American Idol: Top 12 Girls, Week 1 Recap

Stephanie Edwards: The first one this season to win Paula’s coveted, “You’re a Star!” moniker. Reminds me of LaToya London a little.

Amy Krebs: Is this the 37th rendition we’ve heard of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” on this show? Her voice was all over the place, and the song was too big for her.

Leslie Hunt: Way too many cutesy Rachel Ray type facial expressions. A totally forgettable performance. Randy was right...too much song for her voice.

Sabrina Sloan: I’m going to have rewind and watch this one again, because I thought she was sharp throughout the whole performance. And yet, Randy inexplicably called her “the one to beat” and she got a standing ovation from Paula. What the heck?

Antonella Barba: Uh, yeah, let’s blame it on being nervous, and not on all of those skanky pictures of her floating around on the internet today. She reminded me another American Idol alum, Carmen Rasmussen, the “goat yodeling” girl from a few seasons ago. She was shaky and stiff throughout the performance, and looked a lot like Ugly Betty’s trashy older sister.

Jordin Sparks: Finally, someone makes a good song choice. The performance started out smoky and sultry, and then she kicked it up a notch and really knocked it out of the park. Best performance of the night so far, and yet the judges gave her only mediocre praise. WTF?

Nicole Trenquillo: What an odd performance. She made strange, angry faces, and oversold the entire song. She came off as shrill and sharp throughout. Paula loved her, even though the song choice was all wrong and she sounded awful. M’kay.

Haley Scarnato: What do they put in the Kool-Aid they’re giving these girls that makes them think they can sing Celine Dion songs, or Aretha songs, or Stevie Wonder? And what’s with the satellite dish around her neck? Bland and boring.

Melinda Dolittle: Another one trying to sing Aretha tonight, but at least this girl can actually hit the notes. Melinda has a very good voice, and I’m glad she doesn’t have the arrogant attitude some of the others have shown, but if she doesn’t get past this annoying “aw shucks” confidence problem, she’ll never build a fan base. She deserves to continue in the competition, she ought to start acting like it.

Alaina Alexander: Ugh...must we listen to another AI version of Brass in Pocket? She keeps singing about how special she is. I’m still not convinced. When even Paula agrees it sucked, you know you’re in danger of going home.

Gina Glocksen: Started out sounding like she was swallowing/slurring her words, but pulled it out when it got to the big notes. She sang the song “smart”....the big finish at the end is what everyone remembers. Now if only she’d ditch that bigtime attitude. Ick.

LaKisha Jones: WOW. She was awesome...BEST performance of the Top 24 so far. Loved the little shimmy she did while singing “you’re gonna love me” during the chorus. Also loved the camera pan up to the rest of the girls, half-heartedly applauding while throwing daggers with their eyes.