American Idol Finals - Week 6 Performances 4/14/09

As predicted, Scott MacIntyre was sent packing last Wednesday, and we are now down to the final 7. This week's category was "Songs from the Cinema," an old Idol chestnut, which yielded the usual mixed results that this category does. Last night's format was changed significantly in that each contestant was critiqued by only two of the four judges in order to save time. However, even with one fewer contestant and only two judges speaking each time, the show still ran over by a few minutes. Whatever time was saved with the judges was eaten up by B-roll footage of Quentin Tarantino serving as celebrity tutor to the group.

We really weren't crazy about him as guest judge during Season 3, and we didn't feel that he added any real contribution to the contest this time around. In fact, his advice caused some of the kids to over-emote unnaturally in their performances. We realize that there's a whole Hollywood thing going on behind the scenes with each celebrity guest just happening to have an upcoming project to promote, but we prefer weeks like last week where there wasn't a guest in sight.

Let's jump right into our analyses of last night's performances along with our predictions of who should end up in the bottom 3.

(1) Allison Iraheta sang "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith from Armageddon. Well, the judges must have heard something completely different in the theater than we heard through the TV, but we found Allison's performance to be wildly uneven, with a lot of bum notes throughout. Both Paula and Simon gave her positive reviews (Simon even thought we could be seeing Allison "all the way through to the end now"), which may help her, but for us, she'd be a contender for the bottom 3 based on this performance. PREDICTION: SAFE

(2) Anoop Desai sang "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" by Bryan Adams from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Another nice vocal from Anoop, but his problem has rarely been his vocals; it's always been his comparitive lack of stage charisma. This week, per Quentin's instructions, he emoted more, which the crowd ate up, but left us a little cold. Both Randy and Kara gave him praises, but we still feel that Anoop hasn't amassed enough of a fanbase to buoy Anoop above the bottom 3. PREDICTION: BOTTOM 3

(3) Adam Lambert sang "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf from Easy Rider. It took a while for us to warm up to Adam's more excessive moments, but we eventually did, and we think he delivered another winning performance that was quite different from last week's more melancholy and contemplative song. Adam seems to have settled on a strategy of one week loud, one week soft. This was a loud week, and we, Paula, and the audience really liked it. We imagine Axl Rose in his heyday would have performed "Born to Be Wild" much the way Adam did. Simon liked it, too, but felt that it would not be as popular as last week's. That's probably true, but as Paula correctly stated, it's apples and oranges. Adam does both well, so we look forward to seeing him mix it up each week. We especially like the fact that Adam must realize that he is the front runner this season, but continues to give each week his all and never take that for granted or try to coast by with an easy song. PREDICTION: SAFE

(4) Matt Giraud sang "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams from Don Juan DeMarco. Is Bryan Adams paying anyone to have his songs selected? This is Adams' second song of the night, and just like Anoop's choice, it was another of the Canadian rocker's drippy love ballads. For us, this was one of Matt's weakest performances as he went off key more than once during the song, and in a quiet ballad, it's impossible to cover that up. With negative reviews from the judges, we think Matt is in store for another trip to the bottom 3. PREDICTION: BOTTOM 3

(5) Danny Gokey sang "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross from Endless Love. Danny stumbled a bit this week with a just-ok rendition of the Lionel Richie classic. Contrary to what Simon said, Danny did take liberties with the melody, extending several notes to nice effect. Danny has his enormous fanbase which will ensure that he gets nowhere near the bottom 3 in spite of any semi-negative comments from Simon. PREDICTION: SAFE

(6) Kris Allen sang "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from Once. Clearly, Kris is trying to ape Adam's winning formula and have a "moment" tonight just as he tried two weeks ago with "Ain't No Sunshine." We feel he was more successful then than he was last night. Kris was unable to inject any substantial life into this meandering, listless ballad. A further disadvantage is that the song is pretty much unknown to the general audience, in spite of its winning the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song, as Once was basically an art house film, grossing less than $10 million dollars domestically. The judges were split as Randy thought the song didn't do anything for him, while Kara thought it was one of his best moments in the competition. Going by how Kris escaped the bottom 3 last week when he really deserved it, we'd never underestimate his fanbase who may just save him once again. Even if he should land in the bottom 3, we don't feel that he's in any real danger of getting sent home. PREDICTION: SAFE

(7) Lil Rounds sang "The Rose" by Bette Midler from The Rose. Another weak performance from Lil that will put her in serious danger tonight. An early favorite after the semi-finals, Lil has destroyed whatever goodwill she had after the last several weeks of mediocre-to-bad performances. She really needed to knock it out of the park last night, but once again, she revealed the limitations of both her talent and her voice. Her transition into gospel in the middle of the song was clumsy and yielded poor results because the song didn't really lend itself to such an interpretation and just sounded off. PREDICTION: BOTTOM 3

Looking at the top 7, we'd really put them into 2 groups. In the top group would go the three contestants who have clearly become audience favorites week after week: Danny, Adam, and Kris. These are the three that have never appeared at the bottom of the vote thus far in the competition. In the second group would go the other four: Anoop, Matt, Allison, and Lil. Anoop and Allison have been in the bottom 3 twice, while Matt and Lil have made the journey once.

At this moment, we're not quite sure exactly what order the contestants in our bottom four will be voted off, but we're reasonably sure that they will all be voted off before anyone in our top 3 has to worry. Right now, both Adam and Danny are pretty bulletproof, but Kris is the weak link who could end up in the bottom 3 before his time as an "upset." Be sure, the judges will use the Judges' Save on him should that happen this week or next.

We do believe that tonight's bottom 3 will come from those we selected as our bottom four group. While Anoop gave the best vocal of this group, we do feel that he is destined to have a permanent spot in the bottom 3 until he gets voted off. Either Allison or Matt should be the safe one tonight, and escape the bottom 3 altogether. We're betting on Allison. Therefore, our bottom 3 predictions are Anoop, Matt, and Lil.

Before last night's performances, we were actually expecting Anoop to go this week, but Lil had the unfortunate luck of being the last to perform. Given how disappointing her performance was, we feel it would be too fresh in the audience's minds for her to coast by tonight. Therefore, our prediction is that Lil has had her last round on American Idol.