Idol Chatter & Voice Views

I guess we call that the week singing didn’t matter.

Or maybe the week the judges had wax in their ears.

Or the week they had already decided who their favorites were — surprise, surprise — and it didn’t matter how well or how poorly they sang.

How else do you explain what we just heard. Until Lil Rounds (right) ended the night on an undeniably high note, the singing wasn’t matching the critiques.

Taylor Vaifanua turns in a pitch-perfect performance of “If I Ain’t Got You” in a year when pitch-perfect performances from the gals have been few and far between, and Kara wants to complain because she doesn’t know what it would be like to go shopping with the teen from Hurricane, Utah.

When is the last time anyone went shopping on this show? This isn’t “The Price is Right,” for crying out loud.

Then Kristen McNamara turns in an even better peformance of “Give Me One Reason,” and all the judges can talk about is her fashion sense, or lack of it. Well, then help the gal out. Like you did with Clay Aiken. Remember when Clay first started on Idol. Now that was a fashion disaster. But credit Kristen for a fabulous performance.

Then Scott MacIntyre tries to sing Bruce Hornsby’s “Mandolin Rain” and falls very flat. But, hey, he’s a judges’ favorite. So, the judges must find positive things to say.

And how about Felicia Barton’s overblown performance of “No One.” She got rave reviews; I rated it the fourth best performance of the night … and that’s just among the female singers. Hey, but she looked good. I guess that’s what mattered.

Oh, well, here’s my take on what I heard.

Best of the guys: Ju’Not Joyner gets my vote. I love the tone of this guy’s voice. I’m going to forget the end there, where he started talking about getting a cortisone shot in his backside and instead focus on a very nice rendition of “Hey, There Delilah.” Might have the second best voice of any guy on the show, behind Adam Lambert.

Best of the gals: Lil Rounds lands here, more because of her potential than what she did last night, because I think she could have picked a better song than “Be Without You.” But even with the wrong song, her amazing vocal skills were evident.

Deserves the third spot: Kristen McNamara, hands down. The judges complain because they don’t know who she is. Because she didn’t sing a Kelly Clarkson song. Are you kidding me? She deserves to advance because she just turned in a splendid vocal, the second or third best from a female this year. The biggest problem, Idol, isn’t her fashion sense, it’s that we haven’t heard more of her singing on this show.

Deserves to go home: This absolutely will not happen, but Scott MacIntyre belongs here after a very average performance Tuesday night. Look, the guy is an inspiration, no doubt. But he’s going to advance, robbing Ju’Not or Kristen of a spot they deserve.

Others that belong in this category: Felicia Barton; sorry judges, I didn’t get that performance; Kendall Beard, who I was really rooting for, until she sounded worse than Kristy Lee Cook; Arianna Afsar, the latest teen to fall prey to nerves; Nathaniel Marshall, who never should have tried to sing a Meatloaf song; Alex Wagner-Trugman, who just looked silly on stage; Von Smith, who ranked right up there with Felicia for the overblown performance award in round three, and also got pretty decent reviews from the judges.

Please give them a second chance: First, Kristen or Ju’Not, or both, because I doubt either will get the votes they need to advance. Then Taylor, who deserved much better reviews than she got; and Jorge Nunez, who turned in the most surprising performance of the night.

Please send them home: For the second straight week, Kara DioGuardi. The judges’ comments go on forever. And it’s pretty darn obvious that Kara has her mind made up about the performers before they sing a note. The shopping comments after Taylor’s performance were pure nonsense.

Early favorite: The judges aren’t the only ones seeing glimpses of Fantasia in Lil Rounds. Her performance wasn’t Adam Lambert amazing, but I can easily see her in this year’s final three. And I think tonight’s group turned in the best performances yet, because Ju’Not Joyner and Kristen McNamara showed the singing ability to make it deep into the finals. Easily the best of Idol’s semifinal shows this season.