Top 12 Guys

Well, it looks like Phil Stacey is indeed singing tonite so that means one of my favorites, Tom Lowe, is definitely out of the competition now. Too bad. But I expect we'll be seeing more of him in the future.

So tonite is the night that it all officially begins. I'm very excited to see how everyone does and to get the competition under way. I think it's going to be interesting because all along I've been saying that the guys aren't as talented vocally as the women but they have more personality. It'll be interesting to see how their personality comes out tonite. So without further ado, my critiques of the Top 12 Men. I'm writing this as they're performing.

Rudy Cardenas - I have never heard this song before but Rudy performed it well. He was definitely having fun on stage. I think he's got one of the better male voices but I did notice tonite that he doesn't annunciate very well. There were a couple of times that I couldn't understand what he was singing at all. But overall I enjoyed it. Grade B

Brandon Rogers - The opening was a little slow and boring but it finally picked up once the song got going. However, I never really got into it. He sounded alright, performed it alright and got the crowd to clap along but I dont' think it ever really "clicked" and took off as a great performance. He has a shot of making it into the finals but needs to pick better songs. Grade B

Sundance Head - I feel like Sundance has a lot to prove tonite because he had an amazing first audition but was horrible in Hollywood. The only reason the judges kept him in was because of that initial audition. Let's see how he did. First of all, I've never heard of that song before so immediately I was thrown off. But his awesome bluesy voice is completely gone. Instead we're left with some Meatloaf sounding voice that we've never heard from him. It's just ok but nothing extraordinary. His stage presence really lacked as well. It remind of Ruben shuffling his arms up and down each time he sang. Sundance looked really uncomfortable. He knows that he has a lot to prove and I think that pressure is getting to him. Grade D+

Paul Kim - Well the first thing I noticed is that his voice isn't very strong. The band was drowning him during the first half of the song. The second half was a little louder but it was really pitchy, especially when he started to go into the falsetto. I feel like Paul has just an average voice and nothing more. I thought that was a horrible song choice as well. There's nothing "star quality" about that song and not a song the crowd can really get into. And please put your shoes on! For a lot of people that don't like feet, seeing him on there without shoes (and constantly bringing it up) is kind of gross. Grade C-

Chris Richardson - Finally! Someone actually picked a good song and rocked it as well. His voice is different from the rest. He definitely has some nasal quality to his voice but he does sound like Justin Timberlake. It was nice to finally see someone really have fun their song as well. So far, I think he's been the best of the night. Grade A-

Nick Pedro - Wow, his opening notes were horrible. I'm not sure if he was able to hear the music or not but he came in completely wrong. It didn't really pick up from there. Coming in on the second verse he had the same problems. He was able to finally pull it together in the end. Overall, that was a really bad performance. His vocals were bad, the song was awful and there was little emotion. Another week like that and he's a goner. Grade C-

Blake Lewis - Tonite he looks like an old 80's british rocker (i.e. Morrissey). He's an interesting one. He's not the best singer but I actually liked it. I was glad he didn't beat box tonite and just focused on the singing. He seemed to be enjoying what he was doing and I think it translated well. I think that once he's get a little more comfortable in the competition he'll start mixing the singing with the beatboxing and really impress everyone. So far, only he and Chris R. actually sound like pop stars. Grade B+

Sanjaya Malakar - It's a good song choice for him. He needs to stick with this Stevie Wonder/Michael Jackson type sound as that is his niche. He has some pitch problems in the beginning but gets through it. Overall he sounds good but the performance is really lacking energy. He's got a smile that lights up a room but his entire performance was so boring. Grade D

Chris Sligh - I really didn't want to like this performance. People were already naming him as the winner and I feel there are better singers in the competition. However, this was the perfect song for his voice. He sounds great on it. It got the crowd engaged. You can see his experience with fronting a band coming into play here. He looks completely comfortable on the stage. He definitely had a good time. Best performance of the night. Grade A

Jared Cotter - It was a good song choice for him. He sounded alright until he got towards the end. He had some problems with some of the higher notes and I would have liked to see him try to sing them with a full-chested voice instead of a falsetto, in the head type of voice. The end was pretty bad though. And sadly, that's what we're left with. I think it's enough (just barely) to keep him in for another week. Grade C+

AJ Tabaldo - I have to admit, I was really surprised. In my opinion, he's the one most likely to go home first because we know nothing about him and from what we've seen I haven't been impressed. This, however, was a good performance. He sounded good, it was a decent song, and he was having fun. My big critique is his appearance. Stop with the gay dancing (i.e. dancing with your arms above your head) and don't pop the collar. Both make you look really stupid. Grade B

Phil Stacey - Once again, he's proved that he has problems beginning a song. He was way off key at first but once he got into it he sounded amazing. I had a problem comparing him with Clay (who also sang this song during Season 2) but he definitely sounded great as well. It was nice to hear his full voice but he's nowhere near the "bald rocker" that Chris Daughtry is. But this was a great performance. Grade B+

Overall, I was a little disappointed with tonite. For the most part the song choices were pretty bad. Everyone tries to play it safe and do some softer, ballady type stuff and that just makes for a boring night. And I'm not the biggest fan of Stevie Wonder so hearing guy after guy trying to sing his stuff gets old (especially since we always here the same critique 'it's really hard to sing Stevie' when it's done). Kudos to Blake, Chris R. and Phil for singing something a little different and more contemporary tonite.

My bottom 3 for tomorrow are Sundance, Sanjaya and (it's a tough call between Paul and Nick but I'm going to choose...) Paul. I'm not really sure who is going to go home. I feel like Sundance and Sanjaya did the worst but have the bigger fanbases so I don't know. But since I graded them the lowest I think it'll be them. Sundance and Sanjaya are going home.