Top 8 Guys

Blake Lewis - something by 311. I love the fact that Blake is actually choosing contemporary pop type tunes. Everyone is falling into the "Stevie Wonder/R&B" trap of singing the same damn songs that we've heard on every season so far. Finally someone comes along, knows exactly what his niche is and runs away with it. I've heard this song on the radio but couldn't tell you what it's called or what the lyrics are about, however I did enjoy the performance. Mostly I just enjoyed the mixing of the vocals with the beatboxing. It was seamless and sounded awesome. The song itself was mediocre at best but Blake did what he could to make it better. Grade B

SanGAYa Malakar - "Waiting On the World to Change" by John Mayer. Well he definitely out-gayed AJ this week. That hair has got to go! I love John Mayer, I hate Sanjaya Malakar. This was just awful. Sanjaya has a sweet voice but there's no power or emotion behind it all so everytime he sings you get that same uninspired quality. It always sounds like really bad karaoke (yep, I agree with Simon on this one). It's so far away from where everyone else is it's not even funny. Ugh! Grade F

Sundance Head - "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam. I've been waiting for 5 years for someone to bust out with a Pearl Jam song. They're my favorite band but I never thought anyone would do it because they're too rock for Idol. I was hoping Chris Daughtry would sing something but he never did. Finally, here it is. And..... it sucked so hard I can't even talk about it! There was no raw emotion that this song requires. He's just singing it. While I was watching I kept getting flashes of The Wedding Singer in my head. That's what he reminded me of, a bad wedding singer with mascera on. I'm so mad that the first Pearl Jam song had to be ruined by Sundance. Grade D+

Chris Richardson - "Tonight I Wanna Cry" by Keith Urban. As soon as Ryan said he was going urban I knew this was the song he'd be singing. And it's a good choice as well, especially after Ace sang it last year since they both have those higher, falsetto type voices. I thought Chris was a little off in the beginning but then really got into it by the mid section. I really enjoyed the runs that he added because it became a little more pop than country. While it wasn't his best performance I did think it was good. Grade B

Jared Cotter - "If You Really Love Me" by Stevie Wonder. After hearing this song so many times before we get Jared's version of it. I gotta say, I wasn't really impressed, nor was I disappointed. It was just ok. Nothing special, nothing bad. He did miss a couple of notes with bothered me but otherwise it was just a performance. I feel like there's a lot of "karaoke" tonite. Grade C

Brandon Rogers - "I Just Want to Celebrate". I like the funk vibe of the song and I think it fits Brandon very well. However, I didn't enjoy the performance. The vibe of the song is cool, but the song itself was pretty boring. I haven't been impressed with Brandon's voice since his very first audition. Tonite didn't do anything to make me love him. Grade C

Phil "NosPHILatu" Stacey - "I Need You" by LeAnn Rimes. Once again, Phil has shown that he has problems starting a song and finding the key. You can barely hear his low notes and they sound all awkward. He has weird facial expressions at the beginning as well. Once he finally got to the chorus he was back in the right key but there were pitch problems all over the place. Just about all of the high notes were off and he was shouting most of them. This was a horrible performance. Grade D

Chris Sligh - "We All Wanna Loved". Chris knows exactly what he should be singing with his voice. Once again, he's picked a perfect song for himself. I thought it was a nice performence. The vocals weren't overwhelmingly awesome but they're the best we've seen so far tonite. He always looks so comfortable on the stage. Grade B-

So there you have it. The guys have finally finished and it's up to America to decide which of them will make it into the Top 12. If I had my picks I would only move Blake, Chris R, Chris S and Phil into the next round. I agree with the judges that only 4 of them should be in the final round.

Based off tonite's performance I think SanGAYa and Phil should go home. However, both of them are pretty unlikely (because Phil has actually proven himself in the previous weeks and SanGAYa unexplicably has a big following). So that leaves Sundance, Brandon, and Jared. All along I've had a feeling that Sundance was going to be going out at the #13 spot, just missing the finals so I'll stay with that. For the other spot, I think that Brandon has a bigger fanbase than Jared (based off of his initial audition) so I think Jared is going home.

My final picks for the top 6 men are Blake, Chris R., Chris S. Phil, SanGAYa, and Brandon.