Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Did I think Janell Wheeler or Ashley Rodriguez had a chance of being the season nine American Idol?

Not really.

Ashley has a better smile than singing voice. Janell proved her vunerability with two poor song choices in a row.

But for crying out loud they were miles better on opening night than Haeley Vaughn or Lacey Brown, both of whom stunk up the Idol stage.

And with Janell, we lost the only female country singer in the competition. Which is a shame, because all the best years of Idol have had one.

Oh, Haeley sings country music? I wouldn’t know. I haven’t heard her sing an on-key song yet. Her performance of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” ranked as one of Idol’s all-time worst.

Yet she survived? Go figure.

All I can say is that I hope the remaining ladies were watching Allison Iraheta’s return to the Idol stage closely.

That’s the way it’s done, gals. Of course, it helped that she was singing “Scars,” one of the absolute best songs off an under-rated debut album. For my review of that album, go here.

As for the guys’ eliminations …

Poor Joe Munoz barely got a fair shake on Idol. We saw precious little of him in the leadup to the semifinals. Combine that with a forgetable performance Wednesday night, and his fate was signed, sealed and delivered.

Then there’s Tyler Grady, who I figured was a love-him or hate-him sort of contestant as a male rocker who wanted to bring back the 1970s. But the guy has a decent voice. I’ve listened to enough of the Wailing Waters band that he fronts to know that.

And at least three guys — John Park, Alex Lambert and Todrick Hall — should feel very fortunate they weren’t on the chopping block Thursday night, because they weren’t much better than Haeley Vaughn.

Turns out Ellen’s unripe banana — yeah, that’s how she referred to Alex last night — will have another week to ripen.

Oh, and for the record, my elimination predictions proved not so prophetic. I had Paige Miles, Lacey and Tim Urban heading home with Joe. (Sorta figured Haeley’s youthful appeal might win her another week.)

And to end the blog on a positive note, Crystal Bowersox, Andrew Garcia and Michael Lynche, the three I consider front-runners at this point in the competition, survived to sing another song.

Check back Friday evening for farewell blogs on the four eliminated contestants.

Check back Monday for the new Idol Chatter rankings for the remaining semifinalists.

The prospects of making the semifinals just improved dramatically for some of the ladies.