My Take: American Idol - Top 12 Boys Perform

Rudy Cardenas: Good upbeat performance to kick off the show. Funny, I don't remember him having this much personality in the audition rounds. Cheesy, but he definitely has stage presence and I think his voice is pretty solid, too. (On a side, I disagreed with Simon and Randy and I actually thought he does have a distinctive voice. This became more obvious as I listened to the rest of the singers tonight.)

Brandon Rogers: Good, but not very original.

Sundance Head: Weird song choice with the Moody Blues tune. I'm pretty sure he'll be back so hopefully he takes the judges' suggestion and picks something more bluesy.

Paul Kim: Careless Whisper? Really??? I guess he kept to his barefoot oath (ick) but at least that led to a funny bit when Ryan joined him onstage barefoot as well. Randy considers him one of the strongest singers this season? That does not bode well for this group.

Chris Richardson: Wow - his dad is the worst dancer ever! Funny that Paula called him out on that. Oh well, got to appreciate his enthusiasm.

Nicholas Pedro: Not as cute as I remembered... a little too Joey Tribbiani for me. Not a great singer (and sort of dull)... but at least his falsetto attempt was better than Paul's. I was surprised when Simon took it easy on him.

Blake Lewis: Finally, we get to hear him sing and not beatbox! And you know what? He's pretty darn good. I really liked the sound of his voice and I agree with the judges that he's the first one to sound "current". Definitely one to watch. And I think he'll be safe for a long time because America will be dying to see him bust out the beatbox again. Random comment - does he remind anyone else of Travis from So You Think You Can Dance?

Sanjaya Malakar: The nice thing about Sanjaya is that he seems pretty comfortable and happy to be singing. But yeah, boring performance. I think he'll be safe though because he got so much exposure in previous episodes. (By the way, it didn't look like his sister was in the audience, huh?)

Chris Sligh: I think his voice is pretty good. At least it was a fun performance that got people on their feet vs. those dull ballads. The bickering between Simon and Ryan that followed was kind of annoying though. (And does Simon have something to do with Teletubbies? Interesting - I must research this.)

Jared Cotter: Uh oh... boring ballad territory again. He tried to give it some life at the end, but his voice isn't that great.

AJ Tabaldo: Very fun performance! Again - it's great to watch someone that just looks like they're having so much fun performing whether or not they were competing in the biggest singing competition ever. Kind of reminds me of Mario Vasquez (remember him?) Good thing he did something memorable since he is one of the few that got very little coverage prior to tonight. (Not lovin' the turned up collar, though.)

Phil Stacey: Started out rough but it got better at the end. I'm convinced Randy is crazy - best performance of the night? If it was the best, it was the best by default, as in everyone was kind of sucky and he sucked the least. Even in that case, I don't think it was the best.

Wrap Up

My predictions for the two that will go home: Nicholas Pedro and Jared Cotter, maybe Paul Kim

Best of the night: Blake Lewis

And Ryan was super annoying tonight. It seemed like all his questions to the guys were just meant to antagonize them, ex. calling them out on being nervous, encouraging them to fight with/talk back to the judges, making them not feel ready, etc. Plus he keeps asking Simon why he is so negative - this is our sixth season!!! Simon is always negative because he's just being honest and saying what the rest of America is thinking. Same thing as every year! Let's move on to something new - geesh.


Random Simon Cowell Update: According to his bio on Yahoo, Simon "first began producing records for television shows, including the WWF, Power Rangers and Teletubbies, and also signed and managed several popular music acts, including Westlife and the Spice Girls."