By Cathy S

Sokocathy(at)gmail.com

First of all, congratulations to Josiah Leming for signing with Warner Bros. You might remember him from his audition in Atlanta. He was the boy who lived in his car and had the English accent when he sang. So many of us felt really terrible for him when his run ended in Hollywood. It’s nice to know he’s gonna be OK.

It’s getting very hard for us to name who we think will be going each week. We have been bonding with the top 10 for more than two months already. The answer I got from almost everyone when I asked who they thought would be going went something like this. “I really don’t want to say it because I really like him and I don’t want to see him go, but I think it’s gonna be Chikeze.” We all knew it and we didn’t want it to happen, but if he didn’t go then it was possible that Jason Castro would go and no one wanted that either.

This week the hopefuls sang songs from the year they were born.

Ramiele – A couple of us predicted that she would be in the bottom three. I guess America gave her handicap points because she was sick. One co-worker liked her this week, but that one co-worker told me she liked all the contestants this week.

Jason Castro – sang Sting’s “Fragile”. Simon commented that Castro should “start taking this seriously” and that he was “too laid back.” We don’t agree. That is Jason Castro. The song choice was perfect for him. That’s his style and we like it. One request of Jason by a reader is that he goes back to singing in English. He had bad reviews by the judges last week when he sang in French and this week when he sang in Spanish.

Syesha – got three thumbs up from the judges but still managed to find herself in the bottom three. Again, no one I talked to had her on their list of favorites and a reader and a couple of co-workers had her as their guess as being in the bottom three.

Brooke – I am a fan. I liked what she did with “Every Breath You Take”. The judges weren’t too impressed though. At least they didn’t bash her for starting the song over. Simon would have liked it more if it was “just you on piano.” I remember, a few weeks ago, Paula saying that she thought Brooke’s performance would have benefitted from the band joining in at some point during her song. So she tried it this week and it didn’t work. I say don’t listen to the judges, just be you.

Michael Johns – A reader mentioned to me that she was listening to “We Are The Champions” on the radio and thought about how it would be a perfect song for Johns to sing. Not only did he sing it this week, but it did turn out to be a perfect song for him. The judges loved the performance and a couple of co-workers and , of course, the reader had Johns on their favorite of the week list.

Carly Smithson – No one picked her as their favorite this week. But we were talking about her. “Is she pregnant?” asks a co-worker. “Why does she put on such a mean face when she sings?” a reader wonders. And a co-worker, who doesn’t have Amanda to complain about anymore, is focusing on Carly’s “too many tattoos”.

David Archuleta – took the microphone away from his mouth before he took a breath this week. That was a good thing but I wasn’t the only one who agreed with the judges about the “strange song choice.” Simon got it right for once when he said the performance “reminded him of a theme park performance”. I could definitely see theme park mascots singing that song and dancing along with Archuleta in a theme park parade.

Kristy Lee Cook – I think Paula got it wrong. She thought that Syesha was the “dark horse” of the competition but I think Kristy might be. She was on a lot of lists this week as a favorite. Just when we thought she would finally be going, she came through. Hopefully, this is the start of better weeks for her.

David Cook – His performance of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” was my favorite performance of the night. I wondered the whole time while watching Cook if this was his own arrangement or not. I was leaning towards it being not his but I enjoyed it anyway. I thought that I would have to do some research to find out whose arrangement it was but luckily Ryan Seacrest mentioned that it was Chris Cornell’s. The judges were “blown away” and thinking that Cook “might be the one to win”. Simon thought the performance was “amazing.” Did they think it was Cook’s own version? I give Cook credit though for finding the version of the song that will suit him best.

Blake lost his favorite this week. Are yours still in?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 8:00 pm and is filed under American Idol. 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.