If you like what you heard, you can get more of it when LaKisha’s album So Glad I’m Me becomes available on May 19, 2009.  You can pre-order a copy from Amazon.

Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Grateful
2. So Glad I’m Me
3. Beautiful Girl
4. Same Song
5. Let’s Go Celebrate
6. Ain’t Worth It
7. Nothing
8. Be Alright
9. You Give Good Love
10. Free
11. Memories (fade away)
12. Just As I Am

I haven’t heard the whole album yet but I’m looking forward to seeing what LaKisha has come up with.  She’s got a great voice!

image: Amazon

Post from: Idol Stalker

Melinda Doolittle

Okay, I need to voice my frustration here. Melinda is a fantastic singer. Tonight, she delivered a good performance of “Sway.” That’s right, I said good – not great. Aside from looking like Martin Short with her dance moves, I’m totally tired of her not picking challenging songs. If she is going to consistently pick easy, repetitive tunes, she needs to blow me away – she didn’t. She did look great in that black dress tonight, though.

Lakisha Jones

Lakisha is another strong singer who isn’t trying very hard. I loved when Jennifer Lopez told her that she doesn’t “have to do too much” Right – because J.Lo has never been known as the queen of excess. Moving on… If you had the Pointer Singers of “Neutron Dance” fame cover Gloria Estefan’s “Conga” you would get tonight’s performance. Lakisha really brushed off Paula’s constructive criticism which falls in line with her total dismissal of the advice from Tony Bennett, Gwen Stefani and Lulu. Keep ignoring the advice, Lakisha, and you might be sent packing.

Chris Richardson

It almost pains me to say that Chris was one of the better performers tonight, but he was. I love Rob Thomas and Santana’s “Smooth” and, although he did not quite get there, the second half of his performance was decent enough.

Haley Scarnato

She sang, “Turn the Beat Around” but I wish she sang “Turn the Volume Down.” Okay, the backup vocals are so strong during the chorus of this song that it might be easy to ignore her terrible singing but when she started singing on her own, the truth was undeniable – it was a mess. For half of the song she was so out of breath that she couldn’t even complete her words properly. Does she really think that those short-shorts are going to get her a record deal? I think we learned our lesson with Jessica Simpson – shaking your booty is just not enough.

Phil Stacey

This was probably Phil’s worst performance. He sang, “Maria, Maria” and let’s hope it was in prayer because only a miracle could make people think he sang in tune. He was ahead of the music at least twice and it was so boring that I think it was actually worse than Haley’s performance. At least he wore a hat.

Jordin Sparks

Is no one else bothered by her yodeling? And her vibrato is so distracting that she sounds almost like a sheep. Am I the only one who feels this way? She’s got decent intonation, she can definitely carry a tune but something just annoys me. I thought the performance was boring and her twitchy behavior was odd. Her clothing was moderately better, though. I liked the top a lot.

Blake Lewis

I think Blake came out on top tonight, which, considering how everyone else did, is not a major accomplishment. He sang, “I Need to Know” by Marc Anthony, who, despite looking a bit like Skeletor from the He-Man cartoon of the 80s, can sing his butt off. Marc’s version is stylish and Blake’s was very straight. However, it was a smart song choice since it suited his voice and, in the end, he managed to pull it off.

Sanjaya Malakar

I can say, for the first time in the 12 top performances, that I did not think that Sanjaya was the worst. In fact, I think he did reasonably well. The song choice (Besame Mucho) was great, singing in Spanish won him some points and as Randy said, he’s “one of the smartest contestants” ever. I don’t know how he does it, but I don’t think he’s going home tomorrow.

Breakout performance – Chris Richardson. It was more than I expected.

Most Surprising – Sanjaya Malakar. He actually sounded okay.

Worst of the Night – Haley Scarnato. No further comment.

Biggest Risk – No one. It was very safe and boring.

Prediction for bottom three – Haley, Phil and Jordin with Jordin being safe.

Photo Source

Post from: Idol Stalker

Yahoo! tracks the searching habits of Idol fans not only by who is being most searched, but also what, in particular, people are searching to find out. Let’s take a look.

