American Idol 2012 Tour

Last night, I took Broadway and Imagineer to the American Idol concert at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.  They were both SO excited to see their favorite contestants in person.

The night opened with Colton Dixon and Skylar Laine coming on stage to welcome everyone.  They are just so darn cute together.  I know, I know, they’re not dating.  American Idol certainly played up this “possible” romance for ratings.  I’m sure it worked.

American Idol 2012 Concert – Our Favorite Performances

After the welcome from Colton and Skylar, the group of 9 (everyone except Phillip Phillips) performed “Sing” by, My Chemical Romance.  Great start to the very upbeat evening.

The producers of the concert certainly jammed in a lot of music into about 2 1/2 hours, which was very much appreciated by the audience.

I thought I would list below our favorite performances from the evening, in the order that they were performed.

1. Erika Van Pelt performing Pink’s, “Glitter in the Air”.  Erika has an incredibly strong voice and pulled off this song with ease.  I think she was one of the more talented singers, and was cut off at 10th place due to her age of 26.  She has been interviewed about this issue, and she understands what the main demographics of the audience is – teenage girls.  The cute boys are favored as well as the younger contestants because they are more relatable.

2. Elise Testone performing Adele’s “Rumor Has It”.  I think this was the only time I have heard an Adele song performed by someone other than Adele that could be considered very well done.  She really knocked this one out of the park.

3. Skylar Laine performing Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead”.  This was probably in my top three for the night.  Skylar is just like she appeared on the show.  TONS of energy.  As Steven Tyler put it “You’re like a wild horse that refuses to be tamed”.  That comment just cracked me up.  Steven Tyler is so wacky and will definitely be missed next year.

4. Joshua Ledet performing James Brown, “It’s a Man’s Man’s World”.  I completely understand why the Idol judges couldn’t help but give him a standing ovation on almost all of his performances.  After this performance last night, almost the whole stadium was on their feet.  You just could not help yourself.

Note: Phillip Phillips did not enter the stage until 9:12pm.  The show started at 7pm.  That was a little surprising.  Nevertheless, the audience went bonkers when he came on stage.  Two of his performances made it on our favorites list.

5. Phillips’ rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” was amazing.  I loved hearing him sing that song on the show and in live concert, his voice was even better.  He has such a great smoky sound that really sets him apart from typical pop stars.  He reminds me of a young Bruce Springsteen in some ways.

6. Phillip’s original song, “Home” sounded fantastic in concert.  We purchased the single on itunes immediately after the finale.  We all just love it.

So, in a nutshell, its a really neat experience to see the Idol contestants in person and, I think, very inspiring for young kids to see that hard work does pay off.  Colton came on stage at one point and said that he could not believe that he was actually in the audience at an Idol concert last year.  Now, he has his first album coming out this Fall.  Incredible.

I just read today that Mariah Carey will be a judge next year for American Idol.  They have not announced the two other new judges yet.

Apparently the 21.5 million viewers for the finale this year was a much lower number than previous years.  They have hinted that the other two new judges are huge names in the industry, and will hopefully help to increase viewership.  Should be interesting.

0