American Idol Semifinals III: Are We There Yet?

Are we finally there? What? THREE more nights of this crap before we get to the top 12? Ugh. Well, let's make the best of it shall we contestants?

Von Smith - "No Looking Back" - Ahh, the T-shirt and jacket look, priceless Idol. His voice is silky smooth, but he seems to be rushing his voice too much with the song. Gotta give more credit to the outfit noticing the red shoes to match the shirt, but nevertheless, this was just your average Idol performance. Song choice was awful in my opinion, but he did a good job. Good chances depending on how the others do tonight.
GRADE: B-

Taylor Vaifanua - "If I Ain't Got You" - If my daughter bouncing is her votes, then Taylor wins the night. Again the more contemporary you go, the easier it is to compare you to the real singer and see that you are not that good. Taylor is no Alicia Keys, and unfortunately, this song showed her weaknesses more than her strengths. The outfit was completely normal, except for the patent leather pants, but whatever. She was very forgettable despite a decent voice.
GRADE: C-

Alex Wagner-Trugman - "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" - I am thinking of the uber-dork as my boyfriend, and wow does it make that Elton karaoke performance go down smoother. His voice jumped pitch like that was his choice, and he lets out an animal roar between the chorus and the verse. Wow this is going to be ugly. Vote For The Worst candidate of the semifinals for sure! His outfit is not offensive, but he's a dork so no surprise there. Paula had to squeeze to say something nice, which is bad.
GRADE: FAIL

Arianna Afsar - "The Winner Takes It All" - Best song choice of the night, but it is also kind of a risky choice with a slow quiet opening in the semifinals. She was a little shaky initially too, which stood out, but she had plenty of glory notes to belt at the end. She missed the last one badly which stinks because she was good until then. Cute blue dress, which will serve her well back at McDonald's or wherever she is after this week. Making it contemporary does not mean slow it down. Ugh.
GRADE: D

Ju'Not Joyner - "Hey There Delilah" - Instead of pimping the Chikeize like I thought with the contemporary pop song, he slows down the song and makes it a soulfoul melody. Are the contestants actively trying to bore the shit out of me tonight? The leather jacket and such doesn't look bad on him, but might come off a little ghetto for the tweentards. Plus they will be asleep after this performance. He hit the notes, but who cares since it was so slow and he did not stretch at all.
GRADE: C-

Kristen McNamara - "Give Me One Reason" - Finally something a little upbeat. No real terribad outfits tonight, but Nathaniel will change that in a few minutes. The song choice was good because it fit her voice pretty well. She may not have been perfect on the notes, but it was pretty solid I thought overall. Very good performance that will put her in the mix tonight.
GRADE: B-

Nathaniel Marshall - "I Would Do Anything For Love" - He looks about as good as meat loaf in a low cut shirt...thanks for showing us the extra tats dude. Super cheese pointing to Simon on certain lyrics, but Normund has the cheese down better. Nathaniel actually has a solid voice, but this was an abysmal song choice. I have to imagine he's too scary to move on. Not even a good glory note at the end. Yuck. Go home.
GRADE: D

Felicia Barton - "No One" - More Alicia Keys, yay. The sequins under the leather jacket, let's just call it what it is, AWFUL! Just like Taylor, felicia picks a song by a great contemporary artist and fails to live up to anything close. Alicia Keys is the new Whitney, which means Felicia's pardon from the executioner will be short lived. Just all over the place until the end, and not a very good performance. Judges were much nicer than they needed to be.
GRADE: D+

Scott McIntyre - "Mandolin Rain" - I wonder if his buddy helper will be around for the group number tomorrow night. At least his friends know how to dress him, best outfit of the night. From the blind guy. Wake up contestants. this guy has the superstar voice and he picks a good song, which has been a rarity tonight and in the entire semifinals. Not quite as good as Danny, but he will be a big player in this competition I think.
GRADE: A-

Kendall Beard - "This One's For The Girls" - She pimps the Sarah Jessica Parker flower on the belt, which is a disaster. But she's way better than Kristy Lee Cook, who went far last season. She missed some notes on a song that's not terribly difficult. She belted too much at the end too. I'm really not as thrilled as I expected. Big personality and good song choice for her, but that was not a good performance.
GRADE: C-

Jorge Nunez - "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" - Here comes the Puerto Rico flavor they injected for us by forcing a PR audition round. I think I have that jacket, but the jeans are terrible. VFTW moment when he tries some melody in the chorus and shows his accent way more than he intends to. I don't get how the judges say they want P-Rico talent but they want this guy to sing more American. Hmm, The song choice was not good for him, and it was a little boring. He played it OK, and tries to get the judges with a glory note on the end. It gets Paula, go figure.
GRADE: C-

Lil' Rounds - "Be Without You" - I wondered how she would handle the s-word in the song, but she just skips it. A very good dress. Very good song choice for her, even though it started off choppy. She'll make it through because they pimped her to, otherwise this might be a very close call. Simon doesn't lik eit because she sounds too much like MJB, which basically means she will step up and finally fill the ranks with more minorities (non-white and female, which was lacking after 2 weeks this season).
GRADE: B+

This is another tough round, but more because there were not many people who stepped up and did a great job. The finalists from this round should be happy they did not go last week, as they would've been killed. Idol producers clearly tailored the order of contestants and gave the money slot away to three people they really want to push. Hope that doesn't continue in the finals.

WELCOME TO THE TOP 12: Scott McIntyre, Lil' Rounds, Kendall Beard
WILD CARD POSSIBILITIES: Von Smith, Kristen McNamara
BUH-BYE: Alex Wagner-Trugman, Arianna Asfar, Ju'Not Joyner, Nathaniel Marshall, Felicia Barton, Jorge Nunez, Taylor Vaifauna