My husband and I both commented on how much better she’s gotten since American Idol.

The back row of the boys was declared safe, one by one. That brought us to the first person on the front row– Nick Pedro, who was immediately eliminated. I thought Nick showed great promise, and I really wanted him to do well, but he just never came across with as much personality during the performances. In interviews, he was overflowing with charisma, but during the performances he fell a bit flat. Perhaps it was nerves.

Then it was time for a girl to be eliminated. The back row was told they were safe one at a time, until they got to the last person on the row– Alaina Alexander. She was eliminated. She didn’t seem surprised, but she did seem a bit bitter.

Kellie Pickler was the special guest performer tonight. She’s looking more and more like her idol, Dolly Parton. She sang an autobiographical song “I Wonder” from her new album. It was really good. She definitely has a career as a country singer.

The rest of the guys were declared safe, leaving AJ Tabaldo and Sanjaya Malakar. Honestly, I would have been okay with either one of those two going home. As much as the judges liked AJ, I found his performance style disconcerting, at best. Well, it doesn’t really matter because tonight he went home. Sanjaya just looked like he wanted to be put out of his misery.

The final three girls were called to stand with Ryan. Antonella Barba, Leslie Hunt and Jordin Sparks were led through the critique of their performances. Antonella was allowed to sit down first. I thought this surely indicated that Leslie would be going home, but it is American Idol– one never can tell. But tonight the indications were accurate. It’s a shame because she is a good singer. But, again, something about her performance style seemed off to me.

So, now we’re down to 16. Just one more elimination before theme weeks begin with the Final 12. Let us know what you think about tonight’s elimination in our poll, or leave us a comment.

Wed July 5, 2006 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
Thu July 6, 2006 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
Fri July 7, 2005 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Sat July 8, 2006 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Sun July 9, 2006 Hartford, CT Hartford Civic Center
Tues July 11, 2006 Albany, NY Pepsi Arena
Wed July 12, 2006 Hershey, PA GIANT Center
Thur July 13, 2006 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
Fri July 14, 2006 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
Sat July 15, 2006 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum
Sun July 16, 2006 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum
Tues July 18, 2006 Wilkes Barre, PA Wachovia Arena
Wed July 19, 2006 Cleveland, OH Wolstein Center
Fri July 21, 2006 Rochester, NY BlueCross Arena
Sat July 22, 2006 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
Sun July 23, 2006 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
Tues July 25, 2006 Bridgeport, CT Arena at Harbor Yard
Thurs July 27, 2006 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena
Fri July 28, 2006 Washington DC Verizon Center
Sat July 29, 2006 Richmond, VA Richmond Coliseum
Sun July 30, 2006 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
Tues August 1, 2006 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Bobcats Arena
Wed August 2, 2006 Columbia, SC Colonial Center
Thurs August 3, 2006 Duluth, GA Arena at Gwinnett Center
Sat August 5, 2006 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
Sun August 6, 2006 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum
Tues August 8, 2006 Birmingham, AL BJCC Arena
Thurs August 10, 2006 Nashville, TN Gaylord Entertainment Center
Fri August 11, 2006 Columbus, OH Value City Arena
Sat August 12, 2006 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
Sun August 13, 2006 St. Louis, MO Savvis Center
Tues August 15, 2006 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
Wed August 16, 2006 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
Thurs August 17, 2006 Indianapolis, IN Indianapolis State Fairgrounds
Fri August 18, 2006 Louisville, KY Freedom Hall
Sat August 19, 2006 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
Sun August 20, 2006 Peoria, IL Peoria Civic Center
Tues August 22, 2006 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
Fri August 25, 2006 San Diego, CA iPay One Center at the Sports Arena
Sat August 26, 2006 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
Sun August 27, 2006 Anaheim, CA Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim
Tues August 29, 2006 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
Wed August 30, 2006 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion at San Jose
Fri September 1, 2006 Portland, OR Rose Garden
Sat September 2, 2006 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
Tues September 5, 2006 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
Thurs September 7, 2006 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
Fri September 8, 2006 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
Sat September 9, 2006 Houston, TX Reliant Arena
Sun September 10, 2006 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center
Tues September 12, 2006 Duluth, GA The Arena at Gwinnett Center
Thur September 14, 2006 Huntington, WV Big Sandy Superstore Arena
Fri September 15, 2006 Norfolk, VA Constant Convocation Center
Sat September 16, 2006 Reading, PA Sovereign Center
Sun September 17, 2006 Syracuse, NY War Memorial at OnCenter
Tues September 19, 2006 Hershey, PA GIANT Center
Thurs September 21, 2006 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center
Fri September 22, 2006 Providence, RI Dunkin Donuts Center
Sat September 23, 2006 Bridgeport, CT Arena at Harbor Yard
Sun September 24, 2006 Wilkes-Barre, PA Wachovia Center

Birmingham, Alabama was being covered by the O’Donohue twins. It was packed with screaming Taylor fans. Universal City was covered by Tamyra Gray. It was packed, but it was hard to tell if they were Kat fans, American Idol fans, or Taylor fans.

