by Gina Scarpa

 

Tuesday night on American Idol, Simon Cowell made a bold prediction that one of the females would end up winning this season. After watch the 12 girls perform, I had my doubts... until I saw the guys take the stage last night. It seems that the nerves have gotten the best of everyone this week. After all, it is their first live show for millions of people. Still, the judges didn't hold back when giving their feedback and with that said, here's how the performances by the guys went down.

 

Todrick Hall - "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson
Let's start with the good. The judges have been on the contestants to take songs and make them your own and Todrick definitely did that. That being said, it was a good idea that was executed poorly. The arrangement didn't show off his vocal talent so I'm going to give the guy an A for effort and a C for delivery. You gotta love the double talk from the judges though. All they do is complain that no one changes up the song and then they turn around and say he changed it too much. Anybody else scratching their head?

 

Aaron Kelly - "Here Comes Goodbye" by The Rascal Flatts
To quote Randy Jackson, Aaron can "definitely sing" but it seems nerves got the best of him tonight because he lacked any kind of stage presence or star power. There's not much to say about this performance. It was pretty well sung but it was also pretty boring. He'll get votes for singing a country song and I'd stake my life he's safe this week. Aaron is just going to need to become more confident and comfortable in order to go far in this competition.

 

Jermaine Sellers - "Get Here" by Oleta Adams
"Get Here" is a standard that's been sung over and over... and probably should not have been sung by Jermaine Sellers. Somewhere in there is a good singer I'm sure but this song most definitely didn't show it. He screamed most of the time and the crowd applauded, probably because they felt that's what they should do when someone starts singing some high notes. As Simon said, "It didn't work."

 

Tim Urban - "Apologize" by OneRepublic
As you may know, Tim was initially rejected from American Idol but when contestant Chris Golightly was removed from the competition because of contract issues, Tim was brought in. It started okay in the first ten seconds but quickly derailed when he headed into his falsetto voice. He should just stay in the lower part of his range because he most definitely does not have those top notes. As he finished the song, he looks visibly nervous as he should have been because he got his butt handed to him by the judges and deservedly so. Nice kid but he definitely did not bring it tonight.

 

Joe Munoz - "You and I Both" by Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz is an amazing live singer. I've seen him in concert several times and own his live CDs. So if you're going to sing Jason Mraz live, you better bring it. I can't say that Joe necessarily brought it but it was good enough to get him through to the next round. The guy is super comfortable on stage and has some confidence, which is more than we can say for almost every guy we've seen so far.

 

Tyler Grady - "American Woman" by The Guess Who
I could be biased because I am by no means a Tyler Grady fan but I just didn't like this performance. This is a great classic rock song but I just can't believe that this guy is for real. I almost feel like Tyler chose the 70s as his "thing" to make him original and stand out in the crowd. It obviously worked because here he is in the Top 24 but he needs to deliver vocally and also show that he's an original artist because I think we have yet to see either.

 

Lee Dewyze - "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol
I know he struggled during Hollywood week and had his ups and downs but I'm a fan of Lee Dewyze. Once again, he took a wrong step with his song choice. Randy wants to see Lee go a little more hard rock and not so much pop/rock. Good point. Lee tried to change things up too much and add to it but what he ended up doing was set himself back a little in the competition. Simon doesn't think so. He called it the best performance of the night so far. I want Lee hanging around for a long time this season.

 

John Park - "God Bless The Child"
I had heard good things about John Park but didn't remember much about him during the audition process. This is a totally weird song choice for him. Yes, he can sing but why he picked a song that ages him 30 years is beyond me. Doesn't anyone listen to the judges? It's all... about... SONG CHOICE. Moreover, Simon pointed out that it completely lacked emotion and he makes a good point. He deserves to stay and get another chance but man, he needs to step it up and quick.

 

Michael Lynche - "This Love" by Maroon 5
I won't that Michael blew me away with his rendition of "This Love", in which he accompanied himself (unnecessarily) on the guitar, but it was a solid performance. Ellen comments that he's got an infectious personality, which he does. Sure, he had a misstep here and there but who cares? He sings well, he's likeable, and he looked like a damn superstar in this bunch!

 

Alex Lambert - "Wonderful World" by James Morrison
Alex (no relation to Adam) Lambert sang one of my favorite songs on my IPod right now though I'm not sure how many people are familiar with it. This performance of it wouldn't make you want to run and download it, that's for sure. Simon tells him to get his nerves together and that goes for everyone performing! Alex is a good singer but he needs to pull himself together or as Simon said, "This isn't gonna work."

 

Casey James - "Heaven" by Bryan Adams
Now, I haven't been on Casey's side yet, mostly because all Kara does is drool over him. I want him to have more going for him than looking like someone who just rolled out of a VW bus from the 70s. Casey proved tonight that he does have more. I wish he picked something a little more upbeat (or it could be that I find Bryan Adams to be a cheesebucket) but Casey impressed with solid vocals and a cool demeanor on stage. He was one of the very few that looked at home up there.

 

Andrew Garcia - "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" by Fall Out Boy
Tuesday night, Idol closed the show with favorite Katie Stevens hoping she would deliver big and last night, did the same with Andrew Garcia. In both cases, they fell flat and when the frontrunners aren't impressing, the show has a problem on its hands. I love that Andrew is creative and makes songs his own but Fall Out Boy just isn't for him. I am not worried about him in the slightest. We should be seeing him for weeks and weeks.

 

 

Tune it to find out which two guys and two girls will be headed home on American Idol's live results show, tonight night at 9/8c on Fox.

 

(Image courtesy of Fox)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

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