In Memory of American Idol's Semifinal Rounds: 10 Incredible Performances
6. Melinda Doolittle, "My Funny Valentine"
You can have your Fantasias and Adam Lamberts, but to my ears, the greatest vocalist in the history of American Idol is Melinda Doolittle. And better yet, its greatest vocal performance is Melinda Doolittle's semifinal-jumpstarting rendition of "My Funny Valentine." So smooth! So unpretentious! Melinda radiated brilliance, and as we often find with reality competitions, being consistently great is often cause to be voted out before your time. (RIP, Brandy and Maksim Chmerkovskiy.)
7. Antonella Barba, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"
Now wait: I said incredible performances, not great. A big reason Idol's semifinal rounds are indispensable is because they separate the champs from the chumps; the producers' pets who sneak through the auditions with their adorable cheekbones and dog voices are exposed for the shiny shams they are. Antonella Barba exemplifies this (eminently watchable) trend -- and she leads an army that includes Tim Urban, Camile Valesco, and the inimitable Danny Noriega.
8. Jason Castro, "Hallelujah"
He may have only gone on to play the ukulele at Jason Mesnick and Molly Melaney's Bachelor wedding, but Jason Castro proved in the semifinals that his talents exceeded an ability to grow 36-inch dreadlocks. You will note that his version of "Hallelujah" is better than the aforementioned Tim Urban's.
9. Allison Iraheta, "Alone"
But my favorite part of Idol's semifinals is how they allow voters to judge the heretofore un-aired contestants for their merits. Throughout the audition process in season eight, we'd seen nothing of Allison Iraheta, but when it came time for the burgundy-coiffed teen to perform "Alone" during that year's bizarre semifinal format, she launched ahead of the pack and became the season's indisputably best female vocalist.
10. Katelyn Epperly, "The Scientist"
Every year, Idol semifinalists are voted out before their time. In season nine, the two shafted talents were Lilly Scott and chirpy Des Moines native Katelyn Epperly. Now, all we have left of these warblers is their "three-week wonder" mystique and their solid musical performances. Epperly's performance of "The Scientist" was one of the best of the season -- even if the panel didn't see it that way. Prepare yourself for one of Ellen DeGeneres's most cutting criticisms: "It was so slow. And it was way too slow."
'American Idol' Season 10: Music Videos, No Top 24 [Zap2It]
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FYI, the song that Carrie sung wasn't a Celine Dion song. It's Jo Dee Messina's Because You Love Me.
I can't even answer why that mistake happened. The Celine song is one of my iPod staples. I can tell the two apart. I saw the Carrie version when it first happened. Anyway.
Apologies and thank you!
Ugh, I'm just completely uninterested in AI now. Last season was just so boring. And I have no desire to watch Steven Tyler sell out like this. Not that he hasn't before, but still. Jennifer Lopez...well, what else does she have to do besides sell herself out? Anyway, I'll just watch the clips on the site.
I loved Elliott Yamin's performance that night of Moody's Mood...totally amazing. Loved several other performances as well, including his signature song "A Song For You". I'm also a Big Kelly Clarkson fan. Loved her performance of "Stuff Like That There" as well as "Respect". Performances that are missing were Fantasia's "SummerTime" performance, and David Cooks "Billy Jean". All memorable performances that I will never forget.
Latoya London: All by Myself. Left me speechless!
This could have been a truly "great' list, but I'm stunned that you included Antonella's Barbas vocal crime against humanity in lieu of either David Cook's groundbreaking (in terms of changing it up/making it his own) 'Hello', or David Archuleta's vocal tour de force, 'Imagine'. I get that you were trying to cute/clever, but really?
I agree that 'A Song for You', "Stuff Like That There", "SummerTime" and "Billy Jean" were some of the greatest/most memorable performances ever on AI, but none of them were done in the semi-final rounds - all in the finals.
Did you not see David Cook singing "Hello" or Adam Lambert 's take on "Satisfaction"? Did you not see Archuleta or Jennifer Hudson singing "Imagine"? Crystal Bowersox "Hand in My Pocket"? This list is too lazy. Do some research next time. A real journalist would've done.
There were more than ten good performances and I couldn't fit them all into a top 10. That is terrible of me, I understand.
At any rate, "Hand in My Pocket" is one of my least favorite Crystal Bowersox performances. "Long As I Can See the Light" and "Me and Bobby McGee" were fabulous, but I was using this range of performances to make specific points about why I like the semifinals. Katelyn Epperly and Allison Iraheta are more necessary to include here than Crystal because their performances illustrate perks of the semifinals.
By the way, know what's actually lazy? Scoffing about what a "real journalist" would do as you spew bile in a comments section.
C'mon. Antonella illustrates something awesome about the semifinals.
Since when is "Moody's Move For Love" a dorkiest of the dorky song choice?
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Is he trying to kill the show, even though it won't be the same without Simon.
Also Kelly's performance of 'Respect' is amazing.
I agree Anne’s interpretation of Mary Poppins on SNL , is one of the all-time classic SNL sketch. She pulled-off the flawless British accent, lovely singing voice, dancing, and wonderful comedic timing.