American Idol Top 12 Girls Perform

I have to say this season makes me question the whole process of making sure there are equal amounts of girls and guys in the Top 12 on American Idol.  Granted, I think the worst performance of this week was far better than some of the best performance of previous season's finalists.  The talent pool this year is far far deeper.  However, I think that in order to keep 6 girls, you will be ending up losing some more talented guys.  (View my recap of the Top 12 Guys performances here.) But as always, I'll be interested to see how the votes, and the judges saves, actually play out.As for the girls performances, as I said, none of them were horrible but with many of them having a similar sound I just have a harder time distinguishing and having favorites.  I wasn't overly impressed with song selections because I like to know the songs and have a feel for how they have changed it up or how it stacks up to the original but I didn't know many of the songs last night.  But there were a couple stand outs to me.

Lauren Alaina has been adorable since the beginning.  At just 16 she has a amazingly powerful voice and a TON of personality.  I fell in love with her in her original audition, as the last contestant to try out for the day she brought her parents in and she and Steven Tyler sang 'their song' to them together.  Last night they compared her to Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.  And I will be expecting great albums from her whether she wins or not.

Thia Megia, whose name alone makes me smile came out in a totally different way than most of the girls last night.  She went soft and sweet and began sans musical backup.  She has an amazing voice and keeps it clean and simple.  I'm not sure how she'll do vote wise but it's pretty amazing to watch her.

And the night ended on high note, quite literally with Pia Toscano gathering the first standing O for the live performances of this season.  She blew everyone away with her powerful voice. And my only concern for her is...how she will be able to keep it up.  Consistency will be key for her and while she clearly has the talent and isn't afraid to bring it, she definitely set the bar VERY high for herself straight out of the box.

The remaining girls all blend together for me a touch and I'd have to honestly rewatch the episode to recall which of them was almost in tears at the judges criticism.  Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler were pretty positive with all the girls, but as usually I agreed with Randy when he disagreed with their take on several of the girls.  I must say I do sort of miss Simon for his fashion advice for the girls. 

Intro to all the Top 12 Girls


And don't forget to vote on the ending of Jennifer Lopez's new video which will be debuted on Thursday night as well.