American Idol - Top 8: Inspirational Songs (ugh)

Last night, because this is Inspiration Week at Idol (what with the Idol Gives Back junk etc), the theme of the week was songs that inspire. Get ready for danger, Will Robinson!

Here they are, with hopefully brief comments from me:

Michael Johns - "Dream On", Aerosmith: Didn't see the performance, but saw the judges comments. Sounds like I didn't miss much. Seeing his brief recap at the end of the show, sounds like I didn't miss much.

Syesha Mercado - "I Believe", Fantasia: The second week in a row of picking a big song, and the second week in a row of just missing the mark. A good performance, but deemed irrelevant because it doesn't match the original. I'm starting to wonder about Syesha and how she talks herself up as being a wacky girl. I never see any of that. Maybe she needs to bring a bit of that to the stage?

Jason Castro - "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", as performed by Israel "Iz" Ka'ono'i Kamakawiwo'ole: It's rare that a performer on American Idol performs a song that I could see myself illegally downloading and having in my large library of songs so that it might pop up in shuffle mode once every three years. This was one of those performances. It was charming, as Jason always is, but this time there seemed to be something behind it, emotionally. The performance of the night, for me.

Krisy Lee Cook - "Anyway", Martina McBride: Anyway, she's still here. Good performance, but she has absolutely no stage presence.

David Cook - "Innocent", Our Lady Peace: His worst performance to date. Not good at all. His previous weeks have given him enough credentials to allow him a bad night or two, so no worries this week. Bad performance, though.

Carly Smithson - "The Show Must Go On", Queen: Didn't like this at all. Despite your big voice, I think you might be in trouble this week.

David Archuleta - "Angels", Robbie Williams: A good performance, solid and all that, but rather bland in the grand scheme of things. A great performance from anyone else, but from AI phenom Archuleta, we now except Wow! everytime. This wasn't Wow. Second favourite performance of the night, though.

Brooke White - "You've Got A Friend", Carol King: Not a very good performance, really. Is Brooke having an emotional crisis on stage? She seemed weirdly odd after the performance. What's up with that?

My bottom three of the night: David Cook, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook

America's bottom three as predicted by me: Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Michael Johns

Leaving, as predicted by me: Carly Smithson