Ok America, it’s the Top 8 on So You Think You Can Dance American Idol. J-LO is the special guest of the evening, and I have to say, I was really impressed with the suggestions she was giving the contestants on their performances. It seemed like she actually gave more pointers than previous special guests have, but I am not really sure that many of the contestants listened to her closely enough.

Let’s check out the show…starting off with Ryan back stage with the contestants, then we saw the cast of DRIVE in the audience, then the intro video of the AI kids with Jennifer. Hot Chris in his scarf….woof.

Melinda Doolittle - “Sway” - for her, the challenge this week was to make it SEXY, and I think she did this quite well in a very sassy black skirt, and some swanky moves on stage. You might remember this song from Dark City (a movie I adore) - Jennifer Connelly lip sync’d it in the bar scene. The audience was clapping, superb vocals, but Simon did not like it at all. Melinda got him back though, telling him she was glad that he finally had the chance to say something not nice.

LaKisha Jones - “Conga” - first a viewer question, “What made you try out for AI?”, answer: she wanted to make a better life for her and her daughter. A worthy goal, I feel. First, LaKisha learned how to say Conga correctly (sort of like: cone-gah), so she is now an official member of Miami Sound Machine. Then she busted out onto stage (and I thought her breasts would bust out of that dress) and gave a very safe performance. I’m not fond of this song musically, and neither were the judges. Boring for me.

Chris Richardson - “Smooth” - Hotness. Vocals were in the lower octaves this time and it completely changed the feel of his voice, away from his Timberlake-esque higher pitch. I liked it. I did not, however, like the chains he was wearing around his neck…at all. Loved the runs at the end, and the judges liked it as well. And oh that scarf…..maybe he should play Dr. Whom next.
Haley Scarnato - “Turn the Beat Around” - What was she wearing? Those shorts were so short I could see things I don’t want to see. And the hair? Don’t get me started. J-LO told her it was a hard song to sing, and she was right. Blake had to come in and beat box during rehearsals just so Haley could get the song going. Nice remix of the song, musically. Shaking the chest and walking around the audience did not help. Pitchy all over. Randy said it was kareoke, Paula said nothing about the singing, Simon totally trashed her voice and said he liked her tactic of wearing less clothing each week. (I think you’ll agree, however, that I’m not nearly as hard on Haley as Idol 2007… :-))

Phil Stacey - “Maria Maria” - Awful song. J-LO said she got goose “pimples” but I don’t know what those are…maybe she meant goosebumps. Either way, my complexion was clear. I did not like this song at all. His voice cracked twice, it was pitchy all over the place, and Simon told him there was no originality. And Phil, telling us that your daughter has a toy cow that she calls Simon Cow is not going to win votes. It just makes you look dorky.

Jordin Sparks - “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” - J-LO said she sounded like Michael Jackson…I’m not so sure about that. Viewer question, “If you could choose next week’s theme, what would you choose?”, answer: 80’s music. This is a girl after my own heart. She looked great, sexy but youthful, lots of shouldering and walking back and forth on stage that distracted me though. Lots of big notes, but Simon did not like it.

Blake Lewis - “Need to Know” - Was it just me, or did J-LO seem skeptical about Blake’s ability to pull off the song? First and foremost…he had sweat stains in his arm pits. Use anti-perspirant or wear a good undershirt if you’re going to perform on national television please. I did not like the song. Mediocre vocals, he needs a haircut, and again, angry performance. Not surprisingly, all three judges absolutely LOVED it. Clearly these three are deaf and blind when he comes on stage.

Sanjaya Malakar - “Besame Mucho” - He closed the night, and I think it was on purpose by the producers, just to get people to watch all the way through to see what he would do, and how is hair would be styled. Tonight it was relatively normal, but he added the element of facial hair to bring it up a notch. J-LO liked him, and thought Simon would too. I didn’t feel a lot of life during the performance, but at the end, and just like Simon I’m going to hate myself for saying this…the vocals were not terrible (and right after I wrote that down, Simon said what I was about to say). I will even go so far as to say that as the camera pulled away from him, he may have actually looked sexy for a split second. But I will deny that to the grave.

What are my thoughts on tomorrow? It’s Haley and Phil in the bottom two. But then again, I never would have thought Gina would leave before them, so your guess is as good as mine. Cheers!

* Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts on this post in the area below. No registration is required to leave a comment.

This sarcastic entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 8:29 pm and is filed under American Idol, Music, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.