bunt sign live

Insane or amazing
Now that this year’s American Idol has its top ten, and we know who’s going on the tour, can we please start weeding out the also-rans? I’m so afraid that we’re going to lose someone really good in favor of someone who has a lot of fans for some reason other than talent. In my mind there are only four contestants who have a chance to win (or, to be more accurate, who should have a chance to win). If I could cut to the final four right now, they would be David Cook, David Archuleta, Carly Smithson and Michael Johns. Those are the contenders; the rest are pretenders.

One of my early favorites was Jason Castro, because he always seemed to connect emotionally with the song he was singing. But for the second week in a row he was just singing, not performing, and I’d be ready for him to go if the little girls would turn loose of their redial buttons. I still like Brooke White, and she has a very pleasing vocal quality, but I keep seeing uninteresting performances from her, and while I think there are others who deserve to go much more than she does, I’d be okay if she left this week.

As usual, Simon was a dose of reality amidst the otherwise incoherent judges’ panel. I thought, as he did, that Ramiele Malubay was shrieking just a little by the end of the Heart song, and I agree with him that Syesha Mercado took her vocal beyond the range where she’s easy to listen to, although in general I liked the sassy attitude of her performance.

But why, Simon, was Chikezie’s performance “cheesy,” while Kristy Lee Cook, who chose the cheesiest song in history and didn’t really sing it all that well, got credit for a “clever” choice and her best performance “by a mile.” Huh. I’m here to tell you I’m glad Chikezie is still on the show, because he always entertains me, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how Kristy slips through every week with one substandard performance after another.

As for the big four, I actually liked what David Archuleta did with a song I wasn’t familiar with, and I got chills when David Cook did his indie version of “Billie Jean.” To me, Michael Johns is still the most polished performer on the show, and his Queen medley stood up well. But my only votes tonight went to Carly Smithson, both because she somehow was in the bottom three last week, and because I thought she was unfairly trashed by the judges after what I considered a stirring version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” She has star power, and I don’t want her to leave just because Simon felt “something didn’t quite work.” Well, it worked for me.

Advertisement