Crazy Days

Marc is home today, so he's running a bunch of little errands (mostly picking up fish and pet foods) while I'm at work. My schedule today is going to be lab-nails-lab. I've got an appointment at noon to get my nails done, heh. Then it's off to the wedding rehearsal after work, and then dinner. Then I'm gonna go back home, get all the stuff I need for the wedding and do other things I need to do, and then Marc will drop me off at the hotel where I and the other bridesmaids will be spending the night.

Then Saturday will be the wedding, and after that I'm sure I'll be up all night packing for our 9 am flight on Sunday. I always feel bad about leaving Bandit behind when we go on vacation. Is that sad?

Anyways, since I'm pressed for time here, I'm just going to dive into my "AI Rewind." Sadly, it doesn't look like I'll be finishing the season before we go on vacation. I may try to get the summary of the final three in during the weekend or while we're on our trip, since that had one of my favorite performances EVAR.

Rewind to 4 - Nikki's Still Around

So the final four was down to Kelly, Justin, Nikki, and Tamyra. The theme for this week was songs for the 80's and 90's. (They were very creative with their themes that year, hah. Although, 10 weeks of 80's songs is better anyday than 1 week of disco.)

I should mention that if anyone is ever bored and has too much time on their hands, that the TWOP recaps are the funniest, snarkiest things ever. The recapper made note of how some kids are holding up letters that spell "ELLY" in the audience.

The final four had to sing two songs that night, and you could tell that fatigue was really taking its toll on their voices, particularly Tamyra's and Kelly's. Justin a little bit too. I didn't really notice it with Nikki, but who can tell anyways?

Tamyra went first, with "New Attitude." The contestants all went for a photo shoot with YM this week, although her little bit isn't show in this clip (nor are the judges' comments):

This definitely wasn't Tamyra at her best. Poor song choice, I think, and you can tell her voice is hoarse, although it's hard to blame her for that. Apparently, both she and Kelly got very sick vocally this week. Hoarse or not though, I think it wasn't a great vocal. The judges say pretty much the same thing.

Nikki chose to sing "Mary Jane":

This was a good song choice for Nikki, but unfortunately, SHE CAN'T SING. I could never understand how Nikki always managed to be just slightly off-key/pitch with every song she sang. The funny thing is, it wasn't like she was just pitchy in spots, it was always the entire freaking song. The judges actually liked it, and I don't get that at all. I did read somewhere that people said Nikki sounded much better live than on TV, but who knows.

Kelly went next with "It's Raining Men":

The YouTube clip actually included the little YM snippet beforehand, and the TWOP recapper noted the same thing I did - that the YM lady described Kelly as having "girl-next-door tendencies" in the same tone of voice that you'd use to note that someone has like, herpes. Anyways, like Tamyra, you can tell her voice is hoarse here, and it's vocally not up to par, almost flat in some spots. I think she does better than Tamyra, but the song choice kind of sucks.

Justin finishes up round 1 with "Get Here":

Justin sang this originally in one of his earlier auditions, and did a great job, so this wasn't much different. Still smarmy though.

Tamyra's second song was "Feel the Fire":

This was much better than the first performance - you don't notice the hoarseness as much, and it was a better platform vocally. The judges loved it.

Nikki sang "I'm the Only One" for her second song:

This song suited her voice and style, but she was still flat all over the place. I'm still boggled to this day how she made it this far. Maybe a lot of viewers just didn't notice it? Like if it sounds close enough, people can't tell? Mind. Boggling. The judges actually give her praise though, which might be attributed to that "she sounds better live" phenomenon.

Kelly's next song was "I Surrender":

She sounded hoarse here too, and you can tell she was struggling with holding some of those notes, but I think she still belted the heck out of it.

Justin closed with his second song, "P.Y.T.":

I didn't really like this - I don't think Michael Jackson songs are great showcases for vocals, unless you're going to sing just like him. Justin's vocals just sounded thin on this song. And then there was the dancing. This, I think, is where you went, "Whoa, Sideshow Bob." The judges didn't think it was great.

The results show had the four of them doing a Paula Abdul medley, which was pretty funny:

I think this is what made the first season so great - it wasn't all overproduced like it is now. Loved that Paula refused to sing. Loved Kelly and Tamyra doing that dance move - Cabbage Patch? Kid 'n Play? I dunno, I was really too much of a nerd back when that was cool.

On to the results. Nikki, to NO ONE'S suprise, is in the bottom two again. I'm surprised she didn't just start heading there from the get-go every week. The other person in the bottom two turned out to be Tamyra. Tamyra!

And Tamyra got the boot. Not Nikki. The audience was shocked, and booed loudly. Nikki probably looked the most shocked of all, and I remember at this point actually feeling bad for her, because she knew she should've gone, and I think it was actually a bit embarrassing for her to still be there.

Tamyra ended up doing a spot on "Boston Public" and recorded an album, but it wasn't a commercial success. I think she's currently recording a second album, but I'm not sure. It's surprising that she hasn't done better, given her talent, but I guess that goes to show how crucial management is when it comes to a musical career, and that even talent like that requires a lot of luck to make it.

Next up, the final three!