American Idol: Top 9 Sing Country on Season 5

I have to agree with Simon on the not liking country songs but he could have at least given the vocals a comment or two. Mostly he just seemed to not like the songs. So how did you think the American Idol Top 9 performed last night? I thought they were definitely better as a whole than last week. It is hard for me to judge a week like this because as I stated above I don’t particularly like country music.

With the theme being country you would expect Bucky and Kellie to have the best chance of sounding good. You would also expect Chris and Mandisa to possibly struggle.

So how did the performances last night on American Idol rank:

1. Katharine McPhee – She had my favorite performance last night. I thought she really sounded great and had fun singing it. I can’t imagine that she would end up in the bottom three this week.
2. Kellie Pickler – She also sounded really good last night. This was her type of music and she chose a really good song for her.
3. Chris Daughtry – Last week I mentioned how it sucked to be applauded for knowing who you are. Then doing another song in that vein and then being told that your performance was “indulgent” and that you need to do something different. Then this week you do something different and you are told that it was a “boring song choice.” What exactly are you supposed to do with that? I thought he sounded pretty good though and showed he can do more than just rock it.
4. Paris Bennett – At the beginning she seemed a little off but by the end she sounded pretty good. Not her high energy self that we have become used to.
5. Elliot Yamin – This was a good choice for him and he sounded pretty good. Randy even thought it “was hot.”
6. Mandisa – I thought she sounded pretty good but wasn’t really with the song choice. Not sure whether she could really “sing the phonebook” or not and sound good but Paula thought so.
7. Ace Young – This was the performance that I found to be a bit on the boring side along with Randy.
8. Taylor Hicks – It was an OK performance but this is really not his type of music.
9. Bucky Covington – Slurred his way through another song until the end when he actually enunciated enough to be understood. This was his best performance on the show so far I think. It just wasn’t that good.

The choosing of the bottom three is tough. Who knows from week to week how America will vote. Based on last night’s performances it would be Ace, Taylor and Bucky with Bucky riding off into the sunset. Ace and Katharine were down there last week and I think Ace should be there once again. Bucky should have been down there last week but seems to have some sort of fan base voting for him so I don’t know. As for Taylor, I just can’t see him getting the boot just yet. That would leave me with Ace getting the least votes and saying farewell. Yet Bucky is the one that should be leaving.

Who do you think will be leaving American Idol Season 5 tonight? Who do you think will make up the bottom three? Leave your thoughts in the comments.