Tough Call

Pretty much everybody stepped it up this week. It's going to be a tough call figuring out who's getting the boot this week. Haley started off with Tell Him, which always makes me think of Ally McBeal. With her hot pants, halter and 6-inch heels, she looked like a bit like a street walker. A very cute street walker, but a street walker nonetheless. She did pretty good with her performance, though. Miles better than she did in the opening weeks of the final rounds. Chris R. followed with Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying. The judges loved him, but I thought he was a bit whiney and nasal. I'm sure the teen girls will love him, though. Stephanie sang You Don't Have to Say You Love Me. She sang well, but she just has a real problem with song selection. She needs to pick some more well known mainstream songs that will involve the audience. She's gotten by on her talent so far, but talent alone won't carry her through to the end. Blake rocked the house with Time of the Season. Perfect song choice for him. The beatboxing worked perfectly with how the original song goes. Lakisha did well singing Bond. Not my favorite performance, but she's still incredible. Thought Phil did well with Tobacco Road. I wasn't familiar with the song, but he sang it well and had a lot of fun with it. Up tempo, good beat. I wasn't familiar with Jordin's song, but to paraphrase Ricky Bobby, she made that song her bitch. Loved Simon's comment on Sanjaya's performance of The Kinks. Agreed completely. I though Sanjaya did better than he had been doing, but he simply has no place in the top 12. He really shouldn't be there. He's not even in the same league as Phil or Gina, who aren't in the same league with Lakisha and Melinda. It was painful, but not as painful as it could have been. Gina did pretty well singing the Stones. Not sure how the performance will play with the teen voting audience, though. Chris S kicked some bootay singing She's Not There. I was shocked and disappointed that Chrissy didn't know that song. I even downloaded the original and played it for her. She just stared blankly then shrugged and said, "Sorry." *sigh* Anyway, the Chris we all know & love is back. Melinda finished strong with As Long as He Needs Me. I don't care for the vibrato in Melinda's voice, but she is, I think, probably the best singer on the show. She's going to be hard to beat.

As far as who goes home, check the title of this post. Sanjay should go home, but as we've already seen, that probably won't happen. If not Sanjaya, I would say Chris R should go home, but he'll probably get the teenybop JT fans voting for the SexyBack lookalike. I'm hoping Phil doesn't go because I thought he did pretty well. I'm actually going to go for the upset and say Stephanie's going home tonight, but really, it's anyone's call. I think Melinda, Lakisha, Chris S, Jordin and Blake should absolutely be safe after last night, but beyond that it's anyone's guess. And even those, who knows?