American Idol 10: James Durbin Too Good to be Blindsided

Bear with me for the last time.  We have our own AI favorites, though. But looking back, American Idol just got a somewhat SNOOZY finale. From Wednesday night’s Top 4 performances through Thursday night’s elimination, May 12, 2011, the show became more intense.  Not one pundit had seen it coming who was going to be sent into the void every week. And things had finally gotten really real as Lauren Alaina swung to the Top 3 and Haley Reinhart grumbled from a certain limbo to a safe seat. She had a glaring thumbs down that Randy Jackson harshly said “screaming” when she rendered Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song.” The look on his face said it all: Either James Durbin or Scotty McCreery was under the “chopping” block.

The AI judges had declared him as the frontrunner. Steven Tyler couldn’t help but praise Durbin, saying, “I just love that you are out of your mind beautifully so.” But America did not agree and sent him packing. The fourth-place curse continues. James was booted off fourth place, the same spot as Tamyra Gray of Season 1, LaToya London of Season 3 and Chris Daughtry of Season 5.  He had never been in the Bottom 2 before and was one of the favorites to win.  He may not even be everyone’s cup of tea; but it was undeniably obvious that he was really good.  He had his own envelope-pushing way as the show reaches towards its stretch run.

Finally, Ryan Seacrest dropped the bombshell. James Durbin’s face was palpable as he plummeted in a “blaze of glory.” Evidently, it will be JD’s lasting image standing on the center stage.  His eyes full of emotion as he was trying to hold back the tears (when JLo could not). You could just see upon the judges’ faces the awe and the crowd booing. My eyes were glued  on the show in disbelief.  The turn of events had me completely shocked. All the controversies this season about the audience being biased toward male contestants, now Season 10's final three were two women and a sole man.

It was hard for James to whoop the final moments up in the spotlight. "I worked so damn hard to get here. God, I’ve done so much stuff that's never been done before. In my eyes, in my mind and what I believe is that I did what I came here to do, and that was to give metal a chance. And to bring it and give 110 percent every week!" his voice cracking, his face in tears.

James Durbin just confronted every performance and executed it head-on, and without effort those high notes gave a free rein his love of hard rock and tender ballads in one swoop and straddled the line between rock and pop and went with each song with gusto. He had baffled the odds. Despite dealing with his double devastating setback, Tourette's and Asperger's syndromes, JD is not about to let anything drag him down, much less stop him. He made a name for himself with a series of hard-rock performances, which were often against the advice of AI’s mentor, Jimmy Iovine.

James Durbin just blew the roof off the American Idol dome with his amazing performance of a musical composition of Matt Belamy "Uprising," a Platinum-certified Muse song. Another first in Idol-dom’s history, a theatrical bang, where he emerged from the audience fully costumed as James was escorted onto the stage by a marching-band drummers.  He full throttled into the song and strutted on the stage in duds which were incredibly rock star.  He swayed microphone scarves a la Steven Tyler.  He had hang-free earrings, faux hawks, leather jackets, skin-tight jeans and boots ; you name it, he had it. He had even worn Matthew Bellamy's look, worn a long leather jacket with shoulder fringe. Boy, whatever the clothes on his back, he had worn them well.

The most uncommon notable achievement in this show was that James Durbin can sing them all and really, really well.  He was not just contained in one genre.  He can even comfortably “park” in any genre and sing an affectionate and muzzy narrative song of Carole King; melancholically sing Bon Jovi’s ballads; belt out a digital rock like the Muse’s and music characterized by aggressive, driving beats and highly amped distorted guitars generally with grandiose lyrics and virtuosic instrumentation. 

James Durban had the judges and the audience raving. He was electrifying, proud to do his own thing and wild, that’s why people kept wanting more and more of him. Just like what Randy Jackson said, “We are going to go out on a limb and going to make through another week of performances.” In one of those  Steven-Tyler-speaks “lala-gaga-yaya,” throwing off a one-liner “rich vein of inner crazy” was his way to express James’ all-over-the-stage, bold, high-energy performances. Jennifer Lopez put it, “You know what that showed me, that you can sing anything.” 

And noting yet another twist of fate in an already-surprise-heavy season in American Idol Ville, unfortunately, it was in America’s hands not the judges.  It was an upset, really, on American Idol-dom. Hats off to JD and I applaud him for turning in one after another superior performance every week. Too bad, even record-breaking performances and numbers weren’t enough to save him. Well, this was just one of those rarest of feats in American Idol Ville, and one has to go.

And finally gaining control of himself, James belted out his encore performance of "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney and the Wings, grabbed a hug here and there from the audience and from his friend Casey Abrams and an embrace from his fiancée. And for the last time, he never failed to amaze everyone as he ended the serenade on a high tender note.  James Durbin had created one of the most emotional sendoffs in the just concluded AI season memory on an elimination night when few boded he was even in the running to pack his bags.