Much better energy this week, maybe because the singers felt less overwhelmed than having to sing Beatles' well-revered songs. Some song choices were weird; some were amazing. And, listen, are they as goofy as they sound in interviews? Can't be, can they?? Syesha's baby crying thing was funny, once, but please I don't want to hear it ever again. And why do we have to know that Carly ran to the bathroom before singing? Much too much information. (There's a rumor that she's pregnant (angry tatooted people having babies - ick) but that's a different story.) And how about that Randy and Simon are agreeing on many of the performances instead of sniping at each other?

David Cook - 1 - finally a song that didn't start quiet and build to a screeching crescendo! this was great and an absolutely fantastic performance; David hits notes so square-on and full-voice that it's a real pleasure to listen to him
Michael Johns - 2 - super cover of "we are the champions" a major crowd (and me) pleaser and which he did very nicely, my usual objections to his voice notwithstanding
Syesha Mercado - 3 - over-wrought for my taste but she sounded terrific
Brooke White - 4 - booorrrriinnnggg and way too much of the same old same old (a commenter on the TV Guide blog suggests that Brooke and Jason could tour together which is cute except the audience would need lots of caffeine)
Carly Smithson - 5 - yelling angry-face-making smug tattoo lady . . . is all I can say
David Archuleta - 6 - if he doesn't stop singing "meaningful" songs he's going to bore me (and lots of his fan base) to death; Simon was almost certainly correct about the song not having been his choice; rumor has it that Daddy Archuleta is a controlling and dominating guy who's almost certainly trying to game this thing (hey, maybe he advised Kristi, too)
Jason Castro - 7 - he acknowledged he could have spent more time practicing and his playing shouldn't've been so sloppy but, uh, if you don't practice hard for gazillions of people watching Idol, who the H do you practice for??; anyway, despsite his awesome voice this really was pretty bad or, as Simon put it, like someone singing in the subway; ugh
Ramiele Malubay - 8 - cute personality but such a boring singer she makes Brooke seem exciting
Kristi Lee Cook - 9 - so calculating that I could barely listen even though I love the song and don't mind her normally
Chikeze Eze - 10 - slow, often off-key, boring; love him but it wasn't at all good

My prediction is that the bottom three (if they announce them) will be Jason, Kristi and Chikeze. Rami should be in that group but I doubt that her fans can part with her cuteness yet; she's gotta go soon, though, cuz she's either too young or just doesn't have that je ne sais quoi that's so hard to identify. Kristi, also cute and apparently really nice, is too boring to last much longer and last night's choice was just way too manipulative for which the consequence should be her banishment. The consequence for Jason's sleepwalking should be to scare him into cutting the hair and shaping up his singing though I suspect he'd languish his way out of feeling alarm. In the end, and although I like him, if anyone is eliminated tonight, I think it will be Chikeze because sometimes he's terrific (two weeks ago) but sometimes he's pretty awful (last night). We'll just have to wait and see. . . .

Labels: a.i., a.i.7, tv