Theme: Lennon and McCartney 3/11/08

Chikezie. AP photo.

Wow, tonight's show was really exciting. I'm so glad I now have a good excuse to watch TV. It's my assignment! You gotta love that!
I asked my 5 year old voice student tonight who her favorite singer was. She said David Archuleta. I asked her why, and she said "he's got a great voice and he's cute". I agree. But I wonder if she'll still say that after his shaky performance tonight. Well, for what it's worth, here is my take on the evening:

1) Sayesha Mercado - Gotta Get You Into My Life
Made the song her own-jazzy, (a little pitchy). Strong stage presence, confident, nice arrangement, great performance, beautiful to look at too. (Earth, Wind and Fire arrangement, sounded a bit too familiar).


2) Chikezie - She’s A Woman
Great vocal range/great arrangement/fantastic energy: Wow! Really original! I agree with the judges-Fantastic! My favorite performance of the evening. Blew me away.

3) Ramiele Malubay - In My Life
Beautiful, rich voice, the camera loves her, too old-fashioned, performance never went anywhere, didn’t take any chances, she was holding back. I hope she lets loose, she is a great singer and performer.

4) Jason Castro - If I Fell
Emotional, the ladies loved that, his heart is his draw, it’s right out there in every song. A little boring of a performance though, he is so beautiful to look at, mezmerising, I liked his improvising on the melody. The judges did not. Good performance, not great.

5) Carly Smithson - Come Together
She can sing- doesn’t push her voice and can really belt it out and high! She reminds me of Nancy Wilson of Heart. A true great rock voice. What a powerful set of pipes, soulful. Great singer/comfortable on stage, I enjoyed it.

6) David Cook - Eleanor Rigby
Energetic performance, he made it his own, he rocked out. I agree with the judges-loved it.

7) Brooke White - Let It Be
Reminds me of Amy Grant a bit; earthy, beautiful, warm. She is a little hoarse. I wonder if her voice will hold out for the rest of her time on AI. Sounds strained, she could use some technical help. Nice solid performance-calming energy- Authentic. The judges loved it. I liked it a lot.

8) David Hernandez - I Saw Her Standing There
Not a good song choice, this is a song of wild abandon, and he is a controlled type of singer. Wrong outfit. Wrong song, too complicated for such a simple song. I agree with the judges.

9) Amanda Overmyer - You Can’t Do That
Great energized performance, organic, authentic, she’s a natural rocker. Made the crowd go wild. She made it her own. Original.

10) Michael Johns - Across the Universe
Nice voice, not that exciting of a performance. The song/performance didn’t go anywhere. Still holding back I think.
I agreed with Simon and Randy.
Paul loved it, I didn’t.

11) Kristy Lee Cook - Eight Days a Week
I think she was trying a little too hard to impress, too many runs in her voice, out of control a bit. I liked that she did the song country style because she took a chance, but I didn’t like the arrangement of the song. Hoakey. Nice country voice. She reminded me of Dolly Parton too-I agreed with Simon. I wasn’t crazy about the whole performance.

12) David Archuleta - We Can Work It Out
Oh, I felt for him tonight. You could tell he was nervous, forgot the lyrics. It was his worst performance. He's so young, only 17, I hope America will cut him a break, I think he'll stay in, it was just a bad night. He should still be in the competition. I agreed with Simon on this performance.


Favorite performances of the night:
Best: Chikezie
2.Carly Smithson
3.David Cook
4.Amanda Overmyer
5.Brooke White

Who would be voted out? My guess is Kristy Lee Cook.

What did you think?