1. Alex Lambert: That’s right, THAT Alex Lambert. No, I didn’t accidentally watch a tape of last year’s second-week performances, see Adam Lambert and confuse him with Alex. What can I say; Mullet Boy may actually be the best male singer in the competition. Contrary to the judges’ opinion, I think he knows EXACTLY what he can (and more importantly, CAN’T) do with his voice, as proven by his smart song choices. His stage presence still needs a LOT of work, though…

2. Michael Lynche: I wasn’t as crazy about Mike’s performance as the judges were, as I’m not sure that he has the right kind of voice to pull off James Brown. However, I appreciate that he put his own spin on the song, rather than give us a lame, karaoke JB impression. Right now, Mike is head-and-shoulders above his competition when it comes to star power and charisma.

3. Lee DeWyze: I absolutely HATED his song choice here. Not only does the song suck tail pipe, but it made Lee sound like a lame Creed / Nickelback wannabe (which I don’t believe he is, btw). I really think Lee is closer musically to Kris Allen than he is Chris Daughtry, so this type of song really didn’t do him any favors.

4. Aaron Kelly: I think this kid is potentially a dark horse to win it all. Imagine a country-fried David Archuleta (or the love child of Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, if you will), and you have Aaron. He’s not what I like musically, but he will appeal HUGE to a large chunk of “Idol” viewers. Aaron will need to make better song choices in the future, though.

5. Casey James: Dude, could you have made a more cliched song choice? I’m sorry, man; not having ever watched AI (which I don’t believe, btw) is NOT an excuse for not knowing that Bo, Elliott, Chris R. and even Michael Sarver performed this song on the show (there are things called YouTube and Wikipedia). Casey tried to do something different here by adding some (admittedly cool) shredding, but his vocal just paled in comparison to his predecessors.

6. Andrew Garcia: Is it just me, or is the presumed male front-runner in real danger of not making the Top 12? He’s been coasting for weeks now on his audition-round cover of “Straight Up” (which wasn’t even THAT good or original, btw), and this week’s song choice just bored me to tears. Andrew needs to step his game up, or he’ll be gone sooner rather than later.

7. Todrick Hall: Todrick continues to win points for originality, if nothing else. I continue to be irked by the judges, who don’t seem to realize that the problem with Todrick is not that he rearranges the songs that he performs in the first place (he would look foolish if he performed both of his songs as they were originally written), its that the arrangements he creates are bloody AWFUL. Todrick is a classic case of a guy whose talents just aren’t at the same level as his ambitions (or insanely huge ego).

8. John Park: It’s not so much that John is a bad singer; he’s just BORING. He so desperately wants to be Anoop Desai, but he just doesn’t have the talent or charisma to pull it off. I have a strong feeling he will be leaving us on Thursday.

9. Tim Urban: As inept a performer as Tim is, I have a funny feeling that he will be around a lot longer than many of us hope he will (honestly, I think he may end up making the tour). As tempting as it is to solely blame (or credit) VFTW for Tim’s survival, I don’t think this is totally accurate. The fact is, he’s got a lot of girls (and some guys) who are simply voting for him because he’s (admittedly) cute. That, and Tim’s shrewd courtship of the religious vote (hey, that combination worked for Kris; why can’t it work again?) will help make him this year’s version of Sanjaya, I’m afraid.

10. Jermaine Sellers: While Tim’s proclamations of his faith may help him win over some religious voters, Jermaine’s arrogant claim that he “knows God” will undoubtedly come back to bite him in the ass. Seriously, has there ever been a less likeable contestant in this show’s history? This dude makes Todrick look like a model of humility and likeability, and he (allegedly) set up a fake musical to scam little kids out of their parents’ money! Jermaine may not be a criminal, but he certainly is an egotistical ass with a tendency for diva fits and absolutely no sense of taste. The good thing is, he’ll be gone on Thursday.

It was hilarious that Todrick called the judges out on their hypocrisy over taking songs and making them original.

Ranking Of Performances
1) Alex Lambert
2) Michael Lynche
3) Tim Urban
4) Aaron Kelly
5) Todrick Hall
6) Lee DeWyze
7) Andrew Garcia
John Park
9) Casey James
10) Jermaine Sellers

-I actually liked 1-8. Casey and Jermaine were terrible.
-John has a nice voice but was boring, likewise Andrew who keeps losing steam these past 2 weeks.
-I really like Lee’s voice just did not like his song choice, and his version was too close to the original.
-I really dislike Todrick as a person, but actually enjoyed his performance. I don’t know what the judges were smoking?
-Aaron is my fav. but I still felt his performance was a little ackward but he will get better every week.
-I actually really liked Tim tonight. He was current and did a pretty good job. And it helps he is adorable, but good performance tonight.
-Big Mike finally arrived. I felt that was his best performance. Maybe it was because he ditched the guitar for the night, but I really enjoyed his performance/vocal.
-For me I really enjoyed Alex’s performance the most. He’s humble and his voice sounds like John Mayer and honest. His tone is really beautiful and I liked what he did tonight with his song.

I really appreciate your blog! Thanks so much!