Isn’t there a Hollywood adage that the sequel is never as good as the original? Considering how good the guys were the night before, the girls had some big shoes to fill. How did they do?

In keeping with the “kinder, gentler” tone of the new Idol season I feel I have to say something good about Ta-Tynisa Wilson. It was a nice, energetic performance. That, however, is about as far as I can go. The vocals were off, the song choice was… unimpressive, and for some with no pre-semis publicity this was not a good introduction.

Naima Adedapo made one of the biggest mistakes when it comes to picking songs: never do a previous champ’s trademark song. Summertime definitely falls into that category. So… why did Naima do it? It definitely didn’t help her cause. As for the song itself, it’s not that it was poorly done, but it was… odd. It just didn’t come together well.

Kendra Chantelle really has a lot of the tools you need to do well on Idol. Pretty good voice, looks good, appears to know how to pick songs and “make it her own”. The only problem is… she doesn’t sound committed. This is something I’ve talked about before – the notes can be in all the right places, and Kendra’s were, but the emotional connection just wasn’t there. Good effort, but clearly a lot of work to be done.

This is a cheap joke to make, but… Rachel Zevita was criminally awful. Bad song choice, bad vocals… this just made no sense. At all. Like Ta-Tynisa: is this really how Rachel wanted to introduce herself to voters? Really?

I was hoping that we’d make it through at least one week without a pageant-y Mariah song. Unfortunately, Karen Rodriguez denied us that this week with… one of the most uninteresting versions of Hero I’ve ever heard. Maybe it’s because I can’t speak Spanish, but I found all the language switches disconcerting, but they weren’t enough to distract from some remarkably middling vocals. The song was just too big for Karen.

Lauren Turner turned in a legitimately good performance. The word, however, is good – not great. The vocals were good, but not great. The performance – J-Lo was right; she was a tad too reserved. Still, there’s a good foundation to build on for future weeks here. Well done.

Ashthon Jones will be remembered for one thing. Unfortunately, it’s not her singing. Have there ever been any more distracting hand movements on Idol ever? More seriously, though, this was a very middling performance. The vocals were nothing to write home about – not good or bad. Also, for someone with the kind of personality that Ashthon has, why did the performance feel curiously antiseptic? Mediocre is the word here.

Doing the songs of Idol winners has a lousy track record on Idol. Let me put it this way, on behalf of the entire Idolsphere. We know Kelly Clarkson – and Julie Zorrilla, you are no Kelly Clarkson. This was terrible start to finish.

First, the good when it comes to Haley Reinhart. She looks fantastic. The camera – and the wardrobe department – loves her. The bad? Well… that version of Fallin’ was nothing more than karaoke. Well done karaoke, but nothing more. This was not the ideal way to advance to the finals.

It’s awfully hard to say anything bad about Thia Megia. She was that good. Certainly, it’s the type of performance you just don’t expect this early. Now, if there is one downside, it’s the fact that the whole song was saying “precocious teen” front and center. You have to wonder if that’s sustainable. For now, though, very well done Thia.

Lauren Alaina may well be the most pimped contestant of the season. Does she deserve all of it? Most of it… but not all. Yes, she’s a good rock chick. But we already know, courtesy of Alison Iraheta, that you can have a good rock chick at this age. The vocals were good, but it’s not as if she was singing a hard song. This was relatively easy. Now, she does have impeccable command of the stage, but I don’t think her singing abilities are all that proven yet. And calling her a cross of Kelly and Carrie? That may be a bit premature.

Doing I’ll Stand By You should have been a problem for Pia Toscano. After all, it’s had very good performances on the Idol stage before – both in competition (Gina Glocksen) and out of it (Carrie Underwood). However… Pia did very, very well. To do this song well, you need to be able to convey emotion more than anything else. Having the vocals Pia has doesn’t hurt either. Best of the night.

Overall, this was a good show – another one that would have been perfectly respectable in the finals. However, it was just that bit worse than the guys – largely because the girls’s failures tended to be worse than the guys. Still, for one, saying that this group of contestants is “the best ever” may, for once, actually be right.

So who’s the pick to advance? Like the guys, I have four people who’ll advance strictly based on performance alone. Pia, Thia, and the two Laurens. After that, my fifth pick is… Haley. The camera loves her, she’s got some early publicity, and it’s not like she was bad.

The pick: Pia Toscano, Thia Magia, Lauren Turner, Lauren Alaina, and Haley Reinhart to advance.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 at 11:18 am and is filed under Season Ten. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.