Dollywood in Hollywood

I'd like to start this blog with a complaint about Ryan Seacrest which I rarely have. His opening monologue/April Fool's Joke on tonight's American Idol was uber LAMEEEEE...like the audience was ever going to buy that the show was being pre-empted because of some dumb vocal coach issue. Go back to the drawing board Ry.

Ok, now on to the telecast itself. Dolly Parton mentoring night for the remaining 9 contestants. I acutally quite enjoyed hearing songs from Dolly's catalogue I wasn't familiar with. Hats off to Brooke White for taking on my fave Parton tune "Jolene". I was pleasantly surprised since I wasn't expecting anyone to tackle it. I was prepared for more predictable renditions of "9 to 5" and "Islands in The Stream", but neither of those were performed. I wasn't super disappointed really by anyone, though once again I'm unimpressed and unmoved my Kristy Lee Cook, and she should have brought more life to the stage this particular week given her country music love/background. Ramiele was also just ordinary and it was a rare bounce-back for David Archiletta whom I thought would struggle with this week's theme. My fave performance of the night came from Carly Smithson and "Here You Come Again"--displayed a sensitivity from her voice I hadn't yet heard, though it was an incredibly strong vocal at the same time. Dave Cook was consistent and I thought Simon was a tad too hard on Syesha's "I Will Always Love You"--even though its a Dolly penned song, no one can get passed the Whitney version.

WAYV AI CHALLENGE breakdown--Paul is still in the lead and it would benefit me immensly if Ramiele went home this week. Diane is lagging but not by much considering she's the only one of the 3 of us to keep Kristy in the competition this long. Elimination and a Dolly performance tomorrow night and I'm gunning to at least tie things up.

TTYL, Heather