American Idol 7, February 27 Recap: Ten Up Top

Ryan tries to make things all dramatic, as usual, like someone’s going to die tonight. I’m guessing we would have heard about it if that were true, so I’m going to go with… tone it down a notch, Seacrest.

Ryan asks Randy about song selection. Randy says it’s about knowing what you can sing the best. He hopes the girls have improved because the guys did well last night. Paula says the guys were fantastic last night. Ryan reminds us that Simon said there are 19 scared contestants after last night. Simon says that was for motivation.

Carly Smithson is up first, and her “surprising” news is that she works at an Irish bar. I don’t get why she works at a bar when she and her husband own a tattoo shop. I guess it’s not a very successful tattoo shop. Carly says she’s a homey person but feels very comfortable on stage and wouldn’t give that up to go back home.

Carly sings “Crazy On You” by Heart. It seems like a pretty safe choice for her. I don’t know, I’m not feeling the Carly love. Everything she does is basically what I would expect her to do in the song. She’s just not that spectacular, I don’t think.

Randy: He liked the middle and end but thought the beginning was rough. People with big voices like Carly have more trouble with lower notes because they can’t belt them like high notes.

Paula: Paula’s happy that Carly is feeling better. She thought Carly did an amazing job.

Simon: Simon thought Carly did a lot better than last week, and notes that she’s out of breath. He doesn’t think she’s connected with the right song yet. However, he doesn’t think any of the other girls can touch her vocally. Simon thinks that if Carly can pick the perfect song and have her “moment,” she’ll be untouchable.

Ryan asks why this song was better than Carly’s song last week. Simon says it suited her better and wasn’t cabaret like this week. Carly says “Crazy On You” is one of her favorite songs and one she wanted to sing no matter what.

We would be surprised to know that Syesha Mercado has done commercials back home in Miami. We get to see a clip of one where she’s a mom asking her husband to find her a seashell at the beach. She knows as an actress that it’s good to have something that separates you from other people. Her something is the ability to cry like a baby. Well, that’s handy.

Syesha sings “Me and Mrs. Jones,” only she changes the Mr. to a Mrs., which is kind of distracting. It sounds a little shaky, and it’s not really her best performance to date. It’s mainly just okay. Syesha is slipping a little in my eyes.

Randy: Randy loved the commercial and the baby cry. The song choice, however, he didn’t like so much. Syesha needs to pick songs she can belt on because her soft moments make her sound “uninterested.”

Paula: Paula adds that when Syesha powers up, she’s great, but she falls off pitch a little on the softer notes. However, she liked Syesha’s interpretation.

Simon: It was “indulgent,” and it was silly to do a song not written for a woman or designed for her voice.

Syesha just says “okay,” which is smart. Ryan asks why she changed the arrangement. Syesha says she just wanted to make the song her own.

Brooke White admits that she went to beauty school. She’d been doing hair since she was 11, so it seemed like something fun to do. She sees hairstyling as art, and a lot of times she walks around thinking about what to do to people’s hair. Halfway through the program she decided to focus on music instead of hair - so, of course, she’s a beauty school dropout. Har har. (Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I was totally going to make the joke if she didn’t, so yeah, I’m no better than her.)

Brooke sings “You’re So Vain,” accompanying herself on guitar. It’s a terrific song choice for her, and I finally feel like we’re getting a good performance tonight. Partway through the song, she stops playing and just sings, which I think is really smart - Jason Castro was criticized for playing instead of just singing, and now Brooke has taken a different path. She really does have a good voice, and I don’t think she’s going to win - I don’t think she’s current enough, as Simon would say - but she’s fun to watch and listen to. You guys, I finally get it! I finally get that she’s good!

Randy: He agrees that the song choice was great, and though he doesn’t think she brought anything new to it, it was good. He wonders if the song was directed at Simon, since Brooke was looking at the judges.

Paula: Paula also thinks this was a good song choice. She likes what Brooke brought to the song - familiarity - and everyone liked it.

Simon: “I absolutely loved it.” It was the perfect song for her, and it was one of the rare times he thought the artist had genuinely chosen the song. Not only did she connect, but she sang well. This is the reason she’s made it to this point in the competition.

Ryan tries to drive the vain part home again, and Simon admits that he did think the song was directed at him. Ryan notes that he likes that, since he’s that vain. Brooke is incredibly grateful for the good feedback. She wasn’t sure about playing the guitar and almost didn’t. She nicely thanks the band, who also added some great stuff to the song - they didn’t distract from Brooke’s performance, but gave the perfect amount of backup for her.

Ryan chills in the red room with Ramiele, who tells him how to say “I’m fine” in Filipino. He notes that she was really upset at the results show last week. Ramiele tells us that her roommate left (she doesn’t say if it was Joanne or Amy), and she was also sad about Colton going.

We would be surprised (I guess) to know that Ramiele used to take Polynesian dancing. She’s been dancing for about 12 years and we may see her dance onstage, but only if she sings a fast song.