American (Adam Lambert) Idol

OK, I do like Allison Iraheta, always have. She's awesome, and only 16? Wow. But other than her, for me it's all Adam Lambert. I'm a huge fan. And probably if they had him in Tiger Beat, I'd be buying it again. Ha ha.

I love his normal look, the brushed down hair, the whole modern, cool look. And I liked the look tonight, like an Elvis look. The weird thing for me, though, with him and Elvis, is I think he looks more like Elvis with his hair as normal than he did tonight. But it was a very dreamy look nonetheless. But skip all that Elvis stuff, I like Adam Lambert for who he is all by himself. Time for a fan letter!

He did "Tracks of My Tears," since it was Motown night. He did it unplugged, a guy with guitar, a guy with bass, and a guy with a drum thing. I was thinking it might be too sparse for the judges but they turned out to love it. I'm looking very forward to getting the download from I Tunes, to hear it in greater clarity. Although they said tonight that the I Tunes songs would be the contestants accompanied by the original Motown instrumental tracks, so it seems like it'd have to be quite a bit different.

Except for Allison and Adam, I'm not enthused or interested in any of the other contestants. They each have talent in their own way -- more or less -- but they're simply like kindling wood before the real fire.

One comes in for the Boheme's severest criticism tonight, and that's Michael Sarver. He did "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," and he failed to get it at all. He said he was going to "church it up," which he didn't. The words to that song are profound and need to be said with conviction, like you are feeling it in the "pit of my heart." You don't sing "pit of my heart" stuff with a breezy indifference to the lyrics. In that case "churching" it up means having a sincere preacher's conviction. If you ain't got it in the vocal sincerity on that song, you ain't got it. And he didn't have it.