Tonight’s American Idol live blog is not so live as I had to attend my nephew’s 10th birthday party.  But here is the live blog thanks to the joys of DVR.  Tonight’s theme was ‘Popular iTunes Downloads’ so that basically opened it up to any song imaginable and gave a nice advertisement to iTunes in the process.  All songs performed on Idol are available for download on iTunes.

Anoop Desai – ‘Caught Up’ – I thought the background singers overpowered him for most of the song.  Totally a new side with Anoop going all Joaquin Phoenix R&B/Rap on us.  He is not nearly as smooth as Usher singing this song and often looked as if he were in pain.  Luckily he never even attempted to dance like Usher.  Overall his performance was so-so.  There will be a lot worse tonight.  Grade: C+

Megan Joy – ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’ – EWWWW!  Rough, jagged, unprofessional, horrible, and not nearly enough bad adjectives to describe Megan’s performance.  She was a deer caught on the train tracks tonight.  Her stylist should be fired as well. She highlighted all the wrong parts of Megan’s physique.   I am starting to think that Megan seems better when she is sick with the flu.  This very likely could be the worst performance of the night. EWWW!!  Grade: F

Danny Gokey – ‘What Hurts the Most’ – He is one smooth cat.  He has yet to give a bad performance and he might be incapable of it.  He is smart, mature, and well educated which helps him make good song selections and make choices that will highlight his strengths.  I think he could have helped himself a bit by stepping outside of the country genre, but Danny was really good with this Rascal Flats song.  Although he is in competition with Megan for the ‘Worst Dressed of the Night’.  Grade: A

Allison Iraheta – ‘Don’t Speak’ – My very first thought is she looks like Pebbles from ‘The Flintstones.’  Again, the stylist tonight needs to be fired.  She looks like she got busted stealing clothes in a thrift store bathroom.   Either way ‘Pebble’s’ is going to be a superstar.  She really rocked this No Doubt song and was very Stefani’sh on it.  Her immaturity and age might keep her from winning it all, but that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t win it.  Either way she is a superstar in the making.  Grade: A-

Scott MacIntrye – ‘Just the Way You Are’ – First, Scott really reminds me of NKOTB Joey MacIntyre from back in the early 90′s.  Secondly, I am just not a huge fan of Scott.  He doesn’t have enough to sniff the finals but will likely skate through this week.  His hair, clothes and comments were terrible.  As far as his performance, it was one of his best to date.  He did a very good job with this Billy Joel classic. Scott is not unique though and he never makes a song his own.  I would vote him off, but I think he did enough to slip through to next week.  Especially considering some of the truly horrible performances tonight.  Grade: C+

Matt Giraud – ‘You Found Me’ – He failed to connect with the audience, judges or America with this song.  He chose a song that spotlighted all of his weaknesses.  Bad decision by Matt to play the keyboard.  I think most of the time we see a modern day artist trying to rock the keyboard we automatically think we are in 1986…and that is not a good thing.  His vocals were bad and he chose a bad song for him.  He was in the bottom three last week and could very well be in trouble of getting sent home this week.  Grade: D+

Lil Rounds – ‘I Surrender’ – Lil with another great wig this week.  She looks like a different woman each week.  She is a very good singer.  She has a very strong voice.  She had some rough parts in this performance but they weren’t major.  She had some trouble reaching some of the notes.  I just noticed David Spade sitting behind the judge’s table.  I at first thought Heather Locklear was sitting next to him but then realized it was either his mom or grandmother.  Lil will be back next week in all likelihood.  Grade: B+

Adam Lambert – ‘Play that Funky Music’ – The bad fashion continues tonight.  Best dressed of the night was likely Lil Rounds.  Adam is taking a chance with this Vanilla Ice Wild Cherry song.  His hair is horrendous.  It looks as if he has been wearing a hair net all day.  I think my new nickname for him is ‘Gothvira.’  The dude can sing, but I am not a fan.  He is very polished and I just don’t like the contestants who have a done of experience going into the competition.  Kara showed us last week she can’t count and this week she tried to reference ‘Studio 54′ but instead said ‘Studio 57.’  Adam is going to get a recording deal regardless if he wins.  Grade: A-

Kris Allen – ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ – He is making me a bit nervous breaking out the keyboard. I guess he didn’t learn from Giraud’s mistake.  This cat has a future.  He is the most attractive contestant remaining in the contest.  He is extremely diverse vocally.  He showed Giraud how to rock it properly on the keyboard.  He is one of the best and the best performance of the night in my mind.  He better be back next week.  Grade: A+

Winners: Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey, Allison Iraheta

In the Middle: Anoop Desai, Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds

Losers: Megan Joy, Matt Giraud

More American Idol News