There were a lot of good performances last night and nary a stiff in the bunch — even Phil2 followed a melody line! This is the time of the year when it should be difficult to decide who should go home.

I thought Skylar Laine continued her strong surge with her two performances. She rocked the hell out of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” stomping on the stage in her boots with her usual sassy vocals. I hope she sings this on the Idols Live Tour. When I heard that another Dusty Springfield song would be included last night, I did not expect Skylar would be the one selecting “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.” I was glad that Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson gave their props to Springfield, the soulful first lady of the British Invasion, and Skylar did the same with her lovely vocal, including the money notes at the end.

If the anti-country fans gang up against her, Skylar might be in trouble but I think her charisma, as well as her talent, will take her to the finals.

Hollie might be going home tonight but not based on her performances. She has found her groove and now no longer seems like a mechanical wind-up toy when she sings. She slayed Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Valley High” for the ’60s portion of the program and delivered a soulful take on Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love.” Because the teen girls are still voting for Phil Phillips, she might go home, but she deserves to hang on for another week.

It was probably because I liked the original song, but I wasn’t that thrilled with Phil Squared’s take on the Box Tops “The Letter,” which he Phil-ified to the point that it wasn’t the same song. Artistic license should only apply when you make the song better. He did allow the melody to shine in his version of The Zombies “Time of the Season.” It was enjoyable but no more.

Jessica Sanchez did a nice cover of Ike & Tina’s “Proud Mary,” but did we really have to hear that song again? She did much better with her beautiful ballad take on Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful.”

Joshua Ledet’s ’60s choice was the way-too-safe Temptations hit “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” But guess what, the judges didn’t gave him a standing O, waiting for his next performance, his gorgeous cover of the Bee Gee’s “To Love Somebody.”

My gut feeling is that Jessica is going home. At this point in the competition, it is a popularity contest, so here are my top five selections:
1)    Skylar
2)    Hollie
3)    Joshua
4)    Jessica
5)    Phillip

Who did you think won the night?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 11:54 am and is filed under American Idol, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.