Dude, Australian Idol rocks. It has more varied performers, many of whom are songwriters, they get to use their guitars for auditions and later in the competition, the judges actually give helpful advice, and after the semi-finals, Australia and the judges together have chosen an absolutely stellar Top Twelve–lots of different styles, good voices, good performers, and they have a very good sense of who they are as artists, which translates into better song choices and everything else. Everyone I loved got in, and nobody I hated did. It’s an even better top twelve on average than last year, I think. And now, as if they weren’t already awesomer than American Idol, they’ve gone and put all the performance videos (including those from earlier seasons) up on their website, freely viewable from anywhere. So instead of uploading everything myself, which takes time and is also of questionable legality (who am I kidding, it’s illegal), I’m going to post a highlight or two as they come up and then direct anybody who’s interested to go watch the rest of the videos at australianidol.com.au/video.

Australian Idol does their semi-final round differently than we do (though I think we did it more this way the first season or two); they split the top 24 into four groups of six each (two sets of boys, two sets of girls), and each group performs on a separate night. After each set of performances, the public votes and the top two go straight into the Top Twelve. So by the time they’re done with that, there are eight in the Top Twelve and sixteen who aren’t. The judges choose eight singers who didn’t get voted through immediately to come back and perform again as Wild Cards. So then those eight perform, and the public votes, and the top two from the public vote go into the Top Twelve, and the judges pick the final two to go into the finals. All this is done in one week, which is nice and speedy. Anyway, I give all that because I’m posting a couple of performances from the first round and a couple from the Wild Card round, and I refer to the Wild Card round as such, so I didn’t want to confuse anyone.

After the jump are videos of some of my favorite semi-final performances, and links to the others.

Holly Weinert

I picked Holly as one of my favorites from the auditions, and she turned in one of the best semi-final performance as well. With her it’s as much her ability to interpret the song as her voice in and of itself–the light and shade she brings out is gorgeous. I’ve heard several people sing “Easy,” but hers is my new favorite rendition. It’s got just that touch of languor and laziness that fits the lyrics. If she continues to do as well with interpretation and song choice, I’m totally behind her.

Mark DaCosta

Mark wasn’t shown in the audition rounds, so I didn’t know what to expect from him, other than his video package said he had been performing gigs around Sydney (I think–some big town) for years and thus had more performance experience than most of the other contestants. Let me tell you, it showed. His was the first performance of his round for sure, and possibly of all the contestants up until that point, where I sat up and went, now THAT is how you perform. But I actually decided to put in his performance from wild card night instead of the first one (after much internal debate), mostly just because I like the song better. After this performance, Australia voted him straight through. I would have disowned the show had they not.

Natalie Gauci

I was a bit disappointed by Natalie’s first performance, and apparently Australia was too, because the judges had to bring her back for wild card night. And she delivered like whoa. She picked a song much better suited to her and she was absolutely brilliant. If she keeps this up, she’ll be there up to the end. As a side note, I don’t really like “Feelin’ Good.” I think I’ve just heard too many mediocre singers try to cover it, but I really enjoyed Natalie’s performance. So when you factor in my bias, I really REALLY liked it.

Benjamin McKenzie

Not to be confused with Benjamin McKenzie. When Ben walked into the audition room, nobody thought he’d have anything remotely like a voice–but he surprised everyone, including me. He’s got a wonderful low dusky range, and a lot of heart. It’ll be interesting to see how he does with different themes, though.

The rest of the Top Twelve

Roughly in the order in which I like them:

• Brianna Carpenter – Fidelity (Regina Spektor) – Such a perfect song choice for her. If she keeps up that sort of intelligence about her style and abilities, and keeps her quirkyness, I’m right there. I think she went a little too cutesy with her performance this time, though, so I hope she’s able to find a good balance in the future.
• Matt Corby – I Wish – I just think he’s adorable. I didn’t have quite as much of an inappropriate crush on him in this performance that I did during the auditions, though–a combination of the ginormous scarf and lack of guitar, I think. The scarf thing was an epidemic that night. They need to stop.
• Jacob Butler – Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol) – He’s on a BritRock kick, apparently, which works incredibly well for me, and I hope he continues to pick BritRock songs to sing, at least as much as he can within the confines of the themes. I hope he changes them up a little more in the future than he did this time–I mean, it’s a good vocal on one of my favorite songs, but it’s pretty much exactly the way Gary Lightbody sings it.
• Lana Krost – Big Girls Don’t Cry (Fergie) – I was totally scared when I heard she was doing a Fergie song (since my knowledge of Fergie songs is largely confined to “My Humps”), but this is a nice little song for her and her voice. She’s got a Broadway-type background (whatever Australia’s equivalent to Broadway is; I’m sorry for my US-centric terminology), and while her voice isn’t quite as bowl-you-over strong as some of the contestants here, she’s got an extremely appealing sweetness to her.
• Carl Riseley – Home (Michael Buble) and Bye Bye – Crooners/swing singers tend to not do well on American Idol, but I’m curious to see how Carl does. His isn’t my favorite voice, but I like him a lot, and I love swing. He’s a trumpet-player, and you can hear that come through when he sings–I like that a lot.
• Daniel Mifsud – Tip of My Tongue and Lay Your Love on Me – He was another one of my audition favorites; he disappointed me a bit in his first semi-final performance, but his Wild Card performance was better. I’m not sure I totally love him (mostly because I find the style of music he seems to be gravitating toward a little boring), but he’s very easy on the eyes.
• Tarisai Vushe – River Deep Mountain High – Objectively speaking, Tarisai has one of the best voices in the competition, hands down. It’s strong, confident, great quality, and she turned in one of the most competent performances of the semi-finals. The only reason she’s way down here on my list is that I like so many of the other styles (Brianna’s folksyness, Holly and Mark’s rock, etc.) a lot better than Tarisai’s divalicious belting. Completely a personal preference, and I’ll actually be very surprised if she’s not around for a long time.
• Marty Simpson – Over My Head (The Fray) – I don’t know how I feel about Marty…I actually really like his voice when I hear it alone, and I like him as a person. But he hasn’t quite got how to perform with an audience yet, I think. He was like, in his own little world up there, and he just sang. He sounds good, but he needs to learn to open his eyes at least. But Australia voted him through immediately, so maybe they’re seeing something that I’m not. We’ll see. In any case, the fact that I like Marty as much as I do and I’ve reached the last of the Top Twelve speaks volumes about how much of a fan I am of this group.

Last but certainly not least, last year’s winner Damien Leith came back to do the single from his first album, which is in stores in Australia now, but you can’t even import it here yet, and even when you can, it’ll be MUCHO EXPENSIVO. *sigh* I wish everything were available for sale everywhere in the world at the same time, and without high import costs. Seems so silly to me. Anyway, here’s Damien. Who I *heart*.