Articles by Ruth Boulet

by Ruth Anne Boulet Oy. Nothing makes me want to get out my walker more than the annual ‘the year they were born’ edition. I was generally either in college or graduate school when this year’s crop was born. (And isn’t that master’s degree in journalism doing me well?) But to begin Idol acknowledges the tragedies happening in Japan. Proceeds from downloads of tonight’s songs will go relief efforts. So if you want a song, buy it tonight. Or even better, just donate to the relief agencies directly, would ya? Naima Adedapo — What’s Love Got to Do With It […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet Ryan is all emotional about the 30 million votes last night. Awwww. America likes us. America really likes us. Apparently we still have the judges save. Why on earth would they use the judges save tonight. It’s round one. Casey Abrams is sick again. Dude, what do you have going on? Severe stomach cramps again? But we don’t dwell on that too long. Instead we focus on the really cool mansion the kids get to live in. Like they’re almost going to have time to enjoy it outside of filming that video. Group number! Michael Jackson’s […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet Tonight’s theme is the contestant’s personal idol. How about something unique, Idol producers, like sing the songs of the band you hate. THAT would be interesting. Lauren Alaina — Any Man of Mine by Shania Twain In Lauren’s intro package she talks about how nerve-wracking it was to work with Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy Iovine then says Lauren’s going to be a star. Subtle. Shania is not my idol so I’m not digging Lauren’s performance. She seems to be phoning it in, even thanking the audience before the music is out. Steven doesn’t call it beautiful! He […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet When did Steven Tyler become such a wuss? Ryan asks him the simple question of ‘who was better, the girls or the guys?’ Steven can’t say. Jennifer can’t say. Randy can’t say. WOULD SOMEONE HAVE SOME FREAKIN’ COJONES AND GIVE AN OPINION? It’s not like you’d crush either the girls or guys if you simply say that one overall was better than the other. If a contestant is crushed by that level of rejection, the music industry will put them through the mill. They would be better off kicked off Idol now and not go through […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet Did you know that the contestants are singing for their lives tonight? They sure are, ’cause Steven Tyler told me so. Ta-Tynisa Wilson – “Only Girl (In The World)” by Rihanna So given Steven’s ultimatum that these girls are singing for their lives tonight, I’m not sure how much longer Ta-Tynisa has to live. She probably had a case of nerves, but she never quite hits the notes. Could be that she couldn’t hear the band. I can’t imagine that if she could hear the band she would sing like that. Steven says she sang the […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet Let’s not mess around. On to the performances! Clint Jun Gamboa — Superstitious Clint gets a great pop-arty kind of background on the new pumped-up Idol stage. It’ll be interesting to listen to other singers, as Clint seems to be getting drowned out by the band. Could be that since Idol re-arranged things it’s harder to hear them. Steven thinks Clint’s great. Jennifer thinks he’s nervous & Randy thought it was brilliant. Oh, Randy. I’d save that superlative for later. Use it for the first guy out of the gate and you kind of sound desperate. […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet So this episode is 2 hours of recaps, people walking down a drag queen runway and either humiliation or jubilation. And there were planes. Planes behind the contestants, planes behind the judges. Planes everywhere. Did I leave anything out? The thing that kills me about the “Green Mile” episodes is that you would think over the course of 3 hours we could hear more people actually sing. Yet there are some contestants that we have still never heard. It’s like they should be given a t-shirt that says: “I made it to the Top 40 of […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet Learn & perform a Beatles tune in 24 hours. That is what the final whatever (61) contestants need to do to make the top 24. Those remaining contestants get to walk “The Green Mile” to learn their fate. They need to learn their tunes in pairs and trios. Apparently there is no drama around group selection, as Idol doesn’t show us any. Whoop! Just saw White House Intern Girl. Gotta give a shout out to my friend Tom who’s been looking for her. She’s still in it at this point, Tom. Peggi Blu, a vocal coach […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet This point in the competition always seems to slow down to a crawl. I appreciate being able to hear more singers, but after awhile the backstory-singer-singer-backstory pattern can get monotonous. Especially when singers repeat the same song over & over again. The only difference is where they put the extraneous & completely unnecessary runs. Like My Prerogative. Yes, that Bobby Brown classic roared it’s ‘wow this doesn’t display any vocal range’ head again. Chris Medina and his sad story took that song on as did Carson the crazy blonde guy. Carson is this year’s Norman Gentile […]

by Ruth Anne Boulet There’s this German word that I love because it is just so freaking German. It’s schadenfreude — taking pleasure in the suffering of others. Isn’t that just so German? It’s also the perfect word to describe the group round in Hollywood Week on American Idol. Watching talented people on little sleep have to navigate staging and arranging a song as a group number is perfect popcorn-popping television. It’s right up there with watching Renovation Realities on DIY Network. Oooh! You think you can renovate a master bathroom in a week!? Just before Christmas?! Pass the popcorn! […]