Final 4: Rock Week

It’s the final 4 and the race could not be tighter. With the final contestants being so evenly matched, each week it becomes more difficult to predict who will get the boot. This season I have correctly predicted which contestant(s) would be eliminated 7 out of the 8 elimination shows so far, so my hope is to keep my percentage up. Let’s break it down…

Seeing as the theme this week of “Rock” is so broad, I have no idea where to begin with what song I might have chosen as a contestant. Also, I am not really a big rock singer, so I am going to leave this one alone this week.

Tonight we also had 2 duet performances as the Final 4 paired up to perform together. This happens a lot on the Idol Tour, so I was not surprised to see it finally happen on the show. However, yikes….Danny and Kris were terrible, EXCEPT when they harmonized. It was obvious the band was too loud and they were not able to hear themselves. Then later we had Adam and Allison…eh, I thought it was a cruddy song choice; too repetitive and just kind of awkward overall. Oh well, nice try AI!

Ok, on to the solo performances…

Adam Lambert – did anyone really expect him to have an issue this week? The one thing I thought I could see him doing was going WAY over the top. It has been a while since we have had a real outrageous Adam-esque performance, so I thought he might overdo it on rock week, but I was wrong. I do think his look might be polarizing to the casual viewer that tuned in this week, but do those people actually vote? No. His voice is made for this music. Tonight I heard a mixture of Axel and Steven Tyler. Simon was right on, nobody would compare to Adam’s performance this week.

This is where the breakdown gets tough…all 3 of the remaining contestants struggled but for completely different reasons. So, the breakdown becomes a little more diffcult.

Kris Allen – The real struggle here for Kris, is that I do not think he could hear himself. It was very obvious to me that he was pushing very hard vocally to be heard. Ryan already alluded to the fact that due to the stage collapse, a proper sound check was not done, and that is VITAL to have as a live performer. As with he and Danny’s duet…I think the band was too loud for him on stage. You could see it all over his face when he finished. He looked exhausted and defeated.

Allison Iraheta – This week, song choice was Allison’s struggle. This was a terrible pick and Allison felt completely disconnected from the song and the audience. The majority of the song was sung at her vocal peak where she just came off as screaming. Add on to this her bold rebuttals to the judges accompanied by the facial expression of disgust for what they had to say…not a good combo for the last standing lady.

Danny Gokey – Wow…just when Danny seemed to be back on track he bombs miserably! Why on earth would he try to pull off that last part of this song. It was obvious in the footage from his rehearsal with Slash that he was not able to do it. Through the whole song I was holding out hope that he would change his mind and not do it…but he did. As he collaped to the floor on stage with his murderous (in more ways than one) scream, I was thinking the same thing Simon later said. It sounded like a horror movie. Flat out, he was just screaming. Terrible.

Who goes home? As always, there are many factors, above and beyond singing talent, that play the role in who goes home. The Final 4 elimination show has, historically, been one that provides some shocker. Favored contestants such as Chris Daughtry, LaToya London and Tamyra Gray were all shockingly eliminated at 4th place. We can also look and see that when the Final 4 consisted of 3 guys and 1 girl, a guy has always been eliminated. Either way a case can be made for any of Final 4 from this season (except Adam who will no doubt be safe this week). Many people have Kris pegged to be in the bottom and even to go home. He was in the bottom for the first time last week and was sent to safety first. Up to that point he had a super strong fan base, so that should be enough to reignite them. Allison has visited the bottom numerous times and out of the 4, her fan base has proved the weakest. Will they rally? Danny is the only remaining contestant to have never been in the bottom. This week he went last in the “pimp spot” and despite a terrible performance, Simon said he will be safe this week (which is never a good omen). At this point in the race and after this week’s performances I would not be surprised by any of these 3 going home. A few different sites that poll the voting public AND even a Twitter poll from American Idol itself shows the majority vote saying Danny is going home tonight. I just can’t bring myself to agree yet. I think Danny’s fans have it in them to get him to at LEAST the Final 3. I can’t find anywhere on the web that shows anyone saying Allison will go home BUT, I am going to go against the grain and stick with my gut that Allison’s fan base will not be strong enough to put her ahead of the 3 guys and she will go home. Am I right? Will I keep my 7 for 8 prediction record?? Only time will tell. Honestly, I believe tonight anything is possible. I mean heck Paula Abdul is performing her new single on tonight’s show! ALSO….Daughtry will be performing their new single!! I am VERY excited about finally getting to hear new Daughtry music!! Should be a great night!