Haeley Vaughn, Lacey Brown and Paige Miles. Of the three, I think Paige deserves to stay around another week even though her Walk Away was painfully average. Lacey's main problem was that she took Kara's advice and sang Kiss Me, duh duh duh duh duh duh Twilight. The one thing you don't want to do, as we saw with Alex Lambert last week, is sing an artist that you sound exactly like because you will just come off as a terrible copy cat. Having said that, Lacey was still better than the mess that was Lips. When you can't even come close to the works of Miley Cyrus, it means you are no good. Don't get me wrong, I love many of Miley's songs but let's be real here, her true talent is comedy.
Let's skip ahead to my two favorites of the night. They also happened to be two that I loved last week so from this point forward Crystal Bowersox and Lilly Scott are my frontrunners. They both showed great vocals and were able to change their songs just enough to make them seem current. I don't know if it helped or hurt my opinion of MamaSox that she sang one of my top 10 songs of all time, As Long as I Can See the Light. I'm pretty sure the fact that I loved it says a lot about her talent. Lilly, on the other hand, picked a song that has been attempted on the Idol stage many a times. Unlike the others before her, I think she killed A Change Is Gonna Come. Her voice is so unique and there was one run near the end where she sped the lyric up and it sounded fantastic.
The other five contestants would be in my top 10 power rankings right now, but haven't performed to the level of MamaSox and Lilly. Katie Stevens's voice sounds unbelievable, but like Sepinwall said in his review, she is having trouble connecting with fans on stage the way she is able to do in interviews and video intros. Didi Benami got screwed over by listening to the judges notes. On further review her performance last week was even better than I thought and she should've stayed with that type of song. Of course, the judges criticized her so she ended up with the horrific choice of Lean On Me.
Michelle Delamor just seems really polished to me. It's like she's been a professional singer for years. Having said that, she didn't wow me with her rendition of With Arms Wide Open. Katelyn Epperly could have been great for all I know, but the way she murdered the first line of The Scientist killed the whole performance for me. As a Coldplay fan that lyric is extremely iconic and can't be tangled up like that. Barstool's pick for the win, Siobhan Magnus impressed many of the judges again, but I was with Simon on this one. The huge note was nice and all, but the rest of it was so so.
In closing, let's take notice of the fact that Simon and Ryan both acknowledged the fact that the judges have been giving contradictory advice this year. Obviously some people having been reading on the blogosphere. Instead of just mentioning the fact and continuing to be contradictory, how bout you figure out how to judge better? I get that sometimes changing the melody doesn't work and sometimes it helps, but explain that to the contestants. Don't just say, "I want you to change it up" or "Don't change the song up." Explain what types of songs shouldn't be changed. It is my feeling that the songs that the judges don't want you to change are the iconic ones, like Todrick did with Tina Turner last week. You're best bet is to take a popular song that isn't critically acclaimed and change that up. That way the audience can realize what you're doing and the judges don't chastise you for it.
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