American Idol 8 Top 7 Disco Week Recap

Last night on American Idol, the Top 7 (again!) sang disco songs in an effort to make it to the Top 5 (two will be eliminated this week). Some people really turned out a great effort while others missed the mark.

Lil Rounds kicked off the evening with her own rendition of “I’m Every Woman” (Chaka Khan) but the judges were not too fond of her performance. Some even described it as being all over the place and I have to agree. I was not overly impressed either.

Kris Allen was next and he chose to sing the Donna Summer classic “She Works Hard for the Money” which really surprised me. After some strange comments about shopping in the women’s section by Paula, it was clear that the judges loved the original arrangement (it did remind me of “Long Train Runnin’” by the Doobie Brothers, though).

Danny Gokey tried to sing “September” (Earth, Wind and Fire) all the way to church and he almost got there. The singing was really good but I think most of the judges agree that Danny needs to break out, take some risks and become more original.

Allison Iraheta took on “Hot Stuff” (Donna Summer) which I consider one of the more cliché disco songs out there. It’s been in a million commercials and I just would not have picked it. She tried a different arrangement on it but not all of the judges liked it. Still, Simon said it was brilliant considering her age and the genre.

Adam Lambert might have been the most surprising with his version of “If I Can’t Have You” (Bee Gees) from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I think everyone was expecting him to jump out of a cake wearing leg warmers or something but he, again, proved to be unpredictable and the judges loved it.

In contrast, Matt Giraud picked the most predictable and obvious song for Disco Week and it wasn’t even that good. He sang the Bee Gee’s iconic track “Stayin’ Alive” and, like Simon, I thought it sounded desperate and corny. Matt can sing but he needs to take it down a notch.

Anoop Desai, sporting brand new facial hair and a bright pink sweater, closed the show with his rendition of Donna Summer’s “Dim All The Lights” and it was not his best performance, in my opinion, and Simon agreed with me. The other judges seemed to enjoy it though.