The Final 6 of American Idol - The Talent That Remains

One of my favorite aspects of my job is meeting interesting people. They usually come to me through all sorts of means. Some I have met from interviewing them after they were on a reality show, such as Wanda Shirk from Survivor, who is truly one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. Other times I meet people when they email me to comment on one of my articles. It's one of the reasons I always have my email at the bottom of articles, as I enjoy listening to others' thoughts.

Last week I was introduced to a different perspective and a very interesting person in Grace Ann Drake. She emailed me to discuss Sanjaya Malakar. She thought he was unduly credited for being a bad singer. The reason this was such a different perspective is that Grace isn't just one of the few adults that appreciated Sanjaya's talent, she's also a trained singer herself, having sung all over the world, including Carnegie Hall, and has hosted radio shows, created her own programming, and written her own articles about local talent in her area. She's certainly more of an expert on singing than the judges that sit at that table each week on American Idol. While Randy Jackson understands producing an artist and what it takes, Simon Cowell understands what it takes to sell records, Paula Abdul knows what it takes to entertain, Grace knows what it takes to train a voice.

Overall, Grace feels that for amateurs, the kids on American Idol do a pretty good job, although she worries if they aren't learning how to protect their voices, they might burn out. She notes that they are asked to do a different genre every week, and are then jumped on when they seem out of their comfort zone. Grace thinks the judges are sometimes adding in negative comments just to add excitement to the show. Seeing LaKisha Jones in the bottom two last week really upset Grace, as she thinks this was the result of the audience listening to the judges saying LaKisha shouting, when in fact she was only showing power and volume.

I asked Grace if she would mind giving me her input on the final six, thinking it could make for interesting insight. Whereas my untrained ear thought Chris Richardson was off key most of the night last week, Grace didn't feel he was. She also doesn't hear that nasal thing that seems to bother Simon so much. She thinks it's just that sound the country singers use, and maybe Simon knows that and just wants to get on Chris for something. She did feel he closed up his mouth too much, though, and thinks he's needs to be open to let the sound out, as it will make it easier to hold the longer notes.

Grace agrees with Martina McBride, too, that Chris could sing either pop or country, and I agree with this too. Maybe it's not off key that I'm hearing and maybe it's not nasal, but there's something off with Chris's voice that turns me off. And that to me is the danger for him in making it much further in the competition. You don't have to have the best voice, but you need to at least have the respect of the audience and judges, and it doesn't seem like Chris has that. Despite the fact he was in the top three this week, he has up and down and all over the place throughout the competition. I don't see him making final four.

Grace knows the judges are pegging and pushing for Melinda Doolittle to win and agrees she has a strong voice and very pleasant tone. This past week she sang Trouble Is a Woman, a song with a lot of fast note changes and runs, and Grace believes you need a lot of flexibility and great control to pull something like that off. She thinks it led to Melinda giving a fresh, crisp delivery, especially on the runs, and that she is almost always technically correct with her note placement.

Melinda may not be everyone's favorite, but you won't find many people saying the girl can't sing. What people do complain about is the shyness golly-gee thing she's got going on, and some people also don't feel she has the right look to win this thing. Yet others are questioning her sexual preference. Who cares, really? The girl can sing circles around most anybody, and it's probably those very questions of her that have kept her from furthering her career, keeping her in the background. And that's what they always say this show is for, to give a chance to people that wouldn't otherwise get it. It will be interesting now that Simon called her out, and told her to stop acting so surprised over the compliments to see if and how she adjusts that. I think it would be a shock to the entire audience and show if this girl didn't make final two.

As for the most comfortable this week, Grace thinks it has to be Phil Stacey, and in general sees him with a very pleasing overall presentation. She feels though, that the highest note in the song wasn't secure. She thinks he needs to be careful about holding onto the last note of the phrase to the very end. Some singers close off the note too soon by closing their mouths, making it end somewhat abruptly and unpleasantly for the audience. She would like to see him support his voice more from the diaphragm and not sing so much from his throat. It will make his voice sound more full from top to bottom.

What is it, though, that seems to turn people off about Phil Stacey? He's made several appearances in the bottom three. Some weeks I listen to him and think he has a great voice. It's just so nice and smooth, yet I've never picked up a phone to vote for him, and I think that's because as great as his voice is, there's something missing in the entertainment value of his performances. There's no excitement and no water cooler talk of his performances ... until this past week with the country genre. He hit on something there and needs to keep it up, although I don't think he'll be able to get to that type of genre every week. Because of that, I think he could make it to top four, but I don't see him making it much closer.

Grace thinks Jordin Sparks has good full quality in her voice, but finds that she has a bad habit of forcing her vibrato, especially on the high sustained notes. She noticed, as did I, that Jordin didn't quite make the high note in Broken Wing this past week, and Grace believes it's because it was out of her range, as forcing also causes your voice to change pitch. Her advice for Jordin is for her to think of the highest note in each phrase before she begins to sing it, in order to a avoid sliding up to it. She enjoys Jordin's tone, though, and says it's pleasant to watch her sing because Jordin seems to enjoy it so much. Grace also notices Jordin entering phrases a little late, but wonders if that's just her individual style.

