Michael Jackson Week

Michael Jackson Week is the fourth episode of ORG Idol.

The twelve finalists were sent to the ORG Idol Concert Hall where they will perform songs by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Due to personal reasons, Chandni decided to leave the competition. Because of this, an elimination poll was not done.

Boo
Song: Man in the Mirror

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - Oh wow, you have backing music! It was such an awesome touch! You sounded so good and when I saw that you had picked Man in the Mirror I was very worried because this song was already performed by Jerby during part one of round one. Despite preferring Jerby’s I still really enjoyed yours too and you once again proved you have a very strong, capable voice.

Chandni
Song: I Just Can't Stop Loving You

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - You did a good job! I felt like you may have sounded a bit flat in some parts, but for the most part I really liked your voice in this song. Your voice has a really good strength in it, and it can get you far in this competition I believe, but it also has a tendency to not sound that great either. At this point my only advice is to keep practising and always choose your song very carefully.

Charley
Song: The Way You Make Me Feel

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - It just felt a bit weak to me. If I’m honest you were my personal pick for 13th place. I just feel like you hold back too much and as the competition moves forward no one can afford to do that at all. It’s like you are singing under your breath - and everyone always sounds alright when they do that. But they never sound great. You need to unleash your voice on us because I think you hold back way too much. No excuses next time. Give it to us!

Eden
Song: Ben

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - It was good - it felt like a fairly easy song to begin with, but there were definitely some hard parts that I think you handled well also. Maybe because you were last, I don’t know, but I found it a bit boring to listen to after a while. Maybe there is a subconscious advantage to early submissions? Haha I don’t know. I think just the song was a bit slower and maybe that is why. I think you’ve done better, and you will not doubt do better in the future too.

Jerby
Song: You Are Not Alone

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - OMG you picked one of my fave MJ songs! Not that I have an overly large list of MJ songs that I like… But this one is tolerable. Anyway the beginning was so lovely - it’s a nice, fairly relaxed song and so you really got to focus on just sounding amazing. You nailed it. As the song became more difficult you totally rose to the challenge and delivered really strong, powerful music. Those long notes are not easy to do - and I say that as a non-musical, tone deaf, ORG Idol Judge.

Jhet
Song: Billie Jean

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - Jhet! Even though you were singing a Michael Jackson song, it felt to me like Lana Del Rey. You have that slow, melancholic voice throughout and its nice, you gave MJ your own Jhetishness. So that’s cool. It was definitely not one of my favourite pieces, but it also wasn’t one of the ones i disliked greatly either.

Jordan
Song: Bad

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - This was definitely your weakest song so far. It’s a shame because you said you were distracted and I can completely understand how off-putting it must be to try to sing when other people are around. I could not do that. Still, we have to judge what you send us, and whether someone has a cold, had a bad day, or was distracted by people nearby, we have to judge the end result you turn in. Onto the song choice… MJ is one of those people who turns out some amazingly unique songs where his voice is practically impossible to replicate, and any attempt to try and do so is going to fail. Big time. I think this song was one of those songs. You are very capable of hitting the high notes, you’ve shown us this, but this song is just… ridiculous. I do not think anyone could really pulled it off. So assuming you stick around, please, please, PLEASE make your number one priority is your song choice. You should spend over 50% of your ORG Idol time in song choice mode listen to the songs, try singing them through, see which ones your voice struggles with and then axe them - then whatever remaining time you have spend with the actual performance. At this stage it’s not your lack of talent that is hurting you but a bad song choice. I know that it’s first come first served with song choice - and MJ had one of the largest pools to choose from so it will only get harder. Good luck!


 * UPDATE: Based on the second submission, I was much better able to see you actually replicate Michael - sure, I didn’t particularly like the sound, by my God, it you were hitting all those crazy notes that Michael was. Really impressive.

Kevin
Song: Beat It

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - When this song started I was pretty worried for you for a bit. But no, it was actually pretty awesome! You brought a very different sound to this round in the competition and I love a bit of variety. My only concern is that… you are relying heavily on the technology required to make yourself sound a certain way. To clarify, since I’m not sure if that’s overly clear, the other contestants are all submitting music that really showcases the talent of their voice. I feel with you the focus is less on your vocal talent and more on your ability to use whatever programs it is that you use, to put together a sound that is really cool, different, and nice to listen to. One problem I have with this is it makes it hard for me to compare you to the others. I love to compare. There is nothing against doing what you are doing, in fact, most music now-a-days is produced in a similar fashion, and gets altered beyond recognition. I guess I’m just voicing my dilemma on how I judge you against the people who literally just record their voice, with no background music or anything to aid them. The amount of effort that must have gone into the work you produced must have been huge. I would not even know where to start if I wanted to make something like that. So kudos! At the end of the day I want the people who give the best audio performance to continue to progress in the competition, people who can not only sing but really try to deliver. I feel like you are really delivering. So keep it up!

Marco
Song: Thriller

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - That laugh Marco! THAT LAUGH!! But hmmm, I should just judge your singing. I think your comment that you can’t really do MJ is valid. You still sound better than half the other contestants, but for you, yes, I think it’s a weak song for you. But that is fine, and it’s good that you know where a potential weakness for you lies.

Matthew
Song: Burn This Disco Out

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - Another MJ song I swear I’ve never heard before. Well this was good because you definitely got a chance to move away from speak singing! You really went for it. You were one of those people who definitely scraped into the final 12, and I think there is still a fairly noticeable gap between you and some of the other people leading this competition. Still it’s awesome that you’re fighting to stay in and I enjoy listening to what you have to perform each time.

Perry
Song: Black or White

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - Your voice was fine, not great, but fine. The song just didn’t seem to give you much opportunity to do much, or show us much. Which is a shame because I think at this point some of the judges are really trying to see more from you. So yeah - song choice is key here because like I said with some others, I don’t think it’s your lack of singing talent that could hurt you this round, but a bad song choice.

Sam
Song: Heal the World

Judges' Comments:


 * Richie - This was so much better than your last one so I’m really happy about that. You were initially one of my top picks so it was super strange that you dropped so low by the end of round one. Time to reclaim your singing rep! This was definitely back on the right track. You are pretty much the only person who is not using backing music (unless this is another case of it playing so quietly that I can’t hear it again!) - Obviously, you started very strong and at the end you had something that could only be likened to a performance catastrophe. So in future when you have something like that happen, my advice to you is this: Redo the entire song! I know it sounds like a bit of effort. But to be fair it only takes 5 minutes or so to sing the song and as the competition progresses we are going to have to pick on the small things to separate those who are safe from those in the bottom 3. And this was not a small mistake.

Trivia

 * This marks the first instance that an elimination poll was not conducted. It will occur once more during Team Week.