American Idol: Top 11 Perform on Season 5

Mandisa started the night off on American Idol with an outstanding performance and Randy was right she definitely “set the mark” for the rest of the night. A few came close but did not quite reach it. It was a much better night as a whole than last week with the Stevie Wonder songs. Many did not make the right song choice and half performed poorly. This week pretty much everybody came to play and we were treated to some great renditions of some classic songs from the ‘50s.

Here is how TVaholic ranks last night’s performances:

1. Mandisa – She really blew the doors off with a great performance that took Paula back and Simon loved. She set the bar for the night, which is hard to do as the first performer of the night.
2. Paris Bennett – She is just an outstanding performer and you can tell she loves to be on stage and has a powerful voice to back it up from such a small and young woman.
3. Chris Daughtry – This guy sure knows how to make a song his own. He takes a risk each week and has yet to really stumble.
4. Kellie Pickler – Great performance. She took control of the stage and sang the perfect type of song for her voice and looked great doing it.
5. Katharine McPhee – Do you have the McPheever? She really showed tonight that she belongs in this competition with an outstanding vocal performance.
6. Ace Young – As Randy said he “brought something fresh” to a “classic song” and gave probably his best performance so far.
7. Elliot Yamin – Took some advice from Mr. Manilow and looked a little more into what he was singing. He and Lisa have great voices but tend to sing by the numbers.
8. Taylor Hicks – Not a great song choice. Didn’t really show his singing ability. Sure does have fun on stage though.
9. Lisa Tucker – To me she just looks like she is singing the song and isn’t really invested in it at all. She looks disconnected with the performance. She showed a little last week but that disappeared this week. Spectacular voice but you need more than that to win.
10. Kevin Covais – Good song choice for him. Didn’t sound great but wasn’t the worst of the night.
11. Bucky Covington – Looked better tonight without the Jessica hair or ponytail but his voice just doesn’t stack up against the rest. Given this weeks performance he should be the one to go.

So what have we learned so far in this competition? You need to either completely inhabit your song choice or redo it completely and make it your own. Mandisa and Paris did the former and Chris did the later very well. Ace and Bucky tried to make the songs their own and Ace did pretty well but Bucky missed.

The bottom three on the American Idol results show will and should be Lisa, Kevin and Bucky, with astonishingly enough Bucky going home and leaving little Kevin still in the competition. Who do you think should be leaving after last nights American Idol?

I think some performances last night may have changed a few minds as to who will be there in the end. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.