David Cook sang last on “American Idol” on April 22nd. His song selection: “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera.” Was the best saved for last?
Well, one of the best, yes. David’s rendition of “Music of the Night” started slowly and, for me, was, as the judges are fond of putting it, “a bit pitchy.” He was wearing a weird, unflattering outfit, but he proved that he can hit the high notes (the word was “be”) in the phrase, “Let your soul take you where you want to be.”
David’s choice of song played to a certain sexy image he likes to project. (Sample lyric: “Touch me. Trust me. Savor each sensation.”) While singing lyrics like those, David was smart in making good use of the camera, staring into it soulfully. I’ve been rooting for a haircut for the 25-year-old for weeks, so this act doesn’t “work” for me, but, as Andrew Lloyd Webber said, “Maybe it’ll work.” And, for the judge (and the audience, no doubt), it did.
David went with a big finish of two high notes that were not the “usual” notes the song ended with, but all songs are abbreviated versions of their longer selves, and I suppose a couple of high notes that weren’t in the score were as good a “finish” as anything else he could have tried. He did hit them, and Randy proclaimed “That was an amazing vocal performance,” immediately after he finished.
Paula pronounced David’s song, “Fantastic!” (but, then, doesn’t she almost always, as ‘the nice one”?)
I agreed more with Simon who said he felt that the performance was “too rounded off” and added, “It’s not the side of you I prefer. I much prefer the grittier side, but you made the most of it.”
After Tuesday night’s “Idol” performances, those “on the bubble,” in order, should be: Jason Castro, Brooke White, and—for me, (but probably not the tweeny bopper audience)—David Cook. Although I was happy Cook chose a song that I had actually heard before, as Randy would put it, “It was just OK for me.” The two weakest performances of the night were definitely Jason Castro’s and Brooke White’s (she forgot her words and had to start over), but, in third place, if it were me, I would put David Cook “on the bubble” below both Syesha and Carly. However, if we take into account his performances over the entire season, cumulatively, he does deserve to stay another week. That could put the newly-vitalized Syesha back in the dog-house, although she (finally, and perhaps belatedly) gave us the personal connection we have been wanting from her all along.
Reference:
- Fox’s “American Idol” of April 22, 2008
