Top 10 Girls: Lady Marmalade

At 10:00 AM on Tuesday morning, the guys found out that they would be performing first, rather than the girls who were scheduled to sing. Due to a reported complication with diabetes, Crystal Bowersox became extremely ill and had to be rushed to the hospital. In an effort to allow her the chance to compete, they made the swap. This left the fellas with less than 7 hours to prepare (they film around 5 PM in LA- time zones are crazy!). Luckily for us, they seemed to have gotten the memo after last weeks horrendous showing, and performed remarkably better. They seemed to rise to what could have been a very stressful situation and made the most of it. Maybe this was because they didn't have time to psych themselves out and just had to go out there and do it. Or maybe it was because they ditched the nerves after the first performance (for the most part). Either way, it was a step in the right direction.

So, how did the ladies fair? They had an extra day of rehearsal and fine-tuning, so I was expecting a marked improvement here as well. I wasn't disappointed. Many of the gals showed us that they deserved to be where they are. Does this mean that they have won me over for this season? No. They still have a lot of work to do to top any of the past 3 seasons. I'm not sure if that's a reasonable expectation (probably not), but at least the contestants are developing. Like I said earlier, a step in the right direction. Baby steps.

Ok, on to the reviews!

Crystal Bowersox- "Long As I Can See the Light" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Crystal is up first. This girl is a trooper! Not only did she have the fight in her to perform after being hospitalized, but she came on that stage and killed it! This is a girl who is serious about making a name for herself in this competition. Switching up the arrangement a little, she brought a gospel vibe to a '70s folk song and it fit perfectly. When she mixes her acoustic with some soul, she is amazing. I think this was her best performance by far, and that is coming from a guy who loved her version of "Natural Woman." She knows who she is as an artist and is unwilling to compromise that. I can easily see her being the next Melissa Etheridge/Bonnie Raitt. Her confidence is unwavering and she is incredibly likable. She just put her name back on the ballot for front-runner.

Haeley Vaughn- "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus

Haeley hit the trifecta this week for me, but in a bad way. 1) She sang Miley Cyrus, who might be the least talented superstar in the history of show business. If Miley can sell million of records, I don't see why any one of us can't as well. 2) She sang the song worse than Miley Cyrus. I wasn't sure that was possible. I guess Haeley can defend herself by saying that she doesn't have all the auto tune that Miley does, but still. 3) I just don't get anything about her. Her song choices are terrible for her voice, which is interesting in it's own right. She has a pretty large range, as I've stated before, and can hit some notes with a power that many of the other girls don't possess. She just doesn't know how to control it or harness it for her own benefit. She was pitchy for most of the song, struggling mightily on the bottom end. I also agree with Simon that she is too "smiley." Yes, it's ok to have a bubbly personality and to always be happy, but when you are singing a song that has a serious message to it, like overcoming adversity, you don't want to be grinning like an idiot. Not just for the aesthetic value either. Smiling brightens up the sound of your voice and can cause it to sound overly harsh. Some songs just don't call for a "bright" vocal. Some are meant to be darker and more somber. She still has a lot to learn, but I'm not sure she will be able to learn that on Idol's stage. I think she might be in trouble this week.

Lacey Brown- "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer

Will we ever really know if Lacey was planning to sing this song this week, or was she just brown-nosing to Kara? I doubt we will ever find the truth, but that shouldn't matter, seeing as Lacey should be packing her bags and heading home after tonight's elimination results. She performed the song well enough, I suppose. It was peppy and "cute," but those kinds of performances are easily forgettable and don't give anyone at home a reason to vote for you. She brought no originality or style to an already plain song. In a competition like this, you at least have to throw in a decent trill or an extended note for the audience to latch on to. That's what they want to see. They don't want to see mediocre vocals that show that you might not deserve to be there. She has done this two weeks in a row now, and I think she will pay for it this week. Of course, I said that last week, and she was safe, but she definitely showed that she is the weakest link on the girls side. Bye Bye, Lacey.

