Let me start out by saying that I think that if we moved Jacob and Casey into the top ten, then I could probably pick eight girls to go on too. The girls were so much better than the boys.
Ta-tanysa – She’s back, and she brought a hyphen. They never hyphenated her name before that I noticed. She did Rhianna’s “Only Girl in the World,” which I’ve never heard before, but she was good.
Naima did a song called “Summertime,” and she was really good too.
NOTE: It’s harder to write long explanations of why people are good, so this might be a short post. That probably sounds negative about me, but it’s sometimes hard to explain why you like something because you just feel it positively, whereas, at least for me, I feel like I have to justify disliking something.
Kendra did a Christina Aguilera song. Looks like it’s called “Impossible.” Again I thought it was good. This is when I realized that the girls were already doing better than the boys.
Rachel did Fiona Apple’s “Criminal.” Her voice sounded great, but the tempo was very odd for that song. The judges called it Broadway sounding. It would end up being the performance I liked least.
Karen did Mariah Carey’s “Hero.” I was a bit bored with the song, but she did a great job with it. Not a huge Mariah Carey fan, but I like Karen. She was the first one that the judges were 100% positive about. And with good reason.
Lauren Turner was next. It looks like the name of the song is “Everyday of the Week” by Jade. She has the Amy Winehouse feel to her voice. She was very good. I don’t think there was a single part that wasn’t good. Randy said Winehouse and Florence and the Machine.
Ashton I was disappointed about. I found myself spacing out. I’m not even sure what song she was singing. It seemed like it was trapped in a very small range, in spite of the fact that she was very strong in that range. It just sounds like she picked an octave or two and didn’t go much beyond it. I’m not even sure if it’s valid to dislike something based on the range picked, but I thought she was better than she showed with this performance.
Julie did “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson. Not great. I could hear her falter somewhere in the middle.
Haley did “Falling In and Out of Love” by Alicia Keys. Well, she convinced me, at least, that she deserved to get at least this far. I wasn’t sure what to think of her throughout Hollywood Week.
Thia sounded great, but it feels understated, like they turned the volume down on her or something. It wasn’t a power song, but she sounded so good singing it. I hope it doesn’t affect her votes by not being memorable. The judges really talked her up though.
Lauren Alaina (the blonde one) did “Turn on Your Radio.” I’ve never heard I, and it appears to be a Reba McEntire song. It was disappointing that she went country with this performance, because I wanted to hear her do something more my taste. She sounds great, but I don’t like the song.
Pia sand “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders. Wow. I love that song and it could have gone wrong for me, but she did a really amazing performance. She made it her own, made it modern, and stuck to the melody where important. All the things that Simon would have liked.
Watching the recaps didn’t change my opinion on anything really. So once again, I will make my “predictions.” I can’t really say for sure what I think will happen with half of the girls going home. I’m having a little tougher time with what I would prefer to happen too, because I wouldn’t cut half of them if it was my choice. Still I will pick six. In order of my favourite to least favourite for making Top 12, based on last night’s performances:
1. Pia – She was just amazing. I can’t even explain to you how much I liked her performance.
2. Karen – I would not have expected to put her at number two, but she really showed how good she is with this performance, and I’m looking forward to seeing if she maintains it.
3. Thia – She has been one of my favourites from the get go, and I think she has always justified my position with her performances.
4. Lauren Alaina – I put her here more because I know she’s really good. I didn’t like the performance based on the song, but based on her vocals.
5. Naima – I think she was probably the only other one that really stood out above just being good enough for Top 24.
6. Lauren Turner or Haley – I could go either way here. They are both really good, but I don’t know who I would pick if I had to decide that one or the other was staying.