Arghh!!
Why do I dread tomorrow night’s AI?!
Too many nights listening to people murder Gloria Estefan at Karaoke!
I don’t know a single Gloria Estefan song, but I can’t imagine there are many options for the men in the competition. What a stupid idea for a show.
If there is a God, He will make John Stevens sing “Conga” (Come on shake your body, baby, do the conga, know you can’t control yourself any longa…) and I will giggle so hard I almost piss my pants.
However, if there is anyone on the show who would do that song, it’d probably be Diana.
I’m looking forward to a good trainwreck. 
I don’t even know the song, and I laugh trying to picture it!
Since this is probably John’s last week, he should go out in style and do exactly that. I thought he was jumping on a grenade for the good of the group when he did Croc Rock, myself.
If by “Gloria Estefan songs” they mean ones that are original to her (either written for or by her), this’ll be a tough night for the 2 remaining males. However, if they allow any song she has recorded, even if it was a cover, then I hope George is smart enough to pick her cover of Blood Sweat & Tears’ “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” Assuming he’s not still suffering from his asthma, he could bring the house down with that one.
Hold the phone…I thought it was Latin night, not just Gloria Estefan and is it with or without the Miami Sound Machine or doesn’t it matter? They never talked about Elton night as pop night, or Barry M night as ballad night, but I swear I’ve heard Latin Night a few times. I was actually thinking they guys had far more artists to choose from, with GE being about the only choice for the women.
If it is just Gloria’s songs, so what? The women have consistently had to choose from catalogues of male artists thruout the history of the show, the fella’s can handle it.
skutir I couldn’t come up with many of her songs off the top of my head either, until a coworker reminded me “Think of every slow-dance at your jr/sr high school socials, or just try and remember all the 80s break up songs you listened to” and whaddya ya know, I do know lots of her songs! :o
As if the debacle of last weeks show wasn’t enough (and I wasn’t a big fan of hers), now we have to sit through Gloria Estefan? Does she have a cd to plug or something? And ironically, there isn’t a single latino/latina left in the group, so who do you think will be able to pull it off? I’ve lost so much faith in this show with furry faced John still blushing every time he’s safe, and flower-in-her-hair girl hanging on by the petals, and Fantasia giving it the ghetto attitude to win over her share of the ghetto vote, even Simon’s on the ball comments count for naught. What’s on the other channel?
I was just about ready to swear off this show until I realized that there’s still a couple more people worth routing for, so here I am again. Course this show’s like crack. Heh. But, I miss Jennifer and the show tonight just feels empty without her.
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Fantasia–The performance was fantastic, but the singing wasn’t her best. Obviously, Latin pop just isn’t for her. BUT, “this is for you, Jennifer” and “I love you, Jennifer” has pretty much guaranteed my power voting for her!
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George–Song choice did him in. Course, he could be singing, “I blowtorch puppies” and I’d still love him. Anyway, I do agree with Simon though.
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Latoya–Like Fantasia, great performance, but not her best vocally. Simon said it best.
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John–Whoa, that was weak and mostly out of tune. But, he looked so cute. EEEE!! However, what Simon said was spot on, John is a class act, not to mention tough as nails, and that’s no small feat for a 16 year old. But, when Simon was mentioning “ex-contestents”, who was he referring to?
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Jasmine–Bleagh. Wretched.
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Diana—OH! Loved it! Loved her outfit, her performance, her voice. Excellent job. She was better than Carmen(who sang this song last year), that’s for sure! Best of the night.
Course I can’t help but think that Jennifer would have wiped the floor with most of the performers tonight. Heh.
Bottom 2:
Jasmine(eliminated)
John(just a little longer, sweetie, you’ll make it to big band night, if they have one)
I thought Diana was best, but I also think she’ll be eliminated. It’s a crazy world.
Before the show started, I didn’t see this going well for any contestant. I thought Diana had a shot at coming out with something great and LaToya will perform well but beyond that I was very afraid.
