Top 12 Girls

I'm excited for tonite. I can't wait to see if my theory about this Top 24 is going to hold out. I believe that the women have much more vocal talent then the men this year, but the men have a lot more personality (although they didn't really show that much personality last night). It's going to come down to America wanting talent or personality for their Idol.

Here are my scores for tonites performances. Once again, I'm typing as they perform.

Stephanie Edwards - I'm excited for Stephanie. She's my wildcard pick for the women. I think she has an amazing voice and can't wait to finally see her perform a whole song. Ooh, I love her voice. It has a bluesy, jazzy type feel to it. She has great control and knows how to work the stage. Wow, great performance right off the bat. She's keeping my wildcard dreams alive. I think she's going to do really well. Grade A-

Amy Krebs - She has a nice voice. There's nothing extraordinary about it but it's really nice. The performance was a little boring though and she did lose a little control on the runs but overall it was alright. I think it's just not as exciting because we've heard this song from Carrie and Constantine who both did a lot better with it. Grade C

Leslie Hunt - She has a very interesting voice. It's got warm husky tones to it that I wasn't really expecting. I didn't really like the way she performed it though because of all her "punk/rock star" movements that don't really fit with the song. The other thing is that this song will forever be ruined whenever I hear anyone sing it because this was the song that propelled Kelly Clarkson to the front of the pack when she performed it. No one else will be able to touch that performance on this song. Leslie did alright though. I'll be interested to hear her on a better song (Cher maybe?). Grade C+

Sabrina Sloan - Wow, she's got a powerful voice and she picked a great song to compliment it. I loved her playful attitude with the stage, audience, and camera. She seems to have done a lot of homework before starting the show and it's definitely paid off. She knows what she's doing and she's doing it in a big way. Awesome performance. Grade A

Antonella Barba - She comes out look like Mikalah Gordon singing God Bless the Child and it was a little scary but I loved the liberties she took with this song. I love the new r&b vibe that she gave to it. She has a good voice but you can tell she's still not as confident as the other girls. I thought she did pretty well, although I hated that she dropped to a lower note at the end instead of going for the power note. If she was more confident in her talent then i think she could do really well. Grade B-

Jordin Sparks - Wow. She has a great voice. She's going to be the next Diana DiGarmo. I'm wasn't really sure about the song at the end. I love me some Tracy Chapman but this was a little odd. However, she changed it up to fit her style and it worked. She showed off her huge voice at the end which i think she needs to showing a little more. Grade A-

Nicole Tranquillo - Ugh. I didnt like that performance at all. Not really sure why but her voice doesn't do anything for me. She has a little too much facial expression. It seems like she's trying to make it look like it's so difficult so she can say "wow, look at what I can do. These notes are so hard to hit." I didn't care for the song either. Grade D

Haley Scarnato - Well she does have a "Celine" type of voice so it was a good song choice, but it's nowhere near as good as Celine. There were a lot of pitch problems throughout. There wasn't a lot of stage presence but she was alright. She wasn't horrible but she wasn't amazing. Grade C+

Melinda Doolittle - I'm excited to finally see Melinda perform. She's an early favorite of mine and one of the best voices in the competition so I want her to knock it out of the park. Yes! She rocked this one. She's got a voice like Aretha/Tina Turner. She definitely knows how to perform and looks extremely comfortable on the stage for being a backup singer for so long. She had a lot of fun and sounded amazing! The crowd was so into it! Great job. Grade A

Alaina Alexander - I have no hopes for Alaina. I thought she was just ok during her audition and dreadful during Hollywood. I'm not sure what Simon sees in her so she needs to prove me wrong tonite. Well it was a good song choice for her. It fit her voice perfectly but she still had some pitch problems all throughout. She was better than I thought she would be, but still not good enough. It actually felt (as Simon would say) very karaoke. Grade C-

Gina Glocksen - Interesting. This is not the type of song I would have expected Gina to come out with. I guess because of her look I pictured her more as a rocker. It started out a little rough. I think she needs to work on her lower register because it's not as strong as it should be but once she hit the chorus her voice took off. She was shouting a little on the first big note but half way through it it suddenly clicked into "singing" and sounded great. She actually sounded a bit like Kelly at the end. I liked it. Grade B

LaKisha Jones - Here we go. I think LaKisha has the best voice in the competition and seems very humble about everything. I hope she doesn't change. I am very excited to see her perform the big song from Dreamgirls. Now everyone is going to see if she compares to Jennifer Hudson. Declared the winner now! LaKisha is DA BOMB! She sings this lighter than JHud but no less emotional or effective. Awesome! Grade A+

So there you have. The Top 24 have all performed and I have to say that my theory was proven correct. The women definitely outshine the guys. I have to agree with Randy in that I would only take about 4 guys through to the next round and keep all of the women. The real competition is in this semi-finals to see which women will be fighting for that last spot into the Top 12.

Based on the tonite's performances I think that the bottom 3 are going be: Nicole, Amy, and Alaina. Antonella should really be there but I think she has a big enough fanbase already that she may stay in for one more week. Who will be going home? Nicole and Alaina. Both were pretty bad.

And now that we've seen everyone I am predicting the final 2: My 2 pre-season picks held up. Melinda and LaKisha are your final 2 with LaKisha winning.