I watched the final group of 8, and didn’t have time to write an article about them yesterday so I’ll fold it into one. My comments are my own, and any similarity to what a judge said is purely coincidental. I write my comments while the contestant is singing.

Sylvia Chibiliti said she wants to be a diva, and learned to sing in Africa, which left me wondering if people there have serious hearing problems. Her performance of “Didn’t we almost have it all” had nothing resembling talent. Chip Days followed, and he had the Allen Iverson hair going, but not much else. His rendition of “A song for you” sucked, and to make matters worse I’ve seen talking stuffed animals with more personality than this guy. Because he is good looking, or the judges felt sorry for him, he was asked back for the wild card show after failing to hit the top 3 in votes. Juanita Barber needs to learn how to apply lipstick, and figure out that just by being black and singing “What about the children?” does not make her Whitney Houston. She compounded the issue by arguing with the judges, starting with Simon Cowell of course, but moving on to Randy Jackson who she presumably thought would have her back because he’s also black. Even worse, she has the stigma of being the one who replaced the popular Frenchie Davis.

Don’t give up now, I’m just warming up …

Patrick Lake came on next with his rocker spikes and tough guy persona. I was looking forward to him, but his version of “When I see you smile” was merely average although I did think it was better than the first three and he did wind up with the third most votes. He lost me when he argued with the judges, and paid for that mistake by not being asked into the wild card round, unlike fellow third place finishers Kimberly Caldwell (group 1) and Clay Aiken (group 2). We won’t talk about group 3. Nasheka has that one name thing going for her, but had a horrible outfit and sang a song (Open your heart) I’ve never heard of. Lose the see through top and tattered shirt were my thoughts, and apparently the judges agreed because even though she was out of the top 3 they invited her back for the wild card show to give her another shot. I honestly think the black women suffered a Perot effect by having their votes split, how else could Patrick Lake have taken third over these girls?

Joshua Gracin was like a beam of light when he took the stage. The popular Marine is on Iraq watch and I felt he should move on without question as I saw him perform “I’ll be”. This bloke can sing, and America not surprisingly moved him on as the top vote getter. Ashley Hartman has that high pitch Dixie Chicks voice, and that’s not good. She was better than some I guess, and to her credit she took the criticism without sniveling or crying, but her “Touch me in the morning” did not touch me. The final performer was Corey Clark who apparently was singing for the hearing impaired or has some Italian blood running through him. Put your arms down guy. The judges loved his “Foolish Heart” performance, and norcaldoll and I agreed that they simply ran out of performers to say good things about. You may remember him as the party freak, and he wound up moving on in the #2 position, which to me is a joke. His beehive hat on the results show was probably an improvement over his Krusty the clown hair from the night before, but that’s not saying much.

In the end, we can look forward to the wild card round hoping that some better people move on. I’ve got my favorites, but I’ll save that for later. Who are your favorites?