Fantasia – That song is barely tolerable when Mrs Estefan sings it and I disliked this version greatly. It was an uncomfortable mix of styles and overall I would have to agree with Simon on this one. If you happen to find a song that fits her, she can sing it well but I don’t think it’s a wide range.
George – I wasn’t fond of this performance and again, I agree with Simon. He lost me weeks ago.
LaToya – I thought it was very good. I’ll say it again, she is the best and the most versatile singer in the competition. She should win.
John – I close my eyes when I listen to him sing. In this performance I cringed – a lot. I thought it was flat out horrible.
Jasmine – Paula’s a few sandwiches short I think. At BEST she was pleasant. To be honest, I thought she was terrible and that the judges were awfully nice to her. I can’t be the only one that thought so can I? The whole thing just seemed off.
Diana – I like her, I don’t think she’ll win, but I like her. I think this performance, if nothing else, proved why she is still in the competition. I thought it was very good. I disagree with Simon on this one, thought it was at least an 8.5 (given the seven she gave Jasmine - it was Jasmine right) and I liked the dress.
Bottom three:
-John
-George
-Fantasia/Jasmine (couldn’t decide)
John will go this week; he has to.
Lordy. That was a waste of a perfectly good Latin band.
Fantasia: Extremely high cheese factor. She’s better than this performance–her voice sounded weak. She didn’t get pissy at Simon for his comments so thumbs up for that.
George: This just wasn’t his song. I hope he makes it through but he could be booted. I thought he and Fantasia were about the same.
LaToya: I thought she was great tonight.
John: Painful. He is Goatgirl and it sucks.
Jasmine: Good at times but also karaoke sounding. She, George, and Fantasia were all about the same. The lighting was terrible–she looked like she was wearing red knee socks.
Jon Benet: She sounded very very good but WTF was she wearing??? It looked like someone cannibalized a car wash and was just plain unflattering–she looked like a tree trunk in a red dress.
My pointless, meaningless rankings for the week:
LaToya
Diana
Fantasia
George
Jasmine
John
My predictions for America’s bottom three:
George
LaToya
Jasmine
George will go. 
:mad: :mad: :mad:
I don’t think this was a very singer friendly genre. There’s a lot of instrumentation and weird rhthms and some looooong rests in between lyrics. It’s hard to showcase a vocal performance when all you get to do is yell “feel the rhythm” like every third measure.
Fantasia: Did the best she could with what she had. Showed energy and presence. Nice shout outs to Jennifer. Not a dynamite vocal performance but the song didn’t lend itself to that.
George: Very typical Huff, smiley, bouncy, nice voice, terrible song choice.
LaToya: A lot like Fantasia. Pretty good but not her genre.
John S.: I keep hoping he’ll knock one out othe park but tonight was not that night.
Jasmine: I thought she had the best vocal performance tonight. Very controlled and she was about the only one who stayed in key. Bland song but she delivered it well.
Jon Benet: Mediocre vocal, same annoying pagent performance she always does. Hideous dress.
My bottom three would be John, Diana and George but who the hell can predict anything with this show anymore.
You know, I was sucked into this show last season - watched every week and right from the beginning I wanted Clay to win. I watched, I voted like crazy and I cared every time he sang.
This season, I initially believed that they had found a stronger final 12 than last year, but every week I have been left feeling let down. I’ve only felt inspired to vote once - ONCE - this entire season. Nobody shines. Nobody stands out. In the final 6, I can’t believe how bad they all seem to be. Thoroughly uninspiring. What’s up with that? 
Fantasia - Gets the crowd up on their feet, but does so at the expense of her vocal performance. Meh. I was impressed that she appeared to have come down a notch on the attitude scale due to being in the bottom three last week.
George - Meh. Song choice was bad.
LaToya - Appeared not to get the meaning of the song - “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You” was all smoothed out and lacked… Rhythm!
Jasmine - YEOWCH! What note was THAT?
