In the intro package Jimmy Iovine made his prediction for the finale: there will be a guy in it. Yeah. If DialIdol is to be believed, Scotty pulled in double the numbers of votes than either Haley or Lauren last night, which is unsurprising given that he's routinely been killing the votes all season long (again, if DialIdol is to be believed). So it was basically one spot open for one of the ladies.But on a more important matter: Jennifer Lopez was wearing terrible shorts. Just terrible.
Before we got into home visits, the Final 4 (so, obviously this was filmed prior to last week?) went to visit J.J. Abrams at Bad Robot Productions, and got to see a screener of "Super 8." Or maybe they just got to see the trailer that's been out for months? That's all they showed us, but Abrams suggested the contestants saw stuff that nobody else has seen. I'm confused. And then he gave them all Super 8 cameras so that they could film their hometown visits for this week. That's cute. Back in the studio Elle Fanning, who is in the movie (and is Dakota's sister, I believe), was kind of a grinning, breathy weirdo as she said that her 6-year-old cousin just loves Scotty. Am I the only person who feels that the movie pimping is way more egregious this season? That was a solid five minutes devoted to "Super 8."
The first home visit was Haley, who returned to the Chicago area. It was raining for her parade in Wheeling, and people were spazzing out. Do people really act like that? It's just so ridiculous. She was very sweet and charming throughout the whole thing. She went to the same racetrack that Lee DeWyze performed at last year, I think, and then she ripped up a song about Chicago in front of 30,000 fans.
After the pleasant but forgettable Ford commercial, Italian vocal group Il Volo came out to sing...in Italian. What the hell was that? I mean, the guys had great voices - REALLY great voices - but lord, what a goofy bunch of kids. And they were singing "O Sole Mio." The whole thing was basically scientifically designed to sell millions of CDs to the frauen of America. And I bet it will be a rousing success. But if you need an example of how brutally un-hip this show has become, look no further than that performance.
Next it was Scotty's home visit back to North Carolina, and predictably he was absolutely swarmed with fans, especially of the screaming tween-girl variety. Scotty really is very charming and seemed very humble throughout his home visit. He even broke down in the car after leaving his high school, and that was a totally genuine moment of a young man being overcome by emotion. When he did his live performance he started in with the "Baby Lock Them Doors" song and was surprised on stage by Josh Turner, who I guess sang the song originally. The whole package was extremely endearing.
Former Pussycat Doll and upcoming "X-Factor" host Nicole Scherzinger came out to perform her new single, "Right There," featuring 50 Cent. She was wearing this bizarre skeletal swimsuit thing covered in feathers or fur or string - the whole thing was whack and did nothing for her figure. I actually like Nicole and think she's quite talented, but for whatever reason her several attempts to launch a solo career have all flopped miserably. She was actually singing during this performance, which I appreciated. 50 Cent came out with his charisma-free rapping. How does that man have a career?Lauren's home trip was up last, and she returned to Georgia. She was sobbing on the plane before she even landed. Lauren had a big crowd, and went back to her high school, which was clearly very emotional for her. She then went on a tour of the destruction caused by the tornados at the end of April, and just lost it - a high school where she played basketball was demolished. She met with a little boy who helped his family after the tornados, which was very manipulative on the show's part, but Lauren's reaction to all of it was sincere and very moving. For her live performance she was singing to a back-up CD - there wasn't a band they could hire for the poor girl?
Results: 95 million votes - the biggest at this point in any season - put Scotty into the finals. Well, duh. And the other member of the Final 2 was...Lauren. As I figured. So it is officially our Battle of the Bumpkins. Two teenage country kids (youngest F2 in the show history) who are both exceptionally talented vocalists in their genre, but neither necessarily do anything unexpected or exciting. And that's something Haley absolutely brought to this competition over the last couple months.Haley was very cool and grateful in her parting words, and then she appropriately sang the song that first made me love her -- "Benny and the Jets" by Elton John. No matter what happens next week, Haley is THE story of Season 10 for me. She came out of nowhere and fought her way right up to the Final 3, giving us one of the most unique voices we've ever heard on this show, ever. Love her, would totally want to see her in concert som.
From:rochestercitynewspaper.com
