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This is a nice part of the season. Eight contestants, one hour, over, and done.
At the end of tonight's show, the panel was discussing how many of the men actually deserved to be in the final twelve. Randy and Paula said four, Simon said three-and-a-half.
Personally I think that three of the men belong in the final twelve: Chris, Chris, and Blake. The others don't really even have a chance.
With that said, here are Tonight's Performances:
1. Blake Lewis sang "All Mixed Up" by 311. Cool! What I really like about Blake is that he chooses songs that I know and that I like. This time he chose one of my favorite songs! I like the way he "bleeped" out the naughty words in the song with his voice effects. GRADE: B+/A- (At this point I paused the show and played the original song on CD.)
Blake's vignette featured some character-driven improv comedy. His improv character reminded me of one that Carrot Top does. That was cool too!
2. Sanjaya Malakar sang a song that was probably titled, "Waitin' on the world to change." I liked this performance the best of all of Sanjaya's performances. (Faint praise I know. . .) I think that Sanjaya showed enough star power to earn himself the GRADE: B.
HOWEVER, the judges (and my wife) crapped on his performance. Every once-in-a-while it seems that I hear things completely differently than my wife or the judges. I'll assume that "majority rules", and I was mistaken.
3. Sundance Head sang Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." I wondered what Sundance was thinking with this one. If he wanted to sing a Pearl Jam song, couldn't he have chosen an easier one to do than this one? (I am thinking that he could have done will with "Daughter".) With the tough material, he had the deck stacked against him. GRADE: C-
4. Chris Richardson sang something that must have been a country song. I don't get country. I wonder why? I guess it was okay. GRADE: C+
5. Jared Cotter sang a Stevie Wonder song that I'd guess is called, "If you really love me". Dull.
Every year it becomes apparent that Stevie Wonder and Elton John songs are a lot more difficult to sing than they seem. Once again, Jared proves that Stevie is hard. GRADE: C
6. Brandon Rogers sang "I just want to celebrate". (Isn't the original group named Rare Earth?) That was a cool song to choose, but Brandon wasn't all that fantastic with it. I think that the biggest problem with this one was that it was ultimately forgettable. GRADE: B-
7. Phil Stacey sang "???". (Popular song choice this year!) With his crazy eyes and goofy hat, Phil kind of looked like the 1955 version of Doc Brown from "Back to the Future".
Phil seems to have fallen into a rhythm of singing poorly at the beginning of songs, and then saving himself by belting out something big near the end. This time, the high points weren't high enough to salvage the lows. GRADE: C-
8. Chris Sligh sang a song which could very well likely be titled, "We all want to be loved." Not a bad song. I'd stand by the idea that Chris will eventually be the one man to beat. GRADE: B
Tonight's Best:
1) Blake Lewis 2) Chris Sligh
Tonight's Worst:
1) Sundance 2) Phil Stacey
Who will go home:
This is a tough one to pick!!! My gut tells me: Brandon and Phil (maybe Jared, but my "official" picks are Brandon and Phil.)