Idol Thoughts

Yeah, I know the title of this post was way too obvious, and I've probably even used it before. What can I say, it's been a busy day and I don't have the energy for creativity.

Anyway, just a few observations about the last two days of American Idol madness.

The Boys:

• Sanjaya may be the worst singer to make the top twenty in several seasons. Yet, not only do I feel bad for the kid, but I think he could somehow stay on the show for another week. Every season, the very old and very young voters pick the runt of the litter up and carry him on their tiny shoulders for more weeks than he should stay on national television. Right now, Sanjaya's looking like that runt. The only thing that could stand in his way, however, is that old people are inherently racist, and he is non-white.
  
• It was nice to see Sundance get back to his own style a little, but I SO wish he'd have done Ray LaMontagne's "Trouble" instead of Chris Sligh. Sundance has the soul for a song like that, and he won't have many more opportunities to show that off.
  
• After hating tiny Chris and loving Blake last week, I pretty much flip flopped on both of them. Chris was great on "Geek in the Pink," though I worry he doesn't have much range and might be in trouble next week. Meanwhile, Blake was solid on his Jamiroquai cover--so I haven't flipped on him completely--but it did sound a little unoriginal. After the Keane song in the first week, I expect Blake to be radically different than anyone else each week.
  
• I'm actually sort of happy about how the boys stepped it up this week and about who seems to be improving. My favorite males are Blake, Big Chris, AJ, and Nick with Sundance, Little Chris and Phil on the outer edges. And it looks like the top six will be some combo of my top four and two of the three edge guys. So my injustice sense shouldn't get riled until at least the top twelve.

The Girls:

• I think the big advantage that Lakisha and Melinda have over the other girls is that it just looks so easy for them, at least while they're picking their own songs. I mean, they get up and nail the big notes, then cool things off with the whispers, and it never looks like they're straining or nervous. Maybe Stephanie and Sabrina come close to this ease, but none of the other girls in the top twelve do. And, really, none of the guys but AJ does. Love him or hate him, AJ looks smooth and easy when he's singing. Phil and Sundance have voices just as big, but you sort of cringe at times when they sing because they can have have such trouble hitting their stride.
  
• Can you freaking believe that not only did three different girls do Whitney songs, there were also two Christina songs and a Celine Dion. All in one show! It's like these girls have never seen the show before. Don't they know that the judges are NEVER kind to anyone who tries to ape the masters? They also rip apart guys who do Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. It's just asking for trouble.
  
• People have talked a lot about how the females are way better than the guys. How come nobody's talking about how much better the black females are than the white girls? Seriously, there could be an all black female top five this year, based just on early indications. Which would be cool, because with the exception of Fantasia--who may have had the weakest finals competition in AI history--the American people haven't been kind to the black female singers over the last few years (Jennifer Hudson, Mandisa, Vonzell, Kimberly Locke, Latoya London, Tamyra Gray) .

Anyway, this post took me too long to type, due to constant distractions. So I'm ending it now. Here are my predictions for the four exiting tonight:

Guys: Sanjaya, Jared (or maybe Brandon--they were equally bland)
Girls: Antonella, Haley