Sanjaya is still the overall leader (can you believe the staying power of Antonella and Alaina?)

American Idol Leaders
Rank Idol Move Score
1 Sanjaya Malakar +14
2 Antonella Barba +4
3 Haley Scarnato +5
4 Blake Lewis – 2
5 Melinda Doolittle +1
6 Alaina Alexander – 1
7 Chris Richardson – 1
8 Gina Glocksen – 1
9 Chris Sligh – 1
10 Lakisha Jones – 0

But Haley is the biggest mover (don’t we know it…)

American Idol Movers
Rank Idol 1 Day Move
1 Haley Scarnato 217%
2 Melinda Doolittle 176%
3 Sanjaya Malakar 125%
4 Chris Richardson 110%
5 Blake Lewis 58%
6 Alaina Alexander 44%
7 Antonella Barba 37%
8 Gina Glocksen 36%
9 Chris Sligh 29%

But what, exactly, are people are searching for?

Here is a list of the top five searches broken down by contestant -

- Sanjaya Malakar

1. Sanjaya Malakar Hairstyles
2. Sanjaya Anthem
3. Sanjaya Conspiracy
4. Who is Voting For Sanjaya
5. Sanjaya Wig

- Haley Scarnato

1. Haley Scarnato Scandal
2. Haley Scarnato Legs
3. Haley Scarnato Pregnant
4. Haley Scarnato Shorts
5. Haley Scarnato Height

- Melinda Doolittle

1. Melinda Doolittle School of Humility
2. Melinda Doolittle Neck
3. Melinda Doolittle Shrek
4. Is Melinda Doolittle Married?
5. Melinda Doolittle MP3s

- Blake Lewis

1. Blake Lewis Shirtless
2. Blake Lewis Tattoos
3. Blake Lewis Love Song
4. Blake Lewis 311
5. Chris Richardson vs Blake Lewis

- Chris Richardson

1. Chris Richardson Dating
2. Chris Richardson Shirtless
3. Chris Richardson and Alaina Alexander
4. Chris Richardson Girlfriend
5. Contact Chris Richardson

- Jordin Sparks

1. Jordin Sparks Father
2. Jordin Sparks Height
3. Jordin Sparks I Who Have Nothing
4. Jordin Sparks Fan Sites
5. Jordin Sparks American Juniors

- Lakisha Jones

1. Lakisha Jones Videos
2. Lakisha Jones Biography
3. Diamonds Are Forever Lakisha Jones
4. Lakisha Fanatics
5. Lakisha Jones Last Dance

- Phil Stacey

1. Phil Stacey Navy
2. Phil Stacey Audition
3. Phil Stacey Wife
4. Phil Stacey Hair
5. Nosferatu Phil Stacey (LOL, my son said this last night!!!)

Post from: Idol Stalker

Wow. Some have called this season’s contestants dull and unoriginal. Tonight might have been an example. Classics are classics and must be respected but, while almost everyone sang well enough, there was little that will keep me up tonight.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TELLING CONTESTANTS TO TAKE RISKS (Haley risked a “wardrobe malfunction” but that doesn’t count)?

My co-blogger, Jason, has done a fine job live-blogging the show tonight, so I’m just going to add my two cents about the performances. 

Blake doesn’t have to beatbox every week and he’s definitely among the best (and maybe the most versatile) but he sang “Mack the Knife” so straight, he almost sounded like he was auditioning for “Beyond the Sea 2: Bobby Darin Lives.” You can be respectful but still true to yourself.

Phil is a good singer but this did not even seem like a genuine performance. If you weren’t distracted by the sweat beads on his melon, there wasn’t much excitement in his rendition of “Night and Day.” In fact, I felt like a night and a day had passed by the end of it.

Melinda, as Simon said, is almost impossible to criticize. I happened to agree with what he said, however, about the first half of the song being kind of bland. That song has some real potential and I felt like she could have given more, but she’s great so who cares?

