American Idol: Girls Night Round 1

If there was one thing I loved about last night's show, it was the fact that Simon was merciless. For a while there, I kept reading about how Simon has turned into Mr. Nice this season. Lets' face it, the reason why we're watching this show is to hear what Simon says and playing nice has not really been all that appealing. I'm glad he brought the nasty back.

If there was one thing I did not expect from last night's show, it would have to be the underwhelming performances from most of the girls. Early on, Ryan has pre-warned us. The girls are sick. Which means some of them may suck. It also means some of them may need to work harder, which was the case I saw. Some of girls did try harder, to the point of overdoing it. Underwhelming-ly overdone. Is that even possible? Truth is, I could only sum up two best picks.

The most measured performance of the night for me was Ramiele's, who I shall put in the #1 spot for the evening. Hers was a big song, but she didn't (to quote Randy) "slay" on it as one is expected to attack a song like, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. If she did, it would have otherwise been a performance you would see/hear done on just about every other lounge act here. Yet Ramiel somehow managed to swiftly nail it. It was understated, controlled, measured. It wasn't a perfect rendition, but it did make an impact. Her candor about admitting that hair and make-up was the best part of the show tells me this tiny girl means business on stage...but can manage to relax while off it. Now, there's someone who really enjoys what she is doing.

With a fairly large gap following my first choice, Brooke would have to be my second best pick for the evening. Of course, this comes from someone who admits to liking Yeager's Moon River yesterday. What can I say? I'm also all about the sappy, cutesy, goody goody sunshines and rainbows. David Cook (also from yesterday) did the rock version, Brooke did the "happy" version. Both versions I have enjoyed on different levels. And I would like to see that kind of variety on Idol this year.

The rest of them, I didn't get. I heard big voices, powerful voices that fell flat. Some high registers, lots of shrieking and screaming, lots of blonde girls, lots of girls whose name starts with an A.

Girls out sang the guys? Hmmm, could be true. But the boys' singing style were at least varied. Most of the girls sounded the same.

And they can blame it on bronchitis. But that's 2 hours of my life I'm never getting back.