 | 1. Fantasia Barrino: Big lips, big personality, and one helluva BIIIGG voice. In every aspect of performance she was by far and away the best of the evening. While I didn't particularly like a few of the vocal bends she put on the closing words of each phrase, they were still simply a part of her originality and spark that no one else could even lay claim to. League of her own, and amazingly comfortable for her first time up to the vote. |
 | 2. Jennifer Hudson: Excellent song, and one that's very easy to blow, by pulling back and restraining the vocals so as not to overpower the arrangement. She went out and put her full voice into it, while at the same time keeping it soft and light in the opening. A very nice performance, and one that showcased an excellent voice, if not overly exciting or original. |
 | 3. Diana Degarmo: Very nice, strong voice. Sung very confidantly on a straight ahead power song. Only missteps were in the few runs, especially at the very end... she's still 16 and obviously has a bit of a ways to go, but certainly is starting out with a very strong voice. |
 | 4. Marque Lynche: Pleasant enough, good voice, meh. Good song, but really a kinda straight boring performance. Had good control and all that, just not real exciting. He also didn't do much on stage for a 'classically trained dancer'... |
 | 5. Matthew Metzger: Wow, one of my favorite songs of all time. Good job, not great, but good... like Simon said, he definitely had the performance aspects down, working both the crowd and camera to perfection. On first listen I almost agreed with Randy on the vocals, but I'd actually have to say it was more that he got suckered into trying too much to kareoke Mark Cohn's version. Dunno if ya'll've heard it, as I'm not sure how widely known the song actually is, but Cohn's got a MUCH darker and richer voice than this guy does, and his performance simply paled in comparison. Nonetheless, a decent rendition of an excellent song. |
 | 6. Katie Webber: Nice performance, I actually liked the song. I'm not too sure about her vocals though. While a lot of it was covered in semi-shouting, she faltered quite a bit on the steadily rising ending passage. Another 'meh' I suppose, and another cute pop chick tossed by the wayside. |
 | 7. Erskine Walcott: And again with the 'pleasantness'. His voice actually seems like it might be better than he put on, he didn't seem fully confident in his singing in the beginning with nothing but the spare piano backing. Excellent song though, and when it picked up so did his vocals. Good, more meh. |
 | 8. Ashley Thomas: Well she's cute and all, but declaring "I'm fun" really doesn't make it so. Especially not when you then sing some terrible country-tinged half-yodel-fest steaming poo pile. Nice voice, but the extreme anti-country sentiment felt by nearly everyone in America who isn't in love with the crap is well-grounded. Actually reminded me a lot of Carmen from last season, with much the same result... Sorry, you lose :(. |