Chris gets props for mixing old with new by wearing jeans but did he have to steal Sanjaya’s hat? Just kidding. He stayed true to himself, even if it wasn’t his best performance (in my very humble opinion, at least). One tip though – learn to keep the microphone near your mouth. If you turn your head, the mic should follow! He’s had a problem with this all season. It’s bugging me.

Jordin was a bit boring to me. I’m not sure if the mic feedback was an indication that the sound was off because I’m wondering if the judges heard her whole performance. It was a clone-like, factory-made performance.

Gina is a good singer. She had a good performance. She could maybe control the eye seizures (those of you with TiVo, DVR, PVR, etc… check it out). I was somewhat irritated to have the soldiers in Iraq brought into the mix by Tony Bennett (not her fault). I was half expecting her to be draped in a flag with an eagle on her shoulder, or something. Well, at least it would have been interesting…

Sanjaya, as Mr. Bennett said, “dares to take risks.” Honestly, I do think this is part of the reason he’s still here. When he’s gone, we pretty much know how it’s going to go down and the performances will be predictable (with the exception of Blake, maybe) but Sanjaya has made himself stand out. His performance did sound a bit like a clip from an episode of Barney. Hey, Madonna’s not a great singer but she knows how to market herself. Don’t underestimate the importance of being an entertainer.

Haley is starting to annoy me in a major way. Her singing is just right for Broadway or Disney movies, and she knows it, so she sells sex, really. There, I’ve said it. Even Tony Bennett had to ask her to tone down the level of skank she was trying to put into the song. The shimmying and toying with men in the front row was almost shameless. She’s not going to win (let’s hope) so she’s using gimmicks to get votes. Why does Sanjaya get all the buzz? This is a family show and there have been times when I was embarrassed for her. Seriously.

Lakisha is back! She’s one of the few contestants I’ve seen in the history of the show who had the guts to go against the advice of the guest (Tony Bennett told her to omit the “ain’t no sunshine when he’s gone” at the end of her song but she didn’t). She is a PLUS-SIZE BEAUTY and I love her. I just want her to stay in the zone from now on.

Post from: Idol Stalker

Blake Lewis
Blake is singing “Mack the Knife”, which according to Tony Bennett is “pre-rap” music. He’s nailing it to the floor man! Blake is totally smooth in just about everything he does on stage. The question will be if he adds any of his flair to the rendition. His dancing on stage reminds me of some of the moves Harry Connick, Jr. has in concert. Probably his best performance in my opinion. Great trumpet flair by the band at the end (coming from the guy who’s played trumpet for years)

• Randy: that was a very good way to start off the evening. Perfect song for you, couple of pitch problems. I liked it.
• Paula: you personify pizazz. “You’re just cool!”
• Simon: good choice of song, performed it well. 7-10, but gives the band 8-10. The band played a big part.

Phil Stacey
Phil has been looking forward to this week ever since he knew it was coming. He’s considers Tony a legend and Tony said that Phil is one of the better singers in the competition. I believe he did a good job on this genre.

• Randy: interesting choice, just didn’t feel any real connection or action
• Paula: reminiscent of a young Frank Sinatra, I still need you to have more joy and warm up the vocals. Have the personality come through
• Simon: had all the joy of singing in a funeral parlor, completely and utterly gloomy and slightly dark. No life in the performance

Melinda Doolittle
Singing “I’ve Got Rhythm”, and sporting a bit of a new look herself. Melinda’s phrasing and articulation as she’s singing is absolutely professional quality already. She’s putting a lot of personality into the performance, let’s see if the judges recognize it.

• Randy: you come out here every week and give everyone a lesson in singing, “this is how you do it right here America!”
• Paula: it’s like a master class, flawless from beginning to end.
• Simon: thought it was a bit cabaret, thought the 2nd half of the song was great, had personality and fun

Chris Richardson
Fan question, “What do you consider most when choosing a song?” First and foremost you gotta do something you’re comfortable with, then what the audience likes and hopefully the judges will like it as well. Chris is singing “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”. A little bit of a transition for Chris on this performance from what he’s been doing the last couple of weeks. I think he’s really showing up tonight and bringing to the contest. He’s built himself up some more status for votes tonight I believe.

