'' energy toward Adam's bottom-two slot, I will dedicate to Mr. Allen tonight's Idol-themed ditty, set to a classic tune popularized by a Rat Pack member — specifically ''My Way.'' Click here if you want a little musical accompaniment from none other than Mr. Frank Sinatra!

And now, the end is near
Ryan presents the final quartet
My friends, I'll make it clear
Adam's the bomb, but he's no sure bet
There's Kris, and Allison
Ole' Danny, too. Turnabout's fair play
But how, the bottom two? I blame the stairway

Regrets, I've had a few
Those busy nights, I didn't vote hard
Tonight, was scary proof
Fan bases can get caught way off-guard
Rock week, it should be great
As long as there's no karaoke
What's more, we might just put the 'Go' in Gokey

Come on now, Danny fans, I kid, I kid. (Sort of.) (Okay, not really.) But who the heck am I to mock your contestant of choice when he now ranks as the sole season 8 finalist to never make a bottom-three appearance? That's Carrie Underwood-level voting patterns, and further proof that the ''Adam as foregone conclusion'' story arc is perhaps a lot less certain than most of us would've guessed. I just wonder, when he said he'd been watching tapes of ''performers'' to improve his on-stage technique, if he was referring to Jesse Langseth or Ricky Braddy. (Oh yeah, you know I went there!)
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20275723_3,00.html

The other thing that made me feel slightly on-edge, but which I respected nonetheless, was Adam's decision to choose a side in the Kris-Matt vs. Danny-Allison pairings that Ryan had created. If I were in the dude's shoes, I'd probably have Archied out and sat on the floor at center stage. Instead, Adam pointed to Danny and Allison and declared ''based on last night, probably that group'' performed better, before walking over and joining them. It all would've worked out so well for Adam if Ryan hadn't responded by grabbing his shoulder, moving him to the other side of the stage, and declaring him a bottom-three dweller alongside Matt and Kris. Lucky for Adam, he saved face by letting out a genuine whoop and yelling ''Get it!'' toward Allison and Danny. Do these contestants really like each other that much? (Anoop Desai told me that indeed they do on his recent visit to Idolatry...see video below.)

And, heck, my cynical heart thinks it's true, especially with the way the quintet grooved together during the season's second consecutive not-terrible group number — this one featuring actual real-life singing! Whaddaya know? (Side note to Kris: If in the future, you know you're going to be performing swinging standards, you might want to dress it up a little more than battered jeans and a plaid cowboy shirt.)

Which Idol results-show moment resulted in the biggest burst of awkward laughter?
A) Kara blurting ''my mouth went open again. That's what happens with Adam,'' followed by an unfortunate and unintentional ''beej'' gesture.
B) Jamie Foxx providing comfort to Matt and Adam with this nugget of self-promotional wisdom: ''It doesn't matter right now. It's what's gonna happen after this and the careers that they're gonna have after this, and that's it. And also, too, I've got a movie out called The Soloist. So check it out.''
C) Ryan accidentally referring to ''It Don't Mean a Thing'' as ''I Don't Mean a Thing.''
D) The Ford Music Video's suggestion that hybrid car emissions turn into verdant fields and flowering trees.

Also, because you haven't procrastinated enough from your job/housework/child-rearing, do check out our new video series Must List Live!, where Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons talks about his own Idol obsession, then press play below to watch our five-part video interview with Anoop Desai.
www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20275723_4,00.html

Idolatry 5/3/2009




Must List Live!
Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons, who stops by to
discuss why he loves American Idol‘s Adam Lambert.