Canadian Idol Season 6: Top 20 Performances Pt. 1

Posted by: Mandi  •  July 1, 2008 @ 12:08am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Good evening, and welcome to Sixties Night on Canadian Idol. During which Ben Mulroney will (unironically) wear a white v-neck t-shirt under a beige suit. The whole time.

By the way, you may have noticed that I'm not Ariana. She's busy this week helping to plan and execute her best friend's wedding, and she asked me (Mandi) to fill in for her. So let's get to it!

I guess I'll just hit them in order at first and see where that gets me. We start off the night with Mark Day, who is performing Gavin DeGraw's latest overplayed single, "In Love With a Girl". Mark does a stand-up job, and you can tell he's into it. He has a lot of energy, but there's no feeling. It's almost as though he's narrating some other guy's love story - like he's just singing the song the way it's supposed to be sung, rather than with any personal significance. Basically, his performance is good but shallow. The judges are kind of split. Farley says it best when he tells Mark that the performance was not believable.

Up next is Paul, who tells us that he came to Canada with his parents for a holiday eight years ago and never left. He's here now to entertain us by playing his guitar and singing "Apparitions" by the Matthew Good Band in that deliciously scratchy voice of his. He's not entirely captivating, but he manages to bring a lot of emotion into it. The judges give him very constructive criticism: FEEL your song, choose songs with more words to let Canada see what you can really do, etc.

They go to a commercial break after teasing me with the news that Drew will be performing next. During his interview with Ben, it is mentioned that his whole hometown is behind him, and I don't blame them in the least. I mean, have you SEEN him? And he only becomes hotter (if that was possible) when he tells us that he plays the drums. Drew is going to sing "The Grace" by Neverending White Lights (Dallas Green version) for us. It's a little too echoey for me at some points, but for the most part I think it's a pretty solid performance. The judges are supportive, but Zack thought it was somnambulistic. ("Somnambulism" is sleepwalking, for the record). While Ben is telling us what number to call if Drew is our guy, Drew looks up at him and he looks like a little kid. It's bloody well adorable and I gush a LOT.

The fourth performance of the night comes from Marie-Pierre, who tries to pull off Amanda Marshall's "Beautiful Goodbye" and, in my opinion, fails. She's a lovely singer, but similar to Mark, she doesn't make me feel anything. The judges liked parts of the performance, but think that her song choice could use improvement.

We learn that Mookie can play the piano, drums, and guitar, and hockey was his original passion – which definitely explains his hair. Unfortunately, he hurt his ankle before he was eligible for the OHL draft, so he turned to music. Tonight, he's singing "Naïve" by the Kooks. And hot-damn, is he ever singing it WELL. Boy knows what he's doing. The judges agree. They all adored him, and rather than, well, judging his performance, they start playing with words – Sass says the band should be called "The Mooks", and Farley coins the term "mookwalk".

It's Sebastian's turn. I'm really curious what he's going to do for us tonight, because he was so phenomenal last week. It turns out he's happy that the first week is over and he's going to try to relax and keep it light this time, by performing "Daydream" by the Loving Spoonful. As he starts, I can hear Ariana swooning, all the way out there in B.C. I notice a lot of random things about him, like that he uses his hands a LOT to emphasize points in the song, and that he seems to amuse himself greatly. The judges basically have nothing to say to him except that he's great and they love him and he should win. Oh, and Zack tells him that the performance turned him on, thus causing poor Sebs to turn away from the camera shyly. Somewhere out there, Ariana's heart is melting.

Martin, channeling his inner Peter Gabriel, is singing "In Your Eyes". I think he did a fantastic job of covering Blue Rodeo last week, and this is not quite as good, but I still LOVE it. He's the first person all night to give me shivers when he sings. The backup singers spoil it a bit, though. It would be better if it were just Martin and his guitar. The judges don't exactly dislike Martin's performance, but they definitely aren't swooning. Zack tells him that he doesn't have the same effect as Sebastian, who blushes again.

Lisa is up now, doing a pretty horrible rendition of Otis Redding's hit single "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay". She has a really strong voice, but it feels to me like she's only here to give us a good view of her tonsils. She's just completely ignoring the point of the song's lyrics. I didn't like this performance at all.

Gary rounds off the male component of the evening. He claims that he's a really funny guy, and that tonight, Canada is going to see the fun side of him as he performs the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version of "Mr. Bojangles" for his friend "Uncle Bug-eyes". First mistake: never EVER reference an inside joke on national television. Ever. Gary puts on a pretty solid, if not entirely interesting show, but it's tough to tell which part is supposed to be the fun part.

Amberly gives us the last performance of the night, and boy, are we ever going out with a BANG. She's doing Bread's "Everything I Own", which I don't realize I know until she starts singing. Girl is rocking OUT, people, and she's doing it well. The judges are totally infatuated with her, wondering out loud if maybe she's been planted on the show as a gag and is actually super famous in Europe or something.

Based on tonight's performances, my choices to be sent home this week are Lisa and Marie-Pierre, but I wonder if Canada is willing to send home a third of the remaining female population. Thoughts?

Tune in tomorrow for the likes of Jesse Cottam, Earl Stevenson, Oliver Pigott and more!

Tags: Drew Wright, Canadian Idol, Sebastian Pigott, Mookie Morris

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Original Comments Posted (1)

Ariana says...

Aces, dude. Seriously. I couldn't watch it, but I can't WAIT. (I love how Sebastian did the same song that made me fall a little bit in love with Jason Castro on AI this year, heh.) Sounds like amazing song choice all-around, though. Totally excited to see it! Ahhhh!

Jul 1, 2008 2:02am

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