For the American Idol Top 8 return to the stage this week, Sam Woolf decided to take on the classic “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper. Of all the many song suggestions we saw out there for Sam about what to pick from the 80’s, we are amazed we actually pegged this one! However, it might nto have ended up being the best choice for him. Sam might just manage to tick on to the next round with this performance, but we think his time may have just run out.
After nearly being eliminated and only coming back for this round thanks to a save by the American Idol judges, Sam Woolf really needed to make the right song choice this week. Unfortunately, we really don’t think he did.
“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper has been done three times previously on American Idol by Brandon Rogers, Nadia Turner, and Colton Dixon. We just don’t think Sam came anywhere close to doing the song as well as Colton did (also a Top 8 performance you can watch here), and only perhaps a tad bit better than Brandon or Nadia.
Sam’s arrangement sounds odd in uncomfortable ways, unlike Colton’s take above, and it just doesn’t bring out the poignant emotive quality of the song. Sam’s voice is nice as always, but it just is not the big ‘moment’ he needed this week to keep himself out of danger of getting voted off once again — and this time going home.
You can also take a listen to the studio version of Sam’s song choice this week below.
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>> Watch all the American Idol Top 8 performances in our full recap of Wednesday night’s show!
You and your Sam haters! You just want him to go home so Jena or Caleb can win! Well too bad!! He is NOT going home
I completely agree with you!
I don’t think he’s going home soon, but I don’t love that song so it was a little meh for me.
We don’t hate Sam, we just have different opinions!
Great job Sam! always amazing… you have been my favorite since your first audition in Boston. Keep it up. Maybe sing one of your originals “i tried” or “apologize” by one republic next week. Go Sam!
I’m only a teenager but time after time is one of my favorite songs ever and my favorite Cyndi Lauper song, so when they said Sam was doing it last night I was like oh crap he’s going to butcher that! Then he started performing it and I saw he was doing an acoustic version, which made me feel even worse. But as the song went on I actually started liking it more and more and he was hitting notes I didn’t even know he could hit. I thought it was the best performance of the night and probably my favorite of all his performances so far. Almost everyone had loud really fun songs, and sam was able to just sit there playing his gutair solo and I really loved it! If he’s even it the bottom 3 I’m going to be so annoyed. that performance, in my opinion, deserves to be on top:)
And I am so glad he wasn’t in the bottom 3!