The remaining five American Idol contestants were given their most difficult task yet when they were assigned to perform a song from legend Frank Sinatra’s songbook on Tuesday. In order to supplement this difficult task, the contestants were given a coach who is not only a singer/songwriter but one who is also experienced in performing Sinatra’s songs himself: Harry Connick, Jr. Connick not only guided the contestants during their rehearsals, but he also composed and performed their arrangements.
Connick was not the only guest celebrity to appear on Idol this week. Rob Reiner and Anthony Hopkins were in the audience on Tuesday, along with Nancy and Tina Sinatra, who presented a monogrammed Frank Sinatra handkerchief to Simon Cowell. Lady Gaga also appeared and performed her new song “Alejandro” on Wednesday.
Under the guidance of Connick, Aaron Kelly performed “Fly Me to the Moon.” Judges Kara DioGuardi and Simon Cowell advised him to continue trying to break out as a performer and judges Randy Jackson and Ellen DeGeneres thought he sang beautifully. After hearing all the performances I thought he had one of the best three performances of the night.
Casey James performed “Blue Skies” and Jackson called it his worst performance. I don’t know if I agree with him, but James did give the worst performance of the night. DioGuardi told him that he wasn’t controlling his voice and his vibrato as well as before. “At least you held some notes,” she said. Cowell didn’t think he looked comfortable and I think that was what caused the lack of vocal control. He just wasn’t comfortable this week.
Crystal Bowersox performed “Summer Wind.” She stated that the song was personal to her but, despite the connection, her performance was not as good as it should have been. Jackson thought it was sleepy and the arrangement was too mellow. Cowell felt the first half of the song was too Jazz-like. He advised her to try to nail down her performances for the remainder of the competition.
Michael Lynche used a beautiful arrangement by Connick to perform “The Way You Look Tonight.” His vocals matched the arrangement in beauty and Jackson seemed very proud of “Big Mike.” DeGeneres said he appears to be more comfortable on stage than any of the other contestants. Cowell said that he felt that Lynche had been listening to them and all the aspects of the performance clicked together.
Lee Dewyze was the last contestant to perform and I was pleased to hear and see him perform as well as Lynche did, if not better. DeGeneres must have agreed with me because she told him “I think if this were the last night of performances you would have just won this whole thing.” Cowell told Dewyze he gave it 110 percent and it was the best performance of the night.
On Wednesday night’s results show Harry Connick, Jr. performed “And I Love Her” before host Ryan Seacrest announced that Michael Lynche and Aaron Kelly had earned the least amount of votes for the week. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to young Aaron Kelly at the end of the show. Next week the final four contestants will perform songs from the cinema under the guidance of Jamie Foxx.
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