I think the poll results on this site show how tight the vote is getting. A narrow majority were glad to see Kellie go.

How sad are you to see Kellie Pickler go?
Very sad: 25% (60)
A little sad: 20% (48)
Not sad at all: 24% (57)
Don’t you mean glad?: 31% (73)
Total Votes : 238

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Do you know that last week was the THIRD week that Taylor has changed his song at the last minute. Once (Queen week) it was his choice. Twice, including last week, the producers told him at the last minute that he needed to change his song. This week it was because they couldn’t picture Andrea Bocelli singing his original song choice (Try a Little Tenderness). Riggghhht. Because I can totally picture Barry Manilow singing Live’s version of “Walk the Line” or Stevie Wonder pitching his own version of a song to sing the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s version. Smells fishy to me.

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Kellie Pickler was pretty much Kellie Pickler in a recent interview after leaving American Idol. She discussed her romance (or lack thereof), her feelings towards her mother and why she said she butchered a performance. If you’re a fan, or even if you’re not, I think it’s an enjoyable read.

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Next week, the final 5 will be singing two songs each. One song will be from the year they were born. One will be from this week’s Billboard Top 10. I would find it HILARIOUS if someone sang Bad Day, but I’m betting that’s not going to happen. The other song will be from their birth year. For the record, here are their birth years.

Taylor: 1977
Chris: 1979
Paris: 1988
Elliott: 1978
Katharine: 1984

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I don’t know if you guys realize how often you predict the correct order, but it’s pretty consistent. Way to go voters.

Who had your favorite performance tonight?
Katharine McPhee: 19% (47)
Elliott Yamin: 19% (46)
Kellie Pickler: 6% (15)
Paris Bennett: 6% (15)
Taylor Hicks: 14% (34)
Chris Daughtry: 35% (85)
Total Votes : 242

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First, when they were recapping last night. Simon did apologize to Katharine for his assessment. He said upon listening back to it, it was much better than he initially thought. Paula, on the other hand, said she’d never been harsh. Uh, okay.

Lisa Tucker was in the audience. Her episode of the O.C. airs tomorrow.

Now, onto the results…

Oh, those wacky idol producers/directors– always trying to come up with some new way to torture contestants. Tonight they divided them into three groups of two (which had me thoroughly confused. Katharine, Paris and Elliott were the first in each group. Paris was joined by Kellie, Elliott by Taylor, and Katharine by Chris. Ryan then revealed that these groups were the top 2 vote getters, middle, and bottom 2. Elliott and Taylor were allowed to sit down. After the break, it was revealed that the remaining two groups had received the least and the most votes. Katharine and Elliott received the highest numbers of votes, leaving Paris and Kellie in the bottom two. Kellie said she thought after viewing the performance that she deserved to be in the bottom 2. I don’t think she was surprised when Ryan said it was her night to go home.

Thanks for the laughs, Kellie. Best wishes to you.

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It appears the rumor that Prince turned down an opportunity on American Idol may have been just that– a rumor.

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I thought this article critiquing the American Idol judges was fun. I think they hit the nail on the head. What do you think?

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Who do you think will do the best performance of love songs this week?
Chris Daughtry: 17% (15)
Elliott Yamin: 17% (15)
Katharine McPhee: 28% (24)
Kellie Pickler: 10% (9)
Paris Bennett: 9% (8)
Taylor Hicks: 18% (16)
Total Votes : 87

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Recently, it has seemed like Randy and Paula have been drinking happy juice. The message boards have been full of people complaining about how ridiculous they both are. I think the producers have been lurking on the boards because they were just as snarky as Simon tonight.

Katharine McPhee opened the song with “I Have Nothing”. David Foster actually wrote the song, and he reworked some of it to make it work better for her. He was pretty tough on the contestants tonight, by the way. I thought he was probably the best person who has worked with the contestants, thus far, though. I thought the performance was good, but the judges were brutal in their criticism. Even Paula was completely unimpressed. Simon said if you’re going to sing a song like that, you have to be able to sing as well as Whitney Houston, and she couldn’t. Ouch.

