American Idol Recap and Top 9 Power Rankings

I expect that there's going to be some minor outrage over the fact that anyone but Tim Urban was voted off of American Idol last night, but here's my question: does it really matter? Was there any way Didi was ever going to beat out Crystal or Siobhan? Lee or Casey? Big Mike, Aaron, or even Andrew?

I personally don't think so, so the results really didn't alarm me too much (we will have credibility issues if Tim starts lasting beyond most of the names listed above).
The real issue with Tim is that while he is bad, he's not outrageous-Sanjaya bad. You can understand why little girls and grandmas might vote for him and do not ever rule out his VoteForTheWorst.com following. I can even see him lasting another week (Katie) or two (Andrew) or maybe even three (if Aaron just bombs one week), but I can't see him cracking any of my Top 5 (new rankings listed below!)

Quick thought on Didi: I liked her a lot going into the season (and I still like her a lot as an artist), but she could never fully get control of her emotions, and I have to believe that definitely played a part in her departure this week.

Since I wasn’t able to post yesterday, here is a quick recap of the Tuesday night performance show before we get to the power rankings (written before I watched the results show last night):

For the first time all season, Ms. Magnus came back down to earth with the rest of the pack. She was a little too screechy on a boring song. Just never a good combination.

Have to give Casey James instant brownie points for finding a song that hadn’t been done on Idol before. It seems like he is finally starting to develop the (necessary) star persona to go along with his strong vocals. Thoroughly entertaining performance overall.

I was really looking forward to see what Big Mike was going to do for R&B night so while it was a solid performance, I was disappointed by the song choice. This was a night he needed to dominate and separate from the group, but was completely outdone by Casey before him.

I once compared Did’s inability to manage her emotions on a consistent basis to Donovan F. McNabb’s inability to throw accurately on a consistent basis. Didi let her emotions get the best of her performance and it was exactly like watching Don six-hop a pass to an open receiver on third down.

I respect and appreciate Tim’s positive attitude, but the dude’s gotta go. (*whoops!)

Welcome back to the show, Andrew Garcia. It took me a while to recognize the song and I mean that in the best way possible. It was a fresh take on a song that’s almost become a parody of itself (that youtube wedding video and The Office wedding episode certainly haven't helped). Hope that wasn’t too little too late.

Despite the judges’ praise (save Simon), the song still seemed too big for Katie somehow, which is confusing because she has one of the bigger voices in the competition. That doesn’t even matter because Katie’s main problem is that she still has absolutely no “star” vibe yet.

Lee’s performance was the perfect example of what I was just saying about Katie. At this point in the show, we know they can all sing. Now we need to be entertained. Lee has made one of the larger leaps (if not the largest) in that area so far this season.

I know I talk a lot about the contestants doing some of my favorite songs but Crystal did my absolute all time favorite song so there is no way I’m even going to try to do an objective review. I was actually impressed with Ellen’s thought: it was not only good to see her do something different, but do just as well as she normally does. Great point. I need to move on because I still have goosebumps!

I think I would have enjoyed Aaron’s rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine” a lot more, if he hadn’t done it just one year after Kris Allen’s epic version. Just felt like a cheap knock-off even though his vocals were strong overall.

My Top 3 of the night: 1. Crystal, 2. Lee, 3. Casey AND Andrew (just because I've been waiting for Andrew to wake up for the past few weeks)

My Bottom 3 of the night: 1. Tim, 2. Katie, 3. Didi

What did you think of soul and R&B night and Usher as the mentor? ALSO, how about that backstage camera? Cool insight to the contestants off the stage or just another annoying TV gimmick?

On to the power rankings!

1. Crystal Bowersox (no change from last week)

2. Lee Dewyze (+2)

3. Siobhan Magnus (-1)

4. Casey James (+1)

5. Michael Lynche (-2)

6. Andrew Garcia (+2)

7. Aaron Kelly (-1)

8. Katie Stevens (+1)

9. Tim Urban (+1 by default of eliminated contestant)


Let me know what YOU think below!