Todrick Hall – Since U Been Gone: Now this is what I’m talking about. The best way to succeed on Idol is to sing a song that was originally done by someone of the opposite sex. Now is the singing great? Not really. But this is memorable and original. Okay, the judges think it was a little tooooo original. But people will remember it. And at this stage…that’s what’s important.

Aaron Kelly – Here Comes Goodbye: Was he a country singer before? Or is he going the route of the girls and just sounding like whoever he’s singing? I feel like it’s the latter. More karaoke. And some rough vocals. He sounds nervous. Apparently the judges and I don’t agree tonight.

Jermaine Sellers – Get Here: Someone sang this before. Melissa? Season 5? (I was close…it was in fact Season 5, but it was Kinnik Sky…she did a great job, but was cut before the Top 12.) Yikes. I do NOT like this. I can’t stand falsetto. That was pretty rough.

Tim Urban – Apologize: Kris sang this song. He looks like Jon Peter Lewis. If you’re wondering why I’m doing so many past Idol comparisons, it’s because these performances are too terrible, and I don’t want to listen. So I’m thinking back to past years where good singers actually existed. That was awful. Absolutely awful.

Joe Munoz – You and I Both: Ooo, I like this song. Which is probably a bad thing. Sigh. More shaky karaoke. Sounds very nervous. Really boring performance. Not as bad as the last two though.

Tyler Grady – American Woman: More karaoke. Trying to sound like the original. Another boring performance. With more rough high notes.

Lee Dewyze – Chasing Cars: Starting out promising. Going downhill a bit. There were some rough moments, but that was definitely the best so far. And he has a nice voice. Like a raspy Dave Matthews-y rocker. It’s kinda cool. Hey, Simon agrees with me! Kara and Randy hated it. What do they know.

John Park – God Bless the Child: Mikalah sang this song. They’re not going to like this because it’s old. It wasn’t awful I guess. But it was boring. And forgettable. I actually stopped paying attention for a while. He could be in some trouble.

Mike Lynche – This Love: Ooo..another good tune. Whoa…fast. So fast. It’s not terrible, but it it’s boring again. It’s way too fast for him to really sing it well. He just sounds like he’s rushing through it. I don’t like it at all.

Alex Lambert – Wonderful World: What’s with the mullet? Ugh. I don’t think there’s every been a week of Idol where I’ve hated everyone. This is a really bad start.

Casey James – Heaven: I get the feeling that the judges are going to love this. I think he sounds REALLY nervous and shaky. And he looks about as uncomfortable as Alex, just smiling and staring at the camera. I’m not feeling the emotion. And he’s got a Carmen Rasmusen sheep thing going on. The voice wasn’t awful though. I’m not sure why everyone thinks he’s so good looking. I think he’s kind of ugly.

Andrew Garcia – Sugar We’re Going Down: He is SO GOOD. He needs to win this show. No one even comes close. I have no idea what this song is, but he is making me love it. Awesome. …or not. I guess if I knew the song, I wouldn’t have liked it. That’s why I like not knowing songs.

Overall? Another rough night. I liked Andrew, but I guess I see where the judges are coming from…I don’t really plan on buying it on iTunes. So it wasn’t fantastic. Which means out of 24 people, I didn’t like a single one enough to spend $1.29. Which is very sad. And makes me very concerned. I’m even more concerned that some of my favorites – Todrick, Jermaine, and Mike – had such bad performances. I was encouraged by Lee though. It wasn’t great, but I like his voice a lot. I dunno. I feel like it’s going to be a rough year. I don’t know what it is about this year. I feel like I’m watching Season 1 or 2. Where everything is just so karaoke. I mean…listening to the recap…it’s just so bad. Although I must say that Lee’s performance was the only one I didn’t cringe while listening back to. He sounded like an actual artist. He even sounded better than Andrew. Maybe I’ll pick a new favorite.

Predictions? John is gone. And probably Tim. But just like the girls, any one of the guys could go. Could be Aaron, could be Joe or Alex. Could even be Todrick, Tyler, or Jermaine. Who knows. I’m gonna say John and Tim though.

We find out tomorrow which 4 Idols get the boot. And more importantly…KRIS ALLEN PERFORMS! WOO! And Allison Iraheta (less excited, but I’m sure it’ll be a million times better than the 4 hours of my life I’ve spent on this season’s contestants over the last two days).

Until then…

Now for this year’s action.

Interesting…not a whole lot of drama this year. The drama they’re trying to create is kinda lame. They’re really making Mary Powers (the rocker chick) out to be the villain. The biggest drama was the Big Mike baby thing. Which still makes me kinda mad. He should have been there.

Okay…on to the groups!

Faith (Charity Vance, Ashley Rodriguez, and Michelle Delamor) – Not a fan of Charity, who forgot her lyrics. Ashley’s just okay. Michelle wasn’t really highlighted, so I don’t have an opinion on her.
Verdict: Everyone is in.

Team Awesome (Mike Lynche, Seth Rollins, Tim Urban, and Michael Castro) – They were all decent. Not outstanding, but definitely not bad. And Michael Castro didn’t even get a solo or a lower third. Guess he’s not going through.
Verdict: Mike and Tim through, Seth and Michael out.

Neapolitan (Liz Rooney, Thaddeus Johnson, Jessica Cunningham, and some girl named Paige) – They’re all pretty terrible. And there’s some stupid drama between them and “Destiny’s Wild” because they stole their a cappella idea. Uh oh.
Verdict: All through. Maybe I just hated the song.

