American Idol: Walking Down The Country Road

Tonight, the theme was country music for American Idol. And no one really sparkled, performance-wise.

It's late, so I'm going to keep this week's review short and sweet. My personal ranking, in order of quality of performance for this week, is as follows:-


1) Kellie Pickler - Singing the song "Fancy", Kellie hit all the right notes and was clearly the best and most comfortable of all the performers tonight. Wearing a red hot sexy top and radiating confidence in singing her genre, she will breeze through this week;


2) Chris Daughtry - Chris surprised everyone again this week. Shedding his rock image and singing the song "Love You Like Nobody Loves You", he showed everyone that he can sound just as good, with a presence almost just as strong, singing country songs. A job well done for Chris tonight - and he proves again, why he's one of the top contenders for American Idol;


3) Elliot Yamin - singing "If Tomorrow Never Comes", Elliot came across as being a little diffident tonight - but it was a great song selection and it suited his sweet vocals. It wasn't great, but it was definitely good. On a good day, this man can surprise you;


4) Katherine McPhee - If I'm not wrong, the title of the song was something like "You Bring Out The Everest in Me" and taking a blues slant on a country song, Katherine made the song her own - though it's certainly not the best song choice for her. Personally, I felt that she'd have done better singing one of Faith Hill's songs. Strong performance, a hint of stage presence but generally, she kept in the "safe area" after last week's bottom 3 scare;

(On a totally unrelated note, I'm beginning to suspect that the more decently Katherine McPhee is dressed - the fewer votes she gets. She started doing badly, when she stopped wearing skimpy clothes and impliedly vamping on stage)


5) Bucky - looked very comfortable with the theme of the night, but he mumbled at some parts of his song. But he was in his element and he still sounded good, which doesn't say very much. I pray that he gets kicked out in the next round;


6) Mandisa - Despite the ability escape through any song with her amazing vocals, Mandisa has not been very impressive lately, through her poor song choices. I can't remember the song name - but I came away feeling that she under-performed her potential tonight. But she's got to start choosing better songs soon;


7) Ace Young - This boy is the opposite of almost everyone else in this competition. Despite having limited vocal power, he knows what songs suit his voice best and that's how he's been beating more talented people than him. I can't remember the song but it was a melodic (albeit safe) rendition, that ended with a pleasant falsetto. Verdict: Bottom 3 again, but will probably survive this week unless he's unlucky;


8) Paris Bennett - The most nervous performer tonight, Paris buckled under pressure and gave her worst performance ever in the competition - which was still good. She struggled with Leanna Rimes' "How Do I Live Without You" and sounded off-key on some parts and at best, okay on other parts. Bottom 3 material but I'm hoping that her fans will stick with her and push her through this week; and


9) Taylor Hicks - Worst performance ever by Taylor. Poor song choice and an uninspired rendition. Definitely the worst, for this week and certainly, bottom 3 material. I hope he gets kicked out this week because if he doesn't, it's probably going to cost Ace Young (or worse, Paris Bennett) a place in the competition.


Can't wait for the results tomorrow. Overall, I hope the song selection and performance gets better next week. This "playing it safe" business is making the competition pretty boring - unless someone unexpected gets kicked out this week.