The much hyped American Idol Gives Back show finally arrived tonight. Yes, technically it began yesterday - but the party guests weren't due to arrive until today anyhow. By the end of the night host Ryan Seacrest announced they had raised over $30 million with corporate donations. They got a record 70 million votes last night, so News Corp donated $5 million of that total.
Ryan's co-host for the night was Ellen DeGeneres, who was taking care of business over at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. As Ryan announced a shocking result, Ellen wanted to know if she was getting kicked off. She also started singing a little bit of her 'life anthem' "Shoop."
First up for the performances was a medley by Earth Wind and Fire. I thought they were doing rather decently though others in the room with me complained they sing like girls and should retire.
Then we had the first of many promotional clips of who the money would be helping out. This one was of Randy Jackson's trip back to his home state of Louisiana. He went to a FEMA park which is still full of people nearly 2 years later.
The Idols performed "Time to Care" as their group performance tonight. It was written by Quincy Jones, who says he likes it when young people take seriously their mission to help people. He thought the idols were well-rounded. Honestly the performance and song was as boring and colorless as their outfits. It was all just lacking.
Ryan then went over to a satellite linkup with Ben Stiller, who listed all the movies he has starred in. Then he announced he would sing until they hit $200 Billion. All of it reminded me why I don't like Ben Stiller.
The next clip took us back to the Africa trip, and a boy who is taking car of his sister. He's only 12, but he's the head of the household because his parents died. The city they live in in Kenya has 50,000 orphans - that's just in one city. Simon Cowell said they met some of the nicest kids he's ever met in his life, and urged everyone to call to help them out.
Ryan announced that the business part of the day would be taking place in random order, with no highest or lowest. Naturally they would draw it out all night long. Melinda Doolittle was the first to be announced as safe.
The next clip featured Paula Abdul visiting a Boys and Girls Club in Hollywood. A wonderful performance of "Somewhere" by Il Divo followed that. I love Il Divo, they have such beautiful voices. Hunky Carlos (eyebrow guy for those not being able to tell the difference) was just way too hunky tonight.
A decently funny skit with Jack Black took place next. Ryan wanted someone from the audience to come up onstage, for a donation of $50. They decided to pick a seat number, and surprise it was Jack Black. He decided to sing Kiss From a Rose, saying it's from Batman Returns, the most sensitive of the Batman movies. He also wanted to be judged by the judges. His partner in crime Kyle was holding a rose in the audience by the way. Randy said it wasn't happening, but maybe if he wore stretchy pants. Paula told him the school of rock wanted their diploma back. Simon said he was better than Sanjaya (Sanjaya Malakar was in the audience and loved that comment). Jack said Seal would feel differently if he was there, Randy said he is here. Seal shook his head, then said it was the best rendition of Kiss from a Rose he's heard.
Ryan quickly announced that Blake Lewis was safe. Another clip, this one featuring Carrie Underwood, followed. She sang "I'll Stand By You" for the kids in Africa. Then a performance by Rascal Flatts, "My Wish" took place at the Disney Hall.
We were back to the USA for the next clip, this time of rural Kentucky and why education is important. Many children there don't get enough education.
The Ford music video was rather lame. The idols sang "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" while in Mustang convertables. They went off to a drive-in where they watched a clip featuring nearly all of the stars from tonight's show dancing and "singing" Staying Alive. Stars included Good Charlotte, Dr. Phil, Keira Knightley, Lebron James, Huge Grant, Blue Man Group, Miss Piggy, Marc Anthony, Shaquille ONeal, and Kevin Bacon.
Then Ryan announced Phil Stacey was safe. We went back to Africa for the next clip, where Ryan and Simon visited AIDS patients and homes of AIDS orphans. This led to Josh Groban singing "You Raise Me Up" backed by the African Children's Choir. This performance had me nearly in tears. I love the song to begin with, but it was so beautiful with the children's choir.
The next clip started with stars talking about how many funerals they had been to, then had one guy who had been to 280 funerals. They talked about Malaria and how many people it kills in Africa. It's sad because Malaria is completely treatable. Two dollars worth of pills will cure 4 kids. Ten dollars buys a mosquito net, to protect a whole family.
Kelly Clarkson and Jeff Beck teamed up to perform "Up to the Mountain." What was with the moomoo she was wearing and the double chins? Has Kelly gained weight? Honestly the performance was boring as hell. Pop back in to Ben Stiller, who was still singing. Then off to a clip of the Simpsons with Simon as the person auditioning. Lisa, Homer and Marge were the judges. Marge was the "Randy" and kept saying 'dawg' while Lisa (as Paula) looked around asking where the doggie was. Simon meanwhile sang "Don'tcha."
Ryan then announced Lakisha Jones was safe before another clip of poor people in America. Finally we were up to the awesome duet. Celine Dion performed "If I Can Dream" with Elvis Presley. It was interesting, but I don't know that I would call it good. Elvis looked better than Celine.
Madonna filmed a message while she was in Malawai. Apparently a lot of the children there are HIV Positive. When they went back to Ryan he announced the $30 million total for the night before tossing out the AI Challenge question. He was about to say something when he was told he had to stall for a moment. He tried to talk to Simon for help, but Simon liked watching Ryan squirm. Finally everything was ready and they tossed it over to Ellen who introduced Annie Lennox. Annie performed "Bridge Over Troubled Water." It was good relatively speaking.
Finally we were up to the shocker of the night. Who would be leaving? We only had Chris Richardson and Jordin Sparks left. Ryan told Chris he was safe. He then told Jordin she was safe too. The Idols can't act well, so you could tell that at least Jordin knew it to begin with, probably the rest too. Apparently they felt it wasn't right to let anyone go on a night like this. Next week they'll send home two people.
A brief clip of Bono mentoring the Idols led to the last performance of the night, with the top 6 performing "American Prayer." It wasn't as bad as the earlier performance, but still bad.
After the show, I saw an interview with the judges on the news. Simon was disappointed that no one left, he always wants to see someone go home. He think that Chris, LaKisha, and Phil are the three in danger for next week as the bottom two leave. I agree with him.
I will go ahead and suggest something that may be unpopular and perhaps wrong, but worth considering: Kelly's much-maligned appearance was, I think, somewhat by design. The hairstyle and the dress seemed to hearken back to the 1970s, which would be appropriate given that Jeff Beck was sporting the same look he's had the past three or four decades. And given that the Patty Griffin song is a bit of old-school gospel, I think the whole performance was designed to be a throwback of sorts.
But even if opinions differ about this, let's be pretty honest: Kelly can sing like a motherf*cker, and I'm sorry, but the fact that she doesn't look like a bulimic heroin fiend doesn't mean that she's automatically a "cow." Some of you need to put up your Internet big c*cks and just appreciate someone's talent, and stop taking potshots because anonymity makes you a badass.
She sang unbelievably well. Beck imbued the tune with subtle soulfulness. The performance was brilliant and deserves praise, not scorn.
Oy... now it's my time to say oy, OY! Lighten up sweetie... most of us are here because of a good laugh.
But I admit some of us are bad, some of us are asses, and the majority here really don't have any balls... So the bodyparts you would like to see put on the internet are most likely not going to show up.
Yes, I know it's a sad world but really, you have to do it with this.. so be strong my friend!
On minor thing on the anonymity part... is your real name guest?
Also, just wondering: Lessbeau... Mother*...
do you think she would dance around trees with me?!
Padma said: please refrain from using bad language
thank u
That does bring up a point I've been wanting to politely make to the members, thank you for reminding me. We do have our own language filter, so kindly do not "filter" your own language - as you then bypass our language filter. If you find words that should get filtered that don't, please let us know through the feedback forms.
"Now you know why lions eat their young" Capt. Phil Harris
hey whats up?? I think the ford commercial was good it was funny and helped to lighten the mood a little. And whats wrong with tacky or whatever word you used...anyway i agree i thought the song You Raise Me Up was soooo pretty i just bought it on iTunes anyway i think no one was off this week because it was a charity event..hard to explain sry
kelly clarkson's song, "Up to the Mountain" was unbelieveable, & anyone who thinks that performance was "boring", obviously knows nothing about real talent.
The much hyped American Idol Gives Back show finally arrived tonight. Yes, technically it began yesterday - but the party guests weren't due to arrive until today anyhow. By the end of the night host Ryan Seacrest announced they had raised over $30 million with corporate donations. They got a record 70 million votes last night, so News Corp donated $5 million of that total.
The Idols performed "Time to Care" as their group performance tonight. It was written by Quincy Jones, who says he likes it when young people take seriously their mission to help people. He thought the idols were well-rounded. Honestly the performance and song was as boring and colorless as their outfits. It was all just lacking.
The next clip featured Paula Abdul visiting a Boys and Girls Club in Hollywood. A wonderful performance of "Somewhere" by Il Divo followed that. I love Il Divo, they have such beautiful voices. Hunky Carlos (eyebrow guy for those not being able to tell the difference) was just way too hunky tonight.
A decently funny skit with Jack Black took place next. Ryan wanted someone from the audience to come up onstage, for a donation of $50. They decided to pick a seat number, and surprise it was Jack Black. He decided to sing Kiss From a Rose, saying it's from Batman Returns, the most sensitive of the Batman movies. He also wanted to be judged by the judges. His partner in crime Kyle was holding a rose in the audience by the way. Randy said it wasn't happening, but maybe if he wore stretchy pants. Paula told him the school of rock wanted their diploma back. Simon said he was better than Sanjaya (Sanjaya Malakar was in the audience and loved that comment). Jack said Seal would feel differently if he was there, Randy said he is here. Seal shook his head, then said it was the best rendition of Kiss from a Rose he's heard.
Ryan quickly announced that Blake Lewis was safe. Another clip, this one featuring Carrie Underwood, followed. She sang "I'll Stand By You" for the kids in Africa. Then a performance by Rascal Flatts, "My Wish" took place at the Disney Hall.
Then Ryan announced Phil Stacey was safe. We went back to Africa for the next clip, where Ryan and Simon visited AIDS patients and homes of AIDS orphans. This led to Josh Groban singing "You Raise Me Up" backed by the African Children's Choir. This performance had me nearly in tears. I love the song to begin with, but it was so beautiful with the children's choir.
Kelly Clarkson and Jeff Beck teamed up to perform "Up to the Mountain." What was with the moomoo she was wearing and the double chins? Has Kelly gained weight? Honestly the performance was boring as hell. Pop back in to Ben Stiller, who was still singing. Then off to a clip of the Simpsons with Simon as the person auditioning. Lisa, Homer and Marge were the judges. Marge was the "Randy" and kept saying 'dawg' while Lisa (as Paula) looked around asking where the doggie was. Simon meanwhile sang "Don'tcha."
Ryan then announced Lakisha Jones was safe before another clip of poor people in America. Finally we were up to the awesome duet. Celine Dion performed "If I Can Dream" with Elvis Presley. It was interesting, but I don't know that I would call it good. Elvis looked better than Celine.
Finally we were up to the shocker of the night. Who would be leaving? We only had Chris Richardson and Jordin Sparks left. Ryan told Chris he was safe. He then told Jordin she was safe too. The Idols can't act well, so you could tell that at least Jordin knew it to begin with, probably the rest too. Apparently they felt it wasn't right to let anyone go on a night like this. Next week they'll send home two people.
