Tonight’s theme was songs from the year they were born.

Ramiele Malubay started off the night. She was born in 1987 and sang Heart’s “Alone”. (Man, tonight could really make a person feel old.) It was an interesting song choice for her. At least it wasn’t completely boring like her choices the last few weeks. Randy thought it was the wrong song choice, Paula made a big deal of the fact that Ramiele was sick, and Simon said it wasn’t as bad as Randy said (the first of many times they would disagree this evening).

Next up was Jason Castro (also born in ‘87), singing “Fragile” by Sting. I think I actually had this album, but I still didn’t really remember the song. I think Sting (especially solo Sting) has a very similar vibe and energy to Jason, so this was a good choice for him. Randy and Paula gave the performance an unenthusiastic thumbs’ up, but Simon questioned whether Jason really wants this. He thinks that Jason may be TOO laid back.

The next two songs were kind of boring to me, especially since I’d never heard either one of them. First Syesha Mercado (born in ‘87, as well) sang “If I Were Your Woman”. I couldn’t get into the song, as it’s just not my kind of music. I guess she sang it well enough but, overall, I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Randy and Paula were over the moon with this song. Simon thought it was her best so far, but not as good as Randy thought.

The next song I didn’t really get was Chikezie singing “If Only For One Night” (1985). Again, I thought it was okay, but I like it a lot better when he sings upbeat songs. Randy gave it a thumb’s down, saying it was too old school and kind of boring. Paula liked it. Simon said he sang it well, but it wasn’t original and was kind of cheesey.

Brooke White was up next on the piano, singing “Every Breath You Take” from 1983 (really? ‘83? That can’t possibly be right. Okay, maybe it is. Yikes. That does make me feel old.) Brooke restarted the song after making a small mistake at the beginning. Better to restart than sing the whole song off key. I really thought she did a good job of making this song her own, especially when she was playing the piano by herself. When the band joined in, it became a bit more like the original, but was still good. Randy thought it was interesting but liked it better without the band. Paula liked it. Simon said she should have left out the band, but it was good enough for another week. Okay, this is one of those MANY moments when I hope contestants learn they should NEVER listen to the judges. When Brooke sang “Love Is a Battlefield” Randy and Paula both said she should have started with the piano but should have added the band at some point to make it more interesting. Now, she adds the band, and all the judges say she should have played it solo. NEVER listen to the judges! They will change their minds, and you will pay the price.

Michael Johns is the oldest competitor, with a 1978 birth date. He sang Queen’s “We Will Rock You/ We Are The Champions”. It was AWESOME! He sings Queen really well. If the whole American Idol thing doesn’t work out for him, maybe he could audition for the Queen musical “We Will Rock You”. This was definitely his best performance to date. All the judges really enjoyed it. Simon said it was the first time he saw star potential in Michael.

Carly Smithson (named after Carly Simon, by the way) was born in 1983 and chose “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, which I thought was a great choice. It requires a big voice but isn’t boring. Her vocal performance was good, but she looked stiff on stage. She just didn’t really DO anything. Randy thought this was a bad song choice— he doesn’t like when she rocks (why?). Paula liked it. Simon thought something didn’t quite work, even though he thought it was a good song choice.

Tonight showed, yet again, that David Archuleta can have an off night, and when he does it is NOT pretty. Tonight he sang a song no one had ever heard of— a song called “You’re the Voice” (1990). It was not, in my opinion, a great song choice. It was a bad key for him (way too low) and did nothing for hi voice. Randy said it was a strange song choice but liked it anyway (yuck). Paula loved it (blah, blah, blah). Simon thought he sang it well in parts but didn’t like it at all, saying it reminded him of a theme park performance (yes, exactly!).

Kristy Lee Cook was born in 1984 and made the brilliant choice to sing “God Bless the USA”. Why is this a brilliant choice? Well, pretty much everybody likes the song (cheesey as it may be). Country fans REALLY like the song. It’s familiar. It’s comfortable. It was a song she could sing well. She’s probably sung it a million times. It inspires warm fuzzies in people. It’s just a really good song choice. I’ve read some blogs that fault her for this decision, claiming that it’s gimmicky, but if people can be sent home for poor song choices, then they ought to get a chance to stay for smart choices— and this was a smart choice. Randy liked the performance. Paula was on the fence. Simon said it was definitely her best performance, by a mile and that it was one of the smartest song choices he’d ever seen on the show.

Finally, David Cook (born in 1982) sang what is bound to be one of the most controversial, talked about songs of the night. He sang “Billie Jean”, but it was not Michael Jackson’s version. People are claiming that he “stole” the cover version, even though Ryan clearly stated before he ever sang the song that it was Chris Cornell’s version. The problem is that it was really hard to hear him say whose version it was. But the song was clearly properly attributed. This is not a case of an artist trying to claim an original version as his own (a la Chris Daughtry in Season 5 where the song credit was not given to Live— intentionally or not). It was a great version of the song— kudos to David Cook for finding it and taking the chance on singing it. Even though it wasn’t “original”, it could still have belly flopped badly. Instead, David showed why he is better than Daughtry will ever be. For one, he has a voice— a really, really good voice. He’s not just attitude and a rocker’s growl. He can really sing. The judges really loved this performance, as well.

All in all, I thought this week was MUCH better than last week. Here are my favorites for the evening:

1. David Cook
2. Michael Johns
3. Brooke White
4. Jason Castro
5. Kristy Lee Cook
6. Ramiele Malubay
7. Carly Smithson
8. Chikezie
9. David Archuleta
10. Syesha Mercado