So Close But So Far Away: The Hollie Cavanagh Story. I fully expect that to air on Lifetime never (unless she blows up after this which, who knows, she totally could). Last night, Hollie Cavanagh was eliminated from American Idol, but she made it to the Top 4 and had quite the “Idol Journey.” She started out strong, blowing us away with a selection of diva songs, but faltered right around “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
Hollie had a voice as clear as a bell, and always surprised us with how much power a girl of her size could produce. But she couldn’t quite make The Climb to the Top 3 (see what I did there? Yeah you did). Here are 5 reasons I think Hollie Cavanagh was eliminated.
1. Jessica Sanchez
I’m not blaming Jessica Sanchez directly, but Hollie and Jessica are both power singers. It didn’t help that Jimmy kept comparing them, and lauding the work of the all powerful Jessica Sanchez. In the end, Jessica ended up choosing songs that had a bit more power to them, and delivering ace performances in the female ballad category.
2. Song Choice
Hollie didn’t always choose the right songs, and when she did she wasn’t always able to connect to the words. This week, she chose “Faithfully” but admitted to Ryan that she didn’t really understand what it was about. She had sort of a country vibe from time to time, with “Jesus Take the Wheel” and some Bonnie Raitt, but it never quite connected. She should have sung “Firework” or something in that genre. When she chose right, she was amazing. I still maintain that one of her best performances was “Rolling in the Deep.” I also loved her performance of “All The Man That I Need” for Whitney Houston week. She works the best when she can savor those big, long notes.
3. A Bad Week, When Everyone Else Had a Good Week
This was a tough week. Hollie Cavanagh made it to the Top 4, with some stiff competition, and everyone else gave one of their best performances for that second round, when Hollie’s performance of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” fell short. Randy Jackson told her “it never had a moment,” and the other three performances were full of moments.
4. Personality/Performance
This is a minor flaw, really, because Hollie Cavanagh is adorable, and her buddy relationship with Joshua was really endearing. But she wasn’t always able to translate that personality into her performances, which either failed to connect or seemed too technical. As a singer, she was perhaps too technical, sometimes struggling to relate to the emotional content of the song.
5. Votes
Plain and simple, there were four contestants left, and Hollie didn’t have the votes. She was in the bottom two or three five times before she went home this week, so it seemed like she was just hanging on. Still, Hollie is an enormous talent with a successful career ahead of her if she can get matched up with the right songs.
(images courtesy of FOX)
Writer, BuddyTV
Originally from Seattle, Carla recently took a husband and moved to Austin, Texas, where she is finally using her television “problem” to her advantage. It’s sort of like Dexter, but boring and less murdering. Carla’s favorite shows include 30 Rock, The Amazing Race, Project Runway, Modern Family, anything with murder, and pretty much anything gross and weird (CSI, The Bachelor, Toddlers & Tiaras, etc.). Favorite canceled shows include: Arrested Development, Veronica Mars and Average Joe. In her spare time, Carla leads tours of downtown Austin on a Segway (don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!), blogs about Netflix Instant, and visits elementary schools telling children they don’t need math to succeed (just kidding, stay in school, kids).