This year they allowed several contestants to sing with their American Idol. Paris Bennett started this off singing “We’re In This Love Together” with Al Jareau. Then Chris Daughtry sang with Live.

Unless I missed it when I was out of the room, I don’t think Kellie Pickler sang a duet last night. She did, however, do a series of silly skits with Chef Wolfgang Puck. Called Puck & Pickler, these segments featured Kellie sampling escargot and fending off a live lobster.

Katharine’s choice of duet partner was odd, in my opinion. She sang “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” with meatloaf. Now, I understand this song was made famous by Celine Dion and Meatloaf, but I just thought that Meatloaf didn’t sound that great and that his voice really clashed with Katharine’s voice. You could also tell that Katharine’s aspirations include acting, as she chose to “act” the whole song. Was I the only one who found this grating and irritating.

Then they did this odd segment (repeated throughout the rest of the show) called the Golden Idols. This consisted of reviewing some of the worst and most bizarre performers of the season– AGAIN. Most of these were just annoying, but a few bear mentioning.

Crazy Dave Hoover made a return, fell off the stage, jumped back on, and then I’m pretty sure had to be dragged off by security, but we didn’t get to see the last part since they went to commercial. Elliott’s Mom won the proudest family moment. They also had the really, really bad guy who sort of looked like Clay Aiken on. They even let him sing. This was really just a setup to get Clay Aiken on the stage singing. Of course, it took me a moment to realize that it WAS Clay– what’s up with the hair, dude? And, finally, in their tribute to male bonding, the cowboys from the L.A. auditions made an appearance singing “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”.

The guys from the final 12 sang a medley of songs, starting with “Taking Care of Business”. Midway through the performance, Taylor came out and played the harmonica with them.

Then, there was the obligatory Ford commercial. This one was a bit special, though, as it lead up to the reveal of Taylor and Katharine’s new Ford convertibles.

Elliott sang U2’s “One” with Mary J Blige. I thought this was a really good performance. Their voices seemed well-suited to one another, and Elliott sounded great.

Carrie Underwood sang her new single, which is a real tear jerker. She looked great and was coming off her wins at the Country Music Awards the night before. I had heard Bo Bice was going to be there for last night’s performance but, again, unless I missed it, I didn’t see him.

I don’t know what was going on with the finalists’ duets last night. As previously mentioned, I thought Meatloaf didn’t sound as good as he usually does. Then Taylor sang “In The Ghetto” with Toni Braxton, and she sounded horrible. She seemed more intent on prancing around the stage in a REALLY short skirt than on singing the song.

Taylor’s duet was followed by the girls singing their medley, which was full of “I am woman, hear me roar” songs, starting with “I Feel Like a Woman”. The girls all sounded really great.

Shortly after the girls’ medley, there was a tribute to Burt Baccarat. This was really good, too, except for Kevin Covais singing “Pussycat, Pussycat”. Eww. The medley was finished off with Dion Warwick singing two songs, including “That’s What Friends Are For”. I was reminded how good Melissa McGhee was and led, once again, to wonder how Kevin Covais managed to reach the final 12. A lot of times when you see people later, you think “Wow, they really ARE good”. Not so with Kevin Covais. He was just nowhere near the league of the other performers. They might as well have let Cowboy Garrett join the final 12.

That was pretty much it, except for the reveal of the winner. But there was one other surprise. In the most random move of the evening, Prince sang a couple of songs. Um, what? Okay, it clearly wasn’t for ratings because a) they don’t need the help and b) no one knew ahead of time. It wasn’t in relation to anyone else singing (which leads me to wonder the rumors about them trying to get him on the show were true– that he didn’t want to interact with the contestants). So, what the heck was Prince doing on the show? I can only assume it was an attempt to lure “cooler” acts for the future. Now, they can say to more modern performers, “You should do American Idol. Even PRINCE has been on American Idol.” I don’t know. It just seemed odd to me.

Then they revealed that Taylor was the winner, he sang his single, and there was confetti and hugging all around.

In all, I think it was a really good season. We’ll be covering Idol goings-on between now and next year when we start the process all over again. So, stay tuned.

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

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.

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?

