Guest Blogger: Angela on American Idol - the top 10 girls + danny gokey

This blog is delayed because rather than staying home to watch Idol Wednesday night, I was WITH an Idol. As part of the promotional tour for his newly released country cd, Danny Gokey from AI8 spent the evening doing a couple of appearances in my neighborhood – how could I resist? First he performed a 5-song set and signed autographs at Best Buy, and later he performed a longer set at a local country bar. He mostly sang songs from his new cd, but he also performed a couple of covers, including “What Hurts The Most” which he sang on Idol. As usual, Danny sounded great and was as friendly as ever. I’ve always been impressed with his sincerity on stage and off. If you get a chance to see Danny perform live (he’s opening for Sugarland this summer), definitely check him out. He won’t disappoint. His cd is really good too.

Here are a few pictures I took at Danny’s appearances yesterday:

http://www.twitpic.com/16mj9n

http://www.twitpic.com/16mjin

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http://www.twitpic.com/16mjr2

http://www.twitpic.com/16mk5j

And a few videos: (my apologies for the poor sound quality)

“What Hurts The Most” at Best Buy

“My Best Days” at Club Rodeo

“Will Not Say Goodbye” at Club Rodeo (my favorite song from his cd)

And now on to this season… I watched the top 10 girls’ performances a day late, but I stayed spoiler-free so I could give my honest feedback without any other influences. With that said, here’s my ranking:

1. Crystal – “Long As I Can See the Light” – Incredible! You’d never know she was in the hospital the day before. I’m so glad she was well enough to perform!
2. Didi – “Lean on Me” – I absolutely LOVE the tone of her voice. I would listen to her sing anything. The judges are insane and need their hearing checked. Ryan’s attempt to comfort her was very sweet.
3. Katelyn – “The Scientist” – I’m not a Coldplay fan, but I really liked Katelyn’s performance. The big note at the end surprised me; I didn’t think she had it in her. I love that she played the whole thing on piano too.
4. Lacey – “Kiss Me” – Like Kara suggested, this is a perfect song for her voice. Her performance wasn’t amazing but it was solid and a tremendous improvement over last week.
5. Paige – “Walk Away” – I love this song and Paige did a pretty good job with it. She didn’t quite hit the high notes (sometimes Kelly Clarkson doesn’t hit them herself) and seemed out of breath a couple of times, but in general I enjoyed it.
6. Lilly – “A Change Is Gonna Come” – Her voice is a little too quirky for my liking. She’s good but not necessarily someone whose album I’d buy.
7. Katie – “Put Your Records On” – She sounds fine but there’s a disconnect between the maturity of her voice and her actual age. It’s awkward.
8. Shiobhan – “Think” – Her voice doesn’t have enough soul for this song. The lower parts were okay but the high notes were really shrieky.
9. Haeley – “The Climb” – The beginning sounded okay, but she lost it in the middle. The judges were too hard on her though.
10. Michelle – “With Arms Wide Open” – Kudos for trying to do something different, but I didn’t like this at all. Her voice didn’t suit the song and the notes were all over the place. She knew it wasn’t good too. I can’t believe Kara and Simon liked it. They’re smoking crack.

The acoustics in the studio must be quite a bit different from what we hear on tv because I disagreed with the judges a lot. Michelle was by far the worst. She and Haeley are definitely at risk. I also think Katie could be in danger because she’s not really making a connection with the audience. My top 3 girls are definitely Crystal, Didi, and Katelyn – this week and every week. I love their voices, their personalities, and their stage presence. I hope people are voting for them because I want to see them on tour!

-Angela Pasquinelli