Ross is "The Boss"

To kickstart what I consider to be the first proper show of the season, Idol wheeled in Diana Ross to “mentor” the contestants. Let us put aside the fact that she was only there to promote her new material and her upcoming concert. Let us also ignore her recent crazy brushes with the law. And let us also choose to forget that she hasn’t had a song that even borders on a hit for as long as I can remember. This is Diana Ross y’all. THE Diana Ross. She is the epitome of the word “Legend”. To top it off, she looks not a day over 30 and STILL has that famous mop of hair exploding out of her head. Ms. Ross decided to take on a maternal role in the lives of the contestants. She managed to impart sage advice to some and trite one-liners to others. This mother clearly had her favourites :P

As far as weeks go, I’d say this was a tough one for most of the contestants. I’ve found that Diana Ross songs (much like those by Stevie Wonder) just sound plain wrong when sung by other people. Not just cause they are such classics, but also cause she has a unique sound to her voice.

As is becoming a sad sorry trend, the girls walked all over guys once more this week. Melinda and Lakisha performed liked seasoned veterans and OWNED the stage. Gina surprised me this week with a strong, almost rocking routine. Pretty Ugly Betty left me a lil cold, but I still love her. The only interesting thing about Stephanies performance was hearing Paulas surprisingly bitchy “that’s what arranging is for” comment at the end. I’m really loving Paula this season. She can go from a blubbering emotional wreck to a scathing judge in the blink of an eye. Whatever med level they have her on at the mo, its working wonders. And our poor poor Hayley was a mess.

The guys went from bland to worse. Phil was good, as usual, but still looked terribly uncomfortable on stage. Blake tried to “do his thang” but the result sounded decidedly 80s. Chris S. made a stab at sounding original too, but the song (a classic) came out almost unrecognisable. His barely hidden hissy fit after the judges comments has rooted him firmly in my “hate column”. Chris R, another guy who started off so well in the contest, decided to murder one of my favourite Ross songs with an incredibly nasal vocal. Brandon was completely forgettable, so much so that even the lyrics abandoned him. At this point, the less said about Sanjaya, the better.

The results weren’t too much of a surprise. I’d only disagree with Phil in the bottom three, and I would have preferred Sanjaya to go home this week. But I’m not going to loose any sleep over Brandons early departure.

I have to give Ross credit for her performance. She as old as time itself, but still managed to sing live, mostly in tune, prance around the stage and look amazing, all at the same time (which is more than most of the contestants could do!). Most of all, she looked like she was genuinely enjoying herself (again, something few of the contestants were able to achieve!) The song wasn’t anything special, but the chorus was simple enough and repeated enough times to allow others to sing along to it.

Next week is the British Invasion. The attack is being led by Lulu and I predict many casualties. I’m praying theres a distinct “Austin Powers” motif running through the show :D

Highlight of the show: Ryans Nana :D