Ryan quickly let Paris sit down, leaving Chris and Ace. I would truly have been shocked if Chris had gone home, although I do have to admit being a teensy bit glad he was in the bottom three, but tonight I was not shocked. Tonight we said goodbye to Ace Young, as was expected. I like Ace, but I think this was the ideal time for him to go. He didn’t stay so long that I was annoyed by him, and I didn’t go home so early that I was shocked.

Best wishes, Ace!

The night started with Bucky Covington. I thought this was going to be a disaster, to be honest. But you know what? It wasn’t half bad. Bucky sang Fat Bottomed Girls, and it kind of reminded me of any number of southern rock bands. It was really decent, and I enjoyed it.

Ace Young sang “We Will Rock You”. It was, um, not good. There was a very awkward moment when Ace tried to tell Queen how the song should be rewritten, and they refused to sing it that way. Ace? It’s “We Will Rock You”. If you can’t sing it the way it’s written, you probably just shouldn’t sing it. I think this will be Ace’s last chance. I don’t think even the pretty boy vote will save him.

When I heard that Kellie Pickler was going to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody”, I thought, “ugh”. It wasn’t fabulous, in my opinion. Kellie wearing all black leather biker gear was a bit odd to me, but while it wasn’t my favorite performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, it wasn’t terrible, either. I don’t really know what to make of it. I have a feeling that die-hard Queen fans will hate it, but do die-hard Queen fans really watch American Idol? The judges seemed to enjoy it, as well.

I initially thought that Chris Daughtry’s decision to sing “Innuendo”, a song that Queen never performed in public, was genius. And then he sang the song. I have to agree with Simon’s assessment– the reason Queen has never sung the song is that it’s not a very good song. You all know by now that I don’t really like the screaming thing. But my husband does. And HE didn’t like this performance, either. He really likes Chris, but he didn’t enjoy tonight.

Katharine McPhee was the first of two singers to change her song. When she sang with Queen, she was singing “Don’t Stop Me Now”, but she decided to change the song, which I think was a good idea because she looked a bit too perky and just a bit strange singing that particular Queen song. Instead, she chose to sing “Who Wants To Live Forever” from the Highlander soundtrack. I love Highlander, and I really like that song, but this performance qualified for my “What were the judges listening to?” performance tonight. I thought it was decent. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t think it was as good as the judges. I just thought she didn’t really do justice to Freddie Mercury.

I thought Elliott Yamin’s “Somebody to Love” was the best performance of the night. Now, I still find Elliott a bit awkward to watch sometime, but when I closed my eyes and just listened to the song, I thought he was the only one who really came close to singing Queen in a manner consistent with Freddie Mercury. Now, that’s not to say that I thought he was “imitating” Freddie Mercury, I just thought he sounded really, really good singing this song.

Then came Taylor Hicks. In case you’re just tuning in Taylor Hicks is my favorite American Idol contestant. Taylor was the second contestant to change his song. He was supposed to be singing “We Are the Champions”, but I think he, also, made a good decision to change songs. Not that he didn’t sound good singing “We Are the Champions”, but it’s a pretty sedate song and really hard to get a big reaction out of an audience, unless you’re at a prom/championship sporting event/etc. So, he switched to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, the most Elvis sounding Queen song ever written. I thought it was great. It was fun, it made me smile, it was entertaining. Randy and Paula liked it. Simon thought it was weird, asking Taylor if he was drunk. Whatever, Simon…

The closing number tonight was Paris Bennett, singing “The Show Must Go On”. It was a really interesting look for Paris, kind of a Janet Jackson thing. Queen LOVED Paris, by the way. I thought this performance was good. I wish Chris had chosen to sing something like this. You know– the big rock anthem. Anyway, Randy and Paula liked this, but Simon just thought it was odd. I think it’s just because Simon likes Paris to look like a little girl. He doesn’t like it when she dresses and sings “too old”. But she’s not twelve.

So, that was Queen night. I was entertained, for the most part. I think Ace Young will go home, but who else will be in the bottom three? I really think it will most likely be Katharine and possibly Bucky (even though I enjoyed his performance). I’d put Chris in the bottom three, as far as my favorites tonight, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. So, I think it will probably be Bucky or Kellie (depending on how much people really hated that performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody”).

