By: Mary Cavaliere

Paralleling last night’s show where the Top 8 guys battled it out to the 80’s to make it into the Top 12 for next week, tonight was ladies night.  Here’s my take on their performances this week:

1)    Asia'h Epperson ~ She sang Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and she did a darn good job with it.  What I love about this girl is she is always smiling and positive.  Even when Simon is criticizing her she’s blowing kisses to him.  She’s cute as a button and simply put, she rocks!
2)    Kady Malloy ~ She sang Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever”, a song that I honestly have never heard before.  Paula said it was her best performance, but if that is the case, and I don’t believe it is, she’s in trouble because there was nothing fabulous about it.  She was flat through a good portion of it.  I agree with Simon.  She has the personality of cardboard when she’s singing.  I’m afraid it’s time for Kady to say goodbye to the competition.
3)    Amanda Overmyer ~ She sang Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself For Loving You”, another song I have never heard of before, but ita was a great performance.  I’ve said it over and over again in my blogs that I love this girl, but honestly, I think it may be time for her to go home.  She is talented yes, but she has a specific style that is not going to carry through this type of competition very well because she’s not diverse enough.  Add to it that she looked like she hated being there tonight, and I’ll be surprised if she makes it through to the Top 12.
4)    Carly Smithson ~ She sang Celine Dion’s  “I Drove All Night” and nailed it.  I disagree with Simon that she chose the wrong song.  This girl could sing just about anything and make it sound good.  But like I’ve said before, it’s not just about a great set of pipes to make it on this show.  Look at Melinda Doolittle.  She was a very rare talent that was better than two dozen contestants collectively put together.  But where did she end up in the competition and more so, where is she now?
5)    Kristy Lee Cook ~ She sang Journey’s “Faithfully”.  She’s got great vocals, but the last few bars of the song made me cringe because they were so off-key.  Even before Simon said she was “forgettable” my 12-year old turned to me and said  “Mom, she’s invisible”.  I have to agree with both Simon and Sammy Jo (that’s my daughter).  There’s no where for Kristy to go but home.  
6)    Ramiele Malubay ~ She sang Phil Collin’s “Against All Odds”.  She got off to a rocky start but it got better as she went along.  I believe Ramiel belongs in the Top 12, but she needs to step it up if she plans on staying around awhile.
7)    Brooke White  ~ She sang Pat Benetar’s “Love Is A Battlefield”.  Every week I like this girl more and more.  She took a rocker song, and with only a single guitar behind her, she aced it.  There’s no doubt she’ll make it into the Top 12.  I predict she’ll be one of the top 3 girls remaining to the end.
8)    Syesha Mercado ~ She sang Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You”.  The judges gave her kudos but I felt it was way too big of a song for her.  She, like Asia’h, is adorable so I’m hoping her charisma gets her through to the Top 12 next week.

My two nominees for departure are Kady Malloy and Kristy Lee Cook, both of whom we will quickly forget about once they are gone.

There were a lot of ballads this week from both the guys and the girls.  I agree with the judges that the guys were better this week and with next week’s theme being the Lennon-McCarthy songbook, the guys are already going to be at an advantage.  I’m looking forward to next week’s music as well as a special guest appearance by one of last season’s favorites, Blake Lewis.  Now all we have to do is get through tomorrow night’s elimination.  Because we’re down to the Top 12, it should be prove to be an emotional night.

You can read more of Mary’s television blogs at www.myspace.com/italiangirl57

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