Damian McGinty on Glee Project Semifinals!

In which all of a sudden Nikki thinks Damian is a rock god!  And Ryan tells him he did great “as always!”

It’s the last round before the finals on The Glee Project.  Three wil go on, and one won’t. Will Celtic Thunder’s Damian McGinty, from Derry, be one of them?

The theme this week is  “Generosity.”
(the Wiki site for this show explains all the rules more succinctly than the show page, with contenders’ ages and status in a chart)…

Kevin McHale, who plays Artie on Glee, is the guest, and the homework song is “Lean on Me,” and it really suits Damian’s baritone although he still smiles too much.

Actually everybody’s voice sounds good.  Alex’s falsetto styling sounds great in the end, and Lindsay put a lot of passion into her vocals. 

Kevin likes the way Damian smiled through it, but picks Lindsay for the win.  It’s her first win.  And uh oh that has lately not been a lucky thing.   The group number is “Sing”, and they are going to play musical instruments as well as sing. But– but– does anyone play an instrument?  Sam raises his hand as the only one who plays an instrument.  I’m a little surprised Damian doesn’t play, to be honest.

Damian says it will be easy to fake with a guitar, but it will be a shambles if he gets drums.

Choreographer Zach Woodlee assigns instruments.  And he assigns drums to Damian.  It is pretty funny watching them bang around on instruments like kindergardners.

Liam with Damian

Because it’s about generosity, they all are assigned partners they have to share their solo with– little children! Nikki Anders tells Damian “of course” you’re with Liam.  I guess, of course because Liam is the last one left after the others are assigned, not because Liam is an Irish name.

“He’s 11 years old, but this guy knows what he’s doing,” Damian says.  Liam plays the drums!  Damian tells him he’s sent from Heaven to help him!

Nikki thinks Damian is becoming a rock god in the recording booth, and she says “I don’t even know what to think about Damian anymore.  Who is this person and where did he come from?”  Interesting.  Maybe it’s a good strategy to come from behind, not that Damian was necessarily planning that.  It reminds me of when I used to teach, and it always backfired to be nice at first.  You’re much better off being really really tough and then easing up when they don’t expect it.

It’s kind of funny how Damian is learning from his mentee instead of the other way around, and knows it. Damian’s voices stands out in the video as being really strong, again.  He gets some feedback that he forces a little with his face, which makes his lip-synching less real. 

And suddenly we learn that Ryan needs feedback from Ian Brennan the writer, to decide who to write a part for, and Ian will be judging all four in a last chance performance.  This doesn’t seem fair, but oh well.

Damian gets assigned “I Gotta Be Me” a la Sammy Davis, Jr.   That should be right up his alley, since he loves Dean Martin!

Neither Robert Ulrich (casting director) nor Zach will speak up for the kids.  Or, it has to be said, speak against them.

Damian admits he was in a slump a few weeks ago when Cameron left, because the judges clearly didn’t like him (seriously, he’s buying that whole “Cameron saved me” thing?)

I have to admit smiling at Samuel not knowing “My Funny Valentine” at all.  Alex has “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” which is tough for him because it was sung at his father’s funeral.  And Lindsay gets “Defying Gravity,” from Wicked, which any Gleek has just got to know (Idina Menzel, peeps).

Alex really sounds amazing in his solo.  Chills-making.

Ryan calls Damian “Mr. Personality,” and how every week he’s gotten better and better and better and he’s the one you root for the most.  And he sounds great with “I’ve Gotta Be Me” and he looks like he’s having fun when he sings to the band.   He knocks over the mike stand at the end!  Ryan says “a good punk rock move there.”

Ryan tells him that vocally he has the hardest road and he knows that.

He tells Ian he wants to be a singer, he wants to be an actor, he just wants to perform.  He wakes  up in the morning in the morning thinking about it, he goes to sleep thinking about it.  And Ryan tells him “you did great, as always.”

Ian thinks he would be a good freshman, and Brittany would never understand him.  Ryan laughs and says “it writes itself.”  That sounds promising.

Lindsay’s voice sounds very sweet on “Defying Gravity.”

Ryan also tells her she did great.  And that he always kind of wanted to cut her but he never can, because we need her in the group.  Ryan tells Ian that Sam has Jesus and some bible quotes tattooed on his body. 

Sam sounds a bit like the Elvis Costello version of “My Funny Valentine.” He’s a little tentative, and has some trouble on the high notes.  But it has a lot of atmosphere.  Ryan says again how he’s been talking about writing a different kind of Christian character on Glee. 

Is Ryan actually telling him he’s weaker because he hasn’t broken down yet?  Yep, he is.    Hoo boy, and now Sam is really pouring on the god talk because he knows Ryan likes it.  Ian thinks the other three seem so authentic.  But any one of them, we’d be blessed to have them, he says.

Sam is wishing he’d been in the bottom three every week, and he just found out that Ryan wants him to be vulnerable.  That’s actually kind of funny, when you think about it.  He wants to be vulnerable, in order to succeed!  It would be an oxymoron if it weren’t so effing true in this process.  It is funny that the better you do, the less Ryan sees you, and if the goal is for him to be inspired by you, how does that work?  shouldn’t the winners be seen even more than the losers?  

Damian thinks it’s all a blur.

But whatever happens he’s going home a better person.

The callback list is up.
Damian’s in the final, and his response is just adorable, he hops up and down. 

Fake out!  They’re ALL called back!

It’s a final four!  There’s a big old group hug.

And there’s no sad goodbye number for anyone. 

Next week’s the season finale!  What do you predict?  What do you think?