‘American Idol’ top 4 review: Can’t we give Candice Glover love for singing Drake?
We’re going to be doing something a little bit different in talking about this week’s “American Idol,” mostly because we’re writing this article with a few hours of reflection under our belt. What in the world is going on with this show? Hours after the conspiracy train began with rumors of a Jennifer Lopez takeover, we were ready to fasten our foil hats to our heads with the show’s seemingly desperate attempts to put Amber Holcomb into the finale.
We’ll have more on Amber in a minute, but in general, this entire show was a bit of a bummer when it comes to actually producing real, not-manufactured (see Nicki Minaj attacking Jimmy Iovine) drama for TV. It was ballad after midtempo number after ballad, and if you look back at the history of winners on this show, this is not necessarily a great blueprint (Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood certainly had their uptempo moments).
Our personal bottom two of the night happened to be a pair of singers who didn’t necessarily do a bad job, but were on the opposite ends of the judging spectrum: Kree Harrison and Amber. With Amber, you had near-universal praise for the ridiculous “MacArthur Park,” a song we long assumed to be one of the dumbest ever written. We never knew that anyone cared so much about cake in the rain! We get it that she is probably more marketable than the other women, and the powers-that-be may want her to win because of it. However, the only real “moment” she’s had all season long was at the end of last week.
Meanwhile, Kree is mostly a victim of getting thrown around for doing the same thing that she has done all season, and time it included some sort of irrational tear into her from Nicki after a duet. It was meant to be inspiring we figure, but there was something awkward about her going at a grown woman verbally like this, especially she, unlike Lazaro Arbos, had not done anything to really merit it save for being a little safe. She does need a “Crying” moment all over again, but these theme weeks are not giving her many opportunities.
Perhaps that is the best word to describe the night as a whole: safe. Calculated. Take your pick. Angie Miller picked one sing from Jessie J that she’d already made into a hit-of-sorts on YouTube, so she had an ace in the hole. The biggest creativity of the night goes to Candice Glover, our pick to win this whole shebang ever since she tore the roof off of the place with “Love Song.” Her “Find Your Love” was such a refreshing, soulful take on the Drake original, you almost forgot it was the same song.
Who was your favorite on “American Idol,” and are you calling conspiracy over any of the judges’ critiques this week? If you want to read some more on the J. Lo – Mariah drama, indulge here.
Photo: Fox