Goosebumps, Baby

Last night may have been the best American Idol episode I've ever seen, especially the performances by Carrie Underwood, Scott Savol and Anwar Robinson. Carrie (the blonde country girl who said, in response to the question "have you seen many stars since you've been here in Hollywood?" said "No, it's been overcast the whole time") sang "Alone" by Heart and shredded every line of it, prompting Simon to predict she'd win this year's show and sell more records than any other Idol winner. Scott (who appears to have daddy issues but last night tried to take the edge off of his initial pronouncement that "my father said I'd never amount to anything" by sort of dedicating his performance to him) did an amazing job with "Against All Odds," which I'm not wild about. And Anwar (who has a perfect voice and attitude and can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned) sang the living shit out of "Ain't Nobody" by Chaka Khan, which has a degree of difficulty far beyond anyone else's song last night, but can't seem to get Randy Jackson's approval no matter how great he does. Fortunately he doesn't appear to care.

Nikko Smith also kicked ass with a Sisquo song I'd never heard and seems to be coming out of his shell finally. Bo was boring with "Time in a Bottle," but dedicated it to Mom and won't get voted out until the final four or so no matter what. Constantine did a decent harder version of "I Think I Love You" and should stay around for a long time. Nadia Turner, who I love, butchered "Time After Time" in a mohawk and may be sorry. But Mikalah Gordon is going down, and knew it. See ya later Fran Drescher Junior.

I must have watched Carrie and Anwar's performances five times each, and Scott's three times, and still can't get them out of my head half a day later. Which is fine by me. I think I'll go watch them again right now.

UPDATE: I've been thinking about this way too much, my wife says, but I forgot to say Vonzell also rocked the house, and it occurs to me that by picking a song that required an unseen backup singer to do the higher and more difficult harmony part as loudly and perfectly as she did, Carrie kind of cheated. I loved the performance, and she didn't really need backup as she's got a fantastic voice, but the goosebumps I get while watching it are largely because of the harmony. Plus I dig Heart, even some of the '80s stuff like "Alone."