The Utube Blog

I love this woman, but sadly I picked Bo Bice at the start of the competition to win Idol in the year she won.  I did think that she had one of the most amazing tryout performances on Idol, but that year I was rooting for a rocker.

Review: I’ve just looked at FOX’s new “on demand” website. Go here.  I really wonder how this beta FOX site will exist alongside FOX’s joint video project with NBC, www.hulu.com.   That part is not yet clear. To access FOX’s new beta site, you may have to download a plug-in to start watching. But once you do, it’s well worth it. The menu starts out with this cool spin wheel, like on the Price is Right.

And then once you watch a show, the picture is in high def (at least for The Sarah Connor Chronicles). It’s breathtaking.

I only hope that FOX puts American Idol on the Internet.

This is Simon Cowell’s American Idol-like show in the UK. Unlike American Idol (whose rights are owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns MySpace, a competitor to YouTube), the X Factor has its own channel on YouTube. The outrageous video above seemed to me pretty staged. The singer in the video below is pretty good.  Th X Factor UK just joined YouTube this month.  I’m sure it will get a lot of views.

I’ve been grading law school exams, so it’s a good time to grade myself (and take a slight diversion from YouTube). Back in February (see here), I made my predictions for the Top 5 Finalists on American Idol out of 24 contestants. It’s sort of an annual guessing game I play in trying to predict who will win Idol months before the winner is selected and usually after only seeing the contestants once. This year, from the final 24, I correctly predicted 4 of the eventual Top 6. That’s not bad.

But, unfortunately, the two that I didn’t pick were the last two women standing, Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks. I admit I made a big mistake in not selecting Jordin (I selected the one-hit wonder Stephanie Edwards instead). I never quite understood the fascination, though, with Melinda, the media’s and the judges’ absolute favorite this year. Yesterday, Melinda was booted in what the media called a “shocker.” I was only shocked that she lasted this long.

Truthfully, this year of American Idol has been pretty forgettable. Some have called it the worst Idol ever. That’s probably true. The guy who has made it halfway interesting is Blake Lewis, who can “beat box” (for those of you who don’t know, it’s basically making sounds like a record scratching and other hip hop/house music noises) in the middle of his singing. Blake’s beat box version of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” (also here) was the most creative thing ever on Idol.

Blake Lewis also salvaged my predictions this year, since I had him in the Final 2. That keeps my string of predicting at least one of the final 2 contestants going, now for 5 years and running. I goofed up, though, in predicting the winner, since my girl (Lakisha Jones) is already out. I’m definitely slipping. Oh well.

Top Favorites (Today) in All

News: It’s easy to tell these days when someone on American Idol has given a spectacular, show-stopping performance. Multiple clips of the performance end up on YouTube and it becomes a “Top Favorite” among users. Yesterday, Blake Lewis gave a mind-blowing, beatbox rendition of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” (video) and now Blake Lewis owns 6 of the Top 12 Favorited videos on YouTube (in the past 24 hours), all for that one performance, which has generated hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of comments, and 4 or 5 stars.

Analysis: A lot of people have been complaining how boring American Idol has become this year. This one performance by Blake Lewis may have just saved the season from absolute boredom. The creativity of this guy is completely off the charts. That was the most original performance on Idol, ever.

And my guess is that the Idol format has been limiting Blake from showing off his full repertoire of musical talents. It would be scary to see what this guy could really do.

Sorry, because I’ve had a busy week, I don’t have a Video of the Week selection this week. But in its place, I again have a few comments on American Idol. The last time I posted about about Idol, the post drew a lot of interest. So here are two more posts that I posted on the In re blog, which is written by one of my students. I’ll be guest blogging there for a little bit:

1. Has American Idol abandoned last year’s winner Taylor Hicks?

2. Did Antonella Barba get a raw deal on American Idol?