American Idol: Top 8 Week

This week, American Idol went to the movies, as they almost always do each and every season. Fortunately, you have a variety of songs from a variety of movies. Whether that movie be "Risky Business" or "The Pursuit Of Happyness" and everything in between. I must say that these performances were very interesting, and the term "interesting" could mean a lot. This week, the contestants stuck to their expertise and delivered pretty well.

Right now, the competition is down to two females (compared to six males), and it goes to show you the strength of females left in the competition. Lauren Alaina did a decent job with Miley Cyrus's "The Climb," but Haley Reinhart's rendition of "Call Me" made me swear that they were going to give her the boot. As for the others, there was an interesting range of talent. Casey Abrams returned to his jazz roots and did a really good version of "Nature Boy," showing that he was really in his element. Scotty McCreery and James Durbin also stuck to what they are able to do well, and did well they did. Then, you had Paul McDonald, Jacob Lusk, and Stefano Langone, all of which did a fine job with their performances.

It turns out that I knew more of the songs than I did the movies, and I surely found out for the first time that certain songs were in certain movies. I surely knew about "Call Me" being a Blondie song, but didn't know that it was performed in "American Gigolo." Well, now I know. I do remember watching "The Pursuit Of Happyness," but have to remember whether or not I heard "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Regardless who performs it, it's very tough to top that, because Simon and Garfunkel raised the bar so high that it's one of the best songs of all time.

Now for the elimination. The bottom three of Haley Reinhart, Stefano Langone, and Paul McDonald made for a sensible bottom three. However, the fact that Paul was sent home seemed to be the 110% right decision. Haley's performance didn't really meet the current expectations, and even Stefano did a decent job this week. Either Haley or Stefano should be heading home soon. It's about time that this occurs. As for Paul, I'm going to miss the way he dances. There hasn't been a singer who's dancing was so interesting since Taylor Hicks back in season five. At least I hope Paul comes out with a career. I'm happy that Paul chose not to use the guitar this week, because I feel the guitar takes away from his ability to dance like a reckless machine. It was also smart for him to close with "Maggie May," because that was the performance that built his personality. Well, it'll be exciting to see Paul in concert.

Next week, the theme is music from the 21st Century, meaning anything from the 2000's and on. Speaking of which, I was actually considering a list of my top ten songs from the 21st century, and what better time to do it. Maybe I'll work on it the next chance I get. Let's just hope the singers pick good song choices from this theme. They've got a ton to choose from and are not closed in to one specific genre. Let the games continue!