[MWM]

When I heard the theme tonight I was incredibly excited. I absolutely love these old songs. It’s my kind of music and can really show off a singer’s vocal ability. It's the anti-modern day music. You actually have to be able to sing to pull these off. This is one of the better episodes in the show’s history. Most of the performances were really good. Kellie was the only bad performance tonight, IMO.

This is one of those weeks when I think the person leaving is obvious and tomorrow night will be a little anti-climactic. Elliott is a goner. He’s just a little too boring and while he can sing, that’s not enough at this stage. He's missing that like factor. It’s too bad, because he’s head and shoulders better than Ace. But Ace showed some competence tonight and that’s all it will take for him. The bar is so much lower for Ace than the other guys. It’s sad really. Elliott has to knock your socks off at this point to stay. Ace just has to sing in tune.

Chris - I’m on the fence tonight on his performance. On one hand, I thought it was boring and dull, but he sounded really good singing it. The judges seemed to like it!

Paris – Loved it. This is EXACTLY the kind of vocal performance I could listen to all day every day. She didn’t try to modernize the song and sounded great doing it. This is my favorite Paris performance to date, and perhaps my second favorite performance of the whole season (#1 would be Katherine’s “Since I fell For You”). I thought Paris was the best performance tonight. She sounded like she could have recorded this song back in the 40s. She was almost perfect. She reminded me a little of one of my all-time favorite singers who I listen to all the time - Keely Smith.

Taylor – This is one of my favorite songs of all time. I sang back up to a really good singer for this song in high school on several occasions and have been in love with this song ever since. Actually, I've told my wife before that if I were ever on this show, I'd try to find a way to sing "You Send Me." I love Taylor but did not like his rendition of this song at all. I didn’t like the arrangement more than I didn’t like his performance. This song works so much better as a slower bluesy feel song. I think he should be OK, but I didn’t care for Taylor tonight at all. Although, I DID like the ending.

Elliott – I appreciate that he’s trying to show a little personality and enthusiasm, but it did not look natural at all. Too cheesy and forced. The vocals were pretty good. Elliott can really sing, but I know I’ve said it on here before, he has to back on the vibrato. It’s WAY too much. Overall, his was one of those “let’s be boring for most of the song, then belt out the last 10 seconds at the top of my lungs” performances. I think he mightbe gone after tonight. It wasn’t bad, but it was very forgettable.

Kellie – She didn’t have the voice for this song. I didn’t care for her at all tonight, but I’m sure she’ll get more votes than anyone else because she’s Kellie. But she was bad tonight. Just flat out bad. Of course, I’m a little biased about this song. Marin Mazzie, an incredible Broadway star, sang this song for a concert I watch regularly on DVD. So she had a tough bar to hurdle. She didn’t even come close. I think I’m starting to agree with those who think the producers of the show are trying really hard to promote her. The judges are afraid to say anything bad about her. Last week she was horrendous and this week she was not good at all and all they could say was “not great.” She got ahead of the music, her voice was all over the place, and the accent DID NOT WORK for this song.

Ace – Actually sounded pretty good tonight. But he sounded really bad when he went into his falsetto. But he doesn’t have “great” in him. He sounded good, but that’s best I can say about it. But it was a bit boring and there was no challenge in singing this song. It was very safe, but not a bad strategy for him.

Katherine – This night was tailor made for her. I figured she would be the one to shine the brightest tonight. I was sure she would blow me away. Close, but not quite. She was REALLY REALLY good, but I wasn’t blown away like I thought I would be. And I love Gershwin and love and love this song. I’ve heard it thousands of times by various singers, so maybe that’s why it failed to “blow me away.” I actually like Paris better.