Perla Meneses’ performance in Minneapolis is still getting a lot of attention, but the reviews are hot and cold. The general consensus is her heavily-accented rendition of Blondie’s “Call Me” was average, at best. Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly went so far as to say “Worst of all, though, was Perla Meneses. Okay, her hips may not lie, but they also do not mask one of the weakest voices to make it to Hollywood in the last few seasons. Unless, of course, you dig cut-rate Shakira impersonations.” Now in Meneses’ defense I’d like to say that she purposely chose not to sing a Shakira song in hopes of avoiding the comparison. Unfortunately that idea went down the drain as soon as Randy Jackson asked her to perform a bit of her favorite Shakira song. Now the comparison is inevitable, both have long curly locks, hips that don’t lie and hail from Colombia.
Jon Peter Lewis (American Idol season 3 finalist) is standing in as a resident AI expert for Rolling Stone Magazine and giving his opinion on this year’s crop of hopefuls. Perla Meneses was on his good list. Not being one to hold back what he thought, Lewis said “She’s from Colombia and can sing ‘Hips Don’t Lie,’ so she’ll be known as ‘the Latin girl.’ She seems to have the right T and A; the survival story…and her voice isn’t bad. She sounds like Shakira, and Simon seemed to like her.” So my question is does Lewis mean that Simon likes her voice or her T and A? I’ll let you decide that one for yourself.
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