Well, knock me over with a skater from Starlight Express.  Andrew Lloyd Weber night on American Idol wasn't nearly as awful as I feared.  I thought it was really unfair to force this classic songbook of musical theatre genius on singers who want to be pop idols. 

"What's next? " I scoffed.  "Verdi night on American Idol?  Let's see them tackle an aria."  Oh wait.  Verdi can't mentor on opera night.  He died in 1901.

Don't get me wrong.  I love the music of Lord Andrew and Tim Rice.  Just not on this show.

Early Idol scuttlebutt said that three different contestants wanted to sing one particular song -- and Jason won.  I nearly fell out of my chair when he sang Memories.  Bet that was some backstage smackdown between him and Archuleta with Brooke crying that she should sing the song.

Side note:  It's like my pup Nat heard that the song is usually sung on stage by a cat.  Mid-way through the performance he walked to the television and started barking.

Lord A said that Brooke "didn't have a clue" what she was singing about.  Ouch!  Thank goodness he cleared up the mystery.  She did her best and exhibited heartfelt emotion and genuineness.  Can't help that she might have helped herself to the next round if she'd changed the lyrics slightly from You must love me to You must vote for me.

We're at the point where someone decent goes home every week.  Unfortunately, the better performers might not have the biggest fan bases.  Take Syesha for example.  She delivered a terrific, sassy, sexy performance.  Will enough people vote to keep her out of the bottom three?  We'll see.

I think tonight's the first time I've seen a mentor tell a contestant they chose the wrong song.  Thank God Lord Andrew was that honest with Carly.  Her powerhouse performance of Jesus Christ Superstar (The show from which Jason SHOULD have selected a song.) hopefully keeps her around another week.

David Archuleta -- nice arrangement, predictably good performance.  I'm with Simon.  It didn't light my fire, but he'll be around next week.

David Cook -- I remain forever a fangirl.  His performance of Music of the Night might be the first Idol song I download from iTunes.

I agree 100% with you DC comments. His MotN was fantastic and when it comes to songs from that show I am very very critical!

Based on wht you said I downloaded Music of the Night and was really impressed. I'm the only person in America who diesn't watch American Idol (unless Traci and Cherry are sitting there with a gun to my head :o). Great tune!

They say that in entertainment and other fields, sometimes it isn't what you know or how much talent you have, but who you know. Clearly, after last night's results, it's who you know that likes you enough to spend big bucks text messaging in their votes. Carly obviously didn't have the fan base of lesser contestants.