American Idol: A Solid Final Nine

There were so many good performances this week that I am hard pressed to produce a power list. I thought that the judges/producers were blatantly manipulative this week. Heejun and Deandre were good, but they received undeserved standing ovations from the judges to strengthen their positions with the voters. Hollie wasn't bad, but she got the only criticism of the night. The producers might think, rightfully, that she has no chance of winning or placing and want her to leave sooner rather than later to leave room for more interesting or polarizing performers. I'm looking at you, Heejun. They tried this last year with Haley Reinhart, but it backfired when she ended up in the final three. I don't expect that for Hollie.

Weak
Hollie is too generic a performer to last. She has a big voice and that's about all she has going. Joshua  has the cry face that is the kiss of death for me. I don't think the audience likes it either. He also has a generic quality although he is a much better performer than Hollie. Deandre may be too gimmicky to last, but I love his movements.

Medium
Colton gave one his weakest performances, boring and manipulative. Skylar  redeemed herself this week with a real country turn. Heejun decided to take the show seriously this week, and showed off his beautiful voice. He may have the best voice of the group, but that won't take him to the win.

Strong
Phillip gave the best performance of the night; great song, great delivery. Stevie Nicks, this week's mentor, predicted that he's going to be very famous one day, and I believe her. Jessica was scary-good as usual. Randy asked where does it come from? I wonder about that too. Elise brought down the house with her wailing rock performance. Will she be in the bottom three again? I don't think so, but who is going home? Hard to predict.