Guest Blogger: Angela on American Idol - the top 9 - Elvis Week

Sorry there was no Idol blog last week. I was out of town and didn’t get around to watching Tuesday’s performance show, though I did watch the shocking! results show and read/watched several recaps from around the web. I hope the judges don’t regret using their save so early in the season. I’m not surprised they saved Big Mike, but I hope none of the other front-runners need saving in the up-coming weeks.

This week Elvis is the theme and last season’s runner-up Adam Lambert is the mentor. Interesting. I think it’s a little early in his career for Adam to be “mentoring” anyone, but he has more stage presence than all of this year’s contestants combined and he certainly knows what they’re going through being on the show. It feels a little like stunt casting trying to lure last season’s viewers into investing in this season, but there definitely have been less relevant, less helpful mentors in the past. At least he was honest and constructive, and I genuinely think he helped the contestants be more interesting on stage this week.

The show got off to an inadvertently hilarious start as Ryan Seacrest was chatting with Adam in the audience. In true self-deprecating, open-mouth-insert-foot Seacrest fashion, Ryan glibly told Adam, “My tongue is not nearly as talented as yours.” *cue the homosexual jokes* The awkward pause and accompanying confused facial expressions afterward were the highlight of the show for me. (Ryan’s snarky Dunkleman joke was a close second) Thanks for the laughs, Ry! Now on to the performances…

1. Crystal – “Saved” – This is a good song choice for her and the arrangement was great. I love the bedazzled guitar, but I don’t love how she mumbles when she looks at said bedazzled guitar.
2. Lee – “A Little Less Conversation” – I really love his raspy voice. He showed more personality, but unfortunately he messed up the words.
3. Casey – “Laudy Miss Claudy” – Honestly I’m not sure where to rank this. I liked it, but I’m totally biased because he’s hot. I can’t be objective where Casey is concerned.
4. Mike – “In the Ghetto” – His voice is consistently good, but I’m not sure if this will be enough to win over the voters. It wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before.
5. Katie – “Baby What Do You Want Me to Do?” – I’m glad she took Adam’s advice and put more personality into it. I wouldn’t have expected her to choose a song like this.
6. Tim – “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” – This is good song choice for him and he made some interesting changes to the melody changes. There were a few flat notes though.
7. Siobhan – “Suspicious Minds” – Something about the first half of this bothered me but I’m not really sure what; I liked the second half better. Unfortunately her shrill note came back.
8. Aaron – “Blue Suede Shoes” – This was totally the wrong song for him. He thinks he’s better than he is. I really want him to go away like 3 weeks ago.
9. Andrew – “Houndog” – I liked the arrangement, but it was still boring. Walking around carrying the mic doesn’t make a performance interesting.
   

I think Aaron and Andrew’s time is up, but who knows if the rest of America agrees with me. Tune in Wednesday at 9:55 pm to find out.

- Angela Pasquinelli