1. Chris: His first song carried the evening. Pretty good rendition of Renegade. His second song was a struggle. Poor song selection.
2. Paris: Solid, if not particularly compelling. "Kiss" was a poor song selection. Prince is unique, and that song was uniquely done. Gave a good performance of Mary J. Blige's big hit. Nothing flashy, but solid vocals and performance. Somebody needs to help her not swallow up notes every once in a while when she sings.
3. Taylor: As I thought yesterday when it was posted here that Taylor would be singing "Play That Funky Music", that song was a disaster. One of the consistent mistakes AI performers make when choosing songs is choosing group songs. Taylor chose the song for the fun aspect, and I guess you can call his performance fun (maybe funny is the better word), but it was not good. Second song was well chosen and I think he gave a heartfelt rendition. May have saved his bacon on the night.
4. Elliott: Elliott should consider never performing a fast song again on the competition and his voice is not a good fit for George Benson. Without a doubt, his worst performance in several weeks. Second song was really good. Not a song I am familiar with, so I have no idea whether he basically sung it as the original artist or if he added his own flavor to it. Nonetheless, very smooth, great vocals, excellent song choice.
5. Katherine: Time for her to go. Her song choices were both poor. Her performances sounded more like what one would hear on the talent competition of a beauty pageant. The singing on her knees was quite frankly, stupid. I suppose it was done to show some kind of rapport with the drummers, but it was just poor.
Down the stretch, it is Chris by 5 lengths. It will be interesting to see if anybody will show a finishing kick that will bring them home past him at the end. I maintain there may be no stars on this years show, although I do think in the end Paris will end up selling the most albums because she has the most unrealized potential.
Scotty did a wonderful rendition of "Broadway" last year. Elliot's was flawed in comparison....first weakness I've seen in him.