No messing about today – just a quick rundown of each performance.  The result show is aired in the UK tonight so please don’t give anything away!

Katie (‘Breakaway’ Kelly Clarkson)

Not nearly as good as I originally thought. Good for her age, granted, but not good enough. Pitchy. Flat as you like. BLAH

Randy: ‘Wasn’t great’
Ellen: ‘Right song choice’
Kara: ‘I don’t think you know who you are’
Simon: Ditto

Siobhan (‘House of the Rising Sun’ The Animals)

She is good, no doubt. Strong start. Cool song. Arrangement maybe could have been cooler. Atmospheric.

Randy: ‘That was hot’
Ellen: ‘You are spectacular’
Kara: ‘I love the a capella vibe at the front’
Simon: ‘I thought it was a bit weird’

Lacey (‘The Story’ by Brandi Carlisle)

I still love the timbre of her voice but she can’t keep in tune so, FAIL.  That said, she seemed to be true to herself.

Randy: ‘Best performance for you in a long time’
Ellen: ‘Perfect song’
Kara’ Effortless singing’ (really?!)
Simon: ‘I didn’t love love the song but you sang it really well’ (really??!!)

Katelyn (‘I Feel the Earth Move’ by Carole King)

Sounds dated and too old for her. Hate it quite a lot.  Cheesy.  What is with the keyboard? Who is she as an artist?

Randy: ‘It all felt very put on for me’
Ellen: ‘It just wasn’t good enough’
Kara: ‘I didn’t feel you were competing’
Simon: ‘This may have been a mistake for you tonight’

Didi (‘Rhiannon’ by Fleetwood Mac)

Best from her for a while.  Her voice is best when she pares it down and keeps it simple. She’s got a great look. Excellent performance.

Randy: ‘A whole lot better than last week’
Ellen: ‘Good job’
Kara: ‘One of my favourite moments of the show this season’
Simon: ‘I have to agree… with Kara.’

Paige (‘Smile’ by Charlie Chaplin)

One of my favourite songs – don’t mess it up.  Oh dear, it’s a bit reedy, nervous, off the beat, all over the place. Not good enough. Weak.

Randy: ‘It just didn’t work, man’
Ellen: ‘It was just sad and heavy’
Kara: ‘It was all wrong’
Simon: ‘It was just a horrible choice of song’

Crystal (‘Give Me One Reason’ by Tracy Chapman)

Oh YEAH! She is excellent.  It’s old but fresh all at the same time. Her voice is the bomb. Relevant. I believe every word. My favourite contestant.

Randy: ‘This is what the shows about for me. That was hot’
Ellen: ‘I need new adjectives for you’
Kara: ‘That is when I get really excited’
Simon: ‘You are one million billion percent going to be in the top 12 next week’

Lilly (‘I Fall To Pieces’ by Patsy Cline)

A cross between Nicole from Home and Away, Claire from Lost and Beetlejuice.  An early favourite of mine, she is starting to get on my nerves a bit I’m afraid. Just aiit for my, dog.

Randy: ‘I think you’re in the zone tonight’
Ellen: ‘I love your originalilty’
Kara: ‘You made Patsy Cline feel current’
Simon ‘You’re very brave’

And then the boys:

Lee (Fireflies by Owl City)

Don’t get this song choice for him – too blah. His voice sounds incongruous.  I am sad because I love him – he’s one of my favourite boys.

Randy: ‘Strange song choice. You worked it out’
Ellen: ‘I liked that you made it a little rock’
Kara: ‘There’s a star bubbling there’
Simon: ‘There’s nothing to rave about’

Alex (‘Trouble’ Ray Lamontagne)

Perfect for his voice – very Ray Lamontagne which is probably why I LOVE Alex  (also: the cute mullet and the dimples). Good job.

Randy: ‘I liked it but I wasn’t jumping up and down’
Ellen: ‘Every single week you get better and better’
Kara: ‘You have so much’
Simon: ‘Let yourself go’

Tim (‘Hallelujah’ Jeff Buckley)

Oh my, the hair. Don’t you dare butcher Hallelujah or Simon will end you! Hmm not too bad.  Not bad at all.  Much better than I exptected.  Quite good.

Randy: ‘You did a pretty good job’
Ellen: *goes in for a hug*
Kara: ‘That was an honest interpretation’
Simon: ‘I kind of feel responsible for you doing well tonight’

Andrew (‘Genie in a Bottle’ Christina Aguilera)

Ooh yeah, Xtina! At the start, he is killing it, in a good way but it loses its way a bit.  He’s trying too hard maybe. I am nervous for him.  Good ending.

