Me - After that performance, we should all be so lucky.

Simon just didn't know what to say. Although, he took the right path.. better to say nothing than to rip the living crap out of him.

Bottom 3 - Sanjaya, Phil and probably Hailey..

But they do give comments from time to time that are more on point. They don't have to be technical and boring, just more specific than work on your singing. I can't be the only one that thinks this is stupid. Well, probably I am. I'm also apparently the only one that thinks Lakisha is not in Melinda's league.

I don't get all of the love for Melinda.

Yes, good vocals.. but I again felt it was boring and felt like her and Lakisha really dodged the spirit of the theme - and I hope this hurts them at some point.

dola: before I get hammered. I do understand that Melinda is a superior "singer". But let's be honest, as Noone put it, this is not just a singing competition. If it was, we would have a completely different contestant pool.

Please. He is hardly the only one to have done this; he just happens to have an audience (unlike votefortheworst.com). There's plenty of "normal" people who will keep voting for Sanjaya just because they think it's funny.

Yeah but you are crazy if you don't think Stern encouragng his audience to vote Sanjaya won't have some kind of inpact

Good god.. she is crying again for Melinda.

Are you crying? There's no crying in American Idol!

So? Every radio show I listen to (I don't have Sirius, so no Stern for me) plays his clips, laughs about it, and says how everyone should vote so the laughter can continue...why can't Stern run the same gag? Just because his audience is actually of a size where it can do some damage?

It's Idol's fault for making this "competition" so easy to be sabotaged. If people were voting for who they felt should leave every week, Sanjaya would have gotten 80% of the votes during the first week.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it but to deny his audience can have an effect is wrong IMO

.

just because I think he is an ass doesn't mean I think there is anything wrong with it. I think it is actually kind of funny.

Why the crusade?

Because there's so many reasons people shit all over him (and some of them are valid since he turned his show into non-stop anti-Bush, anti-FCC), that I can't stand when people do so for stupid, unworthy reasons. Sorry if I misread your intentions.

I guessing the crying girl will "appear" on Saturday Night Live. I cannot remember a show being so surreal.

Best night overall by far this season. Generally everyone picked a song that fit their voice well and "modernized" them. The men in particular improved I thought with Blake and Chirs S leading the way for them. In fact Blake might be my favorite on the night and Chris S not too far behind.

For the girls it was nice to see Haley's continued improvement and I thought LaKisha had a lot of fun with Diamonds are Forever. Jordin would get my vote for best women though. That was probably my least favorite Melinda performance though. An unfamilar song and a bit of an awkward performance on top of it.

People in danger this week I think are:
-Sanjaya, beccause he's always in danger.
-Gina because it was the most disappointing performance of the night. Song didn't really have a lot of range to it and she sounded "off" at times. Very worried for her.
-Phil because it wasn't a very well known song. I did think he good control of his vocals on it, which he hasn't had very often. Just don't think he stacks up well against this group.
-Stephanie because she continues to not show much personality and looks and sounds pretty much the same every week. Slow songs are not her forte and she didn't look or sound comfortable.

Bottom 3 are Gina, Stephanie, and Sanjaya. Sanjaya should go but I think Stephanie is in real danger if the "save Sanjaya" movement strikes again.

The British have invaded America for a multitude of reasons over the last few hundred years. Some of the reasons were military in nature. For instance, they got upset when some people in Boston decided they were tired of being taxed on their morning cup of tea. And some of the reasons were less easily determined, like Marc Vaughan going to Florida to continue work on his soccer simulations. Now he has to call it "soccer" like the rest of us, doesn't he?

The music invasion of the '60s was a little unusual. For those of you whose only exposure to this phenomenon is the Austin Powers series of movies, yeah, that's pretty much what it was about. Only without the little people and the spaceships.

In honor of Marc and his recent move, here are the rankings for the week of 11:

1. Melinda Doolittle. No one really excelled this week, and this was the hardest ranking decision because there were so many good performances. In the end, I went with the best pure vocal performance, because that's my own personal bias. For what it's worth, I think she would have blown the roof off with Paint it Black. A missed opportunity there. Score of 86.

