1. Lauren Alaina -
eolivet, it will break my heart if you still don't like her. I just think she's AMAZING. I had just listened to Thia and didn't figure anyone could touch her (especially since I adore that song already). Then auren came out, sang a song I didn't know, but she made it her own, blew me away, owned that stage. She is natural to a T; she has stage presence out the ying-yang; her voice is to die her. I. love. her. And Randy nailed it when he said she's a cross between Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. AMAZING!2. Thia Megia - Were it not for the awesome that is Lauren, Thia would have easily been my number one. I LOVED her acapella opening, the in-between, and that glorious final note. One of my favorite songs ever, and she completely delivered. 15? Damn.
3. Pia Toscano - Great, great voice. I thought the first big power note at the end was unnecessary (should have gone for a soft note there), but the last line sung all power-y note totally worked. Again, great, great voice. Kinda boring song choice, but I've always found that song a little boring personally, but she made it work for me more than any other version.
4. Naima Adedapo - And here's where we get to the ones I was meh on, but I needed five. She has a good voice, and I loved her final note, but yeah, even though I am so not a Fantasia song, she OWNED that song and this just couldn't compare. However, compared to most of the performances that did nothing for me, she landed at #3.
5. Lauren Turner - Great vocals, but at this point in the competition not knowing the song generally hurts (for me personally) because I don't "know" these singers yet, and so when they sing a song I don't know, I'm listening to the song to see if I like it (not intentionally, that's just how I do), and so I generally don't concentrate on them enough. (Which is why Lauren blowing me away as she did on a song I've never heard before was so shocking to me.) Still, Lauren's vocals were fantastic.
Not in my top five, but I wanted to mention something about four specific singers --
Haley Reinhart - I don't know what it is about this girl, but I can NOT stand her singing. I couldn't listen to more than a few lines because her voice is like nails on a chalkboard for me. I don't know why, but there it is.
Julia Zorilla - I really like her, but she not only kinda butchered a Kelly Clarkson song, she butchered one of my top 3 favorite Kelly songs of all time! I tried to get past it, but no, no, no, no. Just no.
Karen Rodriguez - I really appreciated how she had the Spanish mixed in with the English, beautiful touch. Alas, she sounded so incredibly pageant-y for me, I couldn't get past that.
Rachel Zevita - Oh, Rachel I've loved you since your first appearance a few years ago. This was not good. She has such an amazing voice, but that was a terrible arrangement of Fiona Apple's "Criminal," and did nothing to show off Rachel's talent. Ah well.
