American Idol - The Top 36 Part I

After what seemed like an unusually arduous nine hours of the audition process and another three of the Hollywood round, we have met our Top 36 and the live performances and voting have finally begun. The first batch of twelve contestants has their pick of any song that has ever been in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 Charts.

Jackie Tohn is first and her loungey rendition of Elvis's "Little Less Conversation" guarantees this will be her final week on American Idol. The judges love her moves?! Paula says "I've always loved you" and she is a "true performer". Abdul is starting with the bullshit right away I see. Simon gets his first boos of the season as he tells the truth. Also - what hideous 80's Nike high tops she's wearing.

Rick Braddy predictably is accompanied by the Braddy Bunch, and his "A Song for You" was decent but I don't think will make the grade. This visiting with the parents business is already getting old.

Alexis Grace, the cute pink haired chick, sings Aretha's "Never Loved a Man" and even though it is straight up weak. She doesn't have a strong enough voice to be attempting that kind of song. Inexplicably, the judges love it. They are in a good and/or forgiving mood.

Brent Keith is 29, old for an Idol contestant, and is singing "Hicktown". He's got a decent voice but what a lame song. Are there really enough people out there who embrace being hicks that he'll survive? No.

Stevie Wright is just 17 and goes for a little Taylor Swift to show her youth. It is, to use the words of my man Cowell, absolutely dreadful. Man she really sounded bad. Finally Randy is ready to say "it wasn't great". Master of Understatement, that Randy Jackson is. Simon rightly remarks that she has "Zero chance of making it". Ouch.

Anoop Desai is the man, even though made the ridiculous decision to perform Bobby Brown's "My Perogative" in Hollywood. If he can steer clear of more bad song choices he's got a chance of making it to the next round. "Angel of Mine" is tonight's selection, and while it was a little boring, he did pretty well with it. Simon mentions his "massive likeablity".

Casey Carlson, the lovely young woman from Minneapolis does the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does" and every little moment of that was disappointing if not excruciating. Simon calls it "atrocious" and unfortunately that's about the last of her we'll see. We still have one Minneapolis chick to go in the next couple weeks, Jessie Langseth. She is Kid Johnny Lang's kid sister.

Micael Sarver, the oil rig Roughneck, is sporting a shirt with an enormous and glamorous cross on either side of it, and sings that stupid Gavin Degraw song. Song sucks but he performed it ok.

Anne Marie Boscovich's take on Aretha's "Natural Woman" starts out allright then quickly tanks. She just aint got the chops for that song. Why do these girls insist on trying Aretha?

Stephen Fowler showed so much promise that despite forgetting the lyrics twice in Hollywood and walking off the stage in frustration without finishing the song, he has made it this far. His choice of Michael Jackson's "Rock with You" seems like a good idea at first, but he looked nervous and missed some important notes. Paula refers to the song as the "kiss of death" for anyone but MJ himself.

Tatiana Del Toro shocks the world with her impressive version of Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You". Seriously, I don't think anyone saw that coming. She has proved her tendency to go (way) over the top, but she managed to keep her voice under control and pretty much nailed that song. The other girls hate her. Her floral dress is humorously ugly, as is her inappropriate plea directly to voters as Seacrest debriefs her on the couch upstairs. "Thank you America, please vote for me, this is my dream and it's up to you to make it come true." That's a lot of responsibility to put on voters sweetheart. Well if she doesn't make the cut that is probably why. She had the best female vocal performance of the night hands down, but that last display of desperation and rambling when she was only supposed to make a cute 11 gesture with her hands may do her in. She really showed some unexpected composure until that last moment.

Last up is Danny Gokey, the church music teacher whose wife passed away. He is an early frontrunner, and although his pick of Mariah Carey's "Hero" is a little preachy, his talent is undeniable. It's a little early in the season for inspiration of this nature, but I suppose I'll let it slide, what with the dead wife and all. Why this song Danny, why? "Because I fucking can, James" would be his response. Possibly without the cursin'. Fair enough. Of course, Paula can't resist calling Danny a hero and she pictures "sold out arenas". He'll be tough to beat for the guys this week.

So making it to the Top 12 will be Danny Gokey, Tatiana (unless her last ditch effort to obtain votes turned off enough Americans-She's probably lost the modest midwestern vote-in which case Alexis Grace will advance) and the third will be either Annop Desai or Stephen Fowler. Season 8 is on!