2. Blake Lewis. Sometimes with these ratings, it's hard not to reward someone for recognizing what he or she can do with an arrangement. Blake has an unusual understanding of what he can perform with very little time to practice. I thought the extensive beat boxing was a little distracting, but the song suited his voice very well. This song transcends time as well, and it's to his credit for recognizing how to accomplish a lot without ruining the song. Score of 85.

3. Jordin Sparks. She sang it straight, and did a solid job. The power in her voice seems almost effortless. If this were a Broadway competition, she might be the best they've ever had. Score of 84.

4. LaKisha Jones. Local girl knows where to find the power songs in any genre. It wasn't a great song, but it showed off her strengths. Probably her worst performance of the season, though. Score of 81.

5. Sanjaya Malakar. A couple of seasons back, Constantine Maroulis brought the house down with an ironic take on a sappy Partridge Family hit. Sanjaya did some ironic rocking to a Kinks anthem, and it worked. He sold it fairly well, and he was in key, letting loose a little. Maybe because I am not a Kinks fan in any way I kinda liked it, and I've hated Sanjaya this season. Score of 77.

6. Chris Richardson. There was nothing really wrong with what he did, he just Backstreet Boyed a song that didn't deserve to be mutilated in exactly that way. As good as his vocals are technically, he's starting to annoy me more with each performance. I would like someone to kick him in the shins right before he next sings to see if that would give him an edge. Score of 75.

7. Chris Sligh. It was decent, but not memorable in any way. He needs to keep on top of his voice, never lose control, never try anything weird. But his personality seems to be fighting that. I don't really like the rest. Score of 74.

8. Gina Glocksen. I just love that song. And she lost control of it right off the bat, took the prize for most missed notes this week. It's sometimes difficult with Idol to separate a great song from a great performance - and this is one of a handful of '60s songs that defines the era for me (okay it's long before my time, but you get my point hopefully). The rocking out seemed forced and the arrangement schizophrenic. Score of 73.

9. Haley Scarnato. Competent, but little else. Good gracious, what a body. Score of 69, and I mean it.

10. Stephanie Edwards. I think she needed another hug from the crying 12-year-old. Beyonce karaoke just isn't doing it for me. She needs to find herself, and fast. She is in danger this week. Score of 68.

11. Phil Stacey. Completely unconvincing as a rocker. His homage to the British was to hold the microphone pinky up. Good etiquette does not make a great performance, though. It was just precious, and he would have been laughed off a show like Rock Star with something like that. Score of 63.

Overall, though, a tight week from top to bottom with several good performances.

The bottom three: Chris Sligh, Gina and Stephanie.

Who should go: Phil.

Who will go: Stephanie.

I generally agree with most of your ratings, but you are smoking dope this week my friend. That was his worst song EVER. Turn off the picture and just listen - it is horrible. I thought Jordan's performance was one of the best in years, and Blake's stylized take on the Zombies was fabulous. As for Melinda - she unquestionably can sing, but I don't like her as an American Idol - its like they brought in a professional to compete against the kids. And she's just too old, in song choice and manner.

I wouldn't have put Sanjaya that high (as Jim did) but this was his first performance that I didn't hate.

Blake really was great tonight and his performance was my favorite, although I think Melinda had the best vocal. Jordin was also very good vocally and would be in 2nd place for vocals on my list.


Haley took my breath away tonight. I had to be careful not to drool in front of the wife (although she was oogling Blake quite a bit.)

Hehe, I can agree with both of these though I still think Sanjaya has accumlated too many bad performances to continue on the show. Haley impressed appearance wise w/o question WOW...but she also did a good job vocally I thought. I'm pulling for her and did vote for her hope it's enough for her to continue on.

Sanjaya's attempt at that song made John Stevens' version of Crocodile Rock sound like a Grammy-winning performance. That was, by far, the worst live performance of any song I've ever seen since Carl Lewis. Seriously. They could have pulled a hobo off the street, handed him the mic and told him to go all Diamond Dave on the crowd, and it would have had a shot at being no worse than what Sanjaya did. He gets no style/shock points from me. Being teh suck is all he deserves.