• Randy: one of your best performances of the whole season, you came out with a vengeance and interjected his own style
• Paula: didn’t compromise anything, made it so hip and cool. Best performance “bar-none”
• Simon: thought it was very good, very believable. Agree with Randy and Paula, made it kind of hip and worked it out very well. Probably one of the strongest tonight.

Jordin Sparks
Tony says that Jordin is terrific. Very intelligent about her improvisation as well. It wasn’t outlandish. She’s doing a good job, but I think Simon will label it “forgettable”. It seems to be at the height of her range too, which catches me off guard. Sounds like she’s straining more to hit the notes, I wonder if she’s fighting a cold or something. Last note was nice and strong though.

• Randy: we got some heat up here, the bomb again, she’s like a pro and only 17. what?
• Paula: you’re a natural and you exude when she’s onstage
• Simon: she sang it very well, but didn’t make the song young and current, very old-fashioned and traditional though

Gina Glocksen
With Gina singing “Smile”, this will be a vast departure from her normal style of song and performance. WOW! Let’s talk about a completely different look at this stage in the performance. Her classy style tonight reminds me of the same kind of contemporary style that Gwen Stefani has. She did a great job as well. It’s a contest tonight.

• Randy: very nice controlled, performance from the rocker girl. I liked that
• Paula: flawless performance
• Simon: not too pleased with the vocals, two other female performers came out and totally out-performed her.

Sanjaya Malakar
He says his goal this week is to make America see that he actually can sing. We’ll see. Looks like he found the flat-iron hairstyling that Melinda was using. I will admit that he’s doing a much better job this week, but everyone I’m sitting with tonight watching the show agrees that it just comes across as a high school level performance.

• Randy: what I like about you now is that you’ve turned into an entertainer
• Paula: “I get why people love you”
• Simon: let’s try something different this week, “incredible” [Was that sarcastic?]

Haley Scarnato
Big discussion in my brother’s living room tonight about whether or not Haley is portraying herself a little too “trampy” with some of her warddrobe choices.  I didn’t really have a problem too much with what she’s worn, but she’s definitely displaying a significant amount of cleavage this performance. My brother said this, if she were your wife or girlfriend, would you want her dressing like that? Her performance is coming across very cabaret tonight with “Ain’t Misbehavin’”.

• Randy: thought this would be a good style week for you. what about you Paula [Randy totally didn't say anything]
• Paula: did I mention you look good in green
• Simon: you’ve got great legs. A little pageanty.

LaKisha Jones
Picking “Stormy Weather” is totally the right choice for LaKisha tonight. She should be able to totally rock this performance with this style and particularly this song. LaKisha brought back the gauntlet tonight, but so did just about everyone else so we’ll see what happens.

• Randy: loved it, perfect song for her
• Paula: most gorgeous she’s ever looked, sounded beautiful as well
• Simon: sassy, great performance!

So, what will it be this week? Will Sanjaya go home? Honestly at this point, I don’t think so. He’s probably still got a couple of more weeks on the show. I think he’ll be around until some other contestants are out and the people voting for them start piling up their votes for the other contestants that can actually sing.

Post from: Idol Stalker

LaKisha Jones
She’s doing some Donna Summer song this evening. Not sure what it is about LaKisha, but she’s just not wowing me anymore with her performances. She can still sing, but for me it’s just not there anymore. This is a tough point in the competition to be hitting this type of wall too. Maybe it’s just me though, she’s still been doing well with votes it appears.

• Randy: good to see her up tempo song, true fly diva right there, it was hot
• Paula: Donna Summer’s not an easy artist to start out with, and she did her proud
• Simon: 30 years younger this week and agree with Randy, nice to see an up tempo song. Great vocal, putting her mark back on the competition

Chris Sligh
Viewer question from Barbara, “How much down time do you have and how do you spend it”. Not a lot, but he likes spending it knitting and crocheting as well as paying bongos in his boxer shorts. No, for his real answer he says sleep as much as possible to stay healthy. Singing some Police, “Everything She Does is Magic”. Gwen’s advice to Chris is watch the tempo and stay with the music. He’s had problems with that in a variety of songs. Sounds like tonight though they’ve upped the reverb in his mic and it makes it sound like he’s echoing, which will only make staying on beat even harder. Hopefully he can fight through it because this is a great song. It’s not quite there, but not too bad either.

