American Idol - Top Ten, or, Is This Thing On?

I was pretty much bored by this week's show. Here's why:

Ramiele sang Heart's "Alone". I didn't like it. I have yet to like a performance by her, although this one, admittedly, crept closer to likability. Not close enough, though. She'll be bottom three.

Jason Castro sang Sting's "Fragile". Simon was right on when he said is was like a street busker performance. And right again when he said Jason needs to take it to a serious level. He's pretty much just floating by, week after week. He needs to land one. He'll be bottom three.

Syesha Mercado sang Stephanie Mills' "If I Were Your Woman". Didn't like the song, but liked the performance of the song I didn't like. Some nice big vocals, performed well-enough.

Chikezie sang Luther Vandross' "If Only For One Night". Some nice moments on a Vandross ballad, but overall, kinda flat. But I'm still liking Chikezie more and more each week.

Brooke White sang The Police's "Every Breath You Take". You're losing me, Brooke. I didnt' care for this arrangement. You sang the notes okay, but you seemed like you kind of lost any momentum you had when the orchestra came in to make the song bigger. I agree with whichever judge said it would have been better if it remained just you and your piano. Didn't like the arrangement. At least you weren't so much a chatterbox this week when getting judge's criticism.

Michael Johns sang Queen's "We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions". No doubt about it, you nailed it, vocally. And you looked totally comfortable on stage. That's good. What's bad, though, is that you brought nothing new to the performance. In fact, you have yet to bring anything original (that's good) to any performance you've done. So, in the end, this performance tells me you'd be great as a singer in the Queen musical, or in a Queen cover band. But there doesn't seem to be much of interest that you'd bring to your own recordings.

Carly Smithson sang Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Parts of it were really good, vocally, other parts (especially that last note) not so much. My problem with the performance was that it seemed to be too fast. Perhaps that was a problem with the amount of time you have to perform and to get enough of the song in you have to up the tempo, I don't know. Still, a pretty good vocal, but still I find you a bit of a bland gal. I wish I didn't.

David Archuleta sang John Farnham's "You're the Voice". Don't know the song. Didn't care for your performance of it. You sang well enough, technically, but there seems to be something missing. Is it that you're trying too hard? Maybe. Bad song choice and you just didn't do anything special with it. Good vocally, but so what? We want you to wow us. You didn't.

Kristy Lee Cook sang Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". She sang it well, but really, it's just an anthem. Who can't sing an anthem? The patriotic flavour of the song should help her get some good ole country boy votes, so she should be safe. I'll guess she's bottom three though.

David Cook sang Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone goes on with how fantastic it was, the way you sang it and arranged it. How wonderfully inventive and original you are. That all may be true, but honestly, I cannot get past your raspy-rocker-voice vocals and how tired I am of that sound. I realize that's more a problem of mine and not yours. But I find it really hard to appreciate your musicality when I cannot tolerate the sound of your voice.

Bottom three: Ramiele, Jason & Kristy Lee. Reserve bottom three is Chikezie.

To leave: Probably Ramiele, unless there's some sort of Ramiele Voter League that I don't know about.




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