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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