• Randy: good song choice, rhythm and tempo not balancing out
• Paula: biggest amount of criticism is “staying in the pocket” with the rhythm. vocally was good, good tone
• Simon: thought it was all a mess, bad timing in this stage of the competition. Didn’t represent him well

Gina Glocksen
Gina is a big fan of Gwen’s so, she was very emotional in the whole process of working with Gwen during the week. This song was a good choice for Gina, “I’ll Stand By You”. Fits her style and range very nicely. Timing seemed a bit off though. We’ll see what the judges think.

• Randy: boot night, another fly pair of boots. One of her best performances ever. She’s got the big voice, just believe and choose wise songs
• Paula: improving each week and coming into her own. Great song that she picked and allowed her to soar with her vocals
• Simon: wasn’t one of her best, it WAS her BEST! This was all about knowing who you are and choosing the right song. The transformation from a few weeks ago was significant. Best performance of the night so far.

Sanjaya Malakar
Singing “Bathwater”, hopefully that’s fitting because we’ll throw him out with the bathwater tomorrow night finally. Gwen said he forgot the words during rehearsal and it as a hard song, but he picked it. Best of luck to him, but it didn’t sound like she’d be too torn up if this was his swan song as well.

What the heck did he do to his hair? It’s a faux-hawk. That’s just weird. If he makes it through this week with just forgetting the words, hair like that and his normal sub-par singing skills, we may have to hire some hackers to go after some people at VFTW. It’s just sad, sad, sad, sad.

• Randy: speechless every time, the hair is weird. He can sing, just put it out there
• Paula: if he had the ability to just go for it and do it, leaves a lot to be desired
• Simon: presume there was no mirror in his dressing room. He doesn’t think it matters anymore what the judges say. He is in his own universe and if people like him good luck.

Haley Scarnato
Singing “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper. Gwen didn’t like the extended flourishing that Haley added to the end of the song. Do they contestants here that stuff before they perform? Hopefully they do, Haley doesn’t need to try any risks on her performances and see if she can outlast Sanjaya. You’d think that should go without saying, but not so from what we’ve seen. She seems to be staying with the main, known version of the song. Ending was kind of weird, but nothing too off the wall.

• Randy: started rough, got better towards the end. Just kind of all right. Didn’t really grab him
• Paula: beautiful song that requires nothing other than just singing the song, less contemporary
• Simon: sweet, but forgetable. Nothing to remember really

Join us for part two of tonight’s performances

Post from: Idol Stalker

The contestants come out Gina and Melinda got their haircut and Phil is bald, oh wait, that’s normal. It was pretty impressive in that Simon Cowell got quite the applause and screams when they announced his name. On a side note, there are new Coke cups tonight.

Tonight we’re doing the British Invasion, the Beatles led the initial wave and following with some little groups you may have heard of like The Rolling Stones, The Who and Herman’s Hermits or even The Animals. It just struck me that if the Beatles were still alive and rocking, they’d be old farts like The Rolling Stones are now.

Let’s get it started.

Haley Scarnato – “Tell Him”
She’s really coming out and showing a completely different side of her. I think the advice from LuLu to keep it staccato was good advice. She also said not to worry about being compared to the “big voices” because there’s a place for everyone and Haley just needs to do what she can do and be herself. I’m ont sure if it’s because she really worked it out this week, or if the style really suits. One thing to say for sure, she sure did make good use of some warddrobe tape.

