Britain goes wild for Michael Jackson - VIDEO
In the past few days, British viewers have uploaded at least two dozen copies of a recent performance on Britain’s Got Talent. It’s Suleman Mirza (aka “Signature”), who calls himself the “Michael Jackson Dancing Machine.” He’s an Indian performer with his own YouTube channel featuring all of his Michael Jackson-style dances. Mirza has a bit of an advantage in the show– his bio says he’s been performing Michael Jackson tribute dances for quite some time and has danced with some famous Bollywood stars.
I’m not going to ruin it for you, but let’s just say that Suleman has a few tricks that drive the crowd wild. It’s far better than anything that ever aired on America’s Got Talent. Simon Cowell is a judge for the show and brings up a good point, though. Where can he go from this initial performance that had the audience jumping out of their seats?
Video is after the jump:
AI OD: A farewell to Michael Johns
As much as Michael Johns’ elimination from American Idol was a shocker, at the same time it really wasn’t. Sure, I expected the likes of Syesha and Kristy Lee Cook to go before him, but if you really think about it, what kind of impact has he had on you? I’m not going to say the man wasn’t an amazing vocalist, but he wasn’t a consistently amazing vocalist. In sifting through the archives of his past performances, there were several weeks where he wasn’t very good at all.
Michael Johns is an incredibly talented vocalist. I even think I remember hearing him on the radio several years back when he was lead vocalist for The Rising. But for some reason, when it came to American Idol, he had at least as many off weeks as he did on. In Michael Johns’ exit interview, AOL reports that Michael felt that his past three weeks had been his strongest and that he fully didn’t expect to be eliminated.
We’ve reached that magically strange part of the competition where each year popularity seems to overtake talent for awhile, and I think Michael may have fallen victim to that. He certainly didn’t help himself throughout his run with several less than inspiring performances and virtually no compelling personality traits save the fact that he’s handsome. Show some charisma and give the fans something besides your singing to remember and like you for.
As with many past contestants, Michael’s encore performance of “Dream On” was far better than his initial performance, which was pretty good on its own. I think it’s fair to say, based on the live audience reaction and the faces of almost everyone in attendance, that this was the most unexpected elimination of the season so far. If the Davids go next, the FOX network might just crack in half:
Here’s his Top 8 performance of “Dream On”:
Top 9 “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right”:
Michael seemed to have better nights when he was performing Queen, as here on Top 10 week with “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”:
I wasn’t too impressed with Michael’s second foray into The Beatles during Top 11 week with “A Day in the Life”:
It was a wonky arrangement but it showed tremendous range and was an improvement for the Aussie by my book. Top 12 “Across the Universe”:
Top 16 “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”:
Top 20 “Go Your Own Way”:
Top 24 “Light My Fire”:
Unfortunately for Michael, in the eyes of many he peaked here in Hollywood week with “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I won’t go that far, but I will say that this performance absolutely blew me away:
The beautiful soulful singer we were treated to in his initial audition never really and fully resurfaced after Hollywood week ended. I’m not sure what kind of a singer Michael wanted to portray on the show, but this guy here was pretty damned special:
Before he got up on the Idol stage, Michael Johns went by the moniker Michael (Mike) Lee and was front man for a band called The Rising. They released an album under the Maverick label and even got a bit of national air play. You can catch samples from their album at The Rising’s MySpace page. And it looks like you can pick up The Rising’s Future Unknown CD for rock bottom prices at Amazon right now! Here’s their video for “Cradle” where you can check out Michael with long hair!:
Back when Michael was a true unknown, he was with an outfit named Film. This is them with “Q”:
And again performing “Get Away”:
Michael’s gotten calls of support from the likes of fellow Aussies Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, and has even received word that his own Idol Dolly Parton was disappointed he’d been eliminated. More importantly, she indicated she’d love to write for him and even do a duet with him. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s on the fast path to obscurity. So Michael is set to make a go of this whole singing career thing. And if the responses I’ve seen here are any indication, he already has a passionate built-in audience to help him be a success.
IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#9 - Ramiele Malubay
#10 - Chikezie
#11 - Amanda Overmyer
#12 - David Hernandez
#13 - Danny Noriega
#14 - Asia’h Epperson
#15 - Luke Menard
#16 - Kady Malloy
#17 - Robbie Carrico
#18 - Alaina Whitaker
#19 - Alexandrea Lushington
#20 - Jason Yeager
#21 - Colton Berry
#22 - Joanne Borgella
#23 - Amy Davis
#24 - Garrett Haley
AI OD: A farewell to Amy Davis - VIDEO
While I was surprised by some things on American Idol last week, the elimination of Amy Davis wasn’t one of them. In fact, she was the only one that I called correctly for getting cut. What did surprise me, however, was how badly she sang. Where was that pretty girl who sang “Blue Bayou” with such a rich syrupy quality to her voice.
I don’t know if it was the nerves or, as said in Amy Davis’s exit interview at AOL, it was just her brain not being able to adjust properly to the situation, but her pitch was just awful. She seemed overwhelmed and out of place on the big stage, like she truly didn’t believe she belonged there. I guess I expected Amy to last at least a bit longer than this, but at least we can pay tribute to her now.
Here’s the replay of Amy getting cut from American Idol along with a recap of how the girls did and her encore performance of “Where the Boys Are,” which was at least better than her initial performance of it.
I can’t say her elimination came as a surprise, all things considered. Her Top 12 Girls performance of “Where the Boys Are” was pitchy and all over the place and I put it up there with the worst of the night.:
It’s kind of a shame that her performance was so terrible there, because that’s going to be what people remember her for; okay guys who’ve been online or clicked through my Amy Davis gallery above might remember her modeling images more but you get my point. In her initial audition, she had a really nice quality to her voice and showed a lot of promise, not to mention a lot of cleavage … if more guys voted during Idol, she might still be around:
But at least now she’ll have time to get back and romp around with her dogs some more:
AOL did their interview shortly after her ouster from the show. In it, I was impressed by how completely she owned up to her failures in that awful “Where the Boys Are” performance. She explained how she’d used an ear monitor for the past couple years to keep herself on key and found herself unable to do so without it. Consequently, she fully expected to be voted off. She goes into more detail in a blog entry dated yesterday on Amy David’s MySpace page.
I am glad that she was able to enjoy her experience on the show. She showed a lot of grace and a really good personality in the interview and blog entry, which is great. Getting eliminated this fast on a show like American Idol means that if you want to take that massive exposure and turn it into anything productive for yourself you need to get your hustle on and do it right away before the fickle fans forget your name.
If she is hoping to continue to pursue modeling, she definitely has a good start as her bikini and lingerie modeling pictures have been circling the internet as fast as Antonella Barba’s frolicking in the fountain photos did. For more of those you can check out Amy’s modeling MySpace page. It has extensive galleries of images.
Hell, I don’t know if Amy really had the time to be on American Idol to begin with. She’s currently performing with a couple of guys from Survivor (”Eye of the Tiger”) in a group called The Amy Davis Trio. Billy Ozello and Chris Grove are quite a bit older than Amy so I find myself curious how this trio hooked up. You can hear some of their work on the official Amy Davis Trio MySpace page. They’re currently working on some original material, as they’ve primarily been doing cover work thus far, toward getting an album together. Amy’s recent Idol run can only help this group get some producers listening, as the boys from Survivor are certainly still remembered in some circles.
But even that’s not enough. Amy’s also part of a six-piece cover band called 6th Element, and of course there’s an official 6th Element MySpace page as well because Amy has separate MySpace pages for everything. I’m surprised her dogs are just a subset of her modeling page. You can hear 6th Element on John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World” from the main page of their site.
Now that her time on Idol is through, and with the exposure that’s gained her, she shouldn’t have any trouble booking both groups solid in Indiana. Amy seems to have a good head on her shoulders, and an impressive sense of responsibility and self-assessment for a singer of her age. Most of them, as Idol loves to show us, refuse to see anything but perfection in themselves and their talent. It was refreshing to see Amy so honest about her own vocal weaknesses. She’s far more talented than what American was left with, which is a shame, but she’s smart and beautiful so the world is her oyster as long as she gets cracking right away.
IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#24 - Garrett Haley