Randy: ‘It didn’t quite work for me’
Ellen: ‘The end was when you really surprised us’
Kara: ‘I’m disappointed. It just wasn’t great’
Simon: ‘I’m kinda with Kara’

Casey (‘You’ll Think of Me’ Keith Urban)

Hair back = MUCH better.  Simple, can hear his excellent voice.  Country flavour but also a bit bluesy. Emotional. love love love.

Randy: ‘Safe choice’
Ellen: ‘I thought it was great’
Kara: ‘I’m kinda back on the Casey train.’
Simon: ‘You made is sincere’

Aaron (I’m already there’ Lonestar)

Slurred, nervous, pitchy, too low.  Looks like he’s playing at being on stage. Not comfortable.  Did not like.

Randy: ‘It’s coming on’
Ellen: ‘You’ve sounded better’
Kara: ‘How can you feel connected to [the song]?’
Simon: ‘Kara, you’re talking absolute rubbish’

Todrick (‘Somebody to love’ Queen)

When I heard that he was singing queen, I said, out loud, ‘Oh no’. His voice isn’t quite big enough for this sond but he’s giving it a damn good try.

Randy: ‘Todrick is back!’
Ellen: ‘It sounded like a gospel song’
Kara: ‘It was really good singing’
Simon: ‘You’re a broadway singer’

Big Mike (‘This Woman’s Work’ Maxwell)

Interesting.  Apparently, Maxwell sang this version of Kate Bush’s original which I suppose makes it less weird.   He did an amazing job, though. Emotional. Awesome.

Randy: ‘This is crazy. I was like, what?’
Ellen: ‘You are the one to beat now’
Kara:  *crying!* ‘It’s amazing’
Simon: ‘This was so needed tonight. You 100% nailed it’

Results will follow later tonight!

This weekend, we caught up on this week’s episodes of American Idol – at this stage of the competition there are so many performances it goes on for an age.  For me, there were some pretty weak performances again, even from those that I quite like. After a last-minute switcheroo, the boys performed first (following Crystal’s diabetes-induced hospitalisation)

My favourites – the guys:

Alex

Alex Lambert – he is SUCH a cutie – really disarming with no clue about a) how good he is b) how cute he is and c) how awful his hair is.  I hope he sticks around for a while, especially after his great performance of Everybody Knows by John Legend.  Not sure about the jacket.

Lee Dewyze is a bit of a dark horse, in my book.  For the past two weeks he has given strong performances which seem to have come from nowhere given his lack of exposure during Hollywood Week.  He tacked Lips of and Angel by Hinder which was pretty good and certainly secured is place in the competition this week.

Casey James sang I Don’t Wanna Be by Gavin DeGraw (the One Tree Hill theme, yo) which I was a bit flat for me – I am not sure why people always try to tackle this because it has a really low start and I haven’t heard anyone but Gavin make it sound half-way decent.  The criticism was probably a bit harsh but I was not in any doubt that he would be back. He’s a bit of a ladies’ favourite, I am sure.

Andrew

Finally, the judges caned Andrew Garcia for his rendition of You Give Me Something by James Morrison but I really liked it.  He is someone I never want to FF through.  You can’t get higher praise than that!

Tim

One thing to note: whilst I didn’t agree with the harsh criticism of Tim Urban – he was a million times better than last week – I *do* agree with Ellen that he should be on Glee (or HSM or something) – he would be perfect in that sort of role.  I also just want to say I am loving Ellen as a judge – funny, honest, unpretentious, kind.  LOVE her.

We say good-bye to Jermaine Sellers and John Park and I think that was about right – neither could win the competition and I won’t miss either.

Jermaine and John

My favourites – the girls:

Crystal

Crystal Bowersox: despite being in hospital not 24 hours before, she gave a superb performance of the (unknown to me) Creedence Clearwater Revival song Long As I Can See the Light.   I always know when I am enjoying a performance when a) it’s a song I don’t know and I am still hooked and b) I have no urge to fast forward to the judges.  Far too many performances tonight gave me that urge.

Siobhan

Siobhan Magnus showed us she can WAIL with her version of Think, originally sung by Aretha.  She was a surprise to me this week – I had forgotten how good her voice is.  She is also cute and quirky, a bit alternative – she reminds me of Angela in My So Called Life.

