American Idol
News (Page 18)

Despite all the praise you may be hearing right now about David Archuleta's rendition of "Imagine" on last night's American Idol - and despite the shrieks from teenage girls we can still hear - other contestants did sing throughout the evening, as well.

Until Archuleta enthralled viewers, it had been a relatively weak night of auditions. But the following pair did earn praise from the judges:

David Cook: It's official: this wannabe rocker isn't nearly hardcore enough to be the next Chris Daughtry. But he did a solid job on the song "All Right Now." Randy Jackson said about it:

To me you're our real rocker from the boys this year. I actually really, really liked that. I thought it was a smart choice of song. it was cool for you, man. I really kind of believed you right there.

David Hernandez: No longer flying under the radar, Hernandez impressed fans with his take on the song "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." It earned this reply from Simon Cowell:

This may surprise you, but in my opinion that was the best vocal of the night so far ... I like the fact that when you are given some criticism, rather than sulking you treat it as a challenge ... You've risen to the challenge.

... after last night's performance, it isn't hard to do.

David Archuleta caused girls to scream and Paula Abdul to cry with his rendition of the classic John Lennon song "Imagine" during the night that showcased this season's top 10 American Idol men.

Check out the comments it elicited from all three judges:

Randy Jackson said: "That's one of the best vocals I've ever heard on this show... That was brilliant."
Paula Abdul said: "That was . . . one of the most moving performances I've ever heard.. You're destined for super stardom."
Simon Cowell said: "Very, very risky to do a John Lennon song, particularly that one, but it worked. You're the one to beat."

Do you agree? How do you rate Archuleta's performance?

The top 10 American Idol men perform tonight. Here's a look at the final 20 contestants overall. Let us know: who is your favorite?

Row 1: Michael Johns, Danny Noriega, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Luke Menard.
Row 2: Robbie Carrico, David Hernandez, Jason Yeager, Chikezie Eze, David Cook.

As far as the men go, many viewers believe Johns to be the favorite. And it's hard to argue with the awesomeness of this Aussie.

But keep an eye on Noriega (pictured below). American Idol fans love goofy contestants, remember. Or need we bring up the name Sanjaya Malakar again?

Entertainment Weekly caught up with the quartet of American Idol contestants eliminated from the semifinals last week. Here are excerpts of what they had to say:

EW: How are you feeling after being the first of the Top 24 to go?
Garrett Haley: I'm actually feeling really good. I told myself that morning that either way, even if I get sent home, I'm going to be happy and smiling and stuff. I'm still happy and I'm still smiling.

EW: Going into the evening, how did you feel about your chances?
Amy Davis (pictured): Well, I definitely was not happy with my performance. It's really because I have a disadvantage: I'm trained to use an in-ear monitor. My brain is trained to use an in-ear monitor. I'm telling you, it's a bad skill on my part. Without an in-ear, I can't stay on pitch. I tried to do as well as I could without having that in-ear monitor, but it was obviously a very pitchy performance.

EW: You say you don't have to be the winner to win on American Idol, but what does that mean? How do you get a record deal?
Joanne Borgella: Honestly, I feel like the winner. Basically, I'm going to work on my music. Hopefully later on within this year or early next year, I'll have some music out. You're still part of the Top 24, you're in the American Idol home. You're still signed with great people, you're working with great people. I'm probably in the best position I could ever pray for.

EW: What's your response to Simon's suggestion that you get a good job and don't pursue music?
Colton Berry: You know, Simon chose us to be the Top 24, and we're the Top 24 out of hundreds of thousands of people who auditioned. Obviously, we're all going to have careers in music no matter when we get kicked off. I mean, American Idol is the top of the top â€" you don't go any further than American Idol. Simon's job is to sit there and be mean. I expected him to say something like that, and of course, I didn't take it personally.

Jason Yeager has a long way to go until he reaches the status of Michael Johns and David Archuleta on American Idol.

As far as the men go, those two semifinalists have received the bulk of the air time and publicity thus far on season seven. But a new interview in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram may help shed some light on Yeager. Here are excerpts from it:

What do you carry back from your audition in Dallas?
I had a really good audition. Randy was just impressed that I picked a really hard song to do. I did a Take 6 song; they're a Christian a capella group and it's a song called Mary. I wanted to do something that was kinda random that they had never heard before so that they wouldn't try to compare me [to the original] and so they wouldn't be saying, from the get-go, "Oh, another guy doing Justin Timberlake" or regular Top 40 stuff.

