American Idol: Top 8 Perform Queen Songs on Season 5

Overall I thought last night’s American Idol performances were pretty good. At least I had heard some of the songs before. Country last week just wasn’t for me. The songs of Queen are much more my speed. While they tried to rock us not everything went over well.

You would expect on a night like this that Chris would have the advantage as Kellie and Bucky did last week. Everybody else was quite up in the air.

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

1. Katharine McPhee – She sang “Who Wants to Live Forever” and sounded pretty great. As Simon said she had “almost the moment.” She looked great on stage and really seemed into the song. This has not been the case most of the time with her. She always sounds good but doesn’t always seem attached to the performance. Tonight it all came together for her.
2. Chris Daughtry – He sang “Innuendo” tonight. I don’t think I have ever heard this song before. I did think he had the second best performance tonight but agree with Simon that he could have chosen a better song and really hit one out tonight. It could have been his “moment” tonight if he had only seized it.
3. Elliot Yamin – Paula thought that it was the “best vocal tonight” and she was probably right. Yet as the whole package I would rank it third tonight. He did choose a song that fit his voice really well.
4. Kellie Pickler – “Bohemian Rhapsody” was her song choice, which everyone thought, was a bold choice. Simon expected it to be “hideous” but thought “it worked” for her. The lighting could have been much better. She looked like a zombie or something until she got out in the crowd and out of that overhead spotlight.
5. Paris Bennett – She sounded really good but all I can see is this little girl playing dress up and singing. She looked like she was wearing Kellie Clarkson’s outfit from her last Saturday Night Live appearance.
6. Taylor Hicks – He was definitely back tonight, doing his thing all over the stage and having fun. Quite a change after the stiff performances of the last couple weeks, too bad it didn’t stack up with the best of the night.
7. Bucky Covington – While I don’t think he should even still be in this competition let alone have made it into the Top 12 to begin with he didn’t have the worst performance this week. When you slur your way through yet another song that is not a good sign for the person who didn’t measure up.
8. Ace Young – Had the worst performance of the week. He so did not rock us with his rendition of “ We Will Rock You.” Randy gave him a “5 or 6” and said it was like “karaoke for me.” While Simon thought Randy was just trying to be nice and that it was “mediocre.” I thought Bucky was actually better so that about sums it up for me on how bad it was.

So who will end up in the bottom three? Taking these performances into account along with past performances Taylor, Bucky and Ace should be in the bottom three. I can’t see Taylor going quite yet and Ace may have once again provided Bucky with enough cover to keep the Scarecrow around another week. I picked Ace as the low vote getter last week and was wrong. Maybe I was just a week early.

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.