By: Mary Cavaliere

The show started out with an April Fool’s joke by Ryan Seacrest.  I have a 6th grader at home and had already experienced several April Fool’s jokes for the day, so Ryan didn’t fool me!  He told the audience that Idol was being pre-empted by a celebrity episode of The Moment of Truth. Have any of you watched The Moment of Truth by the way?  I won’t go into any great detail here because this is an American Idol Blog, but honestly I think the entire show is a total scam that exploits the personal lives of people for as little cash payout as possible/

This week Idol brought in their first mentor, Dolly Parton.  I grew up listening to Dolly Parton songs as a kid but I have to say that most of the songs the contestants sang tonight I have never heard.  Kudos to the three that sang some of my Dolly favorites.

Simon was pretty grumpy tonight.  It seemed only David Archuleta and Michael Johns got his stamp of approval for the night.

I thought most of the performances were mediocre and not much to scream and yell about so there’s no reason to rate them on a scale of 1-10 or in order from best to worst or worst to best.  I’ve just listed the contestants with their song choice from my most overall favorite contestant to my least favorite.

David Archuleta ~ SMOKEY MOUNTAIN MEMORY ~  Every note was perfection.  I can’t wait to buy this kid’s first CD.  I agree with Dolly – he has what it takes to be a star and he’s going to sell a lot of records whether he wins or not.

Brooke White ~ JOLENE ~ A perfect song choice for Brooke.  Simon is wrong.  She did Dolly proud and I totally enjoyed it.

Syesha Mercado ~ I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU ~ This was one of my favorite Dolly songs long before Whitney sang it for The Bodyguard.  I’ve seen Whitney sing it in person so I understand what Simon was trying to elude to with it maybe not being the best choice for Syesha.  But if you can put that aside she did a damn good job with it and every note was right on.

David Cook ~ LITTLE SPARROW ~ David did his own arrangement of this song, but I don’t recall the original so there was nothing to compare it to.  It didn’t knock my socks off, but no one’s performance did that for me tonight, so I think he did a fine job with it (and I agree with Paula – I like the haircut).

Michael Johns ~ IT’S ALL WRONG BUT IT’S ALL RIGHT ~  Michael is really growing on me.  I thought he did a really nice job with this song (even though I never heard it before).

Jason Castro ~ TRAVELIN’ THROUGH ~ Same same same.  Nothing special this week either.  I think he’ll sell records because he has a nice voice, he’s adorable, and the girls love him. 

Ramiele Malubay ~ DO I EVER CROSS YOUR MIND ~  Again there were a lot of pitch problems.  It’s starting to wear on me because it’s not improving from week to week.  I am glad that Simon didn’t call her “cheesy” like he did with Chikezie last week for touching the hands of the audience as she walked along the edge of the stage.

Carly Smithson ~ HERE YOU COME AGAIN ~  It was like listening to Celine Dionne sing Dolly.  Vocally it was great, but nothing about the performance excited me.  I do agree with Simon because as she was singing I thought “who’s dressing these kids this season?”   It’s not just her, it’s all of them.  The wardrobe is awful this year.  You’re on national television in front of millions of viewers and you’re wearing what you’d wear to go and get a Starbucks?
 
Kristy Lee Cook ~ COAT OF MANY COLORS ~  Wouldn’t you know my least favorite contestant sang my all-time favorite Dolly song?  I’ll give her props because I agree with Paula, it was her best performance, but I also think Carly or Brooke would have done a better job with it.

The bottom two is tough this week for me.  The bottom two performances were Ramiele and Jason but I doubt Jason will end up in the bottom two on a contestant level.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

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

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