So what's more terrifying, performing in front of 1,000 people or in front of three American Idol judges?
The crazy thing is that being in front of a bunch of strangers that I don't know is totally comfortable for me, but when you've got three obviously very interesting faces that you see on television, you don't know exactly what you're getting into there. They're looking at you, they're judging you, they're trying to pick [at] every little thing about you. That was very intimidating.

What does your stomach feel like when you walk into the judges' room -- is it like visiting the principal's office?
It's pure nausea. Definitely the nerves part of it is a lot tougher than I'm used to having to deal with. A show of this magnitude, and being a part of it, and getting more into it, every audition just becomes more and more intense.

I just really have to put myself mentally somewhere else and just try to picture me being on a stage in Branson, or I used to work at Six Flags and be in front of hundreds of people every day. ... I'll just try to think about that instead of these 35 million people at home watching.

American Idol viewers were not kind to former models on last night's elimination show.

Amy Davis and Joanne Borgella - each of whom have a modeling past - were the two women voted off the show. As you can see below, their ousting caused other contestants to show some serious emotion.

It's okay, Ramiele Malubay, you're still alive. And receiving rave reviews for your first semifinal audition, to boot.

On the men's side, Garrett Haley and Colton Berry were eliminated. No major surprises there.

The top 10 males resume auditions on Tuesday, with the top 10 females following on Wednesday night. Who is your favorite so far?

A finalist on last season's American Idol, Chris Sligh has written a guest column for Entertainment Weekly. Below, he sizes up the top 12 men...

Several performances stuck out for me: David Archuleta is an incredible singer and performer. Though I dread hearing ''OMG!!! He's 17!!!'' for the next three months from the judges, he is one of the few 17-year-olds that deserve the ''pimping.''

Jason Castro's jazzy pop take on ''Daydream'' was inspired and commercially credible, and Michael Johns gave a somewhat pitchy but credible performance of ''Light My Fire.'' I think both of these guys will be around a while.

I personally am not understanding the judges' love of David Cook. His arrangement of the Turtles classic was horrid, and Randy comparing him to Alice in Chains was one of the most groan-worthy comments in 7 seasons of Idol. And on top of it all, his voice is just okay.

Read the complete article now.

A few American Idol women suffered through the flu last night, as Kristy Lee Cook and Joanne Borgella seemed particularly affected by sickness.

Still, this group of 12 easily outperformed its male counterparts from the evening before. We could choose from an array of solid auditions, but have tried to stick with our two favorites below. Along with the obvious selection of the worst from the night...

• Syesha Mercado (pictured): She went big - and it paid off! This crooner's rendition of "Tobacco Road" was far from a ballad, but the judges didn't seem to mind. Simon called it "terrific" and Paula said the performance was "joyful, fun and big!"

• Asiah Epperson: Tugged on our heart strings with her original audition, performed mere days after her dad passed away. But has proven that she's far more than a sob story. Simon said her rendition of "Piece of My Heart" was his favorite of the night.

And the worst...

• It's a good thing Amy Davis is so pretty, as you can see below. We don't mean to be so harsh, but "Where the Boys Are" just didn't cut it for us. Or the judges. Randy said it wasn't great for him, while Simon was even more brutal: "It was a very boring song."

Might Jason Castro be a dark horse on season seven of American Ido? It's possible. All three judges loved his rendition of "What a Day for a Daydream."

Still, after the opening performances of the top 12 American Idol males, we see three favorites standing out from among the rest. They are:

- David Archuleta: How is it possible that this former Star Search winner is just 17 years old? He sang "Shop Around" and was told by Simon Cowell: "When you got it, you got it … That was, by a comfortable mile, the best performance of the night so far."

- David Cook (pictured): This wannabe rock star has the look and sound to go far. He turned the 1960s romantic tune, "Happy Together," into a fun, speedy tune.

- Michael Johns: He lit our fire, readers! Singing that classic song by The Doors, this Australian is as polished as any American Idol semifinalist, maybe ever. Former lead singer of a band called The Rising.

Who was your favorite of the night? Who do you think will be voted off? We think it's time for Garrett Haley and Jason Yeager to go home.

Everyone who has watched American Idol so far this season knows about Carly Smithson, Michael Johns and Asiah Epperson. They'll all been featured a lot before being chosen as three of the final 24 contestants on the show.

But what about those that are still relatively unknown, yet remain in the hunt for the Idol crown? Singers such as Garrett Haley (pictured( and Jason Yeager that have barely received any air time?

Don't worry, guys, says executive producer Nigel Lythgoe has two words for you: Kelly Clarkson.

"She wasn't shown at all [during the audition process]," Lythgoe told reporters in a conference call Friday. "There certainly is an edge in having [a lot of airtime]. But at the end of the day, it's how you come out [tomorrow] and Wednesday and sing your song."