Destiny’s Wild (Todrick Hall, Theri, Jareb Liewer, and Siobhan Magnus) – They’re slightly better (although the ending was absolutely awful). I agree with Ellen though that they were very weird. I think it’s the song. Such a terrible song.

The Mighty Rangers (Tori Kelly, Maddie Penrose, Mark Labriola, Kimberly Kerbow, and some guy named Danny) – Tory is boring. Maddie is awful. Mark forgot his words and wasn’t good anyway. Kimberly also forgot words and was bad.
Verdict: Tori and Maddie are through, the others are out. Mark cried.

The Phoenix (Ben Honeycutt, Jeff Goldford, Moorea Masa, Jermaine Sellers) – Ben and Jermaine were fantastic. Jeff was okay. Moorea wasn’t good. As a group, they were pretty darn good. The judges were pretty tough on them. Interesting.
Verdict: Jermaine and Jeff are through, Ben and Moorea are out. Wow…I liked Ben. But of course, I love Jermaine, so I’m very happy to finally see him again.

Big Dreams (Matt Lawrence, Amanda Shechtman, and two other guys) – Matt wasn’t awful. Everyone else was. Matt wasn’t good either.
Verdict: All out.

Middle C (Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifoy, and Casey James) – They were all pretty good. I like the other Jermaine better.
Verdict: All through.

Three Men and a Baby (Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, J.B. Ahfua, and some other guy) – Andrew was great again, J.B. (a new face) was VERY good. I still don’t like Katie.
Verdict: All through.

The Dreamers (Mary Powers, Hope Johnson, Margo May, Alex Lambert, and some other girl) – That was probably the worst thing I’ve ever heard. Margo was particularly awful.
Verdict: Mary, Hope, and Alex are through. Margo and the other girl are out. Yuck, I thought Hope and Alex were terrible too.

That’s it…71 made it through. No group stood out, and there was no funny drama. I will officially dub this the worst Group Round ever. And I had to stay up until 10 for it too. Gross.

Next week that 71 becomes 24. Tuesday will be the last performances and the whole splitting everyone into rooms thing. Wednesday will be the complete waste of an hour episode where we hear no singing and instead have to watch people walk up to a chair and hear whether or not they made it. BUT THEN…the real show starts. And my game starts! Hooray!

Until then…

And right off the bat, what does she do? She gives an even better answer than mine to the “How are you qualified to judge Idol?” question. No, she has no real music experience, but she does know how it feels to get on a stage every day and have to please an entire crowd. Good answer, Ellen. And then she told Ryan she was ignoring him, and asked Simon if she should come on to him. Perfecto.

Line 1:
Katie Stevens – I still don’t really like her. She’s not terrible. But I dunno.

Skiiboski – He’s not as good as I remember him in the audition. Before, the voice made up for the weirdness.

Verdict: Katie’s in, Skiiboski’s out.

Line 2:
Andrew Garcia – Hmm…this is quite good. Wow. Okay, I predict he will be in the Top 12. This is awesome. I kinda wanna download this. I think that was the best Hollywood solo audition I’ve ever seen. Excellent. Ugh…Kara just compared him to Adam. Don’t do that.

Vanessa Wolfe – Wow…she is still awful. Like, really really awful. Maybe worse than she was before.

Verdict: Andrew is in, Vanessa is out (woo!)

Janell Wheeler – Good I guess. I got a little bored. But she did sound like a real singer.

Line 3:
Haeley Vaughn – She sounds very young. Oh yeah, she sang a Carrie song before.

Mary Powers – I stand by what (I think) I said before…she’s good, but the rocker chick never makes it far.

Verdict: Both through.

At the end of Day 1, 46 contestants made it through.

Day 2:

Line 1:
Jay Stone – Aww…he blew it. You gotta let them hear you sing regular too. Darn.

Lilly Scott – Hmm…she sounds like she’s in the 40s. I feel like I’m watching some old movie where they’re listening to the radio. I don’t generally like that style, but I really enjoyed that performance.

Verdict: Lilly’s in, Jay’s out.

Mike Lynche – Well, he’s fabulous. But I kinda wish he would go be with his wife while she has their first child. But he was great.

Line 2:
Tim Urban – He has a very nice voice. I’m not sure I’m thrilled with the song choice. David Cook has a much deeper voice. I feel like this guy should have done something a little higher.

Justin Williams – He picks really awful songs. He’s so much better when he tones it down than when he starts belting.

Verdict: Tim’s in, Justin’s out.

Line 3:
Maddy Curtis – Nope. Not good. Sounds way older than 16. Very very old fashioned.

Casey James – Pretty good. A lot better than the original audition. I’m not sure how he’d do on the show though – with the theme weeks and such.

Verdict: Casey’s in, Maddy’s out.

Last Line of the Day:
Didi Benami – Hmm…I don’t think I liked her in the audition. But this is REALLY good. I think I have a thing for the people who play guitar. Very very good.

Crystal Bowersox – I don’t like her quite as much as the other guitarists, eeek…I wasn’t a fan of the high note either. But not terrible.

Verdict: Both through.

95 total are through from round one. I was actually quite pleased with the performances tonight. It’s not often in Hollywood that I can actually picture hearing the performance on the radio. It happened 3 or 4 times tonight. My favorite by far was Andrew. Right now, based on my extremely limited exposure (I’m mad that they only really showed people from before…no one new), he’s my pick to win it all.

Tomorrow…GROUP ROUND!!! Yessss. Let’s see if anyone can outdo Kimberley Locke and Frenchie Davis. I doubt it. Best group performance ever. Blake and company gave them a run for their money. But no one rocked it like K-Lo and Frenchie. But…some of these people seem pretttty good. We’ll see.

Until then…