It’s Tuesday, 8pm, which means it’s time for Canadian Idol on CTV. Tonight is the second set of 8 singers trying to make it to the final ten. Last week Darryl Brunt and Ashley Leitao advanced, who will make it this week?
Ben Mulroney welcomes us to the show, and explains the rules. He introduces the judges Jake Gold, Farley Flex, Sass Jordan and Zack Werner, and asks each a question.
Jake – thinks that this group is much better than Group 1.
Farley – says that the singers need to be prepared and have a lot of believing in themselves.
Sass – there are advantages and disadvantages to watching previous groups perform.
Zack – says that sometimes you’re nice because occasionally people are actually good.
We meet the pianist, Mark Lalama, and we see the Idols again. Interesting to note that they all sit on the couch onstage waiting for their turn. Don’t think that they did that with American Idol.
Ben asks Alinka Chambers where her drive comes from. She says that she was born to do this. He asks Dave Moffatt what he hopes to get out of this. He hopes to grow as a musician.
Our first performer is Dave Moffatt. Thankfully he does mention (in the sidebar) that he was part of The Moffatts. He sings “Overjoyed” by Stevie Wonder, I think. His voice breaks quite a bit. It’s not particularly bad, but not really good either – it’s really distracting.
Jake – He was underwhelmed, but he likes that he borrowed Zack’s jacket.
Farley – Was also underwhelmed, he thought that with his background he’d have brought more to the table.
Sass – Thought he missed a ton of notes, and thinks he was nervous. Dave knows he blew it.
Zack – “Bye Dave”. Guess he never liked him.
Ben asks Dave what he’d rate it – Dave rates it a 6, and says that you always need to be a 10 on this show.
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We’re back, and it’s time for Alinka Chambers. She’s singing “Black Velvet”, with a heavy blues riff from Mark. She’s flat in parts, but she’s got some good spark, and really gets into the song, even getting the audience clapping along. It comes off really well following Dave.
Farley – A little flatness, but brings a star appeal that he likes.
Sass – Really out of tune.
Zack – Incredibly contrived and awful.
Jake – Look was good, singing not so much.
Ben of course thinks it sounded fanstastic.
David Mongar will be singing after the
Ad Break. Closed Captioning is brought to you by Canada Post, and apparently an inline-challenged Jon Dore.
Ben asks David where his girlfriend (Top 100 “finalist” Sheena) is – she’s singing backups in an Elvis competition in Collingwood, but emotionally she’s here. Silly girl, you only get discovered at Deerhurst. Just ask Eileen “Shania” Twain. He asks Casey Leblanc what the biggest challenge for her. She says it’s saying goodbye to people leaving the competition.
David is singing “Only The Good Die Young”, in an upbeat jazz style, with Neil Young’s sideburns. It’s not good. The song that is. The mutton chops need a bit more work. At least he’s enthusiastic, but it’s a bit too Pen Guy (from AI 3) for me.
Sass – Enjoyed the performance, because it was within his limited range.
Zack – Likes the mutton chops, but doesn’t think the performance is what Canadian Idol was about.
Jake – Thinks he’s an interesting guy to watch, but the performance was rushed.
Farley – Thinks he’s making it easy for the singers yet to go.
Ben is impressed that there’s still a smile on David’s face.
Next is Casey Leblanc. She thinks that she’s different. Ah, the delusions of the young singer. She’s singing “Bring It On Home To Me” by Otis Redding. She gives a decent blues/R&B performance. Decent, if you discount the total lack of enthusiasm from Casey.
Zack – Thinks she could use a mulligan. She could do better another time.
Jake – Thought it was really good, and took a risk.
Farley – Thought the passion was missing. Had a decent “volcano moment” (glory note) at the end
Sass – Agrees with Zack, and says she sang it in too low a key.
Ben gets Casey to throw it over to a plug for L’Oreal, where Group 2 gets to buy hair and skin products.
Ad Break. Comedy Inc is such a waste of Roman Danylo’s talent.
Josh Palmer was worried about the whole Idol experience, but his friend Teresa Sokyrka (Canadian Idol 2 runnerup) gave him some advice to help him deal with it. Julie Tellier met Celine Dion when she was 14. It was the best experience of her life. That’s just sad.
Josh Palmer has got this psychotic look about him, as he sings a rock version of Stevie Wonder’s “Love Having You Around”. And, he’s got some freaky arm movements. Anyways, I now know what would happen if The Tea Party sang Stevie Wonder – it would suck.
Jake – He’s the real deal and thinks everyone should vote for him.
Farley – Josh beings an essence of self, and he feels it.
Sass – He has an innate sense of performance, and he’s like a real rock star.
Zack – He really liked the song, but thinks that because the song isn’t well known the voting may not reflect that.
Ben thought the performance was cool as well.
Julie sings “Dirty Man” by Joss Stone, and does a pretty good job. It’s kinda cute how the accent pokes through here and there. She got the soul part down.
Farley – She may be the diamond in the rough.
Sass – She loves the way she sings, but she can’t handle the fact that it was out of tune.
Zack – Is a little deaf, and thinks that Julie wasn’t in the moment. She doesn’t have the intensity.
Jake – Sings great, but didn’t give it her all.
Ben says that it scared him how Julie was looking right at the cameras.
The final two performers are on after the
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We’re back. Ben asks Vince Benenati how he chooses among his large family who gets his tickets. He’s singing “What A Wonderful World”, doing something of a rock crooner performance. Not too shabby, kinda Constantine-ish (without the making love to the camera bit), maybe too many runs though.
Sass – Thought he was shaky with the bottom notes, but enjoyed it otherwise.
Zack – Could be arbitrarily cruel since he thinks the show is sucking (I agree). Thought it was a choke.
Jake – Thinks it was too safe a choice, and agrees with Zack.
Farley – Agrees with Zack and Jake. He’s frustrated with the group as a whole.
Ben thinks it was great, and also thinks that it was not a great choice. Apparently, he’s gotten advice on being wishy-washy from dad.
Emily Vinette is the final singer, after the
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We’re back, and here’s Emily. The competition means the world to her, and she just loves to sing. She even throws in a “Give it 110%” cliché.
Emily sings “Don’t Cry Out Loud” by Melissa Manchester. She’s fairly consistently flat, and has some decent parts, but she’s more loud than good.
Zack – The notes in between the “Star Search Moments” (glory notes, again) were mediocre, but the Star Search moments were good, and it may have been enough to get her to the top 10.
Jake – One of the top 2-3 performances tonight (not saying much).
Farley – Thought Star Search Moments were good. Relieved at a good performance.
Sass – Best singer of the night.
Ben asks Emily for her autograph.
We get a recap of the singers, and we’re out.
