Tonight's show was just a mess. Horrible song choices, poor performances.
Taylor--Looked like he didn't even want to be singing that. The only thing positive I can say about that peformance was that it wasn't overtly offensive.
Mandisa--What the heck was she thinking in choosing that song? She has pipes, so what does she do--she picks a song designed for someone who doesn't have pipes. Shania has her good points but being an impressive vocalist isn't one of them. And on top of that, Mandisa sang it badly. Was better toward the end, but that didn't salvage it.
Elliott--Nice voice(that's always apparent). Did a decent job, but his phrasing seemed wrong to me at times.
Paris--Relatively good. Didn't compare well with Trisha Yearwood's(best) or Leanne Rime's(very good) versions of that song, but taken on its own compared to the other performances tonight it was okay.
Ace--Umm..err...I thought his performance was the best of the night(as uncomfortable as I am saying that.) That song fit Ace well and was the only good song selection of the bunch.
Pickler--Better than she's done in quite a while. Hate the song, but she did manage to show that she can sing a little. Still swallowing the ends of some of the lyrics though.
Chris--Decent job. Similar to Paris' problem in that he didn't sing it as well as Keith Urban or Rodney Crowell.
Katharine--Liked the performance. Didn't like the song. Good to see her coming out of her shell, but that performance didn't strike me as country at all--bluesy country or any other kind of it.
Bucky--Bad song choice. "Boring" being in the lyrics just drew attention to the fact that the song and the performace were boring.
Ranking them and gritting my teeth as I do so:
Ace
Paris
Kellie
Elliott
Chris
Katharine
Taylor
Bucky
Mandisa(Geez, never thought I'd be putting her there)
I thought her choice was hilarious. Online, there was so much criticism about her prom dress; my quip was that it proved no mamma was helping her dress up. Right in our faces.
I'm glad she (and Eliot) are getting the chance of a lifetime. The rest of them had careers without AI.