Latin Letdown

I gotta be honest. . . last night’s show was NOT my favorite. I was really in the Simon camp --- I think it must have been the genre. So much of what we hear at karaoke night are the same songs we heard on the show last night, perhaps that’s why they all sounded like karaoke to me???

There just didn’t seem to be any energy. Even Jordin, who made the best attempt at livening things up didn’t quite manage to.

They all sounded good, with the exception of Phil’s cracking voice. What’s up with that? I’d expect that from Sanjaya, who is BARELY out of puberty but Phil’s an old man compared. . . maybe trimming his eyebrows has affected his voice, sort of a “Samson” effect??

Melinda sang “Sway” --- her vocals were decent, but she sounded like a really, really talented lounge singer, the kind where you say “She could cut an album!”, but still only a lounge singer.

LaKisha was next with “Conga”. Totally ignored/forgot JLo’s pronunciation lesson. And, I’ve been LaKisha’s biggest fan from the get-go but something was up with her last night. She seemed to have an attitude or something. . . I’m not sure what. Maybe a little case of “diva-itis”??

Chris sang the Rob Thomas/Santana hit “Smooth” --- one of my favorite songs and he did a really good job. Seemed to have lost some of his nasal singing quality --- we’ll see if it’s permanent or not.

Haley attempted “Turn the Beat Around” once again totally ignoring the mentor’s advice, but she did make a wise wardrobe choice. Simon was right-on when he said she’d get through based on her clothing choices. That girl looks for the skimpiest outfit available each week and prays that people concentrate more on catching a “flash” than on her voice.

I had high hopes for Phil, since he seemed to nail his song during the JLo practice, but his performance fell WAY flat in addition to that unfortunate voice crack toward the end. Nice guy, but I think he might be going home.

Jordin really tried to rev up the audience with “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You”, but they were excited to be there --- her singing didn’t get them any more jazzed than their initial reaction at being there.

“Need to Know” was Blake’s choice --- I think he knows he’s JLo’s fave. Plus I heard this morning JLo and her hubby are splitting. . . coincidence??? Well, I’ve never been a Marc Anthony fan so it wasn’t too hard for Blake to outsing him here, in my opinion. But still, I wasn’t wowed.

Then came the surprise of the evening, the kid you want to hate. . . but can’t. Sanjaya sang “Besame Mucho” entirely in Spanish and did NOT sound like a non-Hispanic singing in Spanish. (Very funny, Simon, "I didn't understand a word." -- British humor!!) Even his voice was better than it has been. When people voted for him last night, it just might have been because he didn’t suck as bad a usual.

This might just be my “mid-season” slump --- I’m hoping so. But last night’s show got me in the frame of mind that I pretty much don’t even care who goes home tonight, because I don’t think any of them stretched at all last night.

I feel like they were all coasting on what they’ve managed to do up until this point, so I felt a little cheated. Are any of them hungry enough to break away from the pack and sprint into first place???

We shall see. . .