RYAN SEACREST FOR PRESIDENT! AI is at its absolute best when they bring in guest coaches who really know what they're doing. Initially I was skeptical of the Peter Noone / Lulu thing, but the proof was in the (Yorkshire?) pudding. Haley and Sanjaya offered up surprisingly unsucky personal bests; Blake, Chris, Sligh, and Jordin were all excellent; and every last person performed with confidence and conviction. That's good coaching.
My least favorite performances were Stephanie's and Lakisha's, neither of which really wowed me for some reason. Phil and Gina were fine, but paled in comparison to many of the others. ("Paint It Black" is not an easy song to perform believably.) As for the heiress apparent: technically, Melinda was stupendous, as always, but "As Long As He Needs Me" is supposed to have a kind of desperate passion to it that just wasn't there. I was expecting more. (Don't get me wrong, I'm sitting here hitting redial for Contestant 11 to make sure that a lovely but kinda boring performance doesn't cause people to do something silly like not vote for her.)
Maybe this will be the week when Sanjaya's exuberant fans chill out a little bit and let the guy go home on a high note. Otherwise, I'm thinking that Phil or Stephanie or perhaps Gina are likely to have some trouble.
Note to producers: Stick with the guests who know how to coach the contestants, not necessarily the ones who have had legendary performing careers. I'll put Noone and Lulu in the same category as Barry Manilow for all-time best special guest mentor.
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