Melanie - X-Factor - "Earth Song"

[Miguel]

Recap of Melanie's performance by Michael Slezak (Haley fan) of TV Line:

I know Simon would rather spend a season sitting between Kara Dio Guardi and Ellen Degeneres than admit he still carefully watches American Idol, but I can’t help but think his introduction of “Earth Song” as “one of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits” was a winking indictment of Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson acting as if the monster ballad was an obscure b-side when Haley Reinhart covered it during Idol‘s tenth season. (Good to know Simon is #TeamHaley, too!) But sorry, I know, we’re talking about Melanie, and Melanie’s rendition was, as Steve Jones noted, “epic” in its own right. I’ve played Melanie and Haley’s versions back-to-back and back again, and it’s interesting to me that Melanie’s rendition has a soaring quality — almost as if she’s witnessing the planet’s destruction from above, her voice gaining strength, her riffs on the melody becoming more daring, the more passionately she pleads for humanity to take action. (Ugh, sorry, I think Nicole Cirqueduwhatzit is rubbing off on me.) Haley’s rendition is more grounded, angrier even, as if she’s knee-deep in the pollution and war and poverty, and trying to wake up her brothers and sisters with the furious shake of her voice. But one thing the covers have in common is an uncommon beauty, the sense that an undeniable pop-Gospel hook is being deftly handled by a vocalist who’s not even breaking a sweat as she’s lifting up her audience and lifting the melody to the rafters.

http://www.tvline.com/2011/12/the-x-fact...l-jackson/

He also tweeted: