I have to admit that I’m still amazed by the success and popularity of the band.  I know that Chris was a huge favorite on the show and I was so shocked when he was eliminated, leaving Elliott Yamin (3rd place), Katharine McPhee (runner-up) and Taylor Hicks (winner) to round out the top three spots.  He’s still going strong (the strongest of that season, for sure) and I’m really happy for him.

See more Daughtry pics after the jump!

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Check out a little of the episode:

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Chris Daughtry — #6
Carrie Underwood — #8 (#1 Country)
Bucky Covington — #44 (#9 Country)
Elliott Yamin — #67 (up from #87) (#4 Independent) (#49 R&B/Hip-Hop)
Fantasia — #93 (up from #112) (#15 R&B/Hip-Hop)
Paris Bennett — #133 (#15 Independent) (#47 R&B/Hip-Hop)

Also Noteworthy:

Kellie Pickler — #121 (2 weeks ago)
Katharine McPhee — #156 (2 weeks ago)
Kimberley Locke — #160 (2 weeks ago) — 4,800 copies
Paula Abdul “Greatest Hits” — (#86 R&B/Hip-Hop)

Kelly Clarkson’s “Never Again” is on two lists this week:

Hot 100 – #15 (down from #12) and on the Pop 100 at #14 (down from #12).

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In yet another week where no album sold more than 100,000 copies, Daughtry’s self-titled RCA debut flip-flops with Norah Jones’ “Not Too Late” (Blue Note) to reclaim the No. 1 position on The Billboard 200. The Daughtry album inched up 6.6% to sales of 90,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, scoring its second non-consecutive week at the top.

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The only thing interesting is seeing all of them perform the group songs. The hardest workers in all of this though are the sound guys that are managing the mix for 24 different vocalists with very different volume and power.

HEY! Paul Kim has shoes on!

24 is just a huge group. I like it, but it just seems odd.

— Commercial Break —

Surprisingly they are jumping right into the eliminations. I like it. Interesting that they have the parents in the green room.

Safe: Brandon Rogers, Sundance Head, Chris Richardson, Nick, Blake

Paul Kim is going home. I liked him, I liked his personality, but he just didn’t deliver when it really counted.

I hate it when they ask them to sing after they’ve been voted off. Not sure what else they’d do, but man that’s got to be the hardest thing ever. Then again, maybe it’s not, no pressure, let it all out and go out with a bang.

— Commercial Break —

Next up are the girls.

Safe: Jordin, Stephanie, Sabrina, Leslie (BIG SURPRISE FOR ME!), Melinda, Antonella (ANOTHER BIG SURPRISE!)

Antonella isn’t gone and that surprises me. She’s going on looks so far, her singing wasn’t there. They called up Amy Krebs and she’s going home. My wife called that one since the opening of the show. Good job.

— Commercial Break —

New game called the American Idol challenge using your cell phone. $10,000 prize up for grabs and you can enter at www.americanidol.com

Fantasia comes out and confirms a big change in her career. She’s going to be staring in the Broadway play of “The Color Purple”. She’s singing “I’m Right Here” and is doing an amazing job! She’s got so much strength and power in her voice it’s great to hear her sing like this. I’ve not been a big fan of her hip-hop work, although I appreciate that it’s good. I just don’t think it highlights her true strengths and abilities as a great singer.

— Commercial Break —

Next round of eliminations for the girls.

Safe: Haley, Lakisha, Gina, Alaina

Nicole goes home! That’s another shocker for me. I don’t think she did a good job singing, but I don’t think she was close to the worst performance either. I don’t think she connected with the audience and the viewers like she needed to in this performance. I believe this one could really be blamed completely on the song choice.

— Commercial Break —

2nd round of eliminations for the guys.

Safe: Chris, Phil, Jared, AJ, Sanjaya!

UPDATE: I seemingly forgot to let everyone know that Rudy Cardenas was eliminated. I was so surprised it wasn’t Sanjaya that it really threw me off. 

Okay, I’m doing a horrible job on my picks for elimination. I can’t believe Sanjaya is in the top four guys. Paula really likes Rudy and said his vocals were great, falsetto was amazing and his pitch was perfect.

The recap of the four contestants journey and the song “Home” by Chris Daughtry is being played. It reminds me that “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter was the huge, surprise hit last year because of it’s playtime on American Idol in my opinion.

That’s it for the evening. We’ll see you next week as we eliminate another four contestants.

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Also, just have to say this. GO COLTS!!! What an AFC Game!

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He did a great job, infused it with his rocker voice and made it his own without embelishing far too much and just making it annoying.

Great job Chris!

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First up is someone doing the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz. Go back to Oz. You’re not that unique and you can’t sing. See you later. Use the right door. Oops…she didn’t.

Vocal teacher in green shirt, you’d hope this guy can sing. “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith. He uses a pitch pipe. You’d expect that from a vocal coach wouldn’t you. OUCH! High pitch noises in falsetto, I can’t take it! Randy is really being hardcore. He’s almost playing the part of Simon so far. Jewell and Paula don’t like him. Randy rips into him about a vocal teacher, Simon baits him by saying “You going to take that Steven?”. This is entertainment. Simon is cracking me up. They are having WAY TOO MUCH fun with this guy.

— Commercial Break —

Michelle Steingas singing Dana Carter. Not too bad for the country side of things. Compared to the other contestants we’ve heard she’s good. She’s made it through. As Simon says “Confident without being irritatingly precocious.”

Lots of people getting fired for trying out, that’s too bad because they should really do anything they can to make money except for a singing career. Another girl’s boss flew her and her sister out for an audition. That’s a cool boss. I think she can sing. Simon’s giving a hard time and implying some really bad innuendos, I really like Simon, but those type of comments really irritate me. Okay, I was wrong on the singing part. The boss wasted his money on this one. Looks like he’s got a secretary for quite a long time.

Up next Matt Sato singing “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas. Not too bad, I can’t tell anymore. My ears are hurting from all the people that were horrible. Simon likes him. Jewell likes him. Randy though he was good. Paula Abdul agrees, he’s going to Hollywood.

— Commercial Break —

Rachel Jenkins, quite the Tomboy working in her parents body shop, which is cool and enjoys it. Her husband is in Iraq. She joined the US Army reserves. She sings “His Eye Is On the Sparrow”. Not related to American Idol, but the best version of this song was the one sung in Sister Act II. Not horrible, but as Simon said it fell apart towards the end. She’s moving forward, everybody likes her but she’s going to have to work on stuff before she makes it to Hollywood. Unanimous heading to Hollywood.

Sarah Krueger singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, of course made popular on American Idol by Katharine McPhee last season. She sounds good until she tries to force it out and belt it. She’s making it through. Everybody likes her, she’s going to Hollywood with Rachel.

— Commercial Break —

Jason the juggler/dancer/singer is performing. Paula is confused about everything. Simon said he summed up Minneapolis by saying everything was horrible. Randy said he should be on “America’s Got Talent” not “American Idol”. Simon says Jason’s future involves NOT singing. It’s just sad, sad, sad. He’s better at making a dramatic scene on the other side of the door. Simon thinks he “took it in good spirit”. WRONG! Hello! Reality check. The next contestant, the BIG IDOL FAN seems a little worried to be after Jason.

She’s the Idol Super Fan. She and American Idol are BFF. Ace Young is her favorite Idol, and he drew her a heart, which she has tattood on her wrist now. Singing “Under Pressure”. Oh the horror! The horror of it all. Oh wait, she pulled the “10 years of training card” out of the hat. Oh and a “degree in vocal performance”. Simon says the only thing she could do to improve is “Leave.”

Randy calls it Minnehopeless.

— Commercial Break —

Lots of people trying to sing Prince as a tribute to his hometown. I’m curious as to when they get the potential contestants to sing the clips they want for these little montages. Is it before or after they audition.

Contestant #27186 singing “Another Bad Day” by Fuel. Josh Flom is a rocker and was pushed to try-out by his dad and inspired by Chris Daughtry’s efforts last year. Randy didn’t like it. Simon challenges him to come back in 15 minutes and sing an Abba song as a rocker. Of course it was “Dancing Queen” which he didn’t know the words to and collected them from other auditioners. He infused it a rocker style for sure. He does Barry Manilow in the rocker voice the same way. Jewell asked him if he writes music and said to stick with that.

That’s it for Minneapolis. Only 17 hopefuls made it through.

Tomorrow night we’ll be in Seattle. Looks like some really weird people in store for tomorrow night. After Minneapolis, Simon still said it was the worst city ever. There’s even Taylor Hick’s long lost brother waiting for him.

In retrospect, let me just say it literally amazes me the balls and endurance people have to put themselves through this type of thing. It’s almost like people have lost complete connection with reality when it comes to this show. Are they showing up and trying out just to be seen on TV and noticed because of how bad they are, or are they really sincere and think they’re the next American Idol?

We’ll see. I’m interested in your thoughts. Please share them in the comments.

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Congratulations Chris!

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Here are the different videos that are available on the AOL Music Sessions site

• Home
• It’s Not Over
• There And Back Again
• Used To

This site is a great chance to see some video of two of the greatest American Idols ever.

Visit AOL Music Sessions

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