So with American Idol entering the final stage of competition, it’s time to take a look at the competitors and assess where they stand relative to the others. (Viewed another way, it’s something that will allow me to maintain a weekly Idol column should I happen to miss an episode)
These rankings, do not reflect my opinion of who should win. Rather, they are a combination of striking, grappling and effective Octagon control performance, popularity and how they’re perceived by Simon and Randy.
So let’s get started:
1) David Archuleta – David would seem to be the “Chosen One”, so it will probably take some combination of a piss poor performance, people get tired of his “aw shucks” personna, or someone else blowing us away to unseat him from here. As an aside, if David wins, I’ll stop watching Idol, because this would be exactly the same sort of bullshit that saw Taylor Hicks and Bubba Sparxxxxxxxxx win the competition. America cannot by definition get it wrong (although the counters can certainly screw up) but they can definitely make some poor choices – see Phan, Dat.
2) David Cook – Speaking realistically, David is probably not going to win this competition. However he has been, without question, the best performer in the semifinals, and if he develops something resembling a personality, then he’s going to go to the Final Two, where he’ll be undone by the usual BS pop ballad.
3) Carly Smithson – Simon very clearly wants her to go very far in the competition. You can generally tell Simon’s favourites by the way he structures his criticism, and everything he’s said to Carly has been done to encourage her to break out of her self-imposed shell. And she needs to break out soon, because it’s a very short drop from contender to also-ran.
4) Brooke White – Brooke is the dark horse in this competition, and unfortunately the dark horse usually doesn’t win the viewer vote, unless you’re picked on by everyone else. In order to win this, Brooke has to show that she’s got a different side to her apart from her folksy style. Unfortunately she doesn’t really seem like the type of person that can assume a role, so I question her ability to actually win this. Still, she’s been consistently good and thus she has to be considered a top contender.
5) Michael Johns – Like Carly, Michael has shown a lot of potential but really hasn’t delivered. He killed with the best rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody this side of Suzie McNeill, but his semifinal performances have only shown flashes of what he can do. Michael is a contender, but again like Carly he needs to step it up to stay alive.
I would put a line right here as I believe that any of my Top 5 have a shot at winning, while 6 and below have to improve significantly to get to that point.
6) Syesha Mercado – Syesha is about as under the radar in a viewer vote competition as you can get. She has been memorable at times but for the most part she has been middle of the road. We’ve seen that she’s got a good voice but can she utilize it to the point where she’s around for 11-12 weeks? Her first real test will probably come 2-3 weeks from now.
7) Jason Castro – Castro is the guy that pretty much came out of nowhere to make the Top 12. However I don’t know how long he can keep this up. His “this one time, in Band Camp” way of speaking has really started to annoy me, and it really seems that he’s just happy to be here. And that simply isn’t enough to keep you in this competition, especially when you’ve got someone like Brooke who can do much the same stuff but better.
8) Kristy Lee Cook – Kristy seems to have survived largely because she’s hot. Katherine McPhee made it all the way to the Final Two in part because she was hot, but Kristy doesn’t have the singing chops to make it that far. She’ll get as far as the Idols Tour, at which point she’ll be signed by EliteXC and get put into a MMA fight where she’ll be beat up by Julie Kedzie on CBS. And then maybe she’ll get her horse out of whatever pawn shop she sold it to.
9) Ramiele Mulabay – It pains me to place Ramiele so low because vocally she’s about 3 spots higher, but there’s a lot of things working against her. For one, she’s Asian, and unless you have the power of Hawaii behind you, you’re not going very far because America will not vote for you. Second, there’s the little issue of the “risque” Facebook pictures where she’s grabbing a friend’s breast. You’d think that might not matter, but you’d be surprised.
10) Amanda Overmeyer – And now, our VFTW-endorsed singer. Amanda actually had a pretty good week in the Top 16, but she had to return to her roots to do so. This sort of limitation will trip her up once they get to something like Diane Warren songs, and then she’ll be gone. But hey, at least we now know that she can smile.
11) David Hernandez – Won’t make the tour, but at least he can go back to stripping. I’m sure it’s more lucrative anyway.
12) Chikeze Eze – When compiling this ranking, I had to ask myself “Self, do you really see Chikeze as doing better than any of the other eleven?” And I had to honestly say that, no, I didn’t. He may survive long enough to get to the tour, but he simply isn’t an interesting enough person to carry his somewhat average singing ability.
