American Idol 2009 - The Top 13

Hmmm ... what's with the walk-on-with-an-offscreen-voice-announcing introduction for the judges? I hope that doesn't become the norm, and that they just did it in the interest of time, since there are 13 competitors tonight instead of twelve. Since they've got a lot of ground to cover in two hours, they'll probably get started as soon as I'm done typing this sentence. Not yet ... Paula's still talking (big surprise) ... so I'll just say that the songs of Michael Jackson is a really tough challenge ... almost unfair, since his songs are so hard for any other singer but him to pull off.

Whoa ... they're eliminating TWO this week instead of one! (I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since they couldn't increase the number of episodes on-the-fly without going through a lot of red tape with the network.) Yawn ... they're going through the Michael Jackson setup, as if anyone needed to be filled in on who the guy is. Okay, they're about to get started.

[all songs by Michael Jackson, unless otherwise noted]

Lil ["The Way You Make Me Feel"] -- And now after I said all that, Lil makes doing Jacko look easy as pie ... and she was fantastic! An excellent way to start the show!

Scott ["Keep The Faith"] -- This may be his best performance yet. It still feels like he's holding a little something back, though. I'm still not totally won over by him, but I know a lot of people are. Ten to one he'll make it through to the next round. What the hell ... Simon didn't like it because it wasn't a well-known enough song? Screw him.

Danny ["P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"] -- Nicely done!! If there were any imperfections in the vocals, he buried them with his stage presence! Randy and Kara conveyed what I was thinking ... he wasn't just singing a song, he was feeling the music, and it showed!

Michael ["You Are Not Alone"] -- Hmmm ... as much as I like the guy, I have to say that this was the weakest performance of the night so far (though still perfectly decent). I'm not sure why I seem to be in such stark disagreement with the judges. (Maybe it's because Danny was so good?) It's just that he seemed to me to be "thinking" too much while he was singing. He'll probably make it through, but he's not the one who would get my vote this week ... if I were voting ... which I'm not.

Jasmine ["I'll Be There" by The Jackson 5] -- Gosh, another underwhelming performance. Not only was it a "safe" song choice (as Simon and/or Randy might, and probably will, say), she just seemed to be going through the motions more-or-less. From the performances up to this point, I'm not really seeing her coming through to the next round.

Kris ["Remember The Time"] -- Not bad at all! I don't know if I'd call it the strongest performance of the night ... seemed to have a tiny bit of trouble catching up to the tempo at first, and got a bit too into the showmanship maybe (which kind-of took away from his voice in places), but it was really good. The fans (read: the girls) love him, though, so he ain't going anywhere this week.

(Side note: his wife is one lucky b**ch.)

Allison ["Give In To Me"] -- This is a Michael Jackson song? She makes it sound like something by Heart ... and she did a pretty good job! Again, not quite the best of the ladies so far, but she gives it her all and should get a lot of points just for that. Well done!

Anoop-dawg ["Beat It"] -- Hmmm ... I really cringed when I heard he was taking on "Beat It" ... and I'm not sure what to think of it. The judges are right that such a definitive Michael Jackson song is "untouchable", and that anyone else singing it would seem like karaoke, and to an extent they were right ... but Anoop did as well as he could be expected to do with it, which is a heck of a lot more than just about any other singer out there could.

Jorge ["Never Can Say Goodbye" by The Jackson 5] -- He started out a bit weak, and got better ... but I'm really wondering if it'll be enough to pull him through to the next round. I like him, but as Randy might say, "I wasn't feeling it". (Wait a minute ... I think I'm repeating myself this season with some of these comments....)

Megan ["Rockin' Robin"] -- I don't know ... I really like her personality, but I'm starting to realize that her singing leaves a little something to be desired, both last week and this week. Far be it from me to use "the K word", but it did sound a little karaoke. I'm not ready to see her walk yet, though, so I hope enough people vote her through to next week.

Oh, who cares what Gordon ("Hell's Kitchen") Ramsey has to say?!? I can't stand that asshole.

Adam ["Black Or White"] -- Correction: besides Anoop, there's one other guy who could pull off a rockin' Michael Jackson song (one of my favorite MJ songs, to boot), and it's this guy. He's definitely an early favorite of mine, and this performance is why. Wahoooo!!

Matt ["Human Nature"] -- This is why he was brought through in the wildcard round! Matt may not be one of my favorites, but that may very well change. He has yet to disappoint me. This performance is making me want to finally stop putting off buying MJ's 25th Anniversary "Thriller" reissue, if that tells you anything.

Alexis ["Dirty Diana"] -- Excellent ... one of the top female performers, definitely! I can see the "rock-girl" fans dividing themselves into Alexis and Allison camps and taking it a fair distance toward the end.

Who I think will be eliminated: Megan (but I hope not) and Jorge.

Who I think should be eliminated: Scott (sorry, folks, but the novelty has worn off for me) and Jasmine.

What the hell is with this "change" that Simon's coyly hinting at with the show? "It involves [the judges]?" Will they have the power of overriding one of the eliminations tomorrow? I don't know if I'm going to like this....