"American Idol's" Rat Pack Night Brings Jamie Foxx to Mentor the Five Finalists

Tuesday, April 28, 2009, and the 5 remaining "American Idol" contestants pulled out all the stops for Rat Pack night.

Before describing the judges' reactions and the songs sung, who did the very worst this night? In my opinion, that dubious honor goes to Matt Giraud, although all did much better than in previous weeks of the competition. One reason for this, of course, is that we are down to the very best singers, perhaps. Another is that a night when the singers are able to sing songs like "My Funny Valentine" and "Someone to Watch Over Me" is going to produce better vocals than a night when singers who are Broadway babies are forced to sing "Achey Break-y Heart" type swill.

Celebrity mentor this night was Jamie Foxx, whose vocal efforts in the bio-pic "Ray," a biography of Ray Charles, were no less than terrific, earning him an Oscar as Best Actor and furthering his musical career, which has, to date, earned him 5 Grammy nominations and 8 Billboard Magazine nominations. His album, "Unpredictable" has been a success and the single "Blame It" spent 10 weeks at Number One on the charts. A much better choice than Quentin Tarantino, especially when what some of the contestants have been lacking, according to Simon Cowell, has been "swagger." If anyone understands swagger, it is Jamie Foxx, and his advice helped Danny Gokey, for one, deliver a much more assured performance than in weeks past.

First up was Kris Allen, who looked a bit uncomfortable before delivering a really lovely version of "The Way You Look Tonight." Kris was dressed in a suit, as befits a tribute to the Rat Pack of the sixties, and, before singing, Kris said, "We can only do what we want to do, and, hopefully, it works." It definitely worked for Kris on Tuesday night, with signs in the audience reading "Krazy for Kris" and Jamie Foxx, himself, saying, "If this thing don't work out, I would do a record with you right now." That kind of offer from an artist with Jamie Foxx's connections and clout can only help the young performer. Comments on Kris' performance were as follows: (Randy) "Who's in it to win it? I, personally, think it was your best performance to date. Mad, nice vocals, baby." (Kara): "Songs from this era give you an unique opportunity. Impeccable. You are truly a dark horse in this competition." Simon, on the other hand, compared Kris to "a well-trained Spaniel" and called his performance "a little bit wet." Said Simon: "I don't get the feeling from you tonight that you can win this competition," before adding of his saying, "It was nice."

Allison Irahita sang "Someone to Watch Over Me" in the second spot. Clad in a spaghetti strapped black-bodiced dress that was an improvement over previous outfits (although her shoes were still a horror), she had a smokey quality in her delivery and worked the microphone beautifully. Randy declared her performance, "Incredible" and said "Yo...lookin' dope. Like Pink, but with 9 more octaves. I loved it." Kara said "I ain't nervous" for Allison in this week's public voting, but Simon more-or-less rained on that parade, causing Kara to say to him, "You are crazy." The problem with Allison, as always, is the anemic public support for her obvious talent. It may be because she isn't a cute boy, and most voters are young teen-aged girls. It may be her Hispanic streak. It may just be that she 's young (there was talk of her celebrating her 17^th birthday during rehearsals this past week.) Whatever the reason, Allison has not caught on as a crowd favorite with voters, as Danny, Adam and Kris have. From recent votes, it would appear that Matt has not, either, except with the judges who famously 'saved" him one week. If Matt's vocals are compared to Allison's this week, Matt loses.

Matt Giraud followed Allison onstage performing "My Funny Valentine." He wore a gray suit and a hat. He was seated on a stool and, when he sang the word "mouth," it was not good. (As Randy said, "It was a little bit pitchy. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.") I agreed with Randy. Kara, too, said, "You gotta' be the leader of the pack. I didn't feel you were emotionally connected with the song." Matt did way too much Mariah Carey trilling, ended on a the word "Day" with a full voice and tried something which, for want of a better term, I'll call "swoopy," which didn't work, either. And he would have been better served had he stayed behind his trusty piano to croon. Only Paul and Simon liked his singing, with Paula saying, "I think you did an excellent job tonight" and Simon proclaiming, "For me, yours was the only believable authentic song tonight." Simon added, "I thought you were absolutely brilliant." All I can say to Simon is, "That makes one of all of us." Paula always is supportive of everyone, so her "good job" loses impact, but Simon was wrong this night and Kara and Randy were right on the money. However, despite Matt's inferior performance (when compared to the other contestants), Matt has more crowd support than Allison, so it will be interesting to see which of these two exits, stage left, on Wednesday.

Danny Gokey, wearing a new Van Dyke-type beard with gokey black glasses (a new adjective I'm creating right here and now) otherwise looked great in a black suit and sang "(I'm Gonna' Love You) Come Rain or Come Shine". He finished strong with a raspy showman air that he has not demonstrated in prior performances. Kara proclaimed, "That's the most creative you've ever been with a melody" and Paula declared, "Stellar! Way to go!" Simon commented, quite insightfully (unlike his Matt commentd), that Jamie Foxx was the perfect mentor to instill some swagger into the laid-back Danny, and he was right. Danny sometimes projects too much of the church choral director from Milwaukee, when he needs to project the major star, major performing artist he is seeking to become. Adam started off in the competition with a presence that is of Star Caliber, (which happens when you've been working on Broadway for 5 years). Danny needed to grow confident enough to project a stage presence (and, also, to develop some onstage moves) and Jamie Foxx projects "cool" much more successfully than Quentin Tarantino any day of the week. One amusing moment came when the rehearsals were shown, with Jamie Foxx getting right in Danny's face while wearing a Comedy Central look.

The final performer of the night, clad in a white suit, black shirt and a white tie, was Adam Lambert, who descended the staircase singing "And I'm Feelin' Good." During the rehearsals, Jamie Foxx said to him, "Yo, my man. You don't care about who I am at all." I couldn't tell if this failure to be intimidated by him bothered Jamie Foxx or if it was supposed to be a compliment to Adam. The comments that the judges made echoed my own feelings, which were astonishment at what Adam had chosen to do this week (and every week). I feel that way every week, but his theatrical Broadway entrance, in a white suit, lit from behind like "Teen Angel" from "Grease" was stunning. Kara tried to sum up her reactions in words: "Every time I see you, my moth drops open. Confusing. Shocking. Sleazy, but in a good way. Way over the top." (But tell us, Kara...did you like Adam's singing?) PaulaAbdul compared Adam to Michael Phelps of Olympic fame (and I don't think she meant the bong episode.) Simon declared Adam's staircase to heaven stroll to be "the best entrance we've had this year."

I'm looking for Adam to have the best exit this year on the final night of competition, but one never knows in the more conservative parts of this great land, how "American Idol" voters view this over-the-top probably bisexual dynamo. He's great. He's a talent beyond compare this season (or any season.) He's ready right now to be a major star. After 8 years of compassionate conservativism (culminating with today's defection of longtime Republican Senator Arlen Specter from his party) and televised Fox rants by O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, "W" and Dick Cheney, (the Darth Vader of the least transparent, most conservative, most repressive administration in history), I'm hoping that the voters who showed the Republicans the door on November 4th and were open-minded enough to elect our first African-American president are now open-minded enough to elect Adam Lambert the first openly gay/bisexual American Idol in history. But I'm an Iowan, where residents are open-minded enough to legalize gay marriage.

I've been wrong before.