That’s right, “American Idol Top 10” is now officially “American Idol Top 13”. Is that their way of making the reality show more exciting? I fear it’s doing nothing for my “blood pressure”, meaning it’s not making it rise nor making it fall. What it does is make a lot of “AI” fans confused, I bet. And what’s with the “unlucky number” bit? Lord, are they crazy or what? They’re going to tempt fate, aren’t they?? Well, we’ll see.

But for now, let’s get down to business and check out what’s happened to my favorites. Mind you, I don’t do a recap of each and every episode – I just throw in my 2-cents-worth of my 3R’s (rants, raves and ramblings) and as past posts have indicated, it’s only centred on those I’m rooting for. Well, on most occasions that’s what I normally do but sometimes I would throw in a couple of names of those who although do not exactly fall into my list of “favorites”, had nevertheless impressed me. Therefore, it was only appropriate that I gave them a little mention in my articles.

At times, I was even tempted to express my disdain for some contestants all the way back to the time of the “auditions”, but knowing that I might surely “ruffle some feathers”, I decided to pull back a little. We wouldn’t want to sound off as being too “insensitive” now, do we?

If you’d been a real “AI” fan and read some of the comments posted in “AI Reviews” on the web, you’d notice that some make absolutely no sense – more or less on the lines of “thrashing the contestants” for the sake of “thrashing” and nothing else. And I’m not about to take on that stand.

Anyway, here we go… my thoughts of the “Top 10” before 3 more were added to make the lucky “Top 13”.

Of the Top 5 guys, my No. 1 favorite (as everyone knows, lol!!), James Durbin made it, no surprise there!! The other 4 males in Paul McDonald, Casey Abrams, Scott McCreery and Jacob Lusk were no “shockers” either although I’m only looking forward to future performances by James, Paul and Casey.

As for the 5 girls, of course Thia Megia being my favorite female contestant also made the list. Together with her,
we round up Lauren Alaina, Karen Rodriguez, Pia Toscano and Haley Reinhart. No “OMGs” here either! Well perhaps a little in the case of Haley but with all that “flirting” orchestrated on stage, she probably pulled in “extra” votes to get her through. Lol!! Let’s hope she puts her “husky” voice to good use the next time round or it’ll be a waste of a placing. I can think of a better “replacement”.

Yes, I will mention “Paris Tassin” once again and I’ll never get tired of mentioning her name. Thank you very much!! Once a fan, always a fan, wouldn’t you agree??

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand. After the Top 10 recipients of the highest votes were announced (5 for each gender), the balance 14 Idol hopefuls’ singing future were placed in the hands of the 3 Idol judges. Yup, J.Lo, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson will be deciding on the fate of the remaining contenders in the “Wild Card” round. Only 6 of them will have the opportunity to “sing for their (singing) lives” when they take to the stage immediately after the judges announce their names – one after another. The agony of the viewers were equally as “torturous” as those felt by the contestants as the hours drag on.

Now I would assume that being given “second chances” and extra screen time would definitely bring out the best in the performances of the fortunate 6 who were hand-picked for another showing. However, only a handful made a real impression.

Naima Adedapo is the one I would like to single out because when she finished belting her song, I shed tears for the one and only time throughout the very long night and I truly wanted her to go on and yes, she did make it. Together with Stefano Langone and Ashthon Jones, the 3 were added to the list to make it the newly-designated Top 13.

My only regret of the whole night’s viewing is that Tim Halperin was not given the opportunity to take the stage during the “Wild Card” spin. Sigh! I think the judges did another “boo-boo” here like they did with “Paris Tassin”. Double sigh!!

Well, time to end another “AI” article with a videoclip of yet another interesting performance – this one’s during the “Wild Card” round with Naima Adedapo singing “For All We Know”. Yes, we all do know…