Kellie Pickler– Bohemian Rhapsody (a “country” version? Eww.)
Ace Young– We Will Rock You
Bucky Covington– Fat Bottomed Girls
Chris Daughtry– Innuendo (smart boy, picking a song they’ve never performed live)
Elliott Yamin– Somebody to Love
Katharine McPhee– Who Wants to Live Forever
Paris Bennett– The Show Must Go On
Taylor Hicks– Crazy Little Thing Called Love (I am one of many who mistakenly assumed this was originally an Elvis song– nope, really just Freddie Mercury singing like Elvis)

So, there you have it– tonight’s play list. I’m a little afraid, but interviews with Queen band members say no one was horrible. But what else are they going to say? I’ll let you tonight how it REALLY goes

Last night was when the started breaking people up into groups of three.  The three groups were Taylor Hicks, Kellie Pickler, and Chris Daughtry;  Mandisa, Elliott Yamin, and Paris Bennett;  and Ace Young, Katharine McPhee, and Bucky Covington.  Now, I’m thinking if you’re in a group with Taylor, Chris AND Kellie, you’ve got to be feeling pretty good about your chances of staying.  Sure, it’s possible one of them could have been in the bottom three.  Sure it’s possible one of the could, even, have been eliminated.  But all three in the bottom three?  I can’t imagine it.  Very quickly Ryan (still bearded) sent that group back to their seats.

 Now, my prediction for the bottom three was Ace, Paris, and Mandisa or Elliott, so I felt pretty good about Mandisa, Elliott, and Paris as the bottom three.  But American Idol voting is sometimes very unpredictable (remember when Jennifer, Fantasia, and LaToya were all in the bottom three?).

However, this time my hunch was right on the money.  The bottom three were Mandisa, Elliott, and Paris.  Paris was sent back to their chairs pretty quickly, so there went my prediction for elimination.  Now, Dial Idol had predicted that Mandisa would go home.  But last week they didn’t even place Lisa in the bottom three.  So, I wasn’t so sure about their accuracy.  But this week they were right on. 

We said goodbye to Mandisa, beautiful inside and out.  May she blessed with every good fortune.

 Now, on with the recap

Taylor Hicks sang first.  You all know that I love Taylor.  And I really think he has a voice that could sing country well.  But, to quote Randy–  this was just alright for me.  He just didn’t look like he was having any fun singing “Take Me Home Country Road”.

Mandesa sang “Any Man of Mine”.  I have no problem with Mandesa’s weight.  I think she is really beautiful, but that outfit was so distracting and made her look so big, I could hardly listen to the song.  The judges seemed to be listening, though, and none of them cared for it.

I really like the song “If Tomorrow Never Comes”, but Elliott Yamin should not decide to switch over to singing country.  Randy may have produced the song with Garth Brooks (tonight’s name-dropping moment), but I’m not sure he was listening to it.  I would have called it tonight’s “what were the judges listening to” moment, but Simon wasn’t that crazy about it.  Of course, Simon HATES country music, so it was difficult tonight to tell whether he was critiquing the singing or the songs.

 Paris Bennett had a new hairstyle.  She should have picked a new song, rather than butcher a perfectly lovely song like “How Do I Live”.  Randy and Paula did not like it.  Paula even got booed for her comments.  Simon said he liked the song, but I’m not sure he wasn’t just enjoying Paula getting booed.

I really thought Ace Young might have been well-suited for country music.  I thought he might be the surprise “hey they really SHOULD sing country” performance.  But, alas, that was not the case.  He may be well-suited to country, and at least he stopped doing that annoying hand pointing thing.  But mostly his performance of “I Want to Cry” was just boring.  Paula thought it was fine, but, come on–  it’s Paula.  Apparently, though, Ace is now single.  Has he been taking advice from Kevin Covais?

Kellie Pickler sang “Fancy”, which I thought was a great choice for her.  I have to agree with Simon’s assessment:  “It would be a shocker if you didn’t do well this week.”  It was one of the only songs this week that actually made me stop and pay attention.

Chris Daughtry looked dead in the eyes singing “I’m Gonna Love You”.  Maybe the country music just does that to him   I thought he should have saved “Walk The Line” for country music week, but I was glad that he didn’t scream this week.  At least the song didn’t give me the creeps.

So, that brings us to this year’s “maybe you ought to switch to singing country” award.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you (drum roll, please) Katharine McPhee.  She sang “Bringing Out the Elvis in Me”.  My only other exposure to this song is the reality show “Tuckerville” (yes, I’ll watch anything that’s reality television).  Tanya Tucker’s daughter sang it.  Katharine McPhee was MUCH better than Tanya Tucker’s daughter.  Simon hated the song, but Katharine called him on the fact that it’s really just that he hates country.

I can’t even tell you the name of the song Bucky Covington sang.  I think it must have been “It’s Not So Bad” because those are the only words I could understand in the whole song.  It was like he was singing in Scottish or Welsh.  I felt like I should be able to understand it–  I just couldn’t.  Other than that, it sounded fine.

So, another vaguely disappointing country music week on American Idol.  What more can I say?  Anyone for some Queen?

Want to know what songs they have to choose from? There’s a complete list of Queen songs on this website.

I’ve also heard, but haven’t yet confirmed, that the week after that will be Rod Stewart week. Hmmm… That should be interesting for several people, as well.