American Idol: The Very Worst of the Worst Performances

For a show whose ratings rank as high for its "outtakes" (read auditions), American Idol is no stranger to horrible performances. As they say, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. If that's true, there should be many more princes in the world, courtesy of American Idol.

For the sake of this discussion, and for brevity's sake, we'll discuss only the horrendous performances that were part of the main season. It would be much too easy to dip into the audition vault.

Also, we have to break the concept of "worst performance" into a few cateogories: worst singing as well as worst stage presence.

Singing

The worst singing on American Idol often came out of the mouths of some of the best singers. Then again, some of the worst singing came out of the mouths of the worst singers (performers, etc.). All in all, sometimes the singing performances leave the audience shaking its collective head time and time again wondering how the person they're watching made it through to the next level.

In this category there is one name that dominates, AS IT SHOULD. Sanjaya. His real name Sanjaya Malakar, was rarely used as Idol fans came to know him only as Sanjaya. Sort of like Madonna, only without any shred of the talent.

If you put together a top ten of horrible performances (of any ilk), Sanjaya would hold at least 5 of those spots. And here's the thing, he's a likeable guy. His hair was talented. Remember the mopped, faux hawk thing he had going during "Your Really Got Me"? Well, it really got that teenage girl in the audience.

The site Vote for the Worst claimed to be responsible for much of Sanjaya's popularity. The site encourages viewers to skew the voting, in essence voting for the person who least deserves to be there. It's some sort of demented, reverse solidarity thing. Simon Cowell publicly said that if Sanjaya ended up winning Idol, he'd leave the show.

Other bad singing moments came from other likeable characters. Kevin Covais, a/k/a Chicken Little comes to mind. The Season five contestant took what the judges threw at him and kept running.

During the week of Stevie Wonder songs, you might have expected Covais to come up with something from the "Little Stevie Wonder" days. That would have been fitting. Instead, he opted for Part-Time Lover. All other things being equal, he couldn't have made a worse choice.

Chicken Little, a mere 16 at the time of his Idol performance, chose Part-Time Lover, a racy song about having an affair. Besides the lyrics being so very wrong for such an innocent, fair-haired lad, there was the vocal logistics problem. He lisped the song. Who would believe the scrawny Covais was meeting his part-time lover anywhere. Who would have believed he'd be meeting any lover anywhere? And once the voice kicked in...no. Never going to happen. It was just creepy, even if you could get past the singing problems, the up/low voice, all at the wrong places, squeaking at even worse moments.

Another singing whipping boy who shows up often in the worst American Idol singing performances is another young lad: John Stevens of Season three. The poor, red haired boy has taken many lumps as a result of his Idol performances. As with Covais, it wasn't necessarily that his singing was horrible, but the singing didn't fit the song or format at all.

Many regard Stevens performances as the worst in Idol history. When he took on a Latin tune, ''Music of My Heart'', Paula and Randy gave him encouragement. Simon Cowell said what the rest of the American viewing public would have said if they had the acerbic wit of the judge. He told Stevens, ''You and Latin music go together like chocolate ice cream and an onion.''

Kelli Pickler. Yes, yes. She became America's sweetheart during that season as much for her bumpkin-like behavior (not necessarily believable) and her problematic family. Still, outside one particular genre, she struggled. At one point she admitted that she had murdered the song. Her cuteness, not her musical prowess, pulled her through that Idol season.

Stage Presence. The It Factor

Josh Gracin certainly charmed audiences. He tried to put a country spin on the Bee Gees hit Jive Talkin' during Season two. It wasn't so much his vocals that would make a person cringe. You couldn't concentrate on his voice because his gyrating body and hand gestures totally distracted from any performance. If ever there was a case of over emoting, this was it. One critic described the performance as spastic. By anyone's reading, that "it" factor, that star quality, doesn't include awkward, spastic behavior.

Nikki McKibbin, most recently of Dr. Drew's Rehab show, remains famous (or infamous) for her awful performance: ''Always Something There to Remind Me'' during Season one. Her vocal tones were shrieking at times, but it was her running about the stage, throwing out every verse in a breathless, labored fashion that did her in.

Bottom line, yes, the finalists far outreach anyone who tried out and lost. And, those who made it, have to be "on" every single week. The best singers, those who have gone on to have solo careers, have had that one, bad American Idol performance that will live on in infamy.