I thought Melinda, once again, was head and shoulders above everyone. I haven't liked a single song she has sung, but she's a terrific performer and I appreciate that. The difference between her and Lakisha is palpable - Lakisha just sings the songs, and yes, she hits the notes and can belt them out with the best, but Melinda is each song she sings, you can tell she is completely into the storyline and it shines through in her performances. At this point, I think Jordin has passed Lakisha for the second spot, but this season isn't even a competition anymore, we're just tuning in each week to see: (1) how much better Melinda is than everyone else; (2) when someone will give Phil the lead in Weekend at Bernie's III as the corpse; (3) can Blake pull off a beatbox version of [fill in the song/style]; (4) can Haley continue to wear less (please?); and (5) what new horror will Sanjaya unleash on us.

I loved - absolutely loved - the comments from Peter Noone about Chris R. After Sanjaya, Chris R. is my most hated contestant. He sings through his nose and insists on warbling through time-tested melodies. he actually restrained himself this week and was decent, but what Noone said was true for the previous weeks and will likely be true from now unil he's voted off - he's a pathetic excuse for a singer.

And Stephanie is close behind - she's the female version of Chris R. - the kind of singers who think they aren't really singing unless they do runs, add vibrato to everything, and generally trample all over the melodies. If she sounds like Beyonce, I never want to her that chick sing.

Chris Sligh needs to get voted off and head back to his original band. Tons better than anything he's performed on the show so far.

I can't imagine a worse song/singer combo. He'd have to do Spinal Tap next week for it to be worse.

That being said, I think he's settled into the comfortable role that a lot of bad idol contestants settle into: he's being graded on a curve. And this curve is like a Dolly Parton type curve.

Yeah, he's moved well past pity and is working on "he's so bad he's entertaining." He's like a gong show contestant.

Wow, Jim has been smoking something this week with those rankings. Sanjaya was making my ears bleed yet again.

Those who should be bottom three are Sanjaya, Chris Sligh and Phil. Jordin and Melinda were 1 and 1a for tonight.

1. Melinda - her most boring song selection, but impeccable as always. I would buy an album from her instantly.
2. Jordin - lots of potential and she is realizing it quickly. Her best performance to date.
3. Lakisha - weakest yet. Low notes show up as a real weakness tonight. Not only out of tune in low register but tone quality suffered as well.
4. Chris R. - his best yet. Haven't been a fan of his at all, but tonight was definitely his best for me. Nicely controlled.
5. Blake - creative, but his voice lacks power and isn't always under control. His creativity should keep him alive for awhile, though.
6. Chris S. - somewhat out of tune, but not so noticeable. Another one of his solid, yet uninspiring performances.
7. Haley - she looks better every week. Her legs were three feet longer than they were last week. Also her best performance in recent memory.
8. Phil - When Simon said he needed more 'grit' he said what I was trying to figure out how to say. The style needed more grit. The performance wasn't horrible, it just wasn't credible.
9. Stephanie - I don't think she actually hit a single pitch solidly. Rather hit a pitch and sustain it, she chooses to warble every one. Unlistenable.
10.Gina - Oof. I want her to do better. Low range was extremely out of control, and the middle range wasn't better. I'd have hated to have heard this one before she broought it up a half-step.
11.Sanjaya - there are no words. Take it behind the barn and shoot it before it multiplies.

who should be voSANJAYA
who will bGOD PLEASE LET IT BE SANJAYA

I couldn't agree with you more, my friend.

All i could see while she was singing were the bouncing boobs... or maybe this was blocking out the rest of it.

69... Nice touch.

I already pulled for her.

whoa.. who was the very hot chick next to sanjaya's mom?

You mean his sister?

It was a moonbase! WTF!! ;)


I prefered Jordin over Melinda. While I will say Melinda is a better technical singer, personality does count in this competition.

I really enjoyed Blake, Chris thin, and Jordan. Chris Big was pretty good too.

There is no question that he sounded horrible, but I thought this was easily Sanjaya's best performance. At least it had some life to it. If he is going to be god awful then at least put something into it other than his normal muted and amazingly boring routine.

