Idol Chatter & Voice Views

For a while, I thought Simon Cowell might have put his foot down and made a simple demand: No country music on his final season as an American Idol judge.

We all know how much Simon loves to hate country music.

Turns out there was no such demand. Or, if there was, Simon didn’t get his way.

Here comes week seven of the Idol finals, with Shania Twain as guest mentor and Shania’s songbook open to the final six for interpretation.

It’s the latest in an Idol season that country music has come up as a theme since season four when the top four sang country songs (the Carrie Underwood year, for those who lost track).

The twang starts tonight at 8 p.m. on FOX, followed by Wednesday’s 9 p.m. results show. I’ll be blogging live through both, so feel free to follow along.

Meanwhile, here are the latest Idol rankings, with last week’s rank in parenthesis.

1. Crystal Bowersox (1): Now that she’s got her lampshade mic stand as part of her arsenal, can anything stop MamaSox? Certainly not country week, which meshes nicely with Crystal’s acoustic style of music. If Idol knows best, they’ll let her close every show the rest of the season.

2. Lee DeWyze (2): And if you don’t let Crystal close the show, please turn that duty over to Lee, who is looking like the front-runner he should have been since the semifinals started nine weeks ago. (Yes, folks, we’ve been listening to these singers for nine weeks now.) Loved his song choice (“The Boxer”) last week. Loved his performance, too.

3. Michael Lynche (4): He sang hip-hop prior to Idol, but Michael has shown the ability to mellow out and go acoustic. Not to mention the ability to sing anything well. After that judges’ save scare, he’s managed to avoid the bottom three the past two weeks. If he can keep his performance from being too cheesy, Michael could become the Shania surprise.

4. Casey James (3): Speaking of cheesy, someone needs to tell Casey to shelve that cheesy smile once and for all. It makes him look like the guy hanging out and having fun jamming at the corner bar rather than a contestant making a serious run for the Idol crown. Time to recapture that “Jealous Man” magic, Casey, or your Idol days could be numbered.

5. Siobhan Magnus (6): The Magnificent Screamer has gone from Idol front-runner to Vote for the Worst Hero. She isn’t the worst among the remaining cast (see below). In fact, she has the ability to blow us away in “House of the Rising Sun” fashion. But among the remaining contestants, the country theme could prove most problematic for Siobhan. Hint: No screaming required.

6. Aaron Kelly (7): He’s put a country twang into everything from “Ain’t No Sunshine” to “I Believe I Can Fly,” and now Idol serves us country week to a guy who sorely needs his magical moment on the Idol stage. The teen from Sonestown has been in the bottom three two of the last three weeks.