• Randy: perfect song choice, best performance to date
• Paula: girlish quality with a perfect song for her
• Simon: “you naughty little thing”, fun, young a bit shrieky in the middle

Chris Richardson – “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Cryin’”
Peter Noone didn’t have much to say about Chris. Said he didn’t hear much of his voice. Doesn’t sound like he was impressed with Chris at all. Singing a little acoustic set with just him and a guitar. So far it sounds like he’s delivering on his goal. The setting and focus of the him and the guitarist on stage puts all the emphasis on his singing and his voice. He’s got talent, but I’m just not a big fan of his nasally and pinched sound. This performance was a good one though, nice falsetto ending that will get votes too. It’s a competition tonight!

• Randy: another great performance, showed a really different side. It was beautiful, one of his best vocals
• Paula: playing this game to win, very sexy and charming for the entire performance
• Simon: “I think that was your best performance”, your control was excellent and didn’t make it sound old-fashioned. Simon agrees with me, a little nasally.

Stephanie Edwards – “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”
Lulu said she’s so grounded. She reminded her of Beyonce when she hears her sing. But, we don’t need another Beyonce. Let’s see Stephanie. I’ll bet this will be a great performance. Very nice orchestral intro to the song. Everything backs off and let’s Stephanie’s voice to massage the lyrics into the air. The long black boots don’t work with her blue dress though. Oooh, sounds like her performance is just falling apart to me. Maybe it’s just the audio. Nothing memorable.

• Randy: good song choice, little pitchy, not her best performance
• Paula: loves what you’re wearing, picked the right song, minus some notes that fell off
• Simon: believes she’s losing her edge and her soul. A very good cabaret performance. Misses her passion and rawness

Anyone else think this show would be about half the time without all the commercials?

Blake Lewis – “Time of the Season”
Paula Abdul is rockin’ out at the judges desk. Very nice intro does it’s job of getting you on your feet. The final note of the chorus seemed a bit out of his range though. His beat-boxin’ and performance skills sets him so far apart from the rest of the competition it’s amazing. I think he could probably lose tonight and have an album before the winner is actually announced.

• Randy: cool, vibey, edgy, massive yo-factor, much props
• Paula: I felt like she was at a concert, he’s raised the bar
• Simon: a million times better than last week, I think this week it was a right song choice, kept the melody intact while putting his own slant on it.

Ryan danced a little bit and it I can’t decide if it was good or just completely goofy. I’m leaning a little more towards goofy.

LaKisha Jones – “Diamonds Are Forever”
LuLu tries to convince her to sing “You’re My World”, but she ends up and chooses “Diamonds Are Forever”. I’m not sure how she would have done on LuLu’s suggestion, but LaKisha’s performance isn’t doing a whole lot for me this week. There are a couple of lyrics and notes that she really launches at you, but overall I’m a little bored with the song.

• Randy: good choice, not his favorite performance. Didn’t feel enough LaKisha in it
• Paula: picked the right song, not much to talk about her song, so she resorts to talking about the diamonds she’s wearing
• Simon: feels it was like watching her perform 50-years from now

Phil Stacey – “Tobacco Road”
He’s picking a song because of how fun it is to sing. Peter believes it’s a good choice to highlight Phil’s range. Said he’d never heard it sung that well before. This song is full of energy and totally stretches the singer’s ability to hit a full range of notes and runs. A good variety of the tempo changes as well. I’m not sure what it is though, I like Phil and his personality, but for some reason on this song, his appearance just throws me off. He’s stepping up to the competition though and bringing it.

• Randy: had a good time up there, likes his upper register, good for him
• Paula: real good choice of song, some parts were pitchy, liked hearing the various ranges of his voice, good performance
• Simon: wasn’t crazy about, doesn’t hear any grit in his voice and it was needed in this song. It needed to be believably and he didn’t believe it

Join us after the break for the second half of tonight’s performances.

Post from: Idol Stalker

Gina Glocksen rocks out and shows us her individual style, which really sets herself apart from the other contestants.

Showing a little cleavage this evening, which seemed to be a popular strategy for the first big performance.

Jordin went for a very classy and polished look on Tuesday night’s performance. I think Jordin is a beautiful girl and has a personality and spirit about her to match.

