American Idol Top 36: Rating the First 12 Performances

In this year's American Idol format, the finalists have been narrowed down to 36. They will compete in 3 groups of 12. Each group will have one girl and one boy winner selected by audience vote and one wild card winner selected by the 4 judges. Last night the first group of 12 sang for their place in the final competition of American Idol, Season 8. Since I have authorial rights in this blog, I figured that I could rate them. Tah Dah! Here are my rankings of the contest among the first 12, listed from worst to best:

12 Casey Carlson sang "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" by the Police. Eww! It was horrible. Her movements were jerky, she looked like a Barbie doll and sang like Barbie would if she could sing.

11 Stevie Wright sang "You Belong to Me" by Taylor Swift. More likable than Casey Carlson, she was awkward and had no vocal control.

10 Roughneck Michael Sarver sang "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw. Good voice, colorless performance. The judges liked him a lot more than I did. He could be a wild card.

9 Rick Braddy sang A Song For You by Leon Russell. I thought his performance was forced, puling, and insincere. The judges liked him.

8 Afro topped Stephen Fowler sang "Rock With You" by Michael Jackson. I really wanted to like him, but agreed with the judges that it was a mediocre performance and a poor song choice.

7 Brent Keith sang "Hicktown" by Jason Aldean. An OK country performance, not my favorite genre.

6 Anne Marie Boskovitch sang "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin, a bold song choice. The judges didn't like her, but I did.

5 Likable Anoop Desai sang "Angel of Mine" by Monica. Both the judges and I wanted to like him more, but it was a solid R & B performance, if not stellar.

4 Drama queen Tatiana Del Toro sang "Saving All My Love for You" by Whitney Houston. This contestant could not have been more obnoxious during the previous phase of the competition. But what a great voice. A solid performance too.

3 Jackie Tohn sang "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley, and she channeled the King. Impressive and entertaining performance, but this girl has a little too much personality. See drama queen above.

2 Alexis Grace sang "Never Loved A Man" by Aretha Franklin. Stellar!

1 Danny Gokey sang "Hero" by Mariah Carey superbly. Toss up between him and Alexis. The judges liked him better.

Well, did I get it right? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.