I think you guys are forgetting that Jim is only taking "technical singing" quality into account into his rankings. While Sanjaya would be near the bottom in terms of the overall package, in terms of pure singing quality, he was in the top half of the contestents tonight. Sanjaya stayed in his range and took some risks (which is more than I can say of LaKisha and Stephanie).

Probably the only ranking I disagree with is that of Blake Lewis. When Lewis goes up into the top half of his range, he has a real tendency to go nasal. Also, for a song like he sang, annunciation (sp?) is very important (a.k.a. "season" with thin lips = seeeeeeeeeeeeson). So, on a technical level, I would put Lewis around five or six.

That's like me judging a physicist on his ability to complete proofs. ;)

I think you are one of only a small number of people. That, as I believe Wade said, is my biggest problem with her. Is she the best singer? Yes. Do I care anything about what she sings? No. I'd probably be more likely to buy a Sanjaya album than a Melinda album. IF she wins she might have the worst selling Idol album yet.

You're joking, right? I don't think he actually sang a note, mostly yelling and jumping around. In terms of being on-pitch, he was far better in earlier performances. That was a mess last night. At the very least, he should have been knocked for singing a song that didn't allow him to really show his vocals - let alone how bad his vocals really were.

If I'm being nit-picky, I thought Melinda (and a couple others) should have been taken to task for not sticking to the obvious theme of the night. I guess the songs she and a couple others chose were technically British songs from the 60s, but when you call the theme British Invasion and have Peter Noone as the guest coach, you really shouldn't be choosing Broadway show songs. I was a little disappointed that we didn't hear enough real British Invasion songs. In fact, when Melinda came out with what looked like a mop-top hairdo, I thought she was paying homage to the Beatles. Turns out that was just a bad hair night.

I forgot to mention. This was the first night that I can remember where Jordin didn't do that slumping thing has been bugging me for a few weeks. I really think it was a sign of discomfort and lack of confidence in herself, and I think she is showing in multiple ways that her confidence is growing quickly. That should serve her well this competition (as long as she doesn't become cocky which I don't think she will.) As the overall package, she is my favorite right now with Melinda just behind her (but ahead in singing.)

I thought Jordin was far better than the judges gave her credit for last night. Again, most of the girls are singing songs that bore me to tears and would have me running away from purchasing a CD, but she and Melinda are great at what they do. Gina blew a chance to really take a big step forward. She was terrible, and I thought Simon was spot-on - just being the rocker girl will only take you so far (although being the rocker girl will likely buy her AND Sanjaya another week...), and you have to put forth a solid vocal performance, too. She didn't.

This is a SERIOUS problem for me.. to the point that I get pretty mad that no one calls them out for it - let alone prevent it in the first place. I think you need to stick to the spirit of the theme, rather than skirting around it.


Jordin was amazing to me. One of the best performances all-season for me. I've liked her since her audition and she just keeps moving up for me.

To comment on a few of the performers:

Blake entertained me the most last night. I don't know a whole lot about singing, but that guy puts on quite a show. I liked it a lot. Jordin looks like the type who could take over a stage if she had the confidence to do it. I actually look forward to hearing her performances because she seems to have a lot of control over her songs. My wife and I agree that we wish she'd do something "fun" out there, but Jordin is a joy to listen to. Last night, Blake and Jordin were the only singers who got me to stop whatever I was doing to pay attention to the show.

Melinda is obviously very, very good, but she's so consistently good that it's "ho-hum" for me now. I guess that's silly, but I feel like I know how she's going to sound, so there's nothing new in it for me. It's like watching Larry Bird shoot free throws with the game on the line. You knew he was going to make them, so it sucked some of the anticipation out of it. You expect the performance to be so good that it's only an event when it misses.

Gina disappointed me and many others, I'm sure. Her singing was just plain bad. Sadly, I think her stage presence actually covered up just how bad the singing was. She knows how to rock on stage, and that can compensate for minor singing problems. It couldn't save last night, though.

