Another Tuesday night was upon us and after a historic week in Idol, I was looking forward to seeing how the contestants stepped up to the tremulous nature of Disco Week.
Without much ado the proceedings kicked off with Lil Rounds singing Chaka Khan's hit "I'm Every Woman," one her best performances in my book. She looked beautiful and like she was having fun, but she was given the dangerous first spot. Along with the position of doom, Lil has to overcome the judge's lack of excitement (and a particularly scathing review from Simon). I feel for her, and for her struggle to find her artistic center in this competition, but her chances are few and her odds are not looking good to survive the double elimination that's coming tonight.
Kris Allen resumed the position behind his guitar, singing "She Works Hard For The Money," of all things, and I happily say that I was impressed. It just goes to show you that Kris Allen has the wits and talent to take a song about a prostitute and turn it into a Latin-flavored hit. In my humble opinion, Kris is the male dark horse. He's cool under pressure and delivered another great performance. Unless there's a catastrophic event he should be safe tonight.
Danny Goeke was up next and in his usual style he belted out note after note of "September." Danny sounded great and like he was having fun, however, when I looked up from my typing it didn't seem as though it was in his body, it was almost like he was not totally comfortable. All in all a great performance, and one that hopefully America will remember.
Allison Iraheta has grown by leaps and bounds during this competition; we've seen her go from shy 16-year-old to fiery 16-year-old with a seemingly natural penchant for entertainment. She didn't disappoint when it came to singing "Hot Stuff" last night. While this was not my favorite performance of hers, mostly due to the arrangement, Allison put her own spin on a beloved Donna Summer classic, and wowed the judges in turn.
Clad in a sharp black suit with spiked hair, Adam Lambert stepped up and did what he does best, take a song (any song, really) and make it entirely his own. This may be obvious, but week after week Adam proves that he is the one to beat. America is wild about him, and understandably so are the judges. My question is: if he's indeed going to the finals as Paula loves to intone almost every week, who's going to be the one to face him and will they even stand a chance?
Matt Giraud - After "Stayin Alive" in last weeks historic Idol show, he followed up t with a funky and fresh take on one of the Bee Gees most recognizable tunes. While I'm not a huge fan of Matt's falsetto choices, I do agree with Randy when he said that Matt can sing. Bottom line, he can, but will this performance be enough to weather the criticism from the judges, and save him for another week?
Rounding out the show, Anoop Desai dropped a euro-club inspired version of "Dim All The Lights" on America and judging by his facial expressions, seemed to think that it was not his best performance. I've always been an Anoop fan, and I do believe that he has a great voice, but this performance left me wanting a bit of the old Anoop that rocketed through Hollywood and took the Idol stage by storm. I have an unsettling feeling that we'll see him in the bottom three again (or bottom four, who knows how they'll do it.)
The dreaded results show will see off two of our favorite Idols and I, for one, am not looking forward to it one bit. Ok, well, I am to see if my favorites make it through, just like the rest of America.