SiftPop

That One Girl Who Sang First, “Tell Me Something Good” – Still not impressed, snore. (C-)

Matt Giraud, “Whose Loving You” – You remember Matt, right?  He’s the one that butchered Coldplay in the first round.  This, however, is much better, spectacular in fact.  Early front runner alert. (A)

Megan Joy Corkrey, “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” – I don’t mind Megan, she did fine in her week, and has a decent and certainly distinctive voice.   Didn’t much care for this performance though.  It wasn’t horrible, but not great either.  If the girls all sing this mediocre, will the judges have the stones to pick 3 guys and make it 9 guys in the top 12? (B)

Von Smith, “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” – Von and Ricky were the two most unfairly passed over singers of the first round so I’m glad they both got this second chance.  Here’s the thing with Von though, when he sings those strong high notes he’s stellar.  But when he’s in the mellow parts (like at the beginning) he’s not that good. (C+)

Halfway through and Matt is our only stand out, the judges seem to like Megan as well, hmmm, bring on the final four.

Jasmine Murray, “Reflection” – All I have to say is Jasmine better blow me away tonight because she was dreadful in her first performance.  It was the only Wild Card choice that I did a double take at.   Well, this one seems to be a little better, but she’s still trying a little to hard.  Tonight’s performance, fine, but I still can’t wash her first travesty from my mind. (B-)

Ricky Braddy, “Superstition” – The most deserving of his spot in this show, and he proved it again tonight.  If he doesn’t make the 12 after those two great performances, the show is a shell of a shadow of a joke. Braddy should be in, period, end of sentence, he earned it. (A)

Tatiana Del Toro, “Saving All My Love” – First of all, Seacrest on his knees with his hands folded introducing the song was priceless.  Amongst the crazy dramatics of this person called Tatiana you have to admit she has some pipes.  I don’t think it was great, but it was better than the other gals.  Still, the whole accent thing, repeating the song, the chick appears to have some issues. (B)

Anoop Desai, “My Prerogative” – Noop can sing too.  I thought he did well in the first round, and well here too.  Will he go through?  I think he should, but can they really put so many guys in the 12? (B+)

OK, so the DVR is paused and the judges are about to make their decision.  Obviously I think it should be Matt, Ricky, and Noop.  But, by the way the judges gave the criticism it was obvious they were trying to downplaying the guys and trying to build up the girls.   My guess is that they have no choice but to go with two guys but won’t be able to pull the trigger on three.   They seemed to specifically downplay Ricky, which is infuriating to me because he’s the only one on that stage that proved it twice.    I think they like Matt more than Ricky and they seem to have this thing for Noop.  OK, the suspense is killing me, so I’ll go ahead and make my official prediction.

The judges will choose Matt, Megan, and either Tatiana or Noop.  Let’s say Noop since he got the final singing slot.

Jasmine’s up first – NO, NO, NO, please NO. – WHATTTTT!?!?!  Really? Can’t speak.

Ricky – Not in.  Jasmine in.  Could the judges have made a more ridiculous decision?  Is it opposite day?  Did I miss something?

Megan’s in and Tatiana is out.  Not a surprise, and since my DVR apparently missed the end, let me just rant a little bit more about the Jasmine thing.  The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that this is a gender and race choice.  I knew it would be difficult for more than one guy to get through and even though the three best performances of the night were guys they couldn’t even go with two of them.  They knew they needed girls and so after Megan it became a pick ’em between three not great choices.  I would have picked Tatiana, ahhh, but Jasmine is black, and I don’t know if you noticed but the Idol soup this year is pretty full of crackers.  Am I accusing the judges of being racist?  Eh, not really, just race aware.  Whatever the case I feel for Ricky tonight who deserved to be in but just happened to have the wrong genitals and skin color.

Hold the phone, this just in, checked online and apparently Matt AND Noop got in.  Lucky 13, eh?  If I were putting four in it would have been Ricky, Matt, Noop, and Megan.  So again, the Jasmine over Ricky thing is a joke. However, seeing as three of them did get through, it tempers it a bit.  It also means that the three I predicted all made it. 

1) Danny Gokey

2) Adam Lambert

3) Alexis Grace

4) Lil Rounds

5) Matt Giraud

6) Allison Iraheta

7) Megan Corkrey

8) Anoop Desai

9) Kris Allen

10) Scott MacIntyre

11) Jorge Nunez

12) Michael Sarver

13) Jasmine Murray