American Idol Top 6: Let's Go To The Theatre!

Well after a week's hiatus (where I missed the bottom 3 except for picking Kristy Lee to go home again), we're back for some more Idol. We have reached the halfway point of the prime part of the season, and we'll be about one month away from crowning a new Idol after this week's eliminations.

So after doing Dolly songs and Mariah Carey songs, we come to another legendary set of songs (like the Beatles songbook) for this season's contestants to butcher. It's really too bad we're missing KKK Kristy this week or even better, imagine Amanda doing show tunes. Anyways, strike up the orchestra and let's get on with the show!

1. Syesha Mercado - "One Rock and Roll Too Many" - First let me say, absolutely the best outfit and hair of the season out of Syesha, who is probably the best dressed contestant left. This song gave her an opportunity to show off some vocal range while also being nice and upbeat (I'm betting there will not be much more of that tonight). She knocked this one out of the park, even though the song is relatively unknown. It's nice to see an Idol actually have fun on stage instead of being so tight and playing it safe. There's no way the Tween-tards can send her home after this, and she may be jumping into the fray for the top 2-3.
GRADE - A

2. Jason Castro - "Memory" - OMG, Jason wears a suit. I didn't know the hippie had it in him, but then again this week is probably his worst nightmare. When ALW is not so sure about the performance it must be bad news because the mentors ALWAYS suck up to the contestants on camera. There were a couple really rough spots and Jason slowed the song down to make it sound like "Hallelujah" from a few weeks ago instead of the powerful ballad Memory is. This song was boring and did not show anything off, the performance was pretty much a train wreck. Hurt even more by following Syesha. Uh-oh city.
GRADE - F

3. Brooke White - "You Must Love Me" - OK so maybe ALW is just the rare mentor who actually tells the Idols that they aren't quite all they think they are when they misinterpret songs. Oh my goodness, she stopped one line into the song and started over and the band actually complied. I think they should've gone on because while the judges thought that was professional last time, I call bullshit on that. If you were "professional," you wouldn't fuck up the beginning of a song (especially now that it's happened twice). At least the Archulator kept swinging with a smile when he forgot lyrics. This is just the absolute bomb that Jason needed to keep him in contention. The performance was not awesome as her voice definitely pitched wrongly through the song. At least the judges mauled her properly. Wow the elimination show is going to be a heated battle.
GRADE - F

4. David Archuleta - "Think of Me" - And here is our obligatory Phantom song, and why couldn't the frontrunner pick one of the great guy songs...I just don't know. Interesting ALW critique on the squinty or closed eyes, very distracting at times. Did we really need all those 10-13 year olds to come up and hug him...we know why he's the frontrunner and can hear the screams at home every week, but at least they are in his age group dating wise. Don't know how I feel about the outfit since everyone is dressing up for theatre week. This was nothing like what I remember from Phantom, an interesting twist. The performance was good, but I think he bent the song a little too much. Definitely safe thanks to the weaker links above.
GRADE - C

5. Carly Smithson - "All I Ask Of You...oh wait, let's audible to Jesus Christ Superstar" - This is really dressy for Carly, sleeves and all. It's nice to see that the best performances are those who decided to not change a song too much and those who did something upbeat and memorable. For once, I don't feel like she oversang the tune, but this is one of her wheelhouses where oversinging is OK. The performance was pretty spot on, one of her better ones. After being in risk of falling out the past couple weeks, Carly again looks like a prime contender.
GRADE - B

6. David Cook - "Music Of The Night" - Finally a guy picks a guy song, and DC looks good in his dressy yet rocking shirt and suit jacket. I see why ALW was saying DC needs to play up the emotion of the song better, but he's not going for Broadway. Wow did he hit the glory note in the middle of the performance. All of a sudden it appears David Cook has the best voice this season of the remaining contestants, something pretty amazing for the last rocker. I agree with Simon that this is not a good week for DC, but he made the most of it and for that, I give the elusive A.
GRADE - A-

Wow, definitely three tiers of performances this week. Syesha stole the show and it will be injustice if she or DC end up in the bottome three. This season has proven the tween-tards can be unpredictable. For the record, Carly was better than The Archulator but he's still too popular to drop into the bottom three. So...

Top 2 - Syesha Mercado, David Cook

Bottom 3 - Carly Smithson, Jason Castro, Brooke White

In a battle of VFTW's selection against everyone's favorite dredlocks...

Going Home - Brooke White