LaKisha has some funny facial expressions when she sings but you quickly get over that when you hear her voice.

Stephanie Edwards can sing too, but I wasn’t impressed with her song or her attire on Tuesday night. Notice the cleavage display again.

And last but by far from least is Melinda Doolittle. She’s making everyone else around her appear to be a back-up singer. She is just amazing and probably the most humble performer ever for American Idol.

All photos and more available at The Official American Idol website.

Post from: Idol Stalker

Phil Stacey
Diana really likes the song he’s selected because she sang it with Marvin Gaye. “Make You Love Me”, working out his Harry Connick, Jr. vibe on this song. Love song crooner. He’s really throwing hte guantlet down for himself on this performance. A little falsetto highlight at the end of some notes. I like this song choice because it mixes some nice ballad melody with plenty of energy to highlight his stage presence. I’m really glad to see him step up the performance tonight. By FAR the best male performance tonight.

• Randy: performance was a little boring, vocals were hot!
• Paula: didn’t like the song, but vocals were great, strong vocals
• Simon: right temp, okay, very good song choice, when he’s trying to hit the big notes he shouts, wasn’t outstanding, wasn’t awful, better than last week

— Commercial Break —

LaKisha Jones
Choosing “God Bless the Child” which is a Billie Holiday song and Diana Ross played Billie in the movie. Interesting question about whether or not to use the mic stand. I’m not sure, I mean I really like LaKisha and this is a great performance of the song. I’m just not sure it’s the song that’s going to connect with the audience like it needs to be connecting to them. She’s going to really need to end it on a very memorable climax and really capitalize on the performance as a whole.

• Randy: perfect song choice, loves the outfit, unbelievable vocal, didn’t overdo. “That was sensational”
• Paula: beautiful performer, beautiful girl, heart came through in the song
• Simon: you’ve either got it or you haven’t got it and she’s got. The quality difference between her and Melinda is that the two of them are in a completely different league. Outstanding. Not intimidated by the stage, audience or band.

— Commercial Break —

Blake Lewis
Putting a “modern spin on a Motown classic”. He’s totally transitioning the song from the 60’s to today “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”. I like the modernization, but I’m not sure it’s up to the par we’ve come to expect from him. This may be one of his worst performances in my mind.

• Randy: good things about it, don’t worry about “Blake-izing” every song. Let his vocals come out, let the classics be the classics.
• Paula: real good singer, she could have a hit again with it
• Simon: didn’t get that, didn’t get it at all, understood his reason, didn’t “sound” as good as we’ve heard him previously

Stay tuned after the break and the jump for Chris Richardson and Stephanie Edwards

— Commercial Break —

Stephanie Edwards
She’s in love with Diana Ross. Diana says for Stephanie to build up the “sexy” in the song and deliver it. Diana says she has “star quality”. Singing “Love Hangover”, Stephanie is highlighting that she has the vocal strength to compete with the other girls in this competition. She’s going to have to keep picking the right songs to be sure and highlight her skills. I’m not sure if this was a good song choice for her though.

• Randy: yo, forgetting a bit of the words, good vocals, strong choice, perfect choice
• Paula: should have taken advantage of putting the up-tempo section in
• Simon: straight arrangement of the song, felt like singing an intro, didn’t close particularly well. Outsung by LaKisha and Melinda. Multitude of songs to choose from and she chose the wrong one tonight.

Chris Richardson
Singing “The Boss”. Was star struck with her. Needs to find the hook and work the audience with the song. Encouraging him to move around a bit, sounds really good. I’m sure he won’t have a problem moving around. I’m not sure what happened to Chris. He used to impress me much more than he has the past few weeks. It’s weird, ever since he sung the country song, it sounds like he’s always singing threw his nose now. Not an endearing quality for me when it comes to music.

• Randy: holding the line for the boys, not his best performance, half and half on good and bad
• Paula: nailed the blend of bringing the contemporary to a classic, played with the vocals and did a great job
• Simon: just listening to the vocals, it was dreadful. thought it was vocally “terrible”

— Commercial Break —

Jordin Sparks
Diana believes that Jordin is absolutely gorgeous, but needs to communicate to the audience and project the song into the audience and connect with them. “If We Hold On Together” is a very slow tempo song to wrap up the night. I’m curious as to if the contestants know what slot they’re performing in when they pick a song. If I knew I was wrapping up the night, I’d want to come out and a nail a really high energy performance to be as memorable as possible going into the lighting up the phone lines with voters. A little too much vibrato in areas and pitchy in other areas. Screaming some of the big notes.

• Randy: at 17, he’s so impressed with her, Jordin made it a 3-girl race tonight with her song
• Paula: natural gift, a breath of fresh air, beautiful and can sing her heart out
• Simon: was a little bit gooey, totally agree and thought it was a very, very good vocal. Put herself in to be in the finals of this competition.

After some of the performances tonight and the variety of responses of my own opinions and the judges from my own and each others, music is so much a personal preference and taste for each individual.

I believe it should be Sanjaya to go home this week, but knowing that, it will probably end up being Brandon Rogers.

Post from: Idol Stalker

Up next we’ve got Stephanie.

Stephanie Edwards
She’s been singing since she was 3-years old. Would always be asked to sing at family gatherings and she was very shy. This girl can sing! Great power and talent although a couple of notes and runs were very pitchy.

• Randy: gives an “A” for a valiant effort. When you choose a Chaka song, you’ll always be compared
• Paula: thinks she was darn near flawless. Slightly falling behind in the music
• Simon: one of the best we’ve got. Tendency to be a little copy cat. She has done 100% enough to sing her way into next week and the Final 12

LaKisha Jones
She is terrified of animals. Any animals. Uh-oh! She’s doing a Whitney Houston song, but this time folks you’re going to hear what it sounds like for someone that’s not the original singer to totally nail one of their songs. LaKisha is dead-on with this one. Perfect tone and inflection. WOW! She is the one to beat this season on the girl’s side of things, maybe even for the full-meal deal!

• Randy: “I liked that”. Don’t know if it was her best, but another great performance by the great LaKisha
• Paula: you’ve already made us love you, she’ll stay right here and work on being the next idol
• Simon: haven’t seen tonight, but she brought it was passion, talent and believability. Tonight she looks beautiful, as opposed to his comments from last week.

Gina Glocksen
Relies a lot on the lucky charms. She’s got a little troll, a stuffed pickle and special t-shirt. Not sure if I’m correct on this or night, but this reminds me of the group Evanescence. A quick Google search and it’s confirmed that it’s “Call Me When You’re Sober”. Absolutely her type of song.

• Randy: finally, finally the real Gina comes out. This is who he always felt she was
• Paula: completely agree, more or less who she imagined her to be, be careful not to oversing. This is the style that suits her best
• Simon: first time he’s seen her look comfortable. This was the girl they wanted in this stage of the competition. He really, really hopes she makes it through. She’s a breath of fresh air. She deserves to be there.

Melinda Doolittle
After the break we’ve got Melinda to close the show. We find out a little bit more about her, and that it’s her friends consider some of her quirks she has to be more OCD. This girl has personality oozing out of everywhere! She knows what her style is, similar to Gina, and brought it tonight. Singing “W-O-M-A-N” a little old-school rocking out song. How in the world was she ever just a back-up singer. I think it was all about confidence folks. Now she’s got it more every week and it shows in her performances.

• Randy: she is a consumate pro! She’s ready to go in a studio and just make a record
• Paula: she is so phenomenal, brilliant on stage, she just wants to see every week what’s next from her
• Simon: “you little tiger. I thought we had a pussycat”. It is very obvious and nice that she is actually enjoying every second of being on this show. 1,000,000% we’ll see her next week!

I may have to back-pedal a little bit on LaKisha being the one to beat, her and Melinda are throwing down the gauntlet and I don’t think anyone else can come close to picking it up.

I believe the poll may be right this week. I’m not sure if Antonella or Haley are going to make it through this week. We’ll find out tomorrow night, so be sure and come back and catch the results show.

Post from: Idol Stalker