Canadian Idol Final Two. Now We Wait and Wait and Wait.

So Blogger chewed, swallowed, and didn't burp back up my brilliant post on Canadian Idol. After much gnashing of teeth and sinking of head, I've regrouped and rewritten a duller version. Sigh.

The final two have sung the final three songs. And now we wait...and wait...and wait. More on that later. But first my impressions of last night.

Craig Sharpe stepped it up with his first song of the evening, the Idol Song. Zack Werner was so happy, he ran up onto the stage and hugged the guy. For the first time, Craig had put effort into his singing. But not as much effort as Eva Avila. One could see hers after she sang the Idol song, her second song. She put everything into her performance, passion for the lyrics, passion for the singing, passion for performing her very best, and left it all on the stage. She shone. She did it again in her last song of the evening, her favourite one of all those she'd sung throughout the competition. It was the one that made me first sit up and take notice of her, and with the band behind her, it might even have been better. With each song, with each performance, she competed harder, poured more emotion in, exerted herself more, if that was possible. Even Sass Jordan, who normally slathers compliments all over the boys while being muted with the girls, complimented her effusively, if a bit cerebrally.

Craig, on the other hand, was uneven. He went back to his usual performance level for his personal choice, his second song. And although the judges were not enthused with his last song, his favourite of all the ones he's sung these past few months, I thought it was his best performance in the sense that the song seemed to mean something to him. So why didn't he put more effort, more physical work into it?

If performance, passion, and preparedness are what's important, then Eva will win hands down. If regional voting, and cutie pie voting are the order of the day, then Craig will win. But it would be a disservice to him. When we're not ready, then we cannot take advantage of the opportunity when it comes. And Craig is not ready. He seems to come from a happy home life, which is good, but not so good when singing about being bereft or lonely or whatever. Those emotions he may not have really experienced or feel strongly, and he lacks the imagination to conjure them up in his singing. He'd be better off spending some time in obscurity, going through a couple of tough times (and to a teenager, the littlest becomes the most tragic of events) so that he can experience and thus put that missing passion in his singing. Right now the passion is all cerebral.

Eva, though, is ready. She's shown that because, as the judges pointed out, she's learnt to be vulnerable, she conveys the feeling and meaning of the song, she's improved with each performance, she's put more effort in week after week. This week she looked like a big star does after the first two songs: covered in sweat. Well, she wasn't covered, but she sure shone. That was how much she worked physically, unlike Craig, who didn't break a sweat, not even in his last song.

And now we wait for the results. And wait. And wait. Why do we have to wait six days instead of one? Who would put these two kids through that ordeal and why? I wondered if it was because the Toronto International Film Festival needed the theatre for the rest of the week, or if the big performers are unavailable until Sunday, or if Sunday nights are the big ratings time -- although until last night, I hadn't thought so. This morning, I checked the TV schedule. Doh! Of course!! The answer is obvious!!!

When a Canadian television station has to choose between an American show and a hot Canadian one, the answer is easy: American of course! Why CTV cannot fathom the idea of broadcasting a show in a timeslot different from the American broadcaster, why it cannot champion its own programming above that from a foreign country, is beyond me. And so Canadian Idol ends as it began and as it was constructed. That says it all about our national self-esteem.

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Previous posts on the top ten:

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Top Four

Top Five

Top Six

Top Seven

Top Eight

Top Nine

Top Ten


Comments

Havril said…
Okay, if it's down to the end, maybe I should tune it. Do you happen to know if I can get the episodes on youtube with Ben Mulroney edited out?
Ben Mulroney ain't THAT bad! LOL!!! Seriously, he's gotten much better, for example, he no longer waves the mike around when speaking into it.

At idol.ctv.ca there's a box (if you can find it on that very busy page!) on the right for recaps of eps you've missed. YouTube doesn't have any of the official Idol stuff, but you can always plug your ears and watch others' versions of it!