idol top 7

Theme: singer/songwriter (Bobby leaves)
(Links are to 30sec video snippets.)

Damien's rendition of 'Wicked Game' was hauntingly beautiful. Chris went for a slow song, which had the judges whining. Jess sang 'Have You Ever?' and yes it was lovely, but I'm kind of bored with her song choices. Ricky sang 'Feel'. I love that song and I think he was fine, but the judges slammed him, not at all taking into account that he'd been sick most of the week and losing his voice.

Lisa was under a lot of pressure to perform this week, given how adamant she's been that this is the week people will see her in her element. She certainly was good, but didn't blow me away. By far the best performance as a whole was Dean's 'On The Way Down'. He lifts the bar every week and I'm starting to feel like he's pulling ahead of the pack.

Tonight Bobby was voted off. Though I think he's added something special to this year's competition, based on last night's performances I think the decision was fair. The judges tendancy to give him nothing but praise was really obvious, as their comments were the same as every week even though he had clearly been off pitch a couple of times at the start of the song. Also, the key he'd chosen was a tad high for him and he had to drop an octave suddenly in the middle of the first verse.

Though only the top six were scheduled to perform in tomorrow night's "Up Close & Personal" show (no judges, no voting, just performing), the judges and the other contestants lobbied for Bobby to be included, mostly because this year they are using this show to showcase the Idol contestants' own original songs. The crowd seemed to love the idea, but there were some bitter threads going on at the forums. I figure his inclusion can have no effect on the voting, so who cares?

Of course that means my first prediction was wrong! Ricky survived another week. I think he or Lisa will be the next out, but we'll see what happens.