American Idol's James Durbin Sings “Uprising” on the Top 7 Show

American Idol Season 10's Rocker James Durbin sings “Uprising” by Muse on the Top 7 Show. The theme for tonight was 'Songs from the 21st Century'. James choose this Muse song "because up until this point, I haven't gotten the chance to show that I can be contemporary." James had a very strong "post-apocalyptic, protest" vision for this song.

What do James Durbin's fellow contestants have to say about him? "James Durbin is the Rocker of the group," says Casey Abrams. The kids go on to josh about James' Rocker hand movements, his 'tail' and his high-pitched back bends.

Once again, this is not American Idol, but a James Durbin-headlining arena concert! James enters the darkened stage with a drum corp, dressed very dramatically in an old-fashioned black military coat with epaulets and a black cane. (I'd wear the outfit/costume to a Steam Punk club.) James commands the stage with amazing confidence and swagger. His vocals are amazing. The high notes are pitch-perfect, and held seemingly forever. The crowd and judges go wild, and the applause goes on and on. Jennifer Lopez raves, "That is going to be theatrically the best performance of the night. And, you're only number 2! That was really amazing. Wow, that was the highest we ever heard you sing ~ or anybody on the show!"

Randy Jackson said, "I'm telling you something, Muse is one of my favorite bands. That song "Uprising" is amazing. I hope you follow this direction when you make a record after this, and throw some of your Metal thing into there. It makes you a whole different kind of artist. Dude, you were unbelievable! I think this is gonna be the best performance of the night. I heard tell that Matt Bellamy, the lead singer of Muse, sent you an email saying "when you sing the last chorus, up the octave. I'm gonna challenge you." And Matt, he did it! He slayed it!"

Steven Tyler joked, "You stay out of my closet now. Mad Max meets Storm Troopers on Melrose. You'd be surprised how expensive it costs to look this cheap. That was crazy good. You took it up again. It sounds like you're going in a T-Rex direction. I love that about you. I love that you're out of your mind, and beautifully so."

All About MUSE
Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards, keytar), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass, backing vocals, keyboards, guitars, harmonica) and Dominic Howard (drums, percussion, synthesisers, backing vocals, sampling). After the release of their 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations, keyboardist and percussionist Morgan Nicholls has performed live with the band. Muse are known for their energetic and extravagant live performances, and their fusion of many music genres, including progressive rock, alternative rock, space rock, pop music, heavy metal, classical music and electronica, with recurring themes of revolution.

Muse have released five studio albums: Showbiz (1999), Origin of Symmetry (2001), Absolution (2003), Black Holes and Revelations (2006), and The Resistance (2009). The band have also issued three live albums, Hullabaloo Soundtrack (2002), which is also a compilation of B-sides, Absolution Tour (2005), and HAARP (2008).

Black Holes and Revelations earned the band a Mercury Prize nomination and a third place finish in the NME Albums of the Year list for 2006. Muse have also won numerous other music awards throughout their history, including five MTV Europe Music Awards, five Q Awards, eight NME Awards, two BRIT awards, an MTV Video Music Award, four Kerrang! Awards and an American Music Award. They were also nominated for three Grammy Awards, of which they won Best Rock Album for their fifth studio album, The Resistance. As of November 2010, Muse have sold over ten million albums worldwide

source:wiki