American Idol Top 5: Paris

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#2. Paris Bennett

Musical Style
Barry Manilow said it best when he compared Paris to Ella Fitzgerald. She is definitely an old soul, with a beautiful husky bluesy sound. And she’s only 17.

Image
Oh, where do I begin with Paris? I love the girl, but its like she’s on her very own Reinvention Tour each week. She gives us a varying look every week with weaves coming and going. She’s a little girl playing dress-up but her constant changing looks have been confusing.

The Good
That fantastic voice, this girl can truly sing and as Randy once put it ‘you can sing anything.’ There is such control there, such command of her instrument that you know this girl could make it on Broadway tomorrow if she wanted to. Also, as much as I like to criticize her fashion sense, it seems Paris is the only one trying to liven things up by switching up and playing around with her image week in, week out (unlike say Chris, whose only radical look was wearing eyeliner during Queen week!).

The Bad
Not much I can say to criticize Paris, she sometimes picks the worst songs for her age (‘The Wind Beneath My Wings’? C’mon, Paris) and her lack of life experience sometimes fails her when she tries to connect with the audience, but these are only minor quibbles.

The Ugly
Her phrasing on some of the songs can be a tad hard to decipher. Those outfits can be atrocious at times, she’s been compared to Rudy Huxtable on TelevisionWithoutPity more than once, ouch.

Favorite Perfomance

Again we have to go back to week 10 when Paris sang ‘These Foolish Things’ in such a way that I could picture her doing that performance 50 years ago on the Ed Sullivan show. I also loved her take on Beyonce’s ‘Work It Out’ showing us that she is able to tackle a current song.