American Idol: Showtunes Week

I guess people posted about it already, but Tuesday, American Idol had showtunes week. I was VERY surprised that only Constantine really knew a showtune to choose. Everyone else was like, "Oh, they chose a song for me" or "I asked people and then I listened to the song for the first time ever". AND when they had to guess what the genre was last week, no one got it until Seacrest said "The Phantom". Wow. And some people say they're so multi-genre related...it just suprised me. Also, I wondered why nobody did a song like "Cabaret" or even "The Wizard And I". I know LaToya sang "Parade" (sorry if that's not the name) last season, and she did a REALLY good job, but this year everyone was kind of just..blah because they didn't know the stories behind what they were singing.
Sorry, I had to say something :)

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The reason why The Wizard and I was not done was because the genre was titled "Classic Musicals", and Cabaret doesn't have anything that stands on its own.

Carrie Underwood was the best out of all of them, because not only did she have the voice, but she hit every note right on. She was also the only one who sounded "musical". Constantine was trying to be sexy - something which he is SO not!, and his rendition of Valentine had one good thing, and that was the high note...which wasn't THAT good. Also, you would think that someone with a musical theatre backround would have picked a song that wasn't a "Standard".

P.S. There were also a lot of people (like Carrie) that mentioned they chose a song from musicals they enjoyed as Children. Only a few had no clue what song to do (like Bo and Scott)

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Updated On: 4/9/05 at 02:17 PM

I know it was "Classical Musicals"..I forgot to say, "Someone should've picked something LIKE "the wizard and I"..sorry 'bout that. Like why would Nikko choose a duet? And Bo chose "Corner of the Sky" which is over done, but they still loved him...And the one with any sort of theatrical background chose the weirdest version ever or Funny Valentine and STILL managed to pull it off!

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Justice-

Maybe This Time and Cabaret certainly stand on their own.

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Constantine likes the camera too much. I like his voice, but he stares at the camera all of the time and it bothers me.

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I hated Musicals night. The only worthy performance was Nadia's brilliant interpretation of "As Long As He Needs Me". She needs to win.

I thought that they all sucked! That show would make anyone who does not know about musical theatre, want to avoid it like the plague. It was an embarrassing evening of television that did a disservice to musicals and I pray that they don't ever repeat it.

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i think carrie, vonzell and nadia did the best. carrie took a boring song and made VERYONE listen to it. and she hit every note right. and bo reminds me too much fo teh guy from creed. but im sorry i hate corner if the sky i cant stand the song never could. i had to sing it in middle school and i always hated it. and scott should've been booted off hands down. i was curled into the phetal position while watching him sing it was terrible. i love him, hate his voice.

i definitely agree hannah...what i don't understand is why they just didn't let them sing musicals in general...that would have at least given them much more of a variety then the crap they chose...or at least the crappy way they sang them...

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These American Idol contestants are aspiring professional singers. Not rock stars (who write their own songs) but people who sing songs that other people write for them.

How can they stumble out onto stage, all confused, and claim to know nothing about Broadway show tunes? Scott talked about "Man of La Mancha" as if it was some esoteric piece of music history that only a Phd candidate would have heard of.

If you want to be a professional singer, you need to know something about the industry.

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Constantine gave an amazing performance. He was extraordinary.
p.s. I wish they had to sing showtunes that were not also easily "pop tunes." Every song done could have come off the radio or not been written for the theater. There were no definitive "only makes sense in the context of the musical" songs. I would have enjoyed that. The types of songs allowed kind of "dissipated" the meaning of showtunes. I wish they had to sing "character songs from musicals," such as:
Adelaide's Lament from GUY AND DOLLS
If I were A Rich Man from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Roxie from CHICAGO
You Can't Get A Man with A gun from ANNIE GET YOUR GUN
etc. etc......I think this would have been much more interesting; shown other parts of these singers' talents. In years past, some of the songs performed were indeed actually on YOUR HIT PARADE (My Funny Valentine, for one) and were indeed popular songs when Broadway used to provide most popular music. If Broadway STILL provided the world's popular music, the songs the contestants chose, would like have all been on YOUR HIT PARADE. Again, I would have found it more fun had they done character songs from musicals. :)
p.s. Nadia was spectacular on AS LONG AS HE NEEDS ME until the end.......she ended the song very poorly. She was entrancing till the end. What a bummer.

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Updated On: 4/10/05 at 04:02 PM

I agree with Pab. I thought they were all terrible, and,as I said on another thread, I think it was because none of them thought about what they were singing about.

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