Canadian Idol - Episode 7

Part 2 of round 1.

Jesse Cottam
Billy Idol’s In the Midnight Hour

Now 23 year old Jesse is a sweet kid, a decent pop singer and not a bad performer. But for this song to work the singer must reek menace and no matter how much grease he puts in his hair, Cottam is way too Bay City Roller to pull it off.
Jake: “I personally don’t know if that was the right song for you.”
Sass: “There was an ease and a confidence in the performance.”
Farley: “Try to find songs that let you to fill the room all the way through the song.”
Zack: “That was as wrong as could possibly be. I don’t know what to say except, ‘Next.’”

Shout out to Zack: You wear a wrinkled shirt unbutton to reveal a standard white cotton undershirt and it makes us think maybe you don’t care. If you don’t, why should we?

Mark Day
Heart’s Alone

This song is tough on singers. Mark hits the first chorus in full throat and nails the notes dead center. But he wavers on one of the long notes going into it the second time and he can’t get back as quick as he should. You’re no stud, Mark, so you gotta get it perfect every time to have a chance. Love you when you’re on. The crowd does, to.
Jake: “When you hit the chorus, Zack at I looked at each other and got chills.”
Sass: “Stumbled a bit near the end, but there were some fantastic moments in there.”
Farley: “Good song choice.”
Zack: “Back in the day they would have given you your own show on CBC and it would have been “Mark and the Happy Fisherman, or something. A half hour comedy show.” lol

Jessica Sheppard
Vanessa Amorosi’s I Need You, Right Here Right Now

She goes with a tinkly piano for most of the song, and you still can’t understand most of what she’s singing. Yeah, I know: “I can’t understand a word they’re singing in them there rock and roll songs, dagnabit,” said the old fart. But we are talking major marble mouth, here, not some picayune imperfection. Even the judges notice it.
Farley: “The beginning felt like you were suppressing your natural tone somewhat.”
Zack: “I think you’ve got to be careful with paying attention to your diction and the choice to purposefully mispronounce some words.”
Jake: “It’s interesting, because I think we all sort of heard the same thing. You were almost singing affected at the top.”
Sass: “I think it was a bit over-controlled. You’ve heard that four times now.”

Not often the four are this unanimous.

Shaun Francisco
Coldplay’s Yellow

At his first audition (this season) Shaun looked like a clerk in an adult video store. Now he looks like a clerk in a video and dvd boutique that specializes in festival, foreign and Michael Moore films.

We’ve all heard this song a million times and we all know it’s a mumbler. This is not a song to be singing live in your first performance before a national audience, which gets to respond with its votes. Damn. Hope you didn’t screw yourself, Shaun. I’d like to see you stick around long enough to do some Neil Young with Crazy Horse. Think Cinnamon Girl. And remember – they don’t give out prizes for arranging on this show. Nonetheless, Zack gives him a B+ on the cool meter for the way he handled the rockstar part of the performance.

Lindsey Robins
Tina Turner’s River Deep, Mountain High

She sure looks the part of chick rock singer. If the song had been pitched a semi-tone lower she would be a star right now. That said, check out Sass’ comment below. Do people sometimes move their lips just because they are contractually obligated to do so?
Jake: “Some of the chorus parts were a little screechy, but I really liked the performance.”
Sass: “There’s more energy in you than you’re letting out. Maybe it’s a song thing? Maybe there’s another song that would have worked better at that?”
Farley: “I heard some moments of some real female rock and roll singing in there, and that’s refreshing.”
Zack: “Pretty good and pretty awful. There were a couple of great notes, but you’ve got to learn to play the game.”

Note to Lindsey – you better learn Nutbush City, because that is the only song in this universe that allows one to let out more energy than River Deep, Mountain High, n’est pas?

Omar Lunan
Every Breath You Take

Great job. He drops the threatening tone of the original, but he gets in all the longing. His vocal embellishments are sooo sweet.
Sass: “Wow. Wow. Wow. Omar, that, that was transcendant.”
Farley: “I liked the phrasing big time. When you got up in the upper registers, a little bit uncomfortable for me.””
Zack: “It was either the kind of transcendant thing that Sass says it was and people are either going to love it or they won’t. It’s going to be an interesting vote.”
Jake: “I can’t see how people won’t.”

Marie-Pierre Bellerose
Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good.

The song with the famous, “Sniff me out like I was Tanqueray,” line. Tough to cover Winehouse. You can’t top perfection. Ms Bellerose doesn’t grab me.
Sass: “Amy Winehouse has such a distinctive voice, when we hear it we can’t help but do a comparison.”
Farley: “I missed some of molasses and the sticky stuff that Winehouse does so well.”
Zack: “Compared to what else has come tonight, I thought that was really good.”
Jake: “You need to have a little more edge if you are going to sing that song, but you sang it well.”

Sebastien Pigott
Amanda Marshall’s Dark Horse

Sebastien has gone through quite the transformation. He started off looking and singing like a busker. Tonight, his mop of curly chestnut hair has been trimmed, he’s wearing a suit and tie and he’s sitting on a riser. He sounds like a bit like Don Henley, which is perfect for the song..
Zack: “The weakest singer here was possibly the best performance.”
Farley: “You are a movie star.”
Sass: “You take the weakest part and make it a strength.”
Jake: “You look like a movie star, man.”

Sebastien is not impressed, telling the judges, “These are incredibly back-handed compliments.” The judges assure him that’s not the case, and they are right. Zack says it best, “You don’t have to be Ceyline to be a rock singer.”

Theo Tams
Timbalan’s Apologize

He accompanies himself on piano, and gives the best performance of the night. His voice is exquisite, sliding into and out of falsetto almost seamlessly. He does what the CIA only wishes it could do – executes a perfect rendition.
Zack: “Canadian Idol starts here.”
Farley: “That was a great performance.”
Sass: “Redonkulous, you know what I’m saying?” No.
Jake: “Of the 21 performances so far, that was, without a doubt, the best we have seen.” (he means heard)

Amberly Thiessen
Nora Jones’ What Am I To You

She has her long hair swept to one side and is wearing a necklace. She looks like the dance hall girl in a Glen Ford western.
Farley: “Exceptional.”
Sass: “A sweetness and a purety in your voice.”
Jake: “Felt really honest and natural.”
Zack: “You could be one of the great discoveries we’ve had on this show one day.”

Adam Castelli
Ray Charles DoThe Mess Around

I go back and forth on Adam. He has zero charisma and the same amount of humour. But the guy has great taste in music and an intensity when he performs that pulls me in every time. He rips up Mess Around
Zack: “”You’re a man, man.”
Farley: “Wicked performance.”
Jake: “It felt like I was watching you with your band at a real concert, and we haven’t seen that before.”

Katelyn Dawn
Cohen’s Halleluiah

If you’re going to do this song, you better be able to sing harmony, and unfortunately I don’t think harmonies are Katelyn’s strong point. She (or whoever did the vocal arrangement) has a really weird four part thing put together for the chorus and it disappoints just when you’re hot to hear that grand swell on the halleluiahs. And I think the weird four-part was done to give Katelyn (a ringer for a young Elizabeth Shue) the simplest harmony possible.
Zack: “Going to that harmony note in the Buckleyesque version of the chorus felt a little uncomfortable to me.”
Farley: “The choruses were shaky.”
Sass: “Next time try something a little more up.”
Jake: “I thought there were some pitch issues.”

So that’s it for round 1. It’s all over but the crying. Catch you tomorrow with the results show.