I'm glad Grace noticed the bad high note like I did this week. It's frustrating to me that I keep hearing this stuff in Jordin's performances and the judges never seem to call her out on it. Though, I noticed this week that they don't say she sounds great, they seem to teeter around it. Randy just keeps saying how amazing it is that she's only 17. Don't get me wrong; I don't think you'll find many 17 year olds with this type of ability, but I can't put her in that same category with Melinda and LaKisha. And whereas she's able to portray a story, she breaks it far too often with smiles out to the audience, and I don't feel she's as as modest as she once was.

That being said, I think she's a lock for final four. And if the judges never call her out on anything, she could easily make final two, if not win the whole shebang. Not that that would be all that bad, but I think it would be a shame for Melinda to make it to final two and not win. Although, I've watched this show the entire six years, and the winner isn't always the best vocalist, instead sometimes being the best entertainer. However, I think Melinda has her beat in both those areas, and down to the two of them, I'd have to give it to the gal with experience under her belt.

As for another audience favorite, Grace hears Blake Lewis with a very mellow tone that is almost always right on pitch. She would like to see him get back to his tools of beat boxing and falsetto a little more, and would also like to see him support his voice more from the diaphragm so that he doesn't run out of breath at the end of the phrase. It makes you wonder what he and Phil would sound like on a duet, since they are complete opposites with that.

If Blake wins American Idol it will be simply because he dares to be different, and the crowned Idol is nothing if not different than the ones before. He has a good voice, but sometimes doesn't seem very strong with it, and I think that's the result of being pushed out of his comfortzones. He doesn't have to beat box or scat all the time, but I think he struggles out of that mellow zone. He doesn't seem to ever just let loose. The other peculiarity that I just can't get over is the fact the guy hates jeans and makes his own pants. I don't know why, but I can't let that fact go. I don't think he'll win against Melinda if in final two with her, but he could make it there. Before this week, I would have said definite final three. What he was doing in bottom three this week I will never know.

Grace sees LaKisha Jones as the best voice in American Idol this year and says she thought so from the first time she heard her. She thinks everything is right about her vocal, including her phrasing and pitch which are perfect. Of particular interest to me, is that Grace sees LaKisha singing with her whole body, making her translate her feelings to the audience. I always see her as the one that emotes the best, and last week she gave me chills and left me in tears, yet others see her as cold. I wonder if that's because her voice isn't necessarily portraying as much emotion as the rest of her.

It's the glorious tone quality and strength of voice that Grace really likes about LaKisha, along with the way she sustains the notes when needed by singing from her diaphragm, which makes the notes stay in place, meaning she doesn't run out of breath. She sees the notes as "right on the path to hit the roof of the mouth and soar right out." And again, she doesn't get the judges saying she's shouting, believing that's just power and volume.

Given all that, for LaKisha to appear in bottom two, it has to be one of two things. It either has to be the audience doesn't connect with her or like Grace suggested, they're listening to the judges. When she sang Jesus Take the Wheel last week, I had images of her driving a car and pulling off to the side of the road with a baby in the back seat. It was her that gave me that image. While it's a Carrie Underwood song, and I find it beautiful when she sings it, she isn't a mother and doesn't portray the story all that well. Yet, I also think people are just unwilling to accept the song from anyone other than their season four winner. Last week showed LaKisha could be out any time, but I hope she at least makes final four.

The theme this week of songs that are inspirational to your life will be a really interesting one. LaKisha and Melinda are going to do fantastic with it, just based on the fact that they're in their late 20s and have truly lived a full life already with love won, love lost, uplifting experiences, etc. The younger ones will be picking songs that have been inspirational in a seventeen or twenty year span, and at that age, you haven't really experienced life yet. I would have told you at 17 I was really experiencing life, but looking back on it at nearly 43, it's not nearly as much as I can lay claim to now. Heck, even 35 seems to be not as much at this point. I think it will be harder for the younger ones to be believable, and the question is whether the judges will call them out on it.

Grace Ann Drake is a classically trained Soprano who has performed worldwide, including Europe and Russia, and while at home in the United States she has performed at Carnegie Hall with the Cincinnati International Touring Chorale and the Bell Canto Chorus of Milwaukee. After receiving her BA in Education from the University of Northern Iowa, Drake taught school. Later, at a radio station WDPR in Dayton, Drake was an announcer, planning her own classical music programming, as well as producing specials for the station such as Listener's Choice and the Adventures in Time series about the Dayton Flood of 1913. The series won a program of the year award from the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Commission. She later drew upon her talents and years of training to write about music for the Dayton City Paper and a WDPR publication, Keynotes.

For more on American Idol, see Reality Shack and SirLinksalot: American Idol, and you can contact me at LauraBelle@realityshack.com and Grace Ann Drake at classical.dj@worldnet.att.net