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Last night's men's show was fantastic. Ending with Bo Bice's "Whipping Post," that may have been the best episode of Idol so far. Nikko Smith, Mario Vazquez, Anthony Federov, and Bo put in exceptionally good performances. (Travis Tucker and Scott Savol acquitted themselves quite well too.)
Tonight I was expecting the women to follow suit with more strong performances. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Besides Jessica Sierra, nobody really did much for themselves this evening.
So considering that tonight's show was a little subpar, rather than doing a "top-five" I will comment briefly on the contestants with whatever insight I can give.
1) Aloha Mischeaux wasn't as good as last week. On camera it seems that she has a really nice personality.
2) Lindsey Cardinale improved on last week's showing. I like Lindsey.
3) Jessica Sierra's performance was possibly the only memorable one of the night. Her voice sounded nice. The judges were impressed too.
4) Mikalah Gordon seemed like she was trying to drive away fans by making impudent statements during her video profile. Simon was right when he said that Mikalah is fine as long as she doesn't talk.
It seems like the judges were a bit liberal in their praise for Mikalah's performance tonight. Like I said before: It is better to have her on television because she'll be good for ratings in the long run. (I thought that her song tonight was kind of blah, but maybe my vision was tainted by her foolishness in her interview.)
5) Celena Rae didn't blow the judges away. She's not terrible, but she seems to be missing that special something. Celena seems to me like a mom-type, but not an international idol.
6) Nadia Turner shows that you can't hit a homerun every time at-bat. A bit of a letdown from last week, but I'd bet that she'll bounce back.
7) Amanda Avila showed some spark. I liked her song. It was nice to see her do a bit better.
8) Janay Castine didn't fare so well in the judges' (and my wife's) eyes. I thought that her song wasn't so bad. I think that Janay and Celene are the two most likely to be eliminated this week.
9) Carrie Underwood sang Janis Joplin country-style. It was okay for me. Just like Anwar Robinson and David Brown, Carrie is beginning to fall below expectations.
10) Vonzell Solomon (one of my favorites) gave it a go. The judges were sort of lukewarm on her song. I liked it okay. She should be able to bounce back.
Not a very newsworthy show. (Too much C&W for my taste too.) Let's see who gets tossed on Wednesday. My predictions:
Men: Joseph Murena and Constantine Maroulis (sadly)
Women: Janay Castine and Celena Rae