In Hindsight: American Idol 02/20/2008 (Top 12 Ladies)

Shows

Day 2 of the Poorly Conceived Theme Week experiment continues with the Top 12 Ladies, and overall they seem to have a better time with the theme – possibly because they saw the general black hole of suck that was the men the day before, and figured that they should perhaps try a bit harder. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses though, and that’s where I come in – to tell you what’s going down.

We had some great performances towards the end, but the first few performances were not all that great. So let’s break it down.

Ramiele Malubay, Syesha Mercado and Asia’h Epperson are all safe based on their performance this week. Ramiele was hands down the singer of the week. Some of you might like the power that Syesha and Asia’h put out there, but Ramiele did a nice slow build to the power notes. It’s a bit more subtle, but it serves notice that she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Next group I’ll discuss are the previously pimped contestants. Carly Smithson did not have a good outing (what was with the Celine-like mic work?) and Amanda Overmyer was Amanda. But as with the guys, they were pimped on the show, and they get a free pass to next week. Amanda’s on shaky ground though, as there are enough good singers to make her “uniqueness” somewhat irrelevant. Not to mention that Asia’h sang Janis Joplin better than Amanda did.

Third group are the blondes. With a third of the females looking somewhat interchangable, it was imperative that these girls try to stand out. Only Brooke White managed to do this, and I think she’s safe. Kristy Lee Cook will probably get by on the strength of her previously pimped contestant status. Kady Malloy also did a good enough job to get through this week. Thus Alaina Whitaker ends up lost in the shuffle and is bottom three at the very minimum.

Then there are the rest. Alexandrea Lushington looked a bit crazed singing Spinning Wheel, Joanne Borgella was kinda dull, as was Amy Davis. To be honest, there really wasn’t anything interesting to distinguish the two, and for me it’s a tough decision as to who goes home.

In the end, my picks for elimination are Alaina and Amy, and once again I beg for an end to this theme week nonsense during the quad elimination rounds.




Sir Linksalot: American Idol

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).