I love Melinda too. I'm definitely rooting for her.

Antonella bugs me even more in her post-singing interviews than just her bad voice does. I mean, the time she pulled out the "Well you guys kicked off Jennifer Hudson"? That's such a pre-hollywood audition stunt.

Then last night surprised me the most. Simon was complimenting her on how she has handled the bad press around the leaked pictures and all, and I thought he was actually being quite nice, and she was smiling and looking happy for the feedback. Good behavior. Then she turns to Ryan and starts bitching about the judges. That lost any sympathy I could have had towards her.

I thought she was going to do this, too, but I think she actually rearranged it so that it would fit her vocal range rather than even attempt the high notes. The background singers filled it in for her, but she wasn't completely overpowered by them, either.

Unlike Jordin, who said "Screw it, I'm no Pat Benatar" and totally let the backup singers sing the really difficult, and potentially ear-piercingly bad, high parts because, really, that could have been a disaster. She was the overpraised one last night, but she was first and they wanted to keep her in the game.

Unfortunately, unless something truly miraculous happened and all the Antonella voters realized she is a talentless hack who will just never get it and didn't vote for her, I think their schmooing over Jordin and reprimanding Sabrina for not having enough personality will doom poor Sabrina. Unless they decided that Stephanie's Chaka impression was worse.

I kept yelling at the tv last night to Randy that she wasn't doing the Chaka Khan version, it was much lower and more like the Mary J. Blige version. But then again that decades old version might be too current for Randy.

My impression of Antonella, and I don't even mean this in a mean way, is that she's really inarticulate. I mean in the sense that she's...not articulate, not that she's unintelligible or whatever. She just seems incredibly bad at the Ryan banter that they make them all do, like the "Are you ready to rock it this evening? Do you feel you've picked the right song this time? How do you feel about how the judges just pulverized you?" I think that's probably pretty hard to do anyway -- come up with a soundbite that's (a) brief, (b) positive and not saying anything too mean about the judges, and © also not total bullshit. It's usually something like "Well, I really loved the song, and I feel like the most important thing was to go out there and be myself, and I respect their opinions." To make that sound different every time. I mean, I've never tried to do it, but I tend to sort of freeze up in situations like that (not, you know, EXACTLY like that). So I can imagine that she's just really not a good speaker, and that's one reason she hits wrong notes (so to speak) like that. Every time she does one of those post-song (or pre-song) interview bits I come away with that impression, that she just can't think of anything to say.

That's not to say I like her singing or anything, or that I don't hope she's gone next week. Cause I don't, and I do. I'm really tired of her.

I did think it was very classy of Simon to say that, though. It was definitely the elephant in the room, and I was glad he acknowledged it. And I thought she looked grateful to hear it, and then...yeah. See above? Or maybe she's just a bitch, I don't know.

I was thinking the same thing! Between not knowing who 311 is and not realizing there are at least 10 different versions of Sweet Baby out there, I have no faith in their ability to judge a singing competition.

I loved Melinda last night. I must have replayed that on the TiVo 10 times. LaKisha made a bad song choice - everyone and their brother has sung that song on Idol. The gals are way better than the guys this year. When does the "merger" happen?

Man, that's a lot of bullshit that <<Sabrina>> got voted off. Grrr!

Agreed - curse the Simon backlash!

NovemberRain, I totally agree. I just...I mean...THE FUCK???

Seriously, that was really messed up. Haley is really, really lucky.

I've never been so happy and so pissed at the same time. Yay Antonella is gone! But Sabrina is gone for Hailey?? And Sanjaya lives on? WTF!

Exactly. And I've never been a Sundance fan but him not making it to the Top 12 is shocking. America is...weird (I don't want to say "stupid" because Blake *is* still there and Antonella *is* gone).

But the band's arrangement was definitely the Rufus arrangement of "Sweet Thing" so just because she arranged it for a lower register because she couldn't hit the high notes doesn't mean she was doing the MJB one. And she did try the exact same glory note that Chaka does on the bridge. I don't know the MJB version, but if she also whipped out the exact same glory note, maybe it was just MJB karaoke-ing Chaka, and Stephanie was adding another level of mimickry.

Wow, Antonella got the boot but HALEY stayed?!??! Over Sabrina? I actually LIKED Haley in her first audition and was very ready for her to go last night after that horrible song. I don't like using Simon-lines, but she's the definition of "cabaret." She's quite a good singer, who doesn't belong on this show. Bummer about Sabrina, but I guess she and Stephanie were seen as two sides of the same coin, and since she's 27 and harder to wrangle, probably, she was deemed the more expendable one and left to her own devices. Oh well, I don't care that much since I, like everyone else, is all about Melinda, anyway.

Also, I'm surprised that Phil Stacy managed to survive after that horrible LeAnn Rimes song. I mean, I don't think Jared was necessarily a contender but I figured him to be the Ace this season, only one that can actually sing. But then, I guess Chris R is the real Ace, since he sings about as well as Ace did. Either way, good riddance, Sundance. Not sad to see you go, even if Sanjaya stays.

Well damn. I liked Sabrina best of the R&B girls, because (being, admittedly, not a fan of the genre) she didn't play around with all the annoying runs and vocal gymnastics- she just let her very lovely and clear voice speak for itself. Also really liked her look. I like Melinda a lot, but the truth is that while I think that she and Lakisha both have incredible voices, when I close my eyes I can't tell the difference between them, although Melinda definitely seems to have better control.

Unenthused with this year's group overall.

I'm quite pleased with the top 12. All of my favorites are there (Blake, Chris R., Chris S., Jordin, LaKisha, and Melinda) and the rest are acceptable to tolerable. Sabrina and Jared probably should've gotten the spots over Haley and Sanjaya but the way I see it, as long as Sundance and Antonella didn't make it I'm okay.

The announcement about the big fundraiser to combat poverty was pretty cool. And while I know PMS played a part in it, I totally teared up at the footage of Simon and Ryan in Africa.

I never liked Sabrina but I am shocked about her leaving so soon, but lucky Hayley and Sanjaya both aren't good but manage to stay on. I am happy Sundance is gone.