Idol Chatter & Voice Views

I’ve been wondering where Melanie Amaro’s been.

The answer: This week, she’ll be returning to The X Factor stage as one of the result night performers.

According to FOX, the show’s Season 1 winner will sing a song from her debut album that’s never been heard before.

And that debut album, once set for a December release, should be out in early 2013, according to FOX.

Regardless, it’s nice to see the show find some time to promote Melanie since they’ve already given guest spots to a pair of X Factor U.K. acts already this year.

Also performing on Thursday’s results show will be Ke$ha. She’ll sing her new single, “C’mon.”

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First there’s a Top 6 performance show.

And, that being the case, here are this week’s X Factor rankings.

1. Carly Rose Sonenclar (1): Tate Stevens turned in last week’s top performance and still couldn’t dislodge Carly Rose from the number one position in the voting, so I won’t be surprised if she stays there right through the finals. I haven’t been enamored with Britney’s recent song choices (like last week’s “Rolling in the Deep”), but Carly Rose keeps making them work, whether she’s tackling Adele or Celine.

2. Tate Stevens (2): I really liked Tate’s take on Keith Urban’s “Somebody Like You.” And, if L.A.’s song choice helped sink Vino, he was right about Tate needing to show off his fun-loving side. I’m hoping he does that again this week. But let’s face it, he’s got the country vote locked up, and that just might be enough to get him into the Season 2 finals.

3. Fifth Harmony (4): They keep improving, and last week’s take on Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” was their best yet. Stay current and keep those wonderful harmonies front and center ladies, and good things might happen. I say might happen because your coach seems far more obsessed with making stars out of Emblem 3 than in making stars out of you.

4. Cece Frey (8): Why the heck not put her here? She’s outrageous. She’s fearless. Simon wanted to send her packing last week and she responded with her best performance in weeks. In fact, Cece jumped in the voting, avoiding a results-night sing-off for just the second time since the live shows started. The best part: Given her early performances, I still think she’s capable of better, and will do better on Wednesday night.

5. Diamond White (6): The 13-year-old should be singing young and fun songs. Problem is, every time she does, she lands very low in the voting. Fact is, Diamond did well on both of her songs last week, though I still think she should have been eliminated and Vino should have stayed following their Thursday night sing-off. But that’s more because of Vino’s passionate performance than anything Diamond didn’t do.

6. Emblem 3 (5): With all the pimping and pushing, Simon still can’t get them above number three in the voting. Last week, he even showcased footage of them being chased around by young girls, just to show us what up-and-rising stars they are. Rubbish. And I still think that was staged. Hey, Simon, how about letting them perform without a backing track so that their mediocre vocals are front and center? Just call me: Not a Believer.