Alicia Keys Mentoring Couldn't Save Some American Idol Contestants in Inspirational Songs Week

Princess of Soul, Alicia Keys, mentored the 7 remaining American Idol contestants for Songs of Inspiration in Idol Gives Back Week. Alicia said being part of Idol Gives Back "really relates to how I am and who I am as a person."

Casey James won the short straw for the "Curse of Going First." Casey picked "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac. Alicia advised him to give it a lot of personality so the audience would be loving him, not the song. It was a good performance and a good choice to open the show, in my opinion. But then I'm not a judge looking for Casey to outdo his performance of "Jealous Guy" from Lennon/McCartney Songbook. He got the same reaction he got to "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" last week. Casey told Ryan he was not surprised at the judges' reactions. Neither was I. Simon also said it was not inspiring. I would have said "Then duh - what the hell was it doing on the song list?"

Maybe I'm looking for it now that Lloyd Price pointed it out to me, but this time I did notice that Casey does favor that Joe Cocker style.

Lee Dewyze performed "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel. Alicia advised him not to forget what the song was about and convey it to audience. Raves from all the judges. Ellen actually said that was the best performance so far. Simon picked up on the idiocy of that remark and added the difference between Lee and Casey was the depth of emotion, Lee was sincere and it was inspirational.

It's like what planet are they on? It's ridiculous to compare "Don't Stop" with "The Boxer." Simon clearly doesn't understand that one can be inspired in different ways.

Tim Urban sang "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls. Alicia Keys thought he was going to do really well but she was sadly mistaken. He was panned unanimously and it was pitifully obvious that he needs a plane ticket home.

Aaron Kelly chose R. Kelly's "I Believe I can Fly." I would have stayed away from it even if I could sing like Aaron and Alicia Keys seemed a little skeptical at first, but she said if he can connect with it, he will take it to a whole other place. It was nice to see someone show up without a guitar at this point. Aaron owned it and almost got unanimous praise from the judges. Simon said if it was on the radio, he'd turn it off in 10 seconds.

Siobhan Magnus impressed Alicia Keys with her vocals on "When You Believe" during rehearsal and Siobhan sang it quite beautifully. At this point, I thought it would be fair to say this was the best performance so far but no one did. Instead they chopped her up like they always do.

Michael Lynche chose Chad Kroeger's Hero and played the guitar. He gave a fine performance, but once again, Kara and Simon did not agree. Again Simon Cowell showed his ignorance by saying the song was not inspirational, but was about Spiderman, although he also said he thought Mike would still be around next week. Of course, because he thinks Tim is toast.

Crystal Bowersox did a bang-up job with a Curtis Mayfield song, People Get Ready (made famous by his group The Impressions). For some reason, she ended up crying at the end of the song, but Curtis would have loved her rendition. The judges all loved it, too. "It was in a completely different class to everything else we heard tonight," said Simon, stating the obvious (again).

So our total losers this week according to Randy, Ellen, Kara and Simon are: Casey James, Tim Urban and Siobhan Magnus. We'll have to tune in to tomorrow's 2 hour Idol Gives Back extravaganza to find out if the voters agree.

Update (4/21/2010): Only Siobhan escaped the bottom 3. Casey and Tim were present and accounted for and joined by Aaron Kelly. Aaron was sent to safety first and, just like John Gotti, the Teflon finally wore off for Tim Urban. Wow, hard to believe Casey came in second lowest, but from the number of blogs I read that echoed the judges in calling Casey's song choice "lazy," it seems that the judges are having some effect on the outcome. Anyway, toodles, Tim. it was nice to get one right this week. Shania Twain will be mentoring next week. Sounds like Country Week, right? Wrong, the theme will be Shania Twain songs.

Source: American Idol 9 on Fox 4/20/10
More American Idol 9 Coverage:
Lloyd Price Gives Casey James Props
Elvis Week 4/13/10
Lennon/McCartney Songbook 4/6/10
Soul and R&B Week 3/30/10
Billboard No. 1 Hits 3/23/10
Stones Week on Idol 9 3/16/10