American Idol - Who Are You Going To Vote For?

The official Top 36 list is out. The spoilers that I handicapped were correct.

Now who should I pick for the pool? I get two picks. (I'm going to update this post through the day as I ponder my options). Who will you all be calling for?

First off, Joanne Pacitti is out and Felicia Barton is in, according to the website. So that settles that.

Some of my early picks, like Brent Keith Smith (above) and Arianna Ayesha Afsar (below), both dropped a name and got very little screen time during Hollywood week. Is that a worry?

Then again, no hopes like Tatiana I'm Crazy Nicole Del Toro, Nathaniel I'm A Drama Queen Marshall, Kristen Poor Me McNamara and Nick "Norman" This Has Got To Be A Joke Mitchell took up WAY too much screen time. At least I can rule out 4 people off my list. Then again, America also voted for Nikki McKibbin (S1), George Huff (S3), Scott Savol (S4), Sanjaya (S6), Jason Castro (S7) and Taylor Hicks (S5) who even won the goddamn thing. Or practically the entire Top 12 from Season 2 (minus Josh Gracin and Kimberley Locke). So who knows anything, cause as much as we all complain, SOMEBODY in America is voting a joker (or two or three) through every year.

So before Hollywood Week, my early picks based solely on auditions and gut feelings, were (in alphabetical order):

Adam Lambert, Alexis Grace, Anoop Desai (above), Arianna Asfar, Brent Keith, Jasmine Murray, Lil Rounds, Megan Gorkrey, and Michael Sarver for Top 12.

There are still a few singers we've barely seen who will have to overcome that. Poor Allison Iraheta, Felicia Barton, Jeanine Vailes, and Ricky Braddy. While Kris Allen (above) didn't get that much more screentime, he impressed me with the little time he had and is now on my radar (and plus, he's cute!) and Mishavonna Henson (below) seemed like a Disney cartoon Princess (from the traditional animated musical years) come to life!


I'm enjoying Matt Girard, Ju'Not Joyner, Stephen Fowler more, though I'm not sure it's still enough yet.

Meanwhile, I'm questioning Adam Lambert now. He's still a possible pick but his stock is dropping for me at this point. I think it's still the hair. Dude, get a new hairstyle.

I'll update and expand more on this post later today. Let me sleep on this. Plus let me rant about my hang-ups with Danny Gokey with full conscious in gear. (And would it not have been the most awesomest episode if Danny and his BFF Jamar had to do a sing-off against each other? The producers were pretty good at squeezing all the drama they could for TWO HOURS in the final announcement during Hollywood Week but a Danny/Jamar sing-off would have just knocked their smug smiles off their faces and would have been pure DRAMA. Oh well, we just had to settle for Danny's look of disbelief when Face-pierce got the cut)

UPDATE: Group 1 has been announced. Crap. Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai, Stephen Fowler, Brent Keith, Matt Breitzke are all together. Ricky Braddy doesn't stand a chance. Poor guy.

Remember. It's top male, top female vote getters and the next highest (male or female) after that, that get to move on to the Top 12.

So while I can't stand Danny's personality, it seems like a lot of people love him and falling for his bleeding heart story. Yes, love his voice but again, everytime I see his smug face, I want to slap his face. On the other hand, he might be better with his BFF. I would originally rule out Matt but I think Hollywood Week really emphasized his teddy bear qualities. And does Anoop have enough fans? (I think he might). I'm feeling less confident about Brent now, mainly because of the lack of screen time in Hollywood.

For the girls, its Anne Marie Boskovich, Alexis Grace, Tatiana Crazy, Casey Carlson, Jackie Tohn, and Stevie Wright. I'm going to rule out Jackie and Tatiana. I don't think anne Marie will make it past this round, so it's between Alexis, Casey and Stevie.

In general, I'm ruling out Alex Wagner-Trugman, Jesse Langseth, Jorge Nunez-Mendez, Kai Kalama, Kendall Beard, Taylor Vaifanua, and Von Smith (in addition to the nohopes).


So I think I've going to pick my 2 pool picks from Lil Rounds, Arianna Asfar, Brent Keith, Mishavonna Henson, Jasmine Murray, Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey (I hate him but as long as you have one strong fanbase, they'll get the votes).

I'm still leaning towards Lil Rounds and Brent Keith but let me think about it over the weekend. I think I have until Monday for my picks.

For more on American Idol:
Click here for the most recent posts.
Season 8:
Top 2 Performance
Top 3 Performance, Top 3 Results
Top 4 Performance, Top 4 Results
Top 5 Performance, Top 5 Results
Top 6 + Matt (Top 7 Redux) Performance, Top 7 Redux Results
Top 7 Performance, Top 7 Results
Top 8 Performance, Top 8 Results
Top 9 Performance
Top 10 Performance
Top 12 Performance, Top 12 Results
Top 13 Performance, Top 13 Results
Top 36:
Group 1, Group 2, Group 3
Wild Card, Wild Card Results
Pre-Top 36:
Who Are You Going To Vote For?
Handicapping the Alleged American Idols
Vance at http://tapeworthy.blogspot.com