Katelyn

Katelyn Epperly was another revelation to me this week – I have not been much of a fan up to now but despite what the judges thought, I really liked her thoughtful, slow and emotional rendition of Coldplay’s The Scientist, complete with her playing her own piano accompaniment.

Lilly Scott gave another solid performance – she is one of my favourites along with Crystal and I think it’s because she already seems like an artist in her own right and not just a singer in a competition.  She sang Sam Cooke’s Change is Gonna Come and I really loved it.

Finally, Paige Miles gave my favourite performance from her yet singing Walk Away, originally sung by Kelly Clarkson and co-written by Kara DioGuardi.  She was given a pretty hard time by the judges but I liked it.  That said, I still had to look up her name for this blog post so I suppose that speaks volumes.

The rest are all pretty weak in my book.  There is no doubting that they can sing (I still love Didi’s voice but her song choice this week was a terrible mistake), but they had no lasting impact.

Ultimately, Haeley and Michelle left and I think that unlike last week, these were both the right choice. Not sure I could have coped with Michelle’s ‘little girl’ smile for much longer anyway.

It was good to see one of my favourite’s from last season, Danny Gokey, return to perform on the results show although it is a shame the song was so blah. Still love his voice though.

For a really awesome American Idol site, let me recommend Rickey.org.

The Top 24

Highlights

So given that I really liked a lot of the contestants coming into the two episodes (each two hours long), I was a bit disappointed with both the girls and the boys.  I won’t give yo a play by play because, frankly, I can’t be bothered to go back over the performances on YouTube and I have deleted the episodes from our Sky Planner.  These are the ones that stuck out for me though.  First up, the girls:

Janell and Didi

So I like both these girls but I have a problem and that is distinguishing between them – they are quite similar.  Janell Wheeler really won me over with her American Boy rendition and Didi Benami has a lovely tone but I now can’t remember either of their auditions which I suppose speaks volumes.  I still like them though and I hope they stick around.  I am pretty sure the result has already been aired in the US (the show is on right now in the UK but I am waiting for ricardo so we can watch it together).

Lacey and Lilly

So Lacey Brown and Lilly Scott put me in the same boat.  They are both interesting, different, talented but hard to differentiate. Sure, visually they are very different but they are the kooky ones, the credible ones, the not-your-usual pop princesses.  And again I can’t remember their performances.  Bearing in mind these are the ones I liked, it’s not going well is it?!

Crystal and Tim

So Crystal Bowersox is a bit different.  For a start, I remembered her name without having to look and man, is she NOT a Crystal?!  But Bowersox is an awesome name. She is real, extremely talented, in it for the money (and fair play to her too) and she is by far my favourite.  I am not sure how far she will go – I think she should have a music career but her reluctance to be a pop star (and an American Idol one at that) might turn off the voting public.  But I love her.  I think we should be seeing more and better from her – I just hope that she doesn’t get too serious and indulgent.  Tim Urban is a real cutie – he reminds me of a Zac Efron type – but his vocals were not nearly good enough.  I think he will stick around for a while and I remember liking him in Hollywood week so I am hoping he improves.  He was a late draft into the show after another contestant was given the boot.  Let’s hope he takes his opportunity a bit more seriously next time around (if he is given the chance).

Lee and Alex

Lee Dewyze was not a big player in Hollywood week – he certainly had less airtime. Both ricardo and I called that he would get the boot but the judges obviously heard  more than us and they put him through.  From the performance this week, I am glad!  He has a really nice tone and I thought he did a decent job.  He was not sensational, but then I don’t think any of the boys were.  Alex Lambert was really nervous and uncomfortable on stage which was a real shame because he really has a lovely voice.  I hope he can relax a bit and start to enjoy it all because if not, I am not sure people will be voting for him.  He is a cutie though – I felt a bit sorry for him and he won over me and my better half so that is an achievement of sorts!

Casey and Andrew

Casey and Andrew were by far my favourite two performances of the week.  Casey is a funny one – clearly, they have latched onto Kara’s appreciation of his (pretty average) looks (although I admit he has charisma) and I felt a bit sorry for him that his performance was a little overshadowed by the judges’ buffoonery.  That said, he did a solid job and I really liked his voice, his guitar, his song choice and I am certain he will go far in the competition.  Some say he is a favourite already to win but I won’t go quite that far.  Andrew is probably my overall favourite just because he is so reliable – I never once worry about whether he will hit a note and his voice and tone are pleasing.  I do think his performance was a little serious but I thought it was interesting and both he and Casey had me listening and not wanting the songs to end – much more than can be said of any other performance this week.