Katie Stevens- "Put Your Records On" by Corinne Bailey Rae

Katie Stevens might have my favorite overall voice in the competition. Her tone is so warm and smooth, and let's face it, it's all about the tone this year. So far we've heard a lot of her voice in that lower, alto register, but in this song, she gave us a little bit of her upper register as well. I enjoyed it. Her flips to head voice were seamless and easy and still maintained the pleasant tone. I agree with Randy about Katie. She has the voice to slay some harder songs if she really put in the effort. This was another safe choice, but she did a good job of listening to the judges critiques from last week. It's funny that they are trying to push her into this teeny-bopper, pop box and she is resisting as much as she possibly can. Can a 17 year old not like more mature music and be better vocally that most kids her age? I think that she needs to take only so much of their advice. I would suggest staying young, but doing something challenging and fun. Christina Aguilera's "Come On Over" would be a good choice. They have very similar, thick tones and Christina is much more difficult to sing than Corinne Bailey Rae. I think she is safe for a while.

Didi Benami- "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers

So, Didi really is Brooke White 2.0. She looks just like her, cries just like her, has the singer/songwriter vibe just like her, but can sing a little better. In this version of "Lean on Me," Didi was trying to show everyone how she wasn't just a nice voice with no tricks. She laid on a heavy dosing of melisma and even had some dynamic notes thrown in there. I think she sang her notes fine. She hit most runs and sounded good tone-wise. The issue I had here was that it was the whitest version of this song I have ever heard. This tune calls for massive amounts of soul to be channeled by the singer. Otherwise, it becomes cheesy. I fear that's what most people took away from the performance. Technically, it was well sung, but it was the wrong song for her. That is not who she is as a vocalist, even though she can sing all the notes required. Didi is having some issues with song-choice and I think she might be suffering from the side effects of doing such a good song in Hollywood like Andrew Garcia. She needs to find a way to bring both sides of her act together: she needs to pick a song that she can relate to and perform well that is in her genre, but add the little pieces of flair to show that she is not just another Brooke White. Safe this week, but no longer a front-runner.

Michelle Delamor- "With Arms Wide Open" by Creed

What in the world? I understand risks, but when you take risks, you should at least use good songs. This song became old and overplayed a week after it hit the air back in 2000. She tried to infuse some R&B stylings to it, but it came across as forced and clumsy. He runs weren't there this week like they were last week. Her tone wavered a bit throughout the song. Her belted notes seemed small and powerless. She even switched to head voice on many of them rather than staying in chest voice. It surprised me that she would be so bold (aka so wrong) this early in the competition, when all she had to do was gain the R&B vote by singing a different song that was less obvious than Alicia Keys. I think she could be in a little bit of trouble this week. I'm not sure if she has the fan base to carry her through bad performances.

Lilly Scott- "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke

"Congratulations, you just had your first *moment*." ~Kara. I will disagree with Kara on this point. Sure, Lilly did Lilly and changed the song up to make it more her style, but that doesn't mean it was all THAT great. This is one of the greatest songs of all time, and I was not buying her kool-aid like most of the judges were. She tried to employ too many different vocal styles to it, I thought. One minutes she's light and airy, the next she's trying to belt out high notes, the next she's trying to throw a big run in there, and the next she's trying to change up the phrasing. I'm all for stylizing a song, but that was too much variety. She also didn't have to change the arrangement up that much. Adam Lambert gave last seasons most incredible performance with his own rendition of this song, but he still stayed true to the original melody, paying homage to Sam Cooke's classic. Maybe most other versions of this song are going to pale in comparison to me after last year's, but I just thought that hers was ok. We learned nothing new about Lilly from this performance, or what she is capable of. And that is sad, because I like her, but I think she is capable of more than she's showing us.