John - Why is he STILL here? Yes, he takes the comments like a man, but jeez, do I have to hear him sing AGAIN?
Diana - Best of the night - terrible dress. I can’t vote for her though 'cuz she creeps me out just a little…
You know, I can’t rate them for who’s going to stay and who’s going to go, because they’re all just so uninspiring. Given tonight’s performances, I hope it’s John’s last week, but who knows…
Not only is it difficult to sing Gloria’s music decently, she looked faaaaaabulous! 
Seriously, from power ballads to booty-shaking tongue-twisters to straight up pop, I’d sorta forgotten how talented Ms.Estefan is, yay her.
Ok, I’ve figured it all out. The secret to enjoying this season’s American Idol is lowered expectations, much like dating, eh? Expect it to suck, tune in for the craptactular trainwreck that it might be, and just enjoy those sublime moments of grace that happen accidentally.
Fantasia-owned the stage, weakest vocals yet, needed supportive undergarments.
George-kept forgetting to Conga and resumed his patented squat, slightly better than Fantasia vocally but still not great, much more fun to watch, though.
LaToya-looked awesome, and the killer dance moves were indeed impressive, better vocally than the rest as usual, but that middlin’ part where she let the back-up singers take all the vocals and just dazzled us with her interpretive arm movements? WTH was that?!
Jasmine- I sorta dig that she’s finally lost the hated flower in the hair, but is still defiantly sneaking it into her accessorizing. I agree with Paula, which btw makes me doubt the validity of my own opinion, that she’s got the prettiest tone of all the power belters this year. Pretty girl, pretty voice, pretty forgettable, unfortunately, and I’m beginning to despair that she’ll never shake it up and do something other than a big-voiced ballad.
John-considering I expected him to suck, which he did, there were a few remarkably good points in his performance tonight. Real moments where he seemed to bust out of his straightlacedness and connect with the lyrics, a few surprisingly decent trills and runs. Of course, the rest of it was all over the damn place and rarely on pitch, but I doubt the screaming preteens who continuously hit redial for him will care much.
Diana-OMG, she’s caught the Jennifer Hudson horrific style disease!!! Whatever ‘stylist’ put her onstage in that thing should be drawn and quartered, the child looked gawdawful. Really technically superb vocals, but I kept being distracted by the disaster of the dress.
I can’t possibly predict the voting, I get so hopelessly muddled between what should happen and what does happen that I’ve given that up entirely.
Wow. This was a surprising night. IMHO, Jasmine and Diana (who have not been favorites of mine) gave the best performances. Who would have thunk it?
I loved Simon’s comment to John about being able to take criticism. I think he knew that he was pretty bad. Latin music is the last thing he should sing.
That was, as predicted, very much a mediocrity. Ouch.
