“Idol Gives Back” Part II
April 25th, 2007
This week’s results show was extended to two hours because of the special continuation of “Idol Gives Back.” Ryan announced that they received over 70 million votes last night, which beats the record of any American Idol Season. This meant that Newscorp would be donating 5 million dollars to their cause. Ryan then went to the video monitor to show Ellen DeGeneres at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. She was there to introduce Earth Wind and Fire, who were performing from the Hall. They did a medley of some of there old hits.
They showed a video of Randy in New Orleans. Even two years later, the state has still not been restored, and nothing was being done for some of the people who live there. There was a family with 6 children living in a tiny space that was only supposed to be a temporary relief, but turned into a permanent home as nothing is being done for them.
The next clip showed Quincy Jones with the idols. He was preparing them for their group performance on the show tonight. They did a really good job with it, and all sounded good individually. Ben Stiller then came on with a video clip. He started singing and said he wouldn’t stop until they donations reached two hundred billion dollars. He did a good job of entertaining, and it was a funny surprise.
They showed once again Ryan and Simon’s trip to Africa. They said there were 1.2 million people living in a space the size of Central Park in New York City. There was a little boy who lived completely alone with his sister. When their parents passed away, they were forced to live and survive on their own. It only costs 16 dollars to educate a child in Africa for a whole month.
Paula visited the boys and girls clubs of Los Angeles. There are 4000 of these clubs across the country and they serve as a safe place for kids to go after school. They are so significant for cases where both children’s parents work, and without these centers, the children would sometimes be left alone in dangerous neighborhoods.
The next performance of the night was Il Divo, singing “Somewhere.” They were really good, and it was an awesome performance. Ryan then said they were going to pull a seat number from the audience, and that person could come up on stage. The person turned out to be Jack Black, and he came running up on stage. He then started singing “Kiss From a Rose” by Seal. He asked for critiques from the judges and they all were really harsh with him, except that Simon said he was better than Sinjaya. It turns out that Seal was actually sitting in the audience and told Jack that it was the best rendition of the song he’s ever heard.
Carrie Underwood actually went to Africa to help with some of the children there. They made a really amazing video of her time in Africa with the song “I’ll Stand By You” playing in the background. It was almost like a music video layout.
After the video, Rascall Flatts performed their song “My Wish” at the Hall, and they were awesome too. The next performance was Josh Groban singing “You Raise Me Up,” along with an African children’s choir. I thought it was a really inspirational performance, and the choir was so adorable. I think my favorite performance of the night was Kelly Clarkson. She just sang so beautifully.
They did a skit of the Simpsons where Simon was auditioning for American Idol, and Homer, Lisa and Marge were pretending to be the judges. The next performance was really crazy because they did some sort of hologram of Elvis Presely singing, and Celine Dion was singing beside him. It was amazing to see, and I’m still in awe of how they did it, and made it look so completely real. I just can’t believe that they can do something like that. The final performance of the night was Annie Lennox, singing “Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and of course she was amazing as well.
The best part of the night was that everyone was safe! However, it didn’t seem as exciting after Ryan said that they would instead send two people home next week.
The show finished as the idols had a session with Bono, and then sang “American Prayer.”
They had various stars make short appearances by video, including David Swimmer, Terri Hatcher, Dr. Phil, Hugh Grant, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gweneth Paltrol, Goldie Hawn, Mark Anthony, Chris Kattan, Rob Lowe, Lisa Kudrow, Kiera Knightly, Twiggy, Jason Biggs, Kevin Bacon, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Madonna and more.
Jon was really glad that Lakisha picked this song because he said it is a more soulful song. I was hoping that Laskisha would have a better week this week. I have to admit that the beginning of the song wasn’t my favorite, but once she got into it, it was just perfect. This was exactly what Randy said…that the beginning was a bit pitchy, but the middle and end really captivated everyone.
