Katharine the not-so-great

I can't believe it. Katharine has stumbled and will be gone tomorrow night.

Analysis:

Taylor: Did exactly what you expected. After a couple of bad weeks, he got back in stride last week, and took tonight's theme seriously. "Jailhouse Rock" was great, despite what Simon had to say. It's young Elvis, dude! Elvis was constantly over the top in his early days, and if you don't do it that way, it will fall flat. Taylor's original spin on "In the Ghetto" was top-notch. He gets top marks for the night.

Chris: Man, this guy read my mind tonight. If I were on Idol, and it was Elvis week, I would have picked "Suspicious Minds" and "A Little Less Conversation". Chris did them both well - solid base hits, not home runs, but safe. Chris lacks the broadness of voice in the low range that made Elvis the King, but, then again, no one does. Nice job, good for a tie for second place tonight.

Elliott: Geez...this guy pulled out the guttiest performance of the season. He's definitely peaking at the right time. 5 straight weeks that he's had his "best performance". The dark horse will make the semi-finals, since Katharine stunk up the joint tonight. His rendition of "Trouble" was perfection. Classic case of the underdog coming out on top. Tie with Chris.

Katharine: Is it just me, or did Katharine sound like Kellie tonight (Kellie having a bad day, even)? Definitely a little bit of country crept into her vocals today, and she picked the wrong songs as well. This may have doomed her, unless she has a voter base that can save her. "Hound Dog" is a non-impressive song, no matter who sings it, and Kat didn't do a great job with it on top of that. "She had a shot to save herself with "Falling in Love", but the arrangement that started out great, sounding like a Whitney Houston anthem in her prime, went straight into outer space on the first bridge and ended up sounding like a Queen rendition of the song with blazing tremolo lead guitar that totally distracted me from her vocals. She tried to wail out the home verse and chorus to get on top of the music, but it didn't work at all. A terrible performance, and it will now be an all-male semifinal. It was hers to lose, and she lost it tonight.

Revised predictions:
Taylor, Chris, and Elliott move on. Chris makes the final, and Taylor and Elliott face off next week to decide the challenger. No idea of the theme at this time, so I can't handicap the contest, but Elliott is on a roll.

Further prediction:
You will hear from all four of these quarterfinalists on the charts very soon.

Unsolicited advice in hindsight:
Taylor: Maaaaybe should have picked "Burning Love" as the first song instead of "Jailhouse Rock". He might have picked up some new voters for wailing on the "hunk-a-hunk-a burning love" chorus.

Chris: No advice. He did what I would have done. I'd love to hear him do "Are You Lonesome Tonight", though.

Elliott: I can't improve on his performance, but I probably would have picked two more well-known Elvis songs, like "Don't Be Cruel" and "Kentucky Rain" for him.

Kat: It would be hard to do worse than what she picked. I'd have gone with "Devil in Disguise" for the first song, and followed up with something slow with a big ending, like "The Wonder of You" or "My Way". I'd have paid good money for someone to do "My Way".