She may have impressed the judges during her duet with Adam Lambert on Tuesday’s “American Idol,” but that sizzling performance of “Slow Ride” wasn’t enough to save Allison Iraheta.
The rock-loving 17-year-old was eliminated from the Fox singing competition on Wednesday, and the eighth season of “Idol” will have an all-guy final. The three competitors left are Danny Gokey, Kris Allen and Lambert.
“Idol” has been notably scandal-free this season, but leave it to Paula Abdul to drum up some headlines just before her first performance on the show, which took place on Wednesday.
After years of denying that she has ever had a problem with prescription drugs, she told Ladies Home Journal that – wait for it – she had a problem with prescription drugs and went to rehab last year to kick it.
"I could have killed myself," Abdul told the magazine. "Withdrawal – it's the worst thing. I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain. It was excruciating."
What are the odds of such a revelation coming around the time she put out a new single – the vapid single that she performed on “Idol”? Sigh.
As St. Petersburg Times critic Eric Deggans put it in a Wednesday piece, “there is no celebrity cannier than a threatened one, and with her ‘Idol’ contract ending this year, a fourth judge ready to fill the void and a new album dropping, Abdul recognizes the value in coming clean now -- both to make it harder for ‘Idol’ to fire her and to stoke interest in her new work.”
Speaking of scandals, there was a mini-brouhaha a couple of months ago when the “Idol” producers finally admitted that the contestants lip sync during those cheeseball group production numbers. Is anyone even going to try to make the case that Abdul sang live during Wednesday’s show? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
It sure sounded like a heavily processed vocal track played as Abdul cavorted around the stage with a troupe of male dancers and “sang.”
Who knows why, but No Doubt also performed during Wednesday’s show. Perhaps the performance of a 14-year-old “No Doubt” hit, “Just a Girl,” was meant to get “Gossip Girl” fans primed for the band’s appearance (as Snowed Out) in Monday’s episode of the CW show, which is set in the 1980s. Also performing his particular brand of dude-rock was “Idol” veteran Chris Daughtry.
But there’s no doubt, really, about what were the best performances of the week: Lambert’s credible and entertaining cover of “Whole Lotta Love” and Lambert and Iraheta’s energetic duet on “Slow Ride."
It’s clear that the competition is Lambert’s to lose. I still think he flirts with the audience more than he needs to, but there’s no denying his stage presence, charisma and vocal talent.
In my opinion, the identity of the “Idol” winner is a foregone conclusion: It has to be Lambert. The only suspense at this point concerns how many minutes “Idol” will overrun its time slot during the May 20 finale.
In that direction, however, things may be looking up: Wednesday’s “Idol,” mercifully, ended on time.
SOURCE: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/05/american-idol-adam-lambert-allison-iraheta.html
The rock-loving 17-year-old was eliminated from the Fox singing competition on Wednesday, and the eighth season of “Idol” will have an all-guy final. The three competitors left are Danny Gokey, Kris Allen and Lambert.
“Idol” has been notably scandal-free this season, but leave it to Paula Abdul to drum up some headlines just before her first performance on the show, which took place on Wednesday.
After years of denying that she has ever had a problem with prescription drugs, she told Ladies Home Journal that – wait for it – she had a problem with prescription drugs and went to rehab last year to kick it.
"I could have killed myself," Abdul told the magazine. "Withdrawal – it's the worst thing. I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain. It was excruciating."
What are the odds of such a revelation coming around the time she put out a new single – the vapid single that she performed on “Idol”? Sigh.
As St. Petersburg Times critic Eric Deggans put it in a Wednesday piece, “there is no celebrity cannier than a threatened one, and with her ‘Idol’ contract ending this year, a fourth judge ready to fill the void and a new album dropping, Abdul recognizes the value in coming clean now -- both to make it harder for ‘Idol’ to fire her and to stoke interest in her new work.”
Speaking of scandals, there was a mini-brouhaha a couple of months ago when the “Idol” producers finally admitted that the contestants lip sync during those cheeseball group production numbers. Is anyone even going to try to make the case that Abdul sang live during Wednesday’s show? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
It sure sounded like a heavily processed vocal track played as Abdul cavorted around the stage with a troupe of male dancers and “sang.”
Who knows why, but No Doubt also performed during Wednesday’s show. Perhaps the performance of a 14-year-old “No Doubt” hit, “Just a Girl,” was meant to get “Gossip Girl” fans primed for the band’s appearance (as Snowed Out) in Monday’s episode of the CW show, which is set in the 1980s. Also performing his particular brand of dude-rock was “Idol” veteran Chris Daughtry.
But there’s no doubt, really, about what were the best performances of the week: Lambert’s credible and entertaining cover of “Whole Lotta Love” and Lambert and Iraheta’s energetic duet on “Slow Ride."
It’s clear that the competition is Lambert’s to lose. I still think he flirts with the audience more than he needs to, but there’s no denying his stage presence, charisma and vocal talent.
In my opinion, the identity of the “Idol” winner is a foregone conclusion: It has to be Lambert. The only suspense at this point concerns how many minutes “Idol” will overrun its time slot during the May 20 finale.
In that direction, however, things may be looking up: Wednesday’s “Idol,” mercifully, ended on time.
SOURCE: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/05/american-idol-adam-lambert-allison-iraheta.html
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