Down to Five on American Idol

Two songs for everyone on American Idol tonight…oh boy! One from the year they were born, one from this week’s Billboard chart. I guess they couldn’t find a singer who wanted to sell more CDs this week. Well, I guess they’re trying to sell the American Idol CD. Does that really count?

Elliott was born in 1978, so we get to hear some George Benson. It was a good rendition – I think that if his voice was coupled with Chris’s looks, there wouldn’t be a contest. But Elliott is so darn goofy looking, who knows. His second song, a Michael Buble song that I’ve never heard before sounded good too. It was especially good following the franticness of Taylor’s performance.

Ok, I can’t believe that Paris was born in 1988. My husband was a senior in high school. Wow. So I know that there were so many great songs that came out in 1988…why oh why did she choose Prince? What, you don’t want to sing “Pour Some Sugar on Me?” or “Bad Medicine” (a.k.a. my favorite songs from 7^th grade…)? It wasn’t that good, but not as annoying as Simon thought. Her second song, by Mary J. Blige, wasn’t a great choice either. It needed to be bleeped – not a good sign. She sang it well…but still, not one of her best performances.

Who knew that Chris is younger than Elliott? His birth year song was a great choice. He’s back to his rocker roots, and gosh darn it he sounds sexy. (yes, that’s right, I said it…sexy) Simon was right – that was a million times better than the two performances before him. His second song wasn’t as good, but it was still so much better than the others. I agree with Simon – his first song was so good that he’ll hopefully sail through.

Paula doesn’t seem as drunk tonight. Of course, the night is still early. And Simon is definitely cranky, so not everything is topsy turvey.

Apparently Katharine had a “wardrobe malfunction” last week…I guess that would explain how she finished in the top 2 even though Simon hated her performance. All you horny guys out there, we know you’re voting for Idol. Stop denying it. Tonight she started out ok – I wasn’t a fan of her song choice, but she has such a strong voice that it sounded pretty good. There was some confusion though with the judges…Simon said “it was by far one of your best performances” (thank you tivo), then corrected himself as she talked to Ryan to make sure we knew that he meant that it wasn’t one of her best performances. Whatever. Her second song sounded a lot better. But it was a strange performance done almost entirely on her knees (insert your own joke here). Hopefully people remember that vocal instead of her first.

Taylor’s first song choice was interesting for one reason, and one reason only. I’ve recently become addicted to “Karaoke Revolution Party” on my husband’s PS2. I’m a horrible singer, but I love it. “Play That Funky Music” is one of the songs on the game, and when you play the “random song” mode, it comes up all the time. And I, one of the world’s worst singers, can do a pretty decent version of it. It was way too safe for him, and his attempts at being funky were, well, scary. His second song wasn’t much better. I agree with Simon – how he was able to sing a Beetles song for the “hits of this week” portion is a mystery. It was good…just nowhere near as good as the original.

I think the bottom two will be Paris and Taylor…who knows which will actually go home. The only person who I really think is safe this week is Chris…maybe Katharine, but who knows. Off to vote…