Fantasia: I’m with Simon here. Pretty good performance, but the song did not show her at an advantage. Not really her fault entirely, because I think this was the “meh-est” song of the night. Still, her voice was weak and kinda all over the place. A rare off night from what I’ve seen of her. She can do much, much better. I liked her self-deprecation regarding the Bugs Bunny comment, though. Simon seemed to approve of her good natured acceptance of his Donald Duck comment (which I don’t even get). She’s my favorite of the performers, because I really admire her song choices (usually) and she’s taken risks that the others haven’t even come close to trying. But this wasn’t her night, dawg. B-
George: Sang “Rhythm’s Gonna Get You,” but broke his promise. It didn’t get me. Not at all. Honestly, George has been falling in my estimation week after week since he blew me away on Motown night. His voice has a kickass, Lou Rawls deep raspiness thing goin’ on, but as we all know, his sultry, beefy sound is countermanded by the constant ‘gee whilikers’ grin. He didn’t sound terrible tonight, just … more meh. The song doesn’t “feel” like a guy’s song, anyway, whatever that means. And the dude really really can’t dance. Still, as the only guy who can sing in this competition, he may make it to #3 or even #2. To do so, he needs another stellar night. How about Rock as a theme? He should sing something gritty his voice can dig into. C-
LaToya: Looked great, her voice was powerful and remains the best technically in the competition. Not a bad dancing performance, although she lost a little energy midway through the song. (It sure ain’t easy to sing & dance, so I can’t fault her too much.) She was a’ight, that’s about it. I think Gloria Estevan’s music is so watered down and blah … an energy suckhole. B-
John: Hey, speaking of watered down, blah and sucky…! If I were his grandmother, I’d ask him what I did to make him feel so apathetic towards me. Lucky John, getting one of the only two slow songs of the night! Lucky audience for not having to be subjected to his version of dancing! That said, actually I disagree with Randy, in that I don’t think he was as off-pitch as he usually is. I think John’s utter lack of performing skill, emotional spark or tonal energy is probably what’s making Randy think “flat, flat, FLAT.” Gotta admit I was touched that Simon gave him props for taking criticism like a ‘man.’ He’s right, too. John appears appropriately stoic when the judges diss him. (Then again, he doesn’t show ANY emotion EVER, so why should the critiques be any different?) You’re over, dude. So very very over. I hope. D+. The “+” is for not crying.
Jasmine – Wow, she surprised me with a very strong vocal performance … at the beginning. Towards the middle of her ballad, she started losing energy and falling flatter and flatter, and soon she was practically an entire half-note under pitch. WTF, girlfriend, you didn’t even have to dance the way the other chicks did! Good emoting this time, and if she’d finished as she’d started, this would’ve been the best performance I’ve seen out of her. But man oh man, was that second half AWFUL! It’s a shame. She could’ve been a solid B+, maybe an A-, but blew it. C-
Diana – Quite simply, the performance of the night. Now, that’s sorta damning with faint praise, but I don’t mean it that way. She gave us strong vocals, a lively performance with not-horrific dancing, and best of all she REALLY connected with the band. Doesn’t hurt that she had by FAR the best song of the night at her disposal. And, not coincidentally, it wasn’t an Estefan original, LOL! (Full disclosure: “Turn the Beat Around” is one of the first pop/disco songs I ever heard, back in the mid-'70s. It holds a very special place in my heart.) While she ain’t no Vicki Sue Robinson, Diana did do nearly as good a job as Gloria did in the cover version. Indeed, in the middle “syncopated rhythm – rat-tat-tat-tat” bit, she was waaay better. She got down with her bad self! Just as Gloria suggested during their rehearsals, Diana gave her voice some bite, some toughness to it, and it really worked! Good direction, Gloria! (Hmm, maybe Gloria has a future as a vocal coach?) Excellent job from a surprising source. Solid A
My ranking for tonight, from best to worst:
Diana
LaToya
Fantasia / George (tied)
Jasmine
John
Who I think should go: John
Who I think will go: Jasmine or John
Okay, so what’s the next theme? 
Anybody else think the back up singers were not that good?
Oh crapples, I was wrong about George’s song. Which one did he do, again? So many of Gloria’s songs sound alike in that synthesized late 1980s way…
Hi, honey! (That’s my kid writing up there!!!) And even though we’ve chewed this mess over many times, I totally agree with you. First three. . . all Meh (but LaToya looked smokin’!)
Jasmine: So totally flat for the second half of the show I think the band guys must have been frantic trying to pull her back into the song they were playing. No, Judges. . . it WAS NOT PLEASANT! It was painful.
John Redhead: Oy! So bad. So bad. So bad.
Diana: I liked her. . . a LOT! Best of the night. She took a difficult song and sang the heck out of it. I didn’t vote, but I would have voted for her. And the dress wasn’t all that bad. She’s a kind of stocky girl and the dress kind of camouflaged that stockiness. She needed some bling bling, though!
I hope Fantasia goes tomorrow. I still don’t like her. . . and I liked her call-outs to Jennifer even less!