American Idol will cut to nine contestants tonight: Will Haley Scarnato Go?

Wednesday, 28 March 2007

American Idol will cut to nine contestants tonight: Will Haley Scarnato Go? American Idol is getting interesting. Not that it hasn’t always been interesting but it seems the contestants are stepping up their game as a group. One month ago I questioned if any of the male contestants would make it into the top five. I thought this year’s version of American Idol would come down to two women, Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones. While that might still come true, Jordin Sparks has joined the fray and Blake Lewis is at least in the top five as the best male.

At Point-Spreads.com we like to provide the betting odds on each contestant’s chances to win the American Idol contest but at the time of publishing, the current odds were not available according to sportsbook BoDog.com. When the odds are available we will promptly update our American Idol story.

The theme for Tuesdays Idol show was to sing a pop song from the Gwen Stefani collection or by an artist or group who Stefani claims to have been an influence on her career. Most notably, Donna Summer, The Police, The Cure, No Doubt and others.

Let’s review the performances from Tuesday starting with the best and end with who we think will next be eliminated. And I might have a contestant ranked about another who has more talent. American Idol is more than just a singing contest, I don’t care what Simon Cowell says. If not, then how do you explain Sanjaya Malakar?

Melinda Doolittle is the one to beat in my opinion and didn’t do anything last night to change that opinion. She sang “Heaven Knows by Donna Summer and about the only criticism Simon Cowell could come up with is, “I hated the outfit.” Randy seems to melt during every performance of Doolittle’s said she is living the words of the song while Paula Abdul bragged about her charisma and professionalism.

Lakisha Jones might have slipped a bit of late but not enough to fall out of second place; however there is some gap between her and top runner Doolittle. Jones came out dressed as a 70’s pop star sporting knee boots and sang “Heaven Knows” by Donna Summer. After completing her performance, the judges who always like her strong vocals couldn’t help from bragging on her boots and how she danced around the stage.

Blake Lewis seems to have emerged as the best of the male contestants and his rendition of “Love Song” by The Cure drew good reviews from the judges. Simon Cowell told Blake he was the best guy in the competition.

Jordin Sparks wasn’t as impressive to me as in her two previous performances as she sang and danced to “Hey Baby” by No Doubt. Randy Jackson told her it was a very risky choice of songs but followed with the comment, “You would be a great recording artist.” Simon said her performance was a bit “Copy Catish.” Still the same, Sparks is still a top five performer.

Gina Glocksen looked very comfortable with Tuesday’s theme while singing “I’ll Stand By You” by the Pretenders. In my opinion it was the best female performance of the night and Randy commented it was her best performance ever. Simon agreed with Jackson also by commenting it was her best performance.

Chris Sligh sang the Police hit “Every Thing She Does is Magic” and was quickly abused by the judges. Randy and Paula agreed that he was never “on beat” while Simon Cowell flat out said, “It was a mess.” At least one thing Sligh has going for him is his big voice which was on the mark. All the criticism regarded the beat of the song. While the performance wasn’t anywhere close to being his best, Sligh is probably not in danger of elimination.

Phil Stacey was projected last week by our website to be the guy most likely to be voted out but to our surprise, voters eliminated Stephanie Edwards instead. Last night Stacey sang “Every Breath You Take” by the Police and got favorable reviews from Randy and Paula. “I liked that Dog” said Jackson while Paula commented on the personality in his voice, and Simon said it was a real good performance.

Sanjaya Malakar , as one of the least talented performers, has a fan base that is hard to explain. And it seems, while he never has a great performance or even a good one, someone always slips below him. Sanjaya sang “Bath Water” by No Doubt and did an admirable job vocally and was entertaining with his performance. And what about that hair?

Chris Richardson is not safe by any stretch but might survive because there is one contestant we feel is sure to go. Richardson sang “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt and did it in his usual nasally style. Simon liked the song choice but wasn’t impressed with the vocal. Richardson was a bottom two last week and survived. Expect him to be a bottom two tonight.

Haley Scarnato sang “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper followed by the comments “It didn’t grab me,” Jackson said. Abdul told her she needed to be more contemporary while Simon said it was “sweet but forgettable.” Pretty soon Scarnato will be forgettable. Bye, Bye Haley.