Going Home – Live Blogging!

Girls first:

Siobhan (rather unkindly called in our house Ugly Mouth) – SAFE
Hayley (cute but the performance was rocky) – SAFE
Michelle (too smiley and cutsie for me) – SAFE
Katelyn (big hair, nice voice, not sure about her) – SAFE
Katie or Janell to go! BOth were stong for me – Katie maybe too young? Janell did not do her best… Katie is SAFE!
Janell is going home! Bummer.

Paige (blah) – SAFE
Lacey (disappointing performance but I like her) – SAFE
Lilly (talented but a beeteljuice-a-like) – SAFE
Crystal (surely she is safe?) – SAFE
Ashley or Didi to go!  Can another of my favourites be going? But then Ashley is liked by ricardo and I do like her … Didi is SAFE!
Ashley is going home. Bummer again. Don’t get either of those results.

Now for the boys:

Mike (nice voice, not sure he gave his all) – SAFE
John (really boring performance but he is good) – SAFE
Aaron (cute, good but lacking confidence, forgettable) – SAFE
Todrick (good looking but too cocky for me, messed up Kelly’s song) – SAFE
Tim or Joe to go… Joe was terrible and Tim wasn’t much better…Tim  is SAFE!
Joe is going home. Right choice. (Humorous shocked face from Tim!) (also, his final rendition is ‘a shit song sang badly’ quote by ricardo).

Idol Gives Back important stuff/blather…. but Kris Allen is back (woo!).

Casey (gotta stay!) – SAFE
Jermaine (he blew it – not a fan) – SAFE
Lee (I like him) – SAFE
Andrew (HAS to stay) – SAFE
Tyler or Alex to go … I hated Tyler’s performance so I am really hoping he is leaving but I fear for Alex, the unripe banana!  Alex is SAFE!
Tyler is going home. Right choice

So I am happy with the choices for the boys.  Can’t believe that Tyler just blamed the lack of critiism in Hollywood week – like it’s the judges’ fault. Dick.

So sad for the girls though.  They are both good and shouldn’t be going home yet.

American Idol is back and as this is my main reality TV in the TV calendar, I am stoked.  The guest judges during the audition rounds were pretty good.  Here is my rundown:

• Victoria Beckham: I had heard a lot of criticism for Posh but I thought she came across well.
• Nick Joe Jonas lacked any personality and insight.  (See I didn’t even take note of which Jonas brother it was).
• Avril Lavigne was honest (although I think they portrayed her as snarkier than she probably was).
• Mary J Blige could not hold her shit together for the awful auditions, which was pretty hilarious.
• Neil Patrick Harris was sublime. He was funny, honest, sharp, unapologetic and made me love him even more than I already do.
• Katy Perry was pretty cool and I couldn’t work out if her tiff with Kara was real or not.  Either way, she knew her own mind, which I like.
• Shania Twain was sweet and appreciated the fellas which made me chortle.  Other than that, she was a little bit forgettable for me.

Having completed the auditions, the week’s episodes came from Hollywood and they brought the usually brutal cutting (pro tip: DON’T FORGET THE BLEEDING WORDS) and tearful exits.

My most love/hate section – the group round – was as painful, awful and awkwards as always.   It’s true that there were some impressive group performances which always surprise me since it seems such a hard task – get together with a load of strangers OVERNIGHT and produce a choreographed performance.  But the majority of the ones they showed were dire and painful to watch.  As I commented to Rich, it made me want to pull out my eyes and stuff them in my eyes.  The performances were a visual and aural assault.  And whilst I loved ‘rocker’ Mary Powers at her audition, she was a power-crazy mouthing-off pain in my ass so I was disappointed to see her go through even though I guess she is an pretty good singer.  I guess they can’t say goodbye at this stage just because you are a cowbag.

Some really decent people went home because of nerves, forgetting the lyrics and bad song choices (why oh why did so many people try to sing Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape which is pretty impossible).

Next week is the final cut before they pick the top 24 (is it 24? or 36?).  I hope that Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, Vanessa Wolfe, Janell Wheeler (her American Boy audition was superb), Lilly Scott, Michael Lynch, Tim Urban, Casey James (with his mad blues guitar skills), Didi Benami, Crystal Bowersox, amongst others, make it through (if they haven’t already been cut – I am not sure we see all the cuts.