Katelyn Epperly- "The Scientist" by Coldplay

This was quite possibly my favorite performance of the night. As most people know, I'm a sucker for piano driven ballads. I don't know why, I just am. Katelyn, behind the keys of an all white piano, performed an emotionally charged version of one of Coldplay's biggest hits. It may have been a tad slow for most people's liking, but I loved it. What it lacked in tempo, it made up for in sheer honesty and superb delivery. This was the first performance that I've seen from an Idol contestant in a long time that felt genuine and sincere. She told a story with her performance and drew you into what she was feeling. Simon called it "corny," but I think her connection with the song was actually inspiring. Aside from one missed run, I did not hear any vocal flaws at all. She has this great, smokey voice that we were never shown in the early rounds. I agree with Kara on this one- I'm kind of loving her right now.

Paige Miles- "Walk Away" by Kelly Clarkson

Paige has been heralded as having the "best voice of all the girls" from Simon. I think this is sort of like him saying that Lee Dewyze has the best voice of all the guys, but no where near the same extent. Paige can sing safe things well. She has a good, middle ground voice that can hit most notes of a typical melody perfectly fine and sound great doing it. My issues with Paige regard anything out of that safe range. She doesn't have that great of a range, she doesn't have as much power as the judges think she does, and she doesn't have the ability to perform runs and riffs as easily as some of the other contestants. She always stays in the same 3 notes it seems and all of her runs sound the exact same. I said this last week- she didn't listen. I'm not sure I would have chosen this song. 1) It's not a hard song to sing at all, except the one note that she decided to flip into head voice and botch. 2) It's far too wordy, as the judges said, and didn't let the viewers hear much actual singing. 3) It's always iffy to choose a song that was sung by another Idol because you will automatically, without question, be compared. Now, Paige sounds a little like Kelly, but without that powerhouse range. I'm just not sure if she is anything more than what we've seen, which is practically the same song two weeks in a row. If she's around next week, she needs to shake things up a bit. She needs to open the doors with a ballad that she can murder and let people see the vocals that have been hidden up to this point.

Siobhan Magnus- "Think" by Aretha Franklin

First, let me start by saying that Siobhan is so odd. This girl is ranking up there in the "strangest contestants ever" category. Her interviews are awkward and quirky, but I think that is part of her charm to the people who are voting for her. Vocally, I like her a lot. She ran a risk with singing Aretha, especially this song. Like Paige's choice, this one is also fairly wordy during the verses, but Siobhan possesses the chops to be able to add some meat to them, even if they are dancing around the same note most of the time. But all that matters not, because you don't even remember those notes after her insane banshee note at the end of the song. It came from absolutely no where and she killed it. It was a B by the way, which is crazy. It was the water-cooler talk around the country and she is guaranteed to be on the show next week. The buzz on the net is that some of Lambert's fans are starting to vote for her due to her out-there sense of style (blue, strapless gown and polka dot shirt!?) and flair for the dramatic notes. That would give her a huge leg up in the competition. I'm interested in seeing what else she can pull out of her bag after that performance.

All in all, the performances were way better than last week. Hopefully they can keep it up and impress us even more come next week.

As for who is going home, I think that Lacey dodged the bullet last week, but she won't be able to again. If I did slap-bets, I would definitely take that one. As for the other girl hitting the road, I think that it SHOULD be Haeley, but I think it will ultimately be either Michelle or Paige, just due to them not really killing it and not having the fan base that Haeley supposedly has. For the guys, I had John Park and Todrick Hall heading home tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if Jermaine or Tim went home instead of Todrick, but Jermaine has a better personality (which matters since he's splitting the R&B votes with Todrick) and Tim has the tweens and VFTW. So, my final picks are: Lacey, Michelle, John, and Todrick. You heard it here first.

How do you think this episode stacked up? Are you feeling a little less frustrated now that the contestants are starting to put up some decent performances? Is a girl definitely going to win this year? All things I want to know.

Until next time...

Your American Idol Junkie,

Billy