AI Top 7 Rankings and "Falling Slowly"

My rankings of the performances from last night's American Idol:
1. Kris Allen
2. Adam Lambert
3. Danny Gokey
4. Anoop Desai
5/6. Allison Iraheta or Matt Giraud
7. Lil Rounds

As Quentin Tarantino pointed out, Kris embraced this week's theme the best with his song choice of "Falling Slowly." It was simple, emotive, and current. Actually, Kris' song choice could be compared with Adam's choice of "Mad World" from last week. I have more to say about "Falling Slowly" later in this post. Stay tuned.

Adam was back to the whole glam rocker thing this week. The songs he and Allison chose are not ones I like hearing covered, whether that's because I don't like the song or because the original singer is incomparable. I wish that Adam had taken a Billy Idol type of approach rather than the frenetic and theatric heavy metal approach. Allison sang her song in too low of a key, even with her alto voice. I think the judges gave her better compliments than she deserved because she had the first performance slot.

Danny did really well I thought. A couple of times he started to go all out on the vocals, but pulled himself back in. Anoop also did well, although I can tell he's reached the end of the road as far as singing skill goes. I like Bryan Adams, but Anoop's and Matt's performances were boring and forgettable.

Matt... Not a good week for you yet again. He started out well, then fizzled on the bridge. Supposedly he did fine at dress rehearsal. So his nerves once again got the better of him.

Lil. I have nothing to say.

Here's a funny recap by two young girls that gave me a good laugh. Karen will appreciate their Adam comments!

Now, back to "Falling Slowly" from the movie "Once". I remember first hearing it at the Oscars and it winning the Oscar for Best Song. "Once" was the little movie that could, and I think the song is what pushed it that far. I got chills when Kris started singing it in front of Quentin Tarantino. I thought I'd share some videos from youtube. I found the original soundtrack with stills from the movie as well as lyrics from the chorus. I also found a really nice performance of the song sung live. The third video I found is from when the two songwriters won the Oscar. (Check out Viggo in the audience near the end!) I think I'll embed the first one and provide links for the other two:
1.

2. live performance
3. winning the Oscar (nice speeches about hope and dreaming big)