Canadian Idol 6 - Episode 021

Top 7, hits of the UK with Tom Jones as coach. Poor Tom has had one face lift and one night in the tanning booth too many. Word of advice: don’t let the surgeon near your eyes unless you’re a burn victim if you don’t want to wind up a ringer for Bruno Gerussi, like Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones: he’s got a thing going on.

Mark Day starts us off. Leaving behind the Poison/Bad Company stud rock covers he’s become know for, Mark does a chick song - Keep Bleeding, recorded by Leona Lewis, the 1st winner of X-Factor, the UK show that spawned the whole Idol phenomenon. Nice bit of cross marketing. I like the tune, actually and he does it well. If he hasn’t been booted off before, he won’t get booted off this week either.

Mitch MacDonald does Lennon’s Jealous Guy. The clip of Jones not wincing as Mitch absolutely butchers a great song is priceless. Doing it live, poor Mitch is no closer to being in key from the get go and the song goes downhill from there. Worst ever; of his performances, for sure, in the history of X-Factor and its 26-nation strong franchise operation, maybe. Sass tells Mitch he’s consistent. When that’s the best you can get out of Sass, you know you’re in trouble. Farley, Zack and Jake all critic the pitch. This could be it for you, Mitch. Bad; and I don’t mean that in a good way.

Drew, who has shown the most improvement over the past two weeks of any of the contestants, tells Jones he’s going to get back to doing what he’s comfortable with. He sings Radiohead’s Creep. I don’t know if it’s him or if the guitar is out of tune, but he hits a couple of clinkers. Still, he doesn’t flinch and when it comes to the money notes at the end he nails them. In the chat with Ben segment he says he’s been trying to show his versatility and now it’s time to do what he knows. Who would have thought this guy would be a strong finisher?

Theo is back to the Something About Mary hair do. For the first time he attempts the full rockstar shtick, abusing Joss Stone’s Taking Back My Life to do it: leathers, trying out his seductive look on the camera like a 12 year old girl in front of the bathroom mirror with the door locked, strutting around the stage. He’s as embarrassing as Oliver Pigott was the week he got eliminated, and just as white. Zack, a sucker for tight pants, says he “threw it down in a big, big way.” Jake, Sass and Farley all cream themselves. I (and I’d wager, his close friends) feel ashamed to be participating in this humiliation of a true talent.

Tom Jones says, “Mookie – that’s an unusual name.” Mookie says, “It’s not unusual.” The crack goes right over old Tom’s head. The Mookster does Lola, playing along on guitar. He looks cool, but his range is not up to the demands of the tune. But once he’s up into his range, he grabs the song by the throat. Is it enough? Yes, it is: the judges are soooo enthralled by his charisma it’s annoying. I swear Zack would blow him if he asked. In the chat with Ben, Mookie has a British accent attack that surpasses anything that has slipped out so far. Hey Mook – maybe the people of TO would get behind you if you talked more like they do.

Amberly tries Put Your Records On sitting on the piano, guitarless for the first time. The song has that same rot your teeth bubble gum sweetness of everything else she has chosen, save The Redemption Song. But, boy, she is worth a trip to the dentist. She slides off the piano and bops across the stage, sultry and smooth and looking like trouble. Nice to find out she’s got the same rhythm/body linkage Earl has. This girl is looking more like top two each week.

Earl does Clapin’s Change the World. He cracks up to a sweet falsetto and comes back down so quick and smooth you wonder if you really heard that one clear sweet note or just imagined it. But he ends the song with a yelling, woo-woo, yeah-yeah bit that we’ve heard and been unimpressed by before. C’mon Earl – you’re my man. Listen to what I’m saying – tighten up the endings.

We get an interesting insight into where the judges’ heads are at as they give their critiques of Earl. Zack says there are 5 contestants with great rhythm. He doesn’t name them, but Jake says it’s 4: Theo, Amberly, Earl and Mookie.

I’m calling for Mitch to say good-bye tomorrow night.