Motown Week

As much as I dislike Country week, I heart Motown Week. And if I had to say one thing about tonight's performance it would be this:

We rarely vote, but we couldn't help but vote over 50 times yesterday for Adam Lambert and that nothing-short-of-stunning performance.

All right, with that out of the way, here goes:

Paula's wearing a tutu. And giving Simon coloring books and crayons. I LOVE Paula. This show wouldn't be what it is without her.

I do have one question for the judges, though--why do they exit the stage in such a way that it creates an unorganized traffic jam at their table? Why don't Simon and Paula exit on the side on which they sit and Randy and Kara likewise? Seriously, a little attention to detail wouldn't hurt. Hire someone. Boost our economy. People need jobs, for crying out loud!!

Matt Giraud: Perfect song, great performance, LOVE this kid. It's about time he get more credit for his abilities. He's AWESOME.

Kris Allen: I have to disagree with Simon. This kid DOES have swagger, just not in an obnoxious way (*cough* Michael Sarver *cough*). In a likeable way. Love his voice, his guitar, his manner. He deserves to be around for a while. He did great.

Scott MacIntyre: I like that he did something more upbeat. If he gets too preachy-Archulettaesque on us, I might like him less. He did a good job. But what the heck is with the fashion people and the pink pants? That's just cruel. Pink pants notwithstanding, I like his personality and sense of humor.

Megan Joy Corkrey: Here's one from me, honey. OMG! Please put her and all of us out of her and our collective misery. That was HIDEOUS. So uncomfortable. She smiles like she's gritting her teeth, mirroring how all of us feel at home. We're gritting our teeth and squirming, too. Oh, she's not squirming? She's dancing, you say? That's right. Megan Wiggles. She was so terribly out of tune. It must stop. Oh please make it stop. Somewhere out there, Alexis Grace is asking, "What the??" The flu actually made her sounds better. That's not good.

Anoop Desai: Great vocals, but a bit boring for me for him. I miss Bobby Brown Anoop.

Michael Sarver: I'm so done with him. I don't think this guy ever deserved a top 12 spot, especially not over Ju'Not. And I didn't think he deserved top 10 either. He's seriously going to tour and Alexis Grace is not? So not right. He's out of his league and yesterday was not good. I don't enjoy watching him. He should've gone home long before now. Which means he'll probably stick around another week. UGH.

Lil Rounds: It was good, but she was shouting at me. I don't like being yelled at. This was her best performance so far, but I'm not sure that's saying much at this point. Oh, Lil, Lil, Lil. You make me miss Fantasia more.

Adam Lambert: 3 words. FREAKING BRILLIANT!

Danny Gokey: I love Danny, but um, hello? He didn't do what Smokey said to do. And NONE of the judges called him on it?! Dude, Smokey was right on. I guess the judges are too busy coloring to notice these things. It was really good and I enjoy his up-tempo stuff, but Smokey's suggestion was better.

Allison Iraheta: Holy Moses, this girl! 16? Wow. If I had to predict based on tonight, it'd be an Adam-Allison finale for sure. Rock on, rockers! She was awesome tonight. Awesome.

BOTTOM THREE: Michael Sarver, Megan Corkrey, and does it really matter?

GOING HOME: Megan Corkrey

Give Me Mo' Motown

I was pretty excited when they announced Motown for this week, and it did not disappoint. I'm glad they brought in Smokey Robinson, too. He was great in Season 2 as a guest judge and he was great again this season. We had another "typical" week on American Idol: a few predictable song choices, a few strange ones, and one fantastic performance that was untouchable this week. I noticed that both Randy and Paula are rubbing off on Kara--she had excited Randy-esque sentence fragments followed by incoherent ramblings all wrapped up in one. Welcome to this season, Kara! I'm also wondering where she learned to count--"one of the best performances of the night" is 8 words, not 6, but who cares in the end. Paula's crayon and coloring book routine was inspired, but it did give Simon something else to distract him from judging this week. What's with Randy's Urkel outfit? Anyway . . .

Matt Giraud: I loved his piano/vocal hybrid tonight, especially since it was on one of my favorite Marvin Gaye songs. This was a week very well suited to his style and he, of course, did well tonight.

Kris Allen: He made a great choice this week and it was fairly obvious that James Taylor has influenced Kris. He definitely put some of his own flavor on this one, though. The song itself is pretty simple musically, but he did well enough to justify his continuing presence on this show.

Scott MacIntyre: I wasn't overly enthused about his song choice since it's not one of my favorite songs, Motown or not. With that said, Scott had a solid night again. He showed he can handle an up-tempo song and not be swallowed up on that stage. It wasn't the best performance of the night, but it was good enough for now.

Megan Joy Corkrey: If I knew how to text message I'd probably have all kinds of abbreviations to share. I'm pretty sure I can get an "OMG!" from someone out there, though. Megan is a niche contestant, and her niche is not the stage of American Idol. She was out of tune the entire time and other than her (somewhat) likable quirkiness I'm having a tough time seeing why she's even included in the competition at this point. She should have been a Top 36, one-time-is-enough performer.

Anoop Desai: I can see what Simon was saying about him sleeping up there. His vocals were great, though. He really has a great range and his falsetto is usually right on. Let's see what Anoop can bring next time around.

Michael Sarver: Right now he's got to be thinking something like, "I'm so glad Megan's around this week." That way at least he gets one more chance to "have so much fun" up there. And Ryan, how do you spin "you"re a sincere guy, but you can't win this competition" and turn it into constructive criticism for the coming week?

Lil Rounds: I don't like this song at all, but I am now hungry for a flame-broiled Double Whopper with Cheese (and an order of onion rings). I was having flashbacks to Kimberly Locke and her "Heatwave" days. In the end, though, this was a really good performance for Lil. She could have picked a better song, but she still did a lot to stay this week.

Adam Lambert: Anything more than "awesome" seems unnecessary. What a great interpretation of a fantastic song. This just shows that Adam is a true musician, because to take songs each week and create such original interpretations (or draw from similarly unique ones) takes a real talent, like the talent we saw David Cook bring last year. And how does this dude sing such perfect falsetto? It's unreal. Plus, he gave washboard guy's mother a reason to scream at the TV set this week--"That's my boy! The one doing laundry up there!" Plus, I'd like to play the guitar like the most famous anonymous guitarist on national TV.

Danny Gokey: I feel sorry for Danny since he had to follow Adam. It's almost unfair this week, because Danny did so well again. Again, not one of my favorite songs, but he did well and really got into it up there. I especially liked the "wheels on the bus" move he pulled with the backup singers.

Allison Iraheta: She's definitely got it going on. If she can keep these kinds of performances coming she'll be tough to beat down the stretch. I remember Jordin Sparks getting a bit strained toward the end of her season so I worry Allison could easily strain her voice as well, but for now she's a serious force to be reckoned with.

BOTTOM THREE THIS WEEK: Michael Sarver, Megan Joy Corkrey, ??? (Cop out, I know, but I have no handle on where the voting loyalty is yet)

NO MO' SONGS AFTER MOTOWN: Megan Joy Corkrey