American Idol 9: Semi-Finals Round 3 Ladies' Performances, Tuesday 3/9/10 

Tonight is the final opporunity for the ladies to make a strong enough impression on the audience to land in the top 12.  Any contestant who hopes to be remembered and get a shot at a record deal of some sort must make it to the finals – preferably into the top 10, which will allow him or her to participate in the Idol after-season tour. 

Let's take a look at how each of the ladies did, and we'll give our picks for who should be going home come Thursday.

(1) Katie Stevens sang "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson (2004).  Middling performance of the Kelly Clarkson hit in a week where missteps can be fatal.  Now that most of the weaker females have already been voted off the show, Katie is in potential danger after this performance.  Not terrible, but not noteworthy either.  Grade: B-

(2) Siobhan Magnus sang "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals (1964).  Fantastic, mesmerizing, and superb are just a few of the adjectives that we could use to describe Siobhan's precise and beautiful vocal.  Simon got it way wrong here, and he's been way too critical of Siobhan all along.  Strange.  It's a shame he doesn't realize that he was looking at a one of the few serious contenders for the title of this year's American Idol.  Grade: A

(3) Lacey Brown sang "The Story" by Brandi Carlile (2007).  Just after Simon criticized Siobhan for not having a wow performance, he lavished praise on this low-key effort from Lacey.  However, we do agree that of her three semi-final performances, this one was by far the best.  Saving the best for last does pay dividends and given some of the missteps by the other contestants tonight, Lacey may have done enough to land in that coveted top 12.  Grade: B

(4) Katelyn Epperly sang "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King (1971).  Good, but not great performance by Katelyn who accompanied herself on keyboard.  However, this may have been her undoing because it almost felt that she was hiding behind that keyboard and not really pushing herself vocally or in her performance.  Grade: B

(5) Didi Benami sang "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac (1976).  We really liked Didi this week, but not nearly as much as the judges did.  Anything sung by Stevie Nicks is always going to be hard for another artist to interpret due to the unique husky tones of Stevie's voice, but Didi's higher-register version was effective because she slowed it down and accompanied herself on the acoustic guitar, which changed the original significantly enough that it wouldn't be compared to the Fleetwood Mac version.  Grade: B+

(6) Paige Miles sang "Smile" by Charlie Chaplin (1936).  To us, this was a performance that lacked a "wow" moment as opposed to some of the other ones the judges critcized.  We agree that, up until this point, this was the least effective performance of the night.  Paige could seriously be in danger after this.  Grade: C

(7) Crystal Bowersox sang "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman (1995).  Started off a little too low-key, but picked up nicely by the middle, and finished off quite well.  Tracy Chapman songs are such a natural fit for both Crystal's voice and style that we commend her on staying true to who she is and nailing the song choice factor.  We agree that she is a shoo-in to make the top 12 and, if she can successfully navigate the often curious theme weeks of the finals (Dolly Parton week, disco week, etc.), we can see her getting all the way into the top 5 with little difficulty.  Grade: B+

(8) Lilly Scott sang "I Fall to Pieces" by Patsy Cline (1961).  Cute song and performance by Lilly, but will compare unfavorably to the similarly left-of-center Bowersox.  Still, the vocals were too spot-on to simply dismiss her rendition.  We think, and hope, that she will make it into the top 12 because we don't think think we've seen the best of Lilly quite yet.  Grade: B

We think this week was quite instructive as the frontrunners continued to give great performances, but now the midlist started to shake itself out, and the few bottom performers have come into clearer focus.  We'd pick Siobhan and Crystal for the best of the night.  Those in danger include Paige Miles, Katelyn Epperly, Katie Stevens, and Lacey Brown.

American Idol 9: Semi-Finals Round 3 Men's Performances, Wednesday 3/10/10

It's the guys' final chance to make a strong enough impression to land in the top 12.  The odds are in their favor as 6 of the remaining 8 will end up in the finals.  Therefore, it's more crucial than ever not to choose the wrong song or deliver a bad vocal.  Let's take a look at how the men did tonight. 

(1) Lee DeWyze sang "Fireflies" by Owl City (2009).  Solid, but in our estimation, the weakest of this three performances thus far.  Should be more than good enough to land Lee in top 12, which he most certainly deserves.  One of the male frontrunners this season so far.  Grade: B

(2) Alex Lambert sang "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne (2004).  We've liked Alex and his unique voice all along, but we felt that this song really brought out the best in him.  Randy harped on the lack of a "wow" moment, and Simon and Kara talked about his seeming lack of confidence, but all of that takes away from his exceptional voice, and we think this was his personal best.  Grade: B+

(3) Tim Urban sang "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen (1984).  Probably the best we've heard Tim so far, but given his lackluster performances up until now, it wouldn't be that hard.  Still, this was a more than respectable take on the Jeff Buckley cover, and we agree with the judges that Tim has recovered nicely from his disastrous performance in week 1.  If that didn't kill his chances in this competition, he should sail through to the top 12 with no problem.  Grade: B+

