Yup! My man James Durbin still “rocks” on “Motown Night” on “American Idol” this week. Heck, everyone was rocking this evening!! Yes surprisingly, all 11 contestants were pretty solid with their own individual take on this week’s theme.

But best of all was of course my favorite James Durbin. He closed the show with “Living For The City” on a powerful note with such tremendous energy and “spunk”, you’d think he was the original singer. Yes, he was that good! It’s one thing to have the right voice for a song but to be able to belt it out his way with no holds barred in a performance worthy of a concert is just unbelievable at such an early phase of the competition. Does this “rave” sound familiar? I guess I’ve been promoting him week after week. But then he does get better and better each time he makes an appearance, with a swagger not unlike a veteran – and in only a short span too. You must give him credit for possessing such a natural flair. Like I’ve been saying time and again, he must and I repeat “must” make it all the way to the Finals! Phew!! All this passion is draining me. I’ll be a shrivelled “prune” in no time. Lol!!

Okay, let’s now switch to the other contestants. On my gal Thia Megia - though she looked and sounded like she’s feeling the rhythm when she sang an up-tempo version of “Heatwave”, unfortunately the performance did not impress me although the judges complimented her for switching from her usual ballads. Let’s hope her popularity among the viewers get her through this week. Reason I’m saying this is because all the others did pretty good this evening. So it’s going to be a tougher call than usual.

To sum it all, I must say that I surely had an enjoyable time listening to each and every one of the 11 “AI” contestants. I won’t be breaking down the performance of each and every single contender. What I’m going to do is just mention the few that really stood out in comparison to the others. After all, one contestant has to be eliminated each week and this week is no different except for the fact that this is a crucial week because of The “American Idols Live Tour” which would only be consisting of the “Top 10”.

First up, the very “original” quirky Casey Abrams whose performance I still enjoy very much. When he did his take on “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” in his usual “growling” manner, he made me smile and let’s hope American “AI” voters continue to smile and vote him through because there’s only “one-of-a-kind” Casey Abrams.

Then there’s Jacob Lusk whom I have yet to mention in any of my posts
because for some reason I have not enjoyed any of his past songs in spite of his singing prowess. Well tonight is a different case altogether. When he sang “You’re All I Need To Get By” with a very much restrained note unlike his usual overdone shrilly tone which sounds more like a “cat on heat” and which irritates me to no end, I finally enjoyed this truly masterful performance which is worthy of a recording.

Pia Toscano’s voice rang clearly and beautifully as always when she went into “All In Love Is Fair” but like in the past, I still find her boring. But tonight, I’m beginning to like her voice. It was unusually more “connecting” in nature but not enough to pierce my heart completely yet. Not like how Paris Tassin did to me the very first time she auditioned oh so many “moons” ago. Sigh! I wonder what Paris is doing right now.

Next we talk Paul McDonald. No 2-step dance routine for him this week. He’s too busy carrying a guitar and strumming to the tune of “Tracks Of My Tears”. He seems to have improved on his looks lately. I guess it’s attributed to those responsible for his “make-over”. Nice job!!

Onward to Naima Adedapo who really brightened up the already exciting night when she broke into an African dance sequence midway singing “Dancin’ In The Streets” which would make any African native proud. The edginess she added to this reality show, both in looks and performance ought to seal her a place in the “Top 10”. After all, looking at all the guys and the girls in this bunch, we can see that the males are much more “fascinating” than the females who somehow fall into the “bland” variety this season. Lol!! Sorry girls!!

A final note on Stefano Langone’s “over-the-top” performance. Somehow, his very carefully-orchestrated rendition of “Hello” had so many “misses”, it was excruciatingly painful to watch. The poor guy tried so hard to make it his own. In all honesty, there were quite a few noteworthy parts that were pretty original and interesting but somehow he could not make the whole song work. To be fair, I think if this was not a competition and he had time to work on it, it might turn out to be a darn good version. That’s just what I think. If you listen carefully, the attempt was quite commendable. Unfortunately, the judges “killed” him with their critiques. He looked so lost and forlorn after that. Poor Stefano!

A “final final” note. If the wrong contestant ends up in the bottom of the voting statistics, I wonder if the “Judges’ Save” would be used seeing that this is a crucial week and all. Well, we’ll see. Meanwhile as always, here’s my man James Durbin with “Living For The City”. Get ready to “groove”...