American Idol-April 1, 2008

For those that missed last weeks show, the theme was ‘The Year They Were Born.” The performances were a mixed bag, with Syesha and Michael Johns stealing the show. The results show on Wednesday didn’t have any surprises and just as I predicted Chikezie went home. He definitely wasn’t the worst singer in the competition, but he lacked the popularity some of the other singers have.

This week was Dolly week, Dolly Parton that is. While she’s a legend, with over 40 years in the game and 3,000 songs under her belt, the show may have been better served as just a night of country. Of course, Dolly has a new album out and they were able to talk her into appearing on the show, so all Dolly songs isn’t that big of shock. What is a real shock, though, is no one performed “9 to 5.”

Overall, the show was pretty good. I doubt anyone recognized any of the songs other than “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Speaking of Jolene, it was no surprise that Brooke tackled it. It was not her best performance of the season, but was pleasant and a nice way to start the show.

David Cook was up next sporting a new short haircut which may have not been the smartest move on his part. Luckily, his performance was pretty good and he supposedly arranged it himself. Forgive me if I find this a bit hard to believe, though, as he’s already stolen arrangements from Chris Cornell and used Whitesnake’s version of Day Tripper, ugh.

The other two standouts were David Archuleta, who made a nice comeback after sucking last week, and Syesha who has by far been the most consistent female so far. Not that her vocal power means that much as she’s been in the bottom three more than once.

Michael Johns was strong for the second week in a row, even though he’s still trying to perform every song while channeling the ghost of Jim Morrison. And Kristi Lee Cook was really in her element as she’s really being pushed into the country genre. She was dressed like some sort of Leann Rimes reject, but it was so nice not to hear her perform a Lee Greenwood song.

The rest of the performances were decent. Jason Castro’s breezy version of “Travelin’ Thru,” from the Transamerica soundtrack, was straight from the Matt Costa or Jack Johnson playbook. Carly was much better than last week, but still didn’t perform to her full capabilities. Ramiele was maybe the biggest surprise of the night. After weeks of poor performances, she sang well and made everyone remember why she made the show in the first place.

The bottom three is tough to call this week. Last week Jason Castro ended up there along with Syesha. It’s possible that one or both could end up there again. Ramiele was strong tonight, but I don’t think it was enough and it may be her time to hit the bottom three. I still think Kristi got lucky last week and will be in the bottom. So that’s Ramiele, Kristi and the last one will be Syesha, Carly or Jason. I’m guessing it may be Jason. Who goes home is even tougher to call as there was no one that did horribly. It’s really a tough call, but my guess is Ramiele’s time is up.