(4) Andrew Garcia sang "Genie in a Bottle" by Christina Aguilera (1999).  Under pressure to top his much talked about "Straight Up" performance, Andrew tried to do an acoustic version of Christina's first hit.  Quite frankly, it was boring and lacked the surprise factor that his Paula song did.  Andrew is a great vocalist and a true talent, but all these negative comments from the judges seem to be psyching him out, and for the last two weeks, he's made serious missteps in his song choices and performances.  Grade: B-

(5) Casey James sang "You'll Think of Me" by Keith Urban (2002).  We agree with Randy that it was a very safe choice much like Katelyn Epperly's performance last night.  The whole vocal and performance were a little too laid back and lacked star quality overall.  Pleasant, but not particularly memorable.  Grade: B

(6) Aaron Kelly sang "I'm Already There" by Lonestar (2001).  The song was a little too big for him, as Ellen alluded to, but overall, we liked Aaron's version and feel that he acquitted himself well on this very difficult track.  Loses half a grade, however, because his voice did flatten out on the long notes.  Still, better than his Rascal Flatts performance in week 1.  Grade: B

(7) Todrick Hall sang "Somebody to Love" by Queen (1976).  Freddie Mercury was one of the greatest rock vocalists that ever lived, period.  To sing one of his songs, you have to have unbelievable vocal skills.  We liked Elliot Yamin's version in Season 5 even though it landed him in the bottom 3, but Todrick simply doesn't have the vocal talent necessary to pull this off.  The judges were much more enthusiastic about this than we were.  Grade: B-

(8) Michael Lynche sang "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush (1988).  Interesting song choice given a soulful twist by the popular Lynche who took his cue from Maxwell's cover version.  This wasn't quite as good as his performance last week, but just like last week, it was the best of the night.  Michael has a high degree of likeability and charisma reminiscent of Season 2 winner Rueben Studdard, and should have no trouble landing in the top 12.  Grade: A-

Interestingly enough the first five guys all accompanied themselves on acoustic guitar, which may have made them feel more comfortable, but it was pretty unnecessary in each case.  There were no out-and-out trainwrecks tonight, which is why the guys all clustered in the "B" range for us, except for Michael.  Predicting the bottom 2 guys will be a lot harder than normal, but we do feel the following guys are in the most danger: Todrick Hall, Andrew Garcia, and Casey James.  If Aaron Kelly also ended up in the bottom 2, we wouldn't be too surprised, either.

Who will be the American Idol top 12 for this season?  The results are tomorrow.

American Idol 9: Semi-Finals Round 3 Results, Thursday 3/11/10

Tonight's the night when the Top 12 will be revealed.  At the beginning of the show, Ryan teased that there might be a surprise or two.  For us, there are some contestants who are "musts" – those who simply deserve to be in the top 12 and whose absence would diminish the remainder of the season.  These are: Crystal Bowersox, Siobhan Magnus, Lee DeWyze, and Michael Lynche.  There are other worthy contestants, but these four are our frontrunners and are most deserving of a top 12 slot.

Ryan calls the contestants in this order:

(1) Didi Benami - Top 12

(2) Siobhan Magnus - Top 12

(3) Paige Miles and Katelyn Epperly - Paige has made it into the top 12; Katelyn goes home

(4) Tim Urban, Todrick Hall, Lee DeWyze, Casey James - Casey makes it into the top 12; Tim does as well; when it gets down to Todrick and Lee, Lee DeWyze is the one who gets put through, and Todrick goes home.

(5) Crystal Bowersox - Top 12

(6) Michael Lynche - Top 12

(7) Lacey Brown - Top 12

(8) Aaron Kelly - Top 12

(9) Alex Lambert and Andrew Garcia - Andrew makes it into the top 12, which doesn't surprise us given his quite large Internet fanbase.  Alex Lambert goes home.

(10) Katie Stevens and Lilly Scott - Katie makes it into the top 12, and Lilly goes home.

This leaves our top 12 as follows:

Men: Casey James, Tim Urban, Lee DeWyze, Michael Lynche, Aaron Kelly, Andrew Garcia

Ladies: Didi Benami, Siobhan Magnus, Paige Miles, Crystal Bowersox, Lacey Brown, and Katie Stevens

In general, we're pleased with this top 12.  All four of our must-haves made it through.  However, of the remainder, we would have switched it up as follows: for the guys, we would have included Alex Lambert and dropped out Aaron Kelly, and for the ladies, we would have included both Katelyn and Lilly and sent Lacey and Katie home.

Next Tuesday begins the competition on the big stage, and the theme has been announced as songs from the Rolling Stones catalog.  Remember, that even though America has sent through its top 12 to the Kodak Theater, it's really the top 10 that matters because only they get to go on the American Idol tour that follows the season.