Six Finalists Compete

So, here we are. . . down to the Final 6: Aaron, Siobhan, Michael, Lee, Crystal and Casey. Last night's show was the music of Shania Twain. I like Shania --- I thought she was good as a guest judge. I guess I never sat and thought about all the music she's made.

Lee is first, singing "You're Still the One". It's a great song choice for him. Shania says his "fantastic style needs to come out and not be buried by his guitar". He made some interesting changes to the songs (improvements, as I heard it), but it's not one of my favorite Shania songs. Shania looked just a little miffed that Lee hadn't heeded her instructions to start the song a capella.

Michael chose "It Only Hurts When I Breathe". Shania was "very moved to hear his voice to my lyrics and to my melody". His performance brought Shania to tears but I was crying because I'm so tired of hearing the same performance week after week. We all know Michael has a great voice, but I'm waiting for him to exceed our expectations.

Casey's choice was "Don't". Shania said he's "missing a little bit of inner confidence". I wanted to miss his weird vibrato, which ended up getting in the way of me enjoying his performance.

Crystal was out next, singing "No One Needs to Know". Apparently this was a very public plea to her boyfriend to "man up", which didn't seem to work very well. This performance didn't work for me, either. I thought there was way too much heard from the band, backup singers and everything else she loaded the stage up with last night.

Aaron sang "You've Got a Way", changing up the words to make this song appropriate for singing to his mom. I thought it was a great performance, and I'm not usually a huge Aaron fan. So far for me, best of the night.

Siobhan was next with "Any Man of Mine". Shania said she's "gotta get into character". I thought the beginning of the song was nasally and really pitchy, but she ended it "Siobhan-style".

All in all I was disappointed with the show --- I've said this before, but these kids and a lot of the other kids who auditioned blew us away when we first saw them. They should be peaking NOW, not sliding down the slippery slope to "everyday". Although there have been a couple of brighter spots in this season's performances, I've yet to be truly blown away.

As much as I hate to say it, I think Michael, Casey and Crystal will be in the Bottom 3 based on their performances last night.

And, I'm really afraid Michael might be sent home, which would be a shame. He has so much potential.