Seems like everyone is doing a write up of last night’s American Idol and you know I don’t like to be left out of things. I’m very much confused / annoyed with the voting process this year. It’s kind of weird to know that nine of the performers last night will not be coming back. For a lot of them, it’s kind of no love lost. Especially where the ladies are concerned. Early in this season I was really impressed with a lot of them, but most of last night’s girls really dropped the ball. If I had to choose a favorite I guess it would be:

Alexis Grace – to be perfectly honest I found her performance kind of, um, boring. But her talent speaks for itself and she’s so cute and likable. The only other strong female performance, and it weirds me out to say this, was:

Tatiana Del Toro. The laughing crying hysterical nut case that I was loathing all night and then she comes on, barely giggles at all and belts out a great performance. And it was weird. And I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she’s normal and had no idea how weird she was acting and is trying to be normal now and not crazy. But I still couldn’t vote for her – that said, if she were to put out an album, I can’t imagine there’d much giggling on the CD… which might not suck. I just don’t know. And I think I prefer Alexis still, even if her performance did bore me a bit.

Then there were the guys. First there was that Brady Bunch guy, Rick Braddy, whom I’d never heard of before last night. I loved his performance, his voice, everything. I think he kept it tame because that’s what worked for the song, but what do I know? Having just met him last night, I don’t think there is much chance we’ll be seeing him again.

Brent Keith sang some good old country music about being a hick and I thought he did a fantastic job. I was surprised at the judges response and then a bit disheartened by the bitterness in his retort, despite agreeing with him. Now I do not consider myself a country music fan, but I did live in Kentucky for 10 years so I’ve heard a lot of it and I thought he was GOOD. I bet he lands a contract regardless of the outcome of this episode because he had talent.

Michael Sarver sang “I Don’t Wanna Be” by Gavin DeGraw. I’ve liked him, he’s likable, he’s the oil rig guy, which for some reason is fun to say, but his performance was pretty lackluster in a really weird way. I commented to the hubby last night that the problem was that he was too happy – dude was on cloud nine last night and could not get that smile off his face OR out of his voice. I know, what a weird complaint. But this song I think would sound better with a bit of serious determination – it’s a harder song than what he made it and it just didn’t have the right energy. That said, he is talented and I won’t kick and scream much if he makes it through.

Then there’s Danny Gokey, America’s Favorite it would seem (I’ve noticed that only a small handful of people have professional pictures up that can be found via Google Image Search – I wonder if that has any bearing on tonight’s results – so far Danny, Tatiana and Alexis are the only ones I’ve found) there is no denying his talent. There’s no denying the tragedy and sadness of his recent past. I can’t imagine his pain or how he manages to keep going and go this far in the competition. He’s incredible. I get it. Pleasedon’thatemehe’snotmyfavorite. He’s not. Because man…

Anoop Dog is in the house. Or should be. Personally I loved his rendition of Monica’s “Angel Of Mine.” I think maybe the judges were expecting another high energy performance, but I thought his performance was really well done and man there is just something about him that I love. I can see him going far. I vote Anoop Desai.

Who were your favorites from last night’s idol? If you could pick the top three, who would be coming back for your Top 12?