American Idol: Top 6 Week

The top six contestants remaining on American Idol took on the music of Carole King. Not only did Carole King write most of her music, but she also wrote music for several others. Her writing career began with The Shirelles hit "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," and went on to several others, such as The Drifters "Up On The Roof" to Herman's Hermits "I'm Into Something Good." To be quite honest, I didn't know Carole King was behind several of these hits. I knew about her singing and songwriting career having to do with her own music, but had no idea that her success stretched back as far as the 1960's.

The remaining six contestants each performed a solo and a duet, so they could be able to spread their time slot in order to keep viewers away from watching the new NBC show "The Voice." To me, it wouldn't have made much of a difference, because I have no intentions of staying in front of the TV all night. I have much more to do. As for the performances on tonight's show, we had ourselves a mixed bag. I wasn't a fan of neither Jacob Lusk or Haley Reinhart, and I feel that the two are entering the territory of "it's about time the both of them get shown the door." Don't get me wrong, because both of them have enough talent to make it to this point, but you have much more talent, and the competition is only beginning to heat up. Lauren Alaina's performance was very likable, especially how she brought in someone in the audience to sing to. It turned out he was nineteen. Then you had Casey Abrams, who's performance was just entertaining to watch. He puts a lot of passion into his performances, and when he's not with an instrument, he's moving around. Even with a guitar, he could move around.

After watching the Wednesday night performances, I was reaffirmed by the fact that James Durbin and Scotty McCreery are American Idol 10's biggest talents. Scotty performed James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend," a performance which was so smooth that it was an enjoyment to watch. Other than he mediocre performance of "Swingin'" last week, all of his performances were really good. James performed The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," which was just an excellent performance. Seeing James take on this song was just incredible to see and he knocked it out of the ball park. For James, I can't say there was a single performance that had anything negative attached to it. All of his performances worked. I could honestly say that a James and Scotty finale would be the best finale that this show has ever had. You will have two artists, metal and country, who come from completely different backgrounds, but have a great deal of talent.

As for the results show, the finalists were called in no particular order, but Casey Abrams was finally sent home after being saved from being eliminated in eleventh place. I guess that sixth place is an appropriate finish for someone who could have been five notches down and unable to perform on tour. I'm going to miss his entertaining performances, because you never knew that Casey was going to do next.

Five remain: James, Scotty, Lauren, Haley, and Jacob. I feel that Haley and Jacob's time should be running thin, but due to the voting ranges, the results could come out very differently. Based on talent alone, we should be seeing a James and Scotty finale, and I can reaffirm over and over the fact that this would be an excellent final showdown. Figuring out who's going to win it all would be the toughest part. Next week is "Songs From Now And Then," meaning the contestants are performing two songs. One song is from recent and another is from the 1960's. I can only wonder what the final five will pick.