Big Stage week separates the wheat from the weak, on American Idol

[This is a post about Amer­i­can Idol, sea­son 7. You been warned, big guy. Ed.]

One of the memes of this sea­son of Amer­i­can Idol has been how good all the con­tes­tants are. Sure, the judges are spout­ing “producer-speak” about how this is the best year ever, but I think it’s prob­a­bly true. Lots of very tal­ented singers are left in this com­pe­ti­tion. And more, with the rule change to allow the con­tes­tants to use instru­ments while singing, I’ve got­ten a sense of some of these peo­ple as musi­cians, not just mouth­pieces. And that’s been nice.

But this week, the first involv­ing the final twelve con­tes­tants (an impor­tant dis­tinc­tion, because these twelve are the ones inden­tured into the Amer­i­can Idol Road­show, or what­ever the tour is called), this is the first week on the new set, a large stage with a big crowd, lots of lights, and lots, and lots of nerves.

And the Stage clearly sep­a­rated the stars from the wannabes. The con­tes­tants who were sea­soned per­form­ers, nat­u­rals, or quick learn­ers flour­ished on the stage. They fed off the audi­ence, they had fun, and it showed in their excel­lent per­for­mances. The con­tes­tants who were young, inex­pe­ri­enced, and flawed fell apart. They may not recover, and one of them went home.

Best per­for­mance of the week: Chikezie! Who knew he had it in him? It was fun, ener­getic, the arrange­ment (of “She’s a Woman”) was good, it was ambi­tious, and he rocked it hard. I have been push­ing Chikezie! out the door all sea­son, but from here on out he gets a per­ma­nent excla­ma­tion mark after his name. Dude earned it. And the judges were over the moon. It might actu­ally be worth $1.99 on iTunes.

At home in the spot­light: Best on the stage were clearly Carly, David Cook, Chikezie!, Aus­tralia, Brooke, and Jason, in that order. It may be that this is the order of the final­ists, too.

Most dis­as­trous per­for­mance of the week: Lit­tle David Archuleta. The kid, and he showed how young he is this week, for­got the words. He for­got the words. He tried to sing a Bea­t­les song in the style of Ste­vie Won­der, and he failed. And did I men­tion that he for­got the words? The judges were shock­ingly mild about it.

This week’s bot­tom three were:

Sye­sha, who dissed her past per­for­mances and her awe­some hair with a song that would cause me to change sta­tions, and a ‘do that made her look like an eight­ies wannabe.

Kristi Lee Cook, who went way over-the-top coun­try (caus­ing the judges to recoil in hor­ror that she actu­ally took their advice) on a sped up ver­sion of “Eight Days a Week” that was just this side of the Coun­try Bear Jam­boree at Disneyland.

David Her­nan­dez, who tried to dress like Chikezie!, tried to work the stage like Chikezie!, but couldn’t hold a can­dle to Chikezie! Simon called it, “corny verg­ing on desperate.“

And David Her­nadez’ ouster was much deserved.