With a twist (of lime).

Uncle Nigel has been flitting about lately with tales of a promised mid-season twist that will “blow everyone away” and that also somehow involves the viewing audience. Well, I’m hearing rumors that the “twist” will actually be an episode in which the viewing public gets to vote on which songs the contestants will sing.

In theory, that’s pretty cool, but c’mon…they’ve got to safeguard this. From the producers’ standpoint, it can’t be a free-for-all; otherwise, sites like VFTW will do their best to spam the contest to ensure the most ear-splitting performances possible. I mean, yeah, who doesn’t want to hear Taylor Hicks sleepwalk his way through another drippy, romantic ballad like “Just Once,” or bear witness to Katharine McPhee butchering some more “Against All Odds”-ish power ballads? But for real, they’ve got to do this right. Having the viewers vote on a limited number of songs that have been pre-screened and pre-selected to fit the singer’s range and innate vocal abilities (and limitations) would be good, and is probably what the show will wind up doing (a la the “pick a song title out of a fishbowl” gimmick they ran with in season 2 — there were only four songtitles in each bowl, and they’d all been carefully chosen).

Sure, that’ll substantially reduce the “it’ll BLOW YOUR MIND!” impact that TPTB obviously hope it’ll have, but seriously, voting on song choices for the contestants isn’t really that exciting anyway. Oh well, here’s to the real “biggest shocker evah” being that someone who knows who they are musically wins this year, and that they actually get to make the kind of music they want to make. Talk about blowing America’s mind.

Know your current events.

Some of these articles come courtesy of the inimitable lisab over at MJ’s. Thanks!

So I’m feeling better this morning, which is good. But I’m still going to take it easy. Just ’cause.

Here’s a news article about Top 24 contender Leslie Hunt:

…Hunt comes from a family of artists and musicians, and she’s performed self-composed vocal and piano pieces locally at various establishments, including the Norris Cultural Arts Center. Hunt is a fan of artists such as Bjork, Nina Simone and Fiona Apple, who have made a living on the outskirts of the pop mainstream. And she has always been determined to become known for her own material — not for rehashing someone else’s songs.

An admirable and laudable goal, but I don’t see it completely happening if she wins the whole shebang. She may be one of the contestants who benefits from going out third or fourth and signing indie. We’ll just have to see. Oh, and here’s what one of Leslie’s former employers had to say about her voice:

Leslie’s voice is like velvet, while everybody else paints in Technicolor.

That’s very cool. And true, from what I’ve heard so far. A lot of the girls just seem so interchangable this year.

Here’s a little bit more about Nicole Tranquillo. She sings in a group called Soul School at U of Arts, and her parents encouraged her to try out for Idol. She never got to sing in New York, because police cut off the lines, so she went to Memphis instead. I haven’t heard a lot of her, but the buzz is that she’s a very talented girl.

Contender Rudy Cardenas plans to kick off the semi-finals with a little rock (more Journey), then move to some Latin-tinged performances if he advances. That could be cool and different–the closest this show has ever come to Latin is Gloria Estefan night and Shakira, singing in English, belly-dancing with Wyclef Jean. But Rudy, just remember — singing Ricky Martin doesn’t count.

Nicholas Pedro, who “bowed out” of the competition last year, rues the day he ever made that decision. He also enjoys the nickname “Boston Nick.” Oh no.

And finally, read more about Lakisha Jones and how she dedicated one of her performances to her daughter, Brionne, here.

Hey, remember that Chris Daughtry article I linked to yesterday? I missed one very interesting quote in it, and it comes from everyone’s favorite Dark Sith, Clive Davis. Says Clive:

He was the first Idol that I’d ever met who had material that he had written…That was compelling.

Umm…no, actually. Bo Bice had plenty of original music up his sleeve, too. But whatever, Clive. Whatever.

Katharine McPhee got another craptastic review today. From the Worcester Telegram:

McPhee’s self-titled disc is full of bad generic knockoffs inspired by established artists, including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani and even the Pussycat Dolls. It’s hard to catch McPheever when McPhee doesn’t even break a sweat. Instead, anyone with a smidgen of musical taste might have an allergic reaction listening to this disc…While you’re at it, how about standing up being your own person, not a cookie cutout of Beyoncé, Britney, Christina, Gwen or Mariah? (two out of four stars)

To be fair, the reviewer does seem impressed with the work she does on the ballads, so check out the full review if you get a chance.