Sanjaya Rocks "American Idol"; Blake Lewis Does His Thing; Howard Stern's Presence Felt

Let’s get this out of the way: The two best vocal performances last night on “American Idol” were Melinda Doolittle (”As Long as He Needs Me”) and Jordin Sparks (”I Who Have Nothing”). Jordin, though, is the one showing us something new each week. Melinda will need to add something, or risk getting boring.

So, here’s my full disclosure: I got into a blind “Idol” pool with some friends for $5 a square. It’s blind because we end up being randomly assigned two contestants among the final 12 for each square you buy. I bought two spots. There are a few ways to win small money — like half your money back, or your entry fee back (I think). But what you really need to know is that I would win a much bigger sum if Blake was the winner and Sanjaya was the runner-up, or if Chris Sligh were the winner and Sanjaya was runner-up.

Now, I didn’t think this would become a problem (I found out about my picks after last week’s vote off) because I thought for sure Sanjaya would be voted out fairly quickly. But it seems that along with votefortheworst.com, Howard Stern has now thrown his weight behind Sanjaya. This could mean trouble for many of the other contestants — the Stern Nation is formidable, no doubt.

All that said, the two standouts Tuesday night — and I’m not kidding — were Blake Lewis, with his very cool updated version of “Time of the Season,” and, yes, Sanjaya Malakar, rocking out to, get this, “You Really Got Me.” Sanjaya wasn’t really “good,” but somehow it seemed appealing. He just let it fly and it was fun.

Lakisha Jones was still solid (”Diamonds are Forever”); Chris Richardson too (”Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying”); Chris Sligh was pretty good (”She’s Not There”).
Stephanie Edwards faltered a bit (”You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”); Phil Stacey is just not memorable (”Tobacco Road”); Gina Glocksen also forgettable (”Paint it Black”).

Haley Scarnato was pretty hot … uh, what did she sing again? Oh, yeah, “Tell Him.” Hot.

This could be the end for Phil Stacey or Gina Glocksen.

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