Elliott Yamin sang a song I’d never heard– Donny Hathaway’s “A Song to You”(*see my comment). Randy didn’t like the arrangement (okay Randy, take that up with David Foster) but really like Elliott’s voice. I think Elliott can really sing, but I thought the song was somewhat boring. And I never really enjoy watching Elliott. I always really want to enjoy watching him– I just don’t. Paula, on the other hand, was in tears over his performance. Is she going through menopause, or what?

Kellie Pickler sang “Unchained Melody”. I don’t have much to say about it. It was really bad. The judges hated it. As Simon said– it was as though the song would never end. Come on, America. Yes, she’s cute, but don’t make us listen to her sing again next week.

Paris Bennett tackled “The Way We Were”. I liked her rationale for why she chose the song. I thought she had one of the better performances of the night. Randy was unimpressed. Paula thought she over sang the song. Simon didn’t really like it, either.

And then Taylor Hicks sang “Just Once”. David Foster summed it up by saying that he thinks that Taylor has the most charisma out of the group. I didn’t think this was his best performance, but I REALLY, REALLY like Taylor’s voice. I just like that raspy, husky thing. It’s kind of like Sting. I don’t care what he sings. I just like the way he sounds. That’s what I feel about Taylor. If you haven’t checked out his cds on the Taylor Hicks fan site, I highly recommend that you do. You can really get an idea for what an album by him would sound like. If you don’t listen to anything else, listen to “Georgia On My Mind”. The judges weren’t particularly impressed by this performance, but I don’t really care.

Chris Daughtry closed the show with “Have You Really Ever Loved a Woman”. David Foster made him lie on the floor to sing it, and Chris sounded SO MUCH better! I do think this was one of Chris’ best performances, and it was also, I thought the best performance of the night. I also felt like it was the most obvious pushing of a singer by the producers. They put him last, the judges raved about his performance… I don’t know, I just felt like I was being sold a product. A good product, but I still felt “marketed to”.

So, who will be the bottom three? I think Chris and Taylor are safe, and the other four are all potential candidates for the bottom three. I think it will come down to the boys in the top and girls in the bottom. And, as much as I hate to see her go, I think Paris will probably go home. So, most likely we will be listening to Kellie for one more week.

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Taylor Hicks was offended by Simon’s comment “Are you drunk?” last week. He wasn’t offended because Simon didn’t like his performance. He was offended because he rarely drinks, and he doesn’t want to be identified as a partying drunk. American Idol is serious business to him.

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In an effort to reduce busy signals, American Idol will be announcing two phone numbers for each contestant tonight. That should make things a bit better for those who say that they’ve tried to vote for certain contestants but been unable to get through.

There was also an announcement that one of the upcoming themes will be Elvis songs.

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Without seeing the performances yet, it’s hard to say. I think Chris may make another appearance in the bottom three, as I don’t think this week’s genre will suit him– although there are plenty of rock love songs (Angel by Aerosmith, Sweet Child of Mine by Guns n’ Roses, Weezer’s “Only In Dreams” to name a few). Of course, there’s no telling what catalog of music they have to choose from.

In any case, mostly I’m judging based on voting here, voting on Dial Idol and listening to buzz around the net. I think Paris could be in trouble. While I think Kellie Pickler will probably turn in a performance that DESERVES to be in the bottom three, I think it’s more likely that Katharine or Elliott will round out the bottom three.

What do you think?

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I’m always fairly impressed with how nice all the American Idol contestants seem, even after they’ve been kicked off. By all accounts, Ace Young seems like a wonderful person, and he comes off very well in this interview. Apparently, he and Chris Daughtry are very good friends, which was also interesting to me.

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I hardly think this is a surprising result from this poll. I wonder if the similarity between the voting for Ace and for Paris bodes poorly for Paris, though.

Who were you most surprised to see in the bottom three?
Ace Young: 10% (21)
Chris Daughtry: 73% (149)
Paris Bennett: 17% (35)
Total Votes : 205

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