Welcome back Idol fans and casual readers. Last week after whatzizname was eliminated, I said that the competition can finally begin and boy, did it ever. 5 women remain and for the first time in 6 seasons, the winner will be a woman. They all have their skills and each can shine in a different way but there are still a few who can do just about anything. Tonight, they will sing two songs. One from the year they were born and one from any power Diva, ever. After each birthday performance, in addition to the judge’s comments, we will also hear from Jimmy as he gives his impression on what was just heard. Here is the current list of contestants (click the banner to see the performance show).

• Kree Harrison
• Candice Glover
• Janelle Arthur
• Angie Miller
• Amber Holcomb

Yep. These are still in my order of preference. It isn’t that I don’t like the ones on the bottom, they’re all great, it’s that I prefer the ones on top. I’m not going to recap the performances, but go straight to the results show. Reason being, I think they were all pretty great. We’ll see what they sang and some of the judges highlights as well as comments from Jimmy. So, let’s get to it.

Results (click to see the show)

This is going to be kind of short and sweet. On tonight’s show, Clay Aiken and Fantasia. There are some judges there as well as Ryan. Oh yes, the 5 contestants as well. Can’t forget about them now, can we? The show starts with a ‘diva medley, of Donna Sommer’s hits’. You know the girls can sing but I still don’t care for these types of things. Personally, I say it was a waste of 5 minutes. However, I guess if you like these group performances and you like Donna Sommers, then you would be all set. How is that?

Next is the Ford Fiesta Mission.. They are in a celebrity scavenger hunt. I’m sure the girls had fun making this commercial. We get to see the text messaging and navigation capabilities (Optional equipment on the car, I’m certain) and we are supposed to believe the girls are actually driving the cars. I spelled out a couple weeks ago how that really works. In this week, none of the front seat passengers were wearing seatbelts (Angie and Janelle), I saw at least one extra person in one of the cars as it was being hauled on a trailer, and we never actually see from the outside, any of the girls actually in the cars as they are shown running on the streets. Please raise your hand if you thought last week that they would have in a thousand years (sans stunt woman licensing and training) been driving cars around on a rooftop punching a giant soccer ball around into a net. Sorry to spoil it for you.. Anyway, the celeb they were looking for was Mathew Morrison (?). I guess he’s on Glee or was and he’s about to release an album. Groan.. Kill me now. A Two-fer infomercial. Nice going Fox, and Ford.

Let’s get to the parts that really matter, shall we? One by one, the performance night efforts will be reviewed. First up, Angie Miller. Her b-day song was “I will stand by you”. If that isn’t it, it was sure said in the song enough times. Diva song was “Halo”. Judges loved both, Jimmy says that she feels she has to over perform and that’s her Achilles heel. Both songs were technically perfect, she hit a home run with the first (at the piano) and the second, without the piano, it could negatively affect her score. Nicki says Jimmy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Candice Glover.. Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” and “When You Believe” by Mariah Carrey and Whitney Houston (duet). Jimmy said that last week when she sang Love Song by the cure, he was concerned for her this week (how is she going to top that?). This week when she did Straight Up, he was Really concerned for her. That song he says is too narrow melodically for her. However, with When You Believe, all doubt was removed from Jimmy’s mind. Mariah BTW, loved the song. Oh yes, Paula came out on stage to tell Candice how great she is.

Normally I would have skipped over this next part but there were elements of it I liked so here goes. Clay Aiken.. I’m not particularly a fan. H0wever, in the 10 years since he was on the show (season 2), he’s been primarily involved with his pet charity that didn’t even exist when he did the show, The National Inclusion Project. This was also his charity when he did Celebrity Apprentice last season. In case you don’t know, that charity seeks to integrate special needs kids with ‘normal’ kids so no one is left out at playtime. That’s it in a nutshell. He came out to do Bridge Over Troubled Water. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I like that song so I gave it a listen. I’ve also mentioned many times in the past how much I Love the sound of the Hammond organ through a Leslie (google it if you don’t know what one is) so when I saw that on the stage, I knew we were in for a treat. Ummmmm Lazario…… THAT is how it’s done. I’ll bet he didn’t forget the notes the first time he did it either. As I said, I don’t particularly care for Clay Aiken but I have to give it up for him on that song. Umm, How tall are Ryan and Clay? I never realized how short Ryan is until I saw Clay towering over him. He looked like a little kid standing there next to Clay..

