''American Idol'': A Hard Night's Daze
Chalk up another ''wow'' moment for David Archuleta.
Unfortunately for the human equivalent of a fresh-hatched baby chick, his performance tonight of the Stevie Wonder version of the Beatles' ''We Can Work It Out'' provided a very different kind of ''wow'' than what most American Idol fans were expecting. After all, the last time Little David got anywhere near a John Lennon-penned number, back in week 2 of the semifinals, to be precise, he delivered a rendition of ''Imagine'' so pure and heartfelt that Paula threatened to squeeze off his head and attach it to her rearview mirror, and a lot of Idol prognosticators and fans wondered if the winner of season 7 was, for all intents and purposes, a foregone conclusion.
So imagine the shock tonight as Little David took the stage for Lennon-McCartney night in the end-of-show pimp spot and promptly missed the song's opening note. (Strike one!) And then botched the second line of the first verse. (Strike two!) And then, a few seconds later, blanked on a few more words. (Strike three!) But wait, we've got one more fumbled line. (Uh, strike four?) And a wrecked attempt at falsetto! As Simon so succinctly put it, the performance was ''a mess.''
The whole experience was, to me, kind of like watching Kristi Yamaguchi fall on a simple spin, then struggle to get up. Or seeing Secretariat get a case of the staggers at the top of the Belmont Park stretch. Or witnessing Martha Stewart forgetting the correct placement of a dessert fork while setting her Thanksgiving table.
Okay, so the comparisons are a little unfair. Martha Stewart has had her entire adult life to master the art of magnificent homemaking (and make the rest of the planet feel slightly inferior by comparison). David Archuleta is a 17-year-old boy from Murray, Utah, who tonight, for the first time in his life, performed on Idol's big (and revamped) stage. That'd be a tall order for any singer, let alone one who's carrying the added burden of great expectations and heavyweight hype on his back.
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Unfortunately for the human equivalent of a fresh-hatched baby chick, his performance tonight of the Stevie Wonder version of the Beatles' ''We Can Work It Out'' provided a very different kind of ''wow'' than what most American Idol fans were expecting. After all, the last time Little David got anywhere near a John Lennon-penned number, back in week 2 of the semifinals, to be precise, he delivered a rendition of ''Imagine'' so pure and heartfelt that Paula threatened to squeeze off his head and attach it to her rearview mirror, and a lot of Idol prognosticators and fans wondered if the winner of season 7 was, for all intents and purposes, a foregone conclusion.
So imagine the shock tonight as Little David took the stage for Lennon-McCartney night in the end-of-show pimp spot and promptly missed the song's opening note. (Strike one!) And then botched the second line of the first verse. (Strike two!) And then, a few seconds later, blanked on a few more words. (Strike three!) But wait, we've got one more fumbled line. (Uh, strike four?) And a wrecked attempt at falsetto! As Simon so succinctly put it, the performance was ''a mess.''
The whole experience was, to me, kind of like watching Kristi Yamaguchi fall on a simple spin, then struggle to get up. Or seeing Secretariat get a case of the staggers at the top of the Belmont Park stretch. Or witnessing Martha Stewart forgetting the correct placement of a dessert fork while setting her Thanksgiving table.
Okay, so the comparisons are a little unfair. Martha Stewart has had her entire adult life to master the art of magnificent homemaking (and make the rest of the planet feel slightly inferior by comparison). David Archuleta is a 17-year-old boy from Murray, Utah, who tonight, for the first time in his life, performed on Idol's big (and revamped) stage. That'd be a tall order for any singer, let alone one who's carrying the added burden of great expectations and heavyweight hype on his back.
continue...
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