In Hindsight: American Idol – The Top 11

Shows

Two weeks down, two weeks of Beatles songs. I missed last week, but this week didn’t really inspire me all that much. So let’s get to my rankings

1. David Archuleta – David had a poor first week by most accounts, but regains top spot due to his Idoltastic (that is, I thought it was brutal but it’s the kind of performance the judges and fans look for) rendition of… actually, I’m not sure what song it was, but it was everything you expect to hear from a prospective winner. By the way, the songwriting competition is back, which pretty much ensures that Archuleta will win in a landslide if put up against anyone aside from maybe Syesha.

2. David Cook – David needs to lose that guitar – it’s his security blanket and it’d be good to see him not use it. Still, he’s the most consistent performer of the singers, and he retains his spot here.

3. Brooke White – Another consistent performer. Brooke’s going to get challenged as the competition goes on, but Beatles week is right in her wheelhouse, and she more than delivered. Right now she’s one of my two favourites, and it’s gonna hurt when they give her a theme that she can’t adapt to… although that theme might have to be heavy metal.

4. Carly Smithson – Carly is on a Jennifer Hudson-like ride right now. She’s got power, but she hasn’t really shown that she can reign in in properly. She blasted out “Blackbird” last night, which isn’t really what you want out of that song. Witness Sarah McLachlan’s cover, which was subdued in all the right places. There wasn’t anything subtle about Carly, that’s for certain.

5. Syesha Mercado – Syesha broke out with an Idoltastic rendition of “Yesterday”, and it puts her in the Top 5. I don’t think that a simple song like “Yesterday” needs to be diva’ed up (yet, I loved the Numb/Encore/Yesterday song), but she did it, and the judges loved it. That’s all that matters, I suppose.

6. Michael Johns – Michael needed to step up in order to remain a contender. He hasn’t, and I don’t consider him as such anymore.

7. Jason Castro – Brutal performance that was saved by the way he played to the camera, a la Constantine Maroulis.

8. Ramiele Mulabay – I think that Ramiele did pretty well this week, but she’s pretty much spinning her wheels as nothing she does is going to impress the judges all that much.

9. Chikeze Eze – OK, unless you’ve just been cheated on by Dave Coulier, it’s a bad idea to try and play a harmonica without knowing how to play a harmonica. At this point Chikeze is in the Chris Sligh position of just wanting to make the tour, and from the looks of things, he’ll have achieved that goal.

10. Amanda Overmeyer – “Back in the USSR” pretty much sounded like all of Amanda’s other songs. Now, you could say the same thing about Archuleta and Brooke’s songs, but they’re, you know, competent singers.

11. Kristy Lee Cook – At this point, it’s pretty obvious that Kristy is in way over her head. She’s really not that strong a singer, so it’s just a matter of time until she’s done.

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).