The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame night on American Idol didn’t go too well for any of the remaining contestants. Well, except for David Archuleta, maybe, who was cheered for his soppy performances as always.
Although Jason Castro’s charm and spontaneity convinced fans to vote him so far, he will almost certainly be eliminated this time. Everything went wrong for him on Tuesday night.
He was thrilled to pick Bob Marley’s song “I Shot the Sheriff,” but he successfully ruined it, while smiling and working his natural charm on the audience.
“It’s a song by Bob Marley — go figure,” said the dreadlocked cutie, thinking that being a fan of Marley was enough to also make him a good interpreter of the Jamaican singer’s songs.
“Jason, stand back,” Simon prepared a smiling Jason. “That was utterly atrocious. That is a song you do not touch. The arrangement was atrocious, the performing and the singing was as bad as I ever heard. That was like a first round audition massacre. I don’t know what you were thinking.”
That pretty much covers everything. No need for additional comments.
Still, it’s nice to see that Jason never takes Simon’s comments seriously, and always makes funny faces.
He could have saved himself with a nice performance of the second song, Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” but instead, he performed a non-impressive version of the beautiful tune. Not to mention he forgot quite a few lines…
“Jason’s not in the zone tonight. I don’t know what’s going on,” Randy Jackson said, while Simon recommended Jason to pack his suitcase.
Paula was the only indulgent judge, who congratulated Jason on his connection with the audience, calling him “real” and “genuine,” and saying he had blown her away.
Jason was followed by David Archuleta, who turned Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” into a very boring tune and he was praised for that by all judges, who just can’t seem to get enough of his corniness.
“The truth is that you could have whistled that song and it would have sounded better than the last song (Castro’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’). You were very well-placed,” Simon said, in a very elegant attempt to crush Jason even more and point to little David’s overwhelming talent.
After David A.’s second song, “Stand By Me,” Simon concluded: “You didn’t beat the competition tonight — you crushed the competition.” The Randy-Paula duo agreed, as usual. No one can ever say anything bad about little David A. It’s like he wears an armor on every Idol show.
Syesha Mercado impressed more through attitude than singing. Her performances were not bad, but not spectacular either. During her rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” it was obvious she felt like a star and she did her best to be herself, but she was accused of trying to impersonate both Beyonce and Tina Turner.
Her second song, “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, finally connected her to the audience. Apparently, Syesha changed a lot in the past weeks. Her voice was powerful and she managed to send some emotion through, which is unusual for her. The tears at the end, after Randy’s comment, certainly gained her some extra votes as well.
Paula stood up and applauded her and, surprisingly, Simon considered that perfectly appropriate.
David Cook didn’t make such a good choice for the first song, performing Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf,” which not quite suited his vocal range. But he surely did a good job with the second song, The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.” Or at least that’s what the screaming audience thought, together with Paula, who always acts like a 16-year-old when it comes to David C.
“I just want more. I want more,” Paula Abdul enthusiastically said. “I want more. I want more Dave Cook.”
The lights probably prevented us from seeing David C. blushing.
So, that's it. The show is probably going to continue without the only genuine, funny and spontaneous contestant: the teenage girls’ dreadlocked favorite, Jason Castro.