Crystal Bowersox's "Long As I Can See The Light" was, as Fienberg agrees, the performance of the year so far -- an artistic and medical triumph. She took the leap from "we like her because she's so different" to "wow, those are pipes attached to an artistic sense sufficient to send her straight to the final three."
I'd give Katelyn second place for her take on Coldplay's "The Scientist," not only because it's been about two years since I first started advocating someone perform it on the show because she did the Aimee Mann cover of it real justice. Was it a little slow and off in the phrasing? Perhaps. But compared to where she was last week, it's such a marked improvement that I fear I may have written her off prematurely. (Also, because I want to see the full shoulder tattoo before her run is over.)
No one sang herself out of the competition last night, though I have my doubts about the continuing viability of Lacey Brown given her take on "Kiss Me" which lacked all the dreamy, fifteen-year-old-girl's wistfulness which the song requires. Looks different, sounds boring. Nor do I believe Didi Benami is long for this competition, given that we've seen her act done better by Brooke White and Megan Joy.
Katie Stevens (DeGarmoBot 2.0) is certainly surging. There's something about "Put Your Records On" which can't help but make the singer seem endearing and comforting, and she aced it.
Others, I can't figure out: Siobhan Magnus -- punk rock girl with a huge belting voice, or the adorable-but-unreliable Haeley Vaughn (oh, wait: that's just Paris Bennett 2.0). And Michelle Delamour looks too much like Keanu's colleague's shape-shifting wife in The Devil's Advocate for me to think of anything else while she's singing -- especially when she's unengagingly gender-bending a bad Creed song.
Who I'd send home this week: Lacey, (Didi or Michelle), Jermaine (to make more room for the Team Todrick resurgence), and still Tim Urban. And, yes, Alex Lambert is my tentative Theory #2 test case.
added because we need to keep tabs on him: Frequent ALOTT5MA Piñata Richard Rushfield may have located his 2010 Crush:
While each season sees an early panic of “this year is a disaster” from excitable critics who can’t sit tight until they get to know some of the kids when they reach the Top 12, this year was looking particularly ominous, with no great leader emerging and those few looming possibilities – Casey James, Aaron Kelley – falling sharply on one (cougar) or another (tween) side of the divide.All that changed tonight when Siobhan Magnus hit her big note. Never did we breathe its pure serene until we heard Siobhan sing out loud and bold. Of all the candidates we’ve seen, only Siobhan could possibly unite the entire Idol Nation. Let’s look at what she brings to the table:
1. She had a mohawk.
2. She makes weird, possibly insane noises to herself with her lips, making her both endearing to the tweens and unthreatening to the cougars. ... [deleted for space]
I could go on, but really what more evidence do we need to declare this season over, a lock for young Magnus? In history, civilizations tend to get the leaders they deserve. And after a year of war and bloodshed, Idol Nation deserves a strong but quirky leader like Siobhan.
