American Idol: Top Ten Women

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

On tonight's American Idol, it was once again the women's turn to step up and perform. Last week, we saw two go home. How did the ladies do tonight? Honestly, few of the women impressed me tonight. As the judges mentioned time and time again tonight, it came down to song choice. Some of the women just didn't make the right choice. We did see a wide variety of song choices though. Tonight, the songs came from country, motown, movies and disco. Let's talk about tonight's performances.

On this week's episode, the order of the women was reversed from last week. This means tonight we saw Katharine McPhee open up the competition. She sang a Stevie Wonder song, and she did okay, but she didn't have the same power to her voice that she had in previous performances. I think she did good enough overall in this competition to stay. Next up was Kinnik Sky. She came out ready to take the audience to country land with a Grethen Wilson song. It was a great performance, but I agree with the judges when they say it was a fun song that didn't truly show what Kinnik is capable of. With four going home, will that hurt her?

I'm going to skip around a bit now to talk about Lisa Tucker and Paris Bennett. These two are the youngest females. Lisa performed third with a Jackson 5 classic, and Paris Bennett performed seventh with a Bette Midler made famous by the film Beaches. There is no doubt these two little powerhouses have what it takes to make it in the music business, but I definitely agree with the judges. They are picking songs to show this talent, but the songs they are picking are definitely way older than them. They can find more youthful songs that can demonstrate their vocal talents. They do need to stay young while they can because eventually they will have to perform those classics all the time.

Some of my favorite performances tonight came from those singing country genre songs. Unlike Kinnik that chose a fun country song, Melissa McGhee, Kellie Pickler and Mandisa chose country songs that can definitely demonstrate their vocal talents. Kellie and Mandisa also know how to work their personalities, and that ups the likeablility factor for both of them. Mandisa is also taking risks with her song choices, and the risks are definitely working for her. She is one of my favorites tonight. Melissa was another one that I enjoyed tonight too.

Two performers didn't grab me at all, and these are two I think we will see sent home on Thursday night. Those two performers were Heather Cox and Brenna Gethers. They just didn't demonstrate do it for me at all, and the judges didn't really like either performance either. With these as my two picks to go home, I'm not sure who the other two will be. The other performances really worked for me. Yes, we had our problems, but all in an all the women did okay. Not great.

I'll be back tomorrow night with a look at our men! Check out the songs sung on tonight's show on iTunes here:

Katharine McPhee: All in love is fair - Stevie Wonder
Kinnik Sky: Here for the party - Gretchen Wilson
Lisa Tucker: Who's Loving You - The Jackson 5
Melissa McGhee: Why haven't I heard from you - Reba McEntire
Heather Cox: Hero - Mariah Carey
Brenna Gethers: Last Dance - Donna Summer
Paris Bennett: Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler
Ayla Brown: I want you to need me - Celine Dion
Kellie Pickler: Something to talk about - Bonnie Raitt
Mandisa: Cry - Faith Hill