"God Bless the Child" on Idol?

I won't say his performance was perfect by any stretch or that it was not somewhat over the top. After all the kid is a kid and a rank amateur at this point.

However, he was auditioning to demonstrate what he is capable of, and he put everything into doing that and the results were eye opening and demonstrated his huge potential.

Like I said, I can't wait to see where he goes from here.

It also appeared to me that the lyrical content of teh song he sang had to be a big part of his motivation while performing and his reaction afterwards.

I need to get my son to read the lyrics to GBTC.

Interesting stuff.

First, let me say that this was the best performance I have seen on Idol in ten years (second was Fantasia Barrino's Summertime).

Second, Schipo / samual, you could not be more wrong. Obviously, the lyrics had a deep personal meaning to this kid. No one sings himself to tears, just for dramatic impact. He was singing about himself whereas BH was singing about some other "child". Different context, different song, different art. Everything he did with the song was sincere, heartfelt and genuine self expression.

Edorr,

Nicely stated!

I tend to agree with your assessment.

I could not get a read on what the lyrics meant or didn't mean to the singer just from watching his performance or tears afterwards. My take was that he had huge adrenaline going, spent every last dime of his energy and the aftermath was the release of all the emotion, energy and stress that had built up inside.

Now, maybe the song did have personal meaning as well but how would anyone know that, unless there was some explanation I missed? It's a cooler story if it did, but no way to know.

If he had skipped the scatting and delivered the song with one or two less pyrotechnical runs from high-to-low it could have had an even greater "effect" on us. It still ranks as a very memorable audition, maybe the best on the show. To me though, he was intentionally showcasing his every talent during the song, which detracted 'slightly' from the impact it could have had. That was my only criticism, if you could call it that. Can't wait to se that develop.

If he pulls the same vocal stunts singing yellow submarine on Beatles night, you'll be proven right.... Until such moment I say he was just emotionally connecting with the lyrics of the song and spilling his guts on the stage.

Of course the posterchild of over the top vocal runs was Adam Lambert, and then there was "scatt no matter what" Blake Lewis.