AI's group round presents several huge obstacles at once: you have to make friends you can sing with right quick, you have to work with people of differing talent levels and differing musical backgrounds, and often you'll have to learn a song and choreography from scratch. For some, it's clearly the first time they've ever had to move while they sing. Here's a tip: if you're going to be on AI, take a year or two of dance classes first. It'll be good for your breath control, and you'll have some moves come group rounds.
Also, master the art of remaining calm in chaos. So few contestants seem able to do that, but anything can happen when you're in show biz and -- wait for it -- the show must go on! So it does, and here's what I thought of the groups, to the extent I was able to form split-second opinions.
Three Mo Days (aka David Oliver Willis, Tony Foster, and Sarina) have a nice arrangement going at first but it devolves into something of a mess at points. I don't think harmonizing is their strong point, and I think I'm going to be thinking that a lot during group rounds. That said, they end it on a very very nice chord. C+, bonus for the last smidge of harmony. David and Sarina go on to next round.
Then the judges give actual, concrete, helpful feedback to the one singer that didn't go through. Good for them!
Ben, Casey, and Dexter, the three I'm mad at for not letting Jess sing with them. Casey has a weird tone tonight. They are singing completely against type and it's coming across as parody. It's a shame really, because these three have loads of talent and put together some good harmonies, but it's a total goof. The judges eat it up anyway. C all around.
Neco, George somebody, and two others seem to have put a nice group together. Sounded good.
Paula Hunt rocks it, Andrina surprises with some power, and their group performs well.
MK delivers Royals with a gorgeous tone, I'd take her version over Briana, who gets a tinny tone in the back of her voice. They give far more airtime to Briana, sadly.
Some of them, they're just giving us results with no performances. Harrumph! HOw are we supposed to build up spite or other impressions.
Spencer sounds nice today, but the girls forget the words. Not cool, people. Not cool. And Spencer fails for not rehearsing with them until they know it cold. D- all around.
Tiquila leaves of her own volition. Good for her.
CJ Harris! Love. Caleb his hilarious. I don't care for his voice but he's certainly got a watchable quality. Tyler underwhelms me, Matthew gets a weird thing going on in the slide, Caleb goes off the pitch. and then CJ steps up and delivers. They needed to give him way more singing time. Overall it's a mess. B for CJ, B- for Caleb (I differ from Harry on this point, but give him extra points for sheer stage presence), Tyler and Matthew were quite meh and they don't go through.
The group Collision goes through. I don't recall seeing any of the members before, and doubt I will see much in the future. So.
More drama, missing singers!
Jena and her group start with really nice harmony, surprising given all the drama, and the missing sickie actually sounds not terrible. Singing with support--it's surprising how far it will get you. They all sounded good. I'd give them all a B/C, but they send Allie home. Of course she's only 15, so I'm not heartbroken.
I'm liking Savion more every time I see him, and he sounded great in the 2 seconds we got, so A- (inflated, I admit it). John Fox isn't as shouty this time, but they cut him.
Jess's new group tackles Single Ladies. They don't sound too bad. Jess loses points for forgetting lyrics. I'm sorry, drama and drama and whatnot, but there were barely any lyrics to learn. All but one go through. It's sad, though, when the most badly-behaved person is the mom. Wow, that was rather disgusting.
Emmanuel's group was so meh I can't even write about it. HCJ is right, pick a song with a melody. It's a simple concept. They keep him and send the girls home. I think they kept him based purely on his smile.
And the last group! Christina sounds constricted. Olivia sounds old school in a good way. Queen is gaspy and poor. Malaya still sings dead on. I'd give Olivia and Malaya B-, but they all go through.
On a side note, I'm not thrilled with how this show was produced. I'd prefer to get enough time to form an opinion of what someone sounds like and whether they can sound good for more than 2 seconds in a row. So eithe rshow me more, or show don't show me certain singers at all.
Recent Comments