Back to the reviews. Janelle Arthur. “When I Call Your Name” and “Dumb Blondes”.. I thought she did a great job with the first one but Jimmy said it was sleepy and Keith said he didn’t ‘feel it’. Keith, Go sit down in a corner somewhere. With Dumb Blondes, Jimmy said it was the wrong song choice for her. Dolly Parton was the right Diva for Janelle but, the wrong song. “There is not enough meat on the bones of that one”. I’ll note too that Nicki hinted that Janelle may be going home after that last song. In 3 out of her last 4 songs, I’ve been worried for Janelle.. The others are just leaving her so far behind. Dolly sent a text or something like that for Janelle wishing her luck.

Amber Holcomb. I didn’t catch the names of the songs but she did a Marriah Carry song for the first one and a Barbara Streisand song for her Diva number. Nicki panned the performance of the Marriah song, it wasn’t perfect but she got the standing O for the second song. Jimmy says, It seems as though Amber sings brilliant every week and ends up in the bottom two. He said because of that, she’s going to have to do something extraordinary. With those two songs, by those two women, she took a risk and jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. He thinks she’ll be rewarded for her bravery.

Kree Harrison. I couldn’t tell you both of the names or original artists of her songs either. One of them was “Have You Ever Been In Love”. Kieth said something to the affect of he didn’t feel it. I’ve only heard one song from Keith Urban. I didn’t like it well enough to keep me from skipping past it. Keith, that’s about 30 for Kree, zero for you so, go sit down in a corner somewhere and stfu. Just be the pretty boy that the ladies enjoy looking at and you’ll earn your paycheck (Yes, I’m saying that because I like Kree). Mariah didn’t care for it either. Nicki and Mariah had a ‘polite’ disagreement about that and so on. Nicki told Mariah, “Simmer down, Sir”… Bwahaaahahaaahahaaaa! Nicki doesn’t think Kree is country, she thinks Kree is worldly. Can do anything. Jimmy says both of her songs were the wrong choice. When she did Up To The Mountain, he heard her soul cry. These songs didn’t deliver that for him. He chuckled at the looks on Keith and Randy’s faces as Nicki and Mariah were having their discussion.

Okay… Now it’s time to trot out Fantasia. First however, we are taken back to her season when “The Three Divas” found themselves in the bottom three. That was her, Jennifer Hudson, and Latoya London. We know that Fantasia won that season, Jennifer has done many things but what has become of Latoya? Well, she’s had a few gigs, did some songs, was in The Color Purple with Jennifer, but for the most part, she’s back where she started. She’s also in the audience. Apparently the three of them are still good friends. Why do we need to see this? No idea. Fantasia sings her song, wasn’t horrible, moving on.

Dim the lights, Here we go. Top three, in no particular order, Candice, Angie, Amber. Bottom two, Kree and Janelle. In my opinion, Kree doesn’t belong at the bottom of any list but, what do I know? I have taste (Just Kidding). With only 5 left, great ones are going to go home. This week, the one at risk, is Janelle. 😦 Given the last couple weeks, against the other four, I’d have to say I agree with that particular choice). She sings for the judge’s save, 2:2 split, not unanimous. Good bye sweet Janelle. I’m sure great things are ahead for you if you want them. All you have to do is reach out and grab them. Pay no mind to what a lot of brain dead tweenies think. They aren’t your old country demographic anyway.

That’s all my friends. See you next week.

Til then, Peace.

MTH