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Tonight's American Idol featured one of my favorite points in the competition: the group song performances.  In this part of the competition we get to witness: personality conflicts, frayed nerves, group cohesiveness, stage moms and dads, hurt feelings, and joy.  And we got all of those (and more) on tonight's show.

The format for the group song round is a bit different this year, as apparently the groups were chosen for the contestants, rather than chosen by the contestants.  It made for less drama in that contestants weren't shown desperately searching for partners, however we were able to witness some interesting heterogeneous groups of performers.  (Is it me, or is the mood for this year's show a bit more serious than in the past couple of seasons?  I like it just as much, but it seems a bit "different".)

Among the performances there were four individual singers who really stood out, and three groups that had interesting stories.

Early front runners on the strength of tonight's show include: Constantine Maroulis, Anwar Robinson, Scott Savol, and Mario Vazquez.  (Anthony Federov, Carrie Underwood, Amanda Avila, and that lady with the big hair also stand out, but weren't featured on tonight's show.  I am assuming that they all passed to the next day.)

Constantine is my early favorite.  I really dig his voice, his style, and his image.  I am glad that I have someone to root for from the beginning.

Anwar and Mario both are fantastic singers.  Fantastic singers go far in the competition.

Scott Savol is still a puzzle to me.  He has a beautiful voice, but would be a really offbeat choice for America to buy into.  -I hear that Christopher Cross' career fizzled once musicians were expected to make music videos.  I am wondering whether Scott may be "not cool" in a Christopher Cross sort of way.- That said: I am always impressed each time I hear Scott sing.  He is "the one to watch" in this year's series.

Interesting Group 1: The most interesting group (to me) was the one with the three girls including Elizabeth Pha.  I predicted earlier that Elizabeth may have a bit of a rough time once she had to work with other women, and sure enough her group suffered severe personality conflicts.

In the end, Elizabeth was sent away, while Rachel Leslie and Carrie Zaruba were passed on to the next day.  I am a little sad to see Elizabeth go ('cuz she's so cute), but it gets rough to make it through if a contestant forgets lyrics twice in a row.

Interesting Group 2: Jaclyn Crum's group had a bit of a struggle, as Jaclyn's mom was hospitalized on the first day of group rehearsals.  Fortunately the group was able to pull it together as Jaclyn, Rashida Johnson, and Faith Gatewood performed well enough to pass on to the next day.

I was especially impressed with Jaclyn's presence on stage.  She performs with a bit of a chip on her shoulder that doesn't come off as being "attitude."  Let's hope (for her sake) that she'll be able to walk the fine line between edginess and problemmatic attitude on stage.

Interesting Group 3:The group of Jamie Paul Koehler, John Zisa, and Kurtis Parks was featured prominently rehearsing a difficult song.  The rehearsals didn't seem to be going well.

Once the boys got on stage, they really bombed out.  I felt sorry for them.  By some miracle however, the three of them were passed on to the next day.  They must have all succeeded on the strengths of their prior efforts, as they were terrible on tonight's show.  (I am guessing that their group was one of singers whom the judges considered to be reasonably safe bets to make it to the next day.)

J.P.'s reaction to making it through (tears of elation) was a wonderful TV moment.  I am confident that he'll be able to learn something from that performance that will help him later in life.  (All three of them will in fact.)  Knowing that you've been given a "second chance" can be seen as motivation for some.

So, that's all for the group song competition.  We enjoyed group dynamics, ups and downs of the performers, and a some standout performances by a few of the male contestants.  Come back next week!