Last night’s AI episode showcased past #1 hits from the Billboard charts. With so many songs to choose from it wasn’t surprising that some of the contestants were able to pick really really great songs for them to sing (i.e. Aaron, Katie and Crystal). The crazy thing was that with all that song choice a lot of them actually picked mediocre and even sucky ones. Anyway here’s my take on last night’s show.

Miley Cyrus – It was great to see someone that young “mentoring” the contestants. She did give good advice (we can even probably credit her for getting Crystal to take a bigger risk) and surprised me by seeming to be more better than I initially gave her credit for. It was funny to see her though because at first she seemed just as nervous to “mentor” the contestants as they were to hear her opinion.

Great performances of the night – Crystal gave the best performance (as always). I really loved how she loosened up out there. So looking forward to her “big plans” next week. Siobhan started out ok and ended her song with a bang (again as usual) though last week was definitely way better. I LOVED her hair and makeup though. Props to whoever styled her. Aaron chose a great song but his laryngitis/tonsillitis showed. Hopefully he’ll be better next week. Casey rocked though he did not make eye contact even if Miley told him too.

Great progress – Katie finally chose a young song! She also looks younger though a change in hairstyle might help even more. ANd of course she’s got to take care of the pitch problems. Lee looked a lot more comfortable on the stage and moved around. It was good but not good enough to be memorable when 10 other contestants get to sing after you.

Uhohs – The big mess of the night was Paige Miles’ performance. She was just all over the place. Too bad because I love her song but it was just painful. If America votes right, she’ll be going home tomorrow.

American Idol Hollywood Week didn’t really deliver for me. It was actually pretty boring and I hated seeing some of the people with great stories (shown during the audition episodes) go. It’s not that the judges seemed to be making lousy calls, but simply because I can’t help but root for people like Maddie.

Anyway the highlight of Hollywood Week was definitely ELLEN. I have to say – Ellen passed with flying colors. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since she’s so used to “pleasing a roomful of audience” but I guess being her fan made me nervous as to how she’ll do. She brought a little comic relief (so and so please step forward..oh I’m sorry…please step back) and lots of good judgement. As for the other judges’ reaction to Ellen it looked like they got along pretty well with her. Simon, who people say is having a feud with Ellen, clearly he has the hots for Ellen. If you don’t know what I’m talking about watch this clip from the Ellen Show. Hilarious! Seriously though I am more inclined to think that Kara would be more ill at ease with Ellen than Simon because Ellen, with her big personality, will probably overshadow Kara.

American Idol Season Nine’s first live show is over and the girls did a pretty good job. Based on how well the girls performed yesterday you can say that this season will be interesting, probably with lots of unpredictable goodbyes, what with all the great talents.

Yesterday the girls that stood out for me were the last two to perform – Crystal Bowersox and Katie Stevens – plus Haeley Vaughn. Sure Crystal needs to work a bit on her “star power” but you have to hand it to her she really stands out without having to seem to try. Katie on the other hand did sound old, Ellen and Simon agreed on that and I’m sure pretty much everyone does, but even then her voice is just completely amazing. I’m definitely looking forward to how she’ll do once she tries to be her age. I also really liked Haeley Vaughn’s version”I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. I don’t care if the judges says that she needs to work on her technicality because her aura (she just exudes adorable!) makes you automatically want to vote for her.

Other girls that did pretty well in my book, despite mixed reviews from judges, were Katelyn Epperly (boy did she look awesomely weird..definitely memorable and interesting), Siobhan Magnus (tops the girls in terms of awesomely weird), and Didi Benami (I don’t agree that it was boring…not at all!). I’m sure that if I didn’t miss Lilly Scott’s performance she’ll be here in my list.

As for the others, even if the judges thought they were good (which they were), I just dont really find myself rooting for them…except for Lacey Brown who really needs to do better next time. I like her.

Next up – the boys. We’ll see who catches our eyes..I mean ears.

The votes are in and America got it mostly right. AI girls voted out tonight were Janelle Wheeler and Ashley Rodriguez. For the boys the first two to go were Joe Muñoz and Tyler Grady.

I’ve got to say that for the girls America got it right. Though it did look like the judges were rooting for Ashley Rodriguez, at least compared to Didi Benami, both she and Janelle was among the girls who I though could be going home simply because of their song choice. Their voices weren’t powerful enough to do their songs any justice, leaving their performances flat. It showed in the votes and the results wasn’t a big surprise. For a minute there though I was really nervous for Didi Benami because though I really liked her performance the judges disagreed and it left me wondering if I was the only one who thought she should stay one – apparently I wasn’t. Yay!

It was the guys’ results that gave us a shocker though. Joe Muñoz definitely did not deserve to go home last night. His performance was realy good, especially compared to Tim Urban’s and Alex Lambert’s. Apparently even Tim Urban agreed because the look on his face when he was declared safe was priceless – utter shock. Clearly Urban’s good looks saw him through this round. On the other hand, Tyler Grady’s “American Woman” did not endear him to America’s women, resulting in his being voted off. I am sorry to see him go though because he is such an interesting character and would definitely have made AI more interesting. Am not feeling to bad about it though because it meant that Alex Lambert (whose surprised expletive at not being voted off lead to AI being cut short) gets to stay another week. I don’t believe that he’ll last long but it’ll be nice to see him “ripen” up a bit.

Till next week!

The judges were right: it’s the girls year this year. The guys’ first live performance was mostly a disappointment, though with the relatively low expectations set by the judges it isn’t that big of a disappointment. Compared to the girls night the last episode was really boring with people probably wondering, just like I am, if there’s even 6 guys that’s really worth watching week after week. Maybe it’s just because I missed the first three performances, but I doubt it. To be fair though I did like some performances.

Casey James definitely stood out tonight. It was nice that his performance was great (“Heaven” really did suit him) but even if he sang out of tune any girl would have to agree that he is just to yummy not to stand out. I mean he really has Kara’s cougar vibes going and we can all see why! Seriously though I closed my eyes a couple of times while he was singing just to make sure that the visual wasn’t messing with my objectivity – it wasn’t. He sounded great.

Another good but disappointing performance was Andrew Garcia’s rendition of “Sugar, We’re Going Down”. It wasn’t disappointing because it was bad but only because everyone had such high expectations. I think he’s the only guy, based on talent alone, who can give the girls a run for their money. I’m a fan though and he will definitely go a long way. Hopefully he comes up with something fresh and really riveting next time.

As for the rest (that I saw at least) they were just ok. I squirmed a lot for Alex Lambert who was as nervous as hell though he’s so nice I want him to stay just to see him grow. Can’t help but root for guys like him. Oh well tomorrow we’ll see who’ll make it and who won’t.