We're up to the top four of American Idol season 8 in our lookback at Kris Allen's 2009! This week brings us some epic duets and epic eyerolls! Enjoy!
Performance Night:
We begin with a recap of that amazing Huff that Idol pulled on Adam Lambert in the previous episode. We're down to four now - Adam, Kris, Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey - and it's rock week!
Oh yeah, this was the week that one of the side towers collapsed, and as a result, there was no proper dress rehearsal. Slash from Guns and Roses is the mentor this week.
Adam goes first and sings Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. Slash tells him to tone down the high register improvisations. Adam does a nice respectable cover of this rock and roll classic. Randy likes that Adam went with rock star rather than Broadway. Kara tells him to make 70s music from the 70s and glam rock from the 80s. Wow, she predicted the Queen gig! Paula tells him he's a Whole Lotta Perfect. Simon thought it could've been a disaster but it turned out to be one of Simon's favorite performances. Adam was happy the song was cleared as the first Led Zep tune on Idol.
Next up, Allison's cover of Cry Baby by Janis Joplin. She gets the stool interview. Adam took her to his hairdresser to prep for tonight. Slash thinks Allison is a natural. Her performance is really good. Too bad the bus has pulled up. Randy didn't love it. Kara thought a Janis cover was a good choice but Allison should've picked a more melodic one. She does see Allison's personality. Paula thinks Allison did a great job. Simon thinks Allison has really improved over the weeks, but was trying too hard to sound like Janis and should've sung a Queen song. Allison talks back to his nonsense. Good for her!
Oh jeez, here's the next thing... spoiler alert: It's a hot mess although the opening harmonies aren't bad. Gokey totally sings over Kris and tries to dominate the duet. Their interactions are just weird and not really in sync.
So what did the judges think? This was the first Idol duet ever. Randy seizes on the harmonies. Kara is laughing at the two goody-goodies singing Renegade. She thought the solo parts were pitchy. Paula thought it powerful and compelling. Simon is laughing so hard! Simon says Danny was better. This gets an epic eye roll from Kris (yes Jonins, I found it!).
Kris solo is next; he'll be doing Come Together by the Beatles. He originally was going to do Revolution. Kris played guitar for Slash and it made him nervous. Slash told him to pick up the live performance. It's OK. Good guitar work, but honestly, it's not one of my favorite Idol song choices for him. Check it out:
Randy realizes Kris is not a hard rocker but admired his guitar work. Kara agrees that Kris is more a soft rocker and felt he was trying too hard. Paula thought Beatles songs are risky. Simon pesters her. Paula wants him to have more energy and realize he's deserving. Simon didn't like it and felt it was like "eating ice for lunch" and not memorable.
KRIS VOTERS DULY MOBILIZED. Ryan reminds us to look at his face and that the girls are screaming. Then he gives us an important spoiler alert: Danny Gokey is next with Dream On. Oh jeez. This is a legendary performance for all the wrong reasons.
As a Kris voter, I was highly encouraged by this development. As for the judges, Randy thought it was alright and gives him an A+ for the scream, er high note at the end. Kara thought he followed advice to add more swagger, but it wasn't perfect. Paula acknowledges that Danny is not a rocker and this wasn't a great song for him, but she gives him an A++ for going for it. Simon thought the scream was like watching a horror movie and over the top. It would've worked for Adam. Simon still thinks he'll be safe. KRIS VOTERS FURTHER MOBILIZED. Danny has to go back and listen to it, lol. Randy reminds us that Gokey is the only contestant who has never been in the bottom three.
Last duet and it's frankly awesome. Adam and Allison slay Slow Ride by Foghat. They really did make a good team on this.
The audience and judges love it, as they should. Adam and Allison are declared the season's Rock Gawd and Rock Goddess. Simon says that Allison might get a chance at staying thanks to the duet.
Watch the entire full performance episode here.
While the glamberts relaxed, there was work to do for Kris, Danny and Allison fans. This was a long hard night of manning the family cell phones for hours. Kris clearly needed saving.
Before we get to the results, here's a fun behind the scenes video to watch from top four week. They were getting gifts from fans. The funniest gift that Kris got was a toy frying pan with a plastic egg filled with slime. What even.
Results Night:
Dramatic intro time. Slash says they have to deliver. We see that Adam delivered but the other three had a rougher time. Who will graduate from the Idol school of rock and who will get schooled?
Whoa there were over 64 million votes! Yes indeed, fans clearly mobilized to support their favorites during a rough week. The guests are Daughtry and No Doubt and even better, Paula is going to perform! But first, it's Ford Music Video time...Move Along by the All American Rejects.
Kris explains that the Idols are playing paper dolls that will chase after a Ford.
Slash joins the gang for the group number, a cover of Alice Cooper's School's Out...Watching this again, it suddenly struck me that Allison, Kris and Adam had all made it from Group 2. Only Danny came from a different group. I knew this, but it stuck out for some reason in this video.
Ryan interviews Slash. Slash likes people who can sing. He's got a solo album coming out (in 2009).
Back to the couches, Ryan asks if they are used to the results show. Kris is asked what it's like to be top 4. He thinks it's surreal and he was surprised and blessed to make it this far. Simon tells him we don't want humble anymore. Adam is asked if he liked Rock Week. He did and he was thrilled to sing the Led Zep song and he liked his outfit. Danny is asked about the Scream and watching it back. He laughed at himself. His family muted their TVs. Allison is asked about her feisty outburst, and she was happy to give it to Simon.
With the interview done, let's watch Paula do her first performance on the Idol stage! It's heavily autotuned, and definitely lip-synced, but fun.
Asked why she waited eight seasons to do this, she says because it's the happiest place. LOL! Ryan swiftly moves on to No Doubt doing their classic rock hit, Just a Girl and promoting their 2009 tour.
Time to pull out that bottom three. We're reminded the top three get to go home and we get to see the going home video from seasons one through seven. Because this is a season 8 lookback, here's the version they showed in season 9 that featured the season 8 finalists.
Weirdly, Ryan makes a big show of saying that he will announce the finalists tonight in random order (they're backstage). He then goes down the line of four and recaps the judges comments about each of them. He's going to send one of them to safety and to the hometown visit... it's Kris!
Kris Allen makes the Top 3 of AI8 from Andrea on Vimeo.
His reaction is awesome and I remember screaming so loudly and happily at this back when it originally aired.
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| Cale was happy too! |
OK finally we get the rest of the results! We're reminded that Kris is safe and these announcements are in random order. Hm they seem to be in order of the final result. I bet they were in the order of iTunes sales too. Adam is safe. The bottom two are Danny and Allison. Poor Allison is sent home. I was not happy about this. Her sing-out of Cry-Baby is triumphant though and you see Kris and Adam are completely upset, while Gokey ponders it all smugly.
Of course, after the show, Allison released an album, formed a band, and sang back up for American Idol seasons 13-15 and Kelly Clarkson.
Watch the entire results episode here.
This recap of the week from EW is fantastic and completely on point for where we were with this point in the season:
mp3s!
Next week: Top 3 Week
Past Kris Allen on Idol recaps:
Audition in Louisville
Hollywood Week, rounds one and two
Making the top 36
Group 2, aka the Best Idol Group ever and the one where we get to see him sing Everything
Top 13 week (Michael Jackson songs)
Top 11 week (Opry songs)
Top 10 week (Motown songs)
Top 9 week (iTunes downloads)
Top 8 week (Year contestants were born)
Top 7 week 1 (Movie week)
Top 7 week 2 (Disco week)
Top 5 week (Rat Pack)
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