Am I broken because I don't find Haley that attractive? Obviously, she's a pretty girl, but I'm guess I'm just not seeing something. I guess she's just not my type. I was trying to remember which celebrity she reminds me of, and I finally figured it out. To me, she looks a lot like Tawny Kitaen, who was also a pretty girl, but now I can't see her without thinking of that horrible mug shot. Maybe that's what I see when I see Haley. :(

Finally, I don't remember a damn thing about Sanjaya's performance except for the crying little girl. I laughed so hard that I my abs are still sore 11 hours later. Seriously, I have not laughed that hard in a long time. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the girl crying. I get it. She was starstruck or whatever and overcome with emotion. I can't fault the kid for that. It was just the way they kept showing her, particularly during Sanjaya's song. If you look at it the wrong way, it appears that she's afraid that Sanjaya is going to kill her or something. It almost looked like fear. Hilarious stuff.

I thought it was funny that they kept cutting to her like she was Kurt Warner's wife during the Super Bowl. She cried for other performances, too, but in the context of what was an historically awful performance, Simon said exactly what I said to my wife through the laughter - "He's so bad he makes little girls cry!" And then to keep showing her like that...just bizarre.

Of course. You're the type that prefers Josie Davis over Nicole Eggert. :)

You make a good point. :)

To me, she looks a little like Marie Osmond in the face. I don't see the Tawny Kitaen reference at all, as she gives off an innocence that Kitaen obviously did not have. I don't know, she just "looks" like the type of woman I expect to see singing Disney theme songs. That's where she needs to end up - it is her DESTINY. She's very pretty and obviously has a great body.

About the only thing I don't like about her is her infatuation with Celine Dion. In response to the question, "Who's your American Idol?", she lists Celine Dion. First, she's not American. And second, she's the proverbial boil on the butt of humanity. But overlooking that issue, she's hot. She's no McPhee, but she'll do.

One other thing about last night...once again, Seacrest proved to be an asset to the show. It is amazing to me that he has gone from the double team host with that Dunkelman guy to meteoric rise on the show for really no reason to backlash for making it so far, so fast (AI, Top 40, Hollywood Star, etc.) to quietly becoming a nice addition to the show. Some of his stuff with Simon is obviously rehearsed, but I thought he provided a few LOL moments last night - particularly his comment about that song Jordin sang, where he commented to Simon that in order to understand the song, you have to have loved someone other than yourself. Might have been rehearsed, but it was still funny.

Oh, and at the end of Chris Sligh's performance, did anyone get what Slligh and Simon were laughing about that Seacrest had no clue about? I missed it the first time around, but my wife caught it so we watched again - Seacrest accidentally gave the universal "jacking off" symbol and Sligh and Simon caught it and were having a hard time containing themselves. That's why Simon quickly dismissed Ryan's inquiry into what they were laughing about. Classic.

I see Marie Osmond in there, too. I don't know why her face reminds me of Tawny Kitaen's, but it does. Anyway, Disney theme song. Yes. That's where she belongs.

I didn't know about the Celine Dion fascination. Clearly, this woman is broken.

I was wondering what was going on. I missed that. I hope we still have it on the DVR so I can see it. Nice catch.

Please don't think that Stern has one iota of an effect on American Idol. How many listeners do you think he has, anyway? Given Sirius's subscription total, and the small percentage of that who actually listen to him (and I'm guessing it's less than 10% of that, maybe closer to 5%) it is a miniscule amount of people and potential voters.

Howard Stern has no influence over the American Idol vote. None.

It's a catch-22 for Stern's audience, because many of them are probably of the mindset that the show is for pussies and they are too manly to watch, let alone vote for, AI contestants. So I would agree that Stern has no influence on the voting, although I'm sure he gets decent traction from making fun of the show given the demos of his audience.

Good Lord...this is from a spoiler before last night's show. CAN YOU IMAGINE???



Sanjaya Malakar will be sporting a Mohawk tonight. No, that’s not a joke, that’s for REALS. His hair is not actually shaved, just gelled to the sides of his head. Nadia Turner got kicked off after she sported a mohawk season 4. I’m just sayin’.

ETA: According to Ricky, Dean the hairstylist is having trouble with the gel, so the Faux-hawk may not happen, or it will happen in a modified version…

Well, in order to determine if it's possible, we'd have to know how many "votes" are actually cast (not people voting, total aggregate number). Any idea?

I'm willing to bet it's possible.