Every year I try to resist, and every year it sucks me back in. The satanic minions last season were Melinda Doolittle and Blake "I wish he played for my team" Lewis, and this season it's likely to be David Archuleta.
Never mind the last name that makes me think of spiders. Never mind the fact that the boy just turned freaking seventeen (and therefore makes me feel like a wizened cradle-robber). Talent is sexy, and the guy's got talent in spades.
Many Doolittle critics last year complained about her being boring, but when Melinda Doolittle got on fire (which was often) she had the kind of magic that can't be trained or manufactured. You couldn't even articulate what it was that made the performance so great; you could really only sit back in awe. I'm thinking particularly of the Doolittle "My Funny Valentine" and "WOMAN", both of which amaze me even today.
And it's the same with Archuleta's performance of "Imagine" this past week. While he's been consistently good, this week was the first time he took good, sniffed at it, and tossed it by the wayside on his way to great. Far be it from me to proclaim myself an expert on music, but goosebumps are goosebumps, and I was shivery with them all through Archuleta's performance.
Does this mean he'll sail through to the finals? My bet at this point is a resounding yes. Where he'll go from there is anyone's guess; one only needs to remember LaKisha Jones to know that the finals are notoriously tricky. That being said, I agree with Simon Cowell's assessment during the Hollywood round: he's young, he's good-looking, and he's got an impressive set of pipes. Not a bad place to start; not a bad place to start at all.
Besides, he's been training from a really young age: it boggles the mind, the haircut in the video, but I guess if a kid could survive that, he could probably survive anything.
"American Idol" airs... oh, please. You know when it airs. It's only on about 3890473298473 times a week.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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