American Idol 9 - Top 10 Girls

And now that Crystal is back to OK according to the doctors, we can continue with the girl half of this competition. After the guys laid a big egg outside of Michael and Casey, this is an opportunity to do much better. A few of the guys jumped in quality a huge amount and you would expect the same from the girls. So here we go.

Crystal Bowersox - Long As I Can See The Light - Crystal manages to look less offensive this week, which is hard to do with dreads on a girl. She also picks a song and a band that may never have been played before on Idol, which is a solid way to distinguish yourself when the band is as famous as CCR. The performance was very good if a little slow, and I think she will not be cursed by the opening slot.
GRADE: B+

Haeley Vaughn - The Climb - What exactly were the judges listening to when she made the top 24 over the girls with the funny face. Haeley sings another VTFW performance by not being anywhere near the pitch of the song but at least she did not hit any terrible hurt your head notes this week. This is certainly one of the worst semifinalists ever in Idol history, and I'm not afraid to say it. Keep making flowers to wear and smile, honey, because you got nothing going for you.
GRADE: FAIL

Lacey Brown - Kiss Me - Lacey is wearing a lot of necklaces...kind of like flava flav. Lacey takes what is already a nicely paced song and slows it down to emphasize the boring verses more? Who knows. This sounded like a poor lounge singer version of Sixpence None the Richer, which is hard to do. Definitely never listen to the judges. That's the lesson to learn.
GRADE: D+

Katie Stevens - Put Your Records On - Katie actually has a more solid voice than this song needs, which makes it kind of weird when she tries to hit the awkward weak notes toward the end of the chorus. She puts on a pretty mediocre performance overall but it was good for this group to date. I think she's Top 12 material at this point despite the minor problems.
GRADE: C+

Didi Benami - Lean On Me - Didi comes across kind of whiny in a soul song rather than soulful. Depending on how the judges grill her, this could put her in trouble because this was flop-city. Didi has proven one thing, and that is she is not a soul singer. Go back to the indulgant stuff, if you get another chance. Another karaoke singer in this night that's going downhill rapidly.
GRADE: FAIL

Michelle Delamor - With Arms Wide Open - This is totally swinging something different again as she is not Scott Stapp, and I'm guessing she thanks god every day for that. Anyway, she is wearing some white dress with a black jacket and gloves and the white dress looks ridiculous. Michelle gives a good attempt, but she is a little pitchy even by my ears and the reinvent of the song just does not work. The glory note at the end made it worse. Plop.
GRADE: D+

Lily Scott - A Change Is Gonna Come - Lily wears some feathers in her hair which is a nice splash of color compared to normal but just adds to the homeless look of her. Randy might think she's an indie artist, but I just think she does not measure up and is doomed to that destiny if she makes it at all. There were no real bad notes or anything hit tonight, so she'll get a middling grade. However, I do not think she is anywhere close to a contender.
GRADE: C

Katelyn Epperly - The Scientist - Coldplay is way too popular for their own good, but their quiet ballads are very well written. Katelyn plays the piano which makes her stand out in this season of too much guitar. This version was a bit too slow like a graveyard ballad and finished on a bad note with the glory note. If she had done nothing with the arrangement this would have been awesome, but she did so it falls back to mediocre.
GRADE: C+

Paige Miles - Walk Away - I am not buying the best female voice in the competition vibe this week because this song probably does not sound perfect performed live by Kelly Clarkson. It has the feel of a record song, meaning it only sounds great in the studio. Her voice does not fit and she tries to make it fit in the first half, the second half was more like her which saved the performance from a worse grade. This is hopefully just a bump in the road, but she needs to do something different next week.
GRADE: C-

Siobhan Magnus - Think - Thankfully she got the mohawk out of her system because she is actually a very marketable good looking artist compared to some of her competition. She takes a huge risk on this song and redeems the night to some extent although she gets a bit rushed and breathless in this big song. Nobody will ever live up to Aretha but she did well for this night.
GRADE: B

not much to speak of. The girls had a chance to truly outshine the guys and they did not do so. This season is rapidly making me disgusted with AI, but we drag on and hope that the chaff get culled this week.

TOP PERFORMER - Crystal
BOTTOM 3 - Didi, Michelle